Almost exactly one hundred years ago on March 18, 1912, the Metropolitan Opera gave its final performance to date of Armide. Perhaps to make amends for the long gap, the MET’S Lindeman Young Artists Program and the Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts at The Juilliard School presented Gluck’s great 1777 drame héroïque on Wednesday as their second production since joining forces.
Unlike last year’s fully staged performances of Smetana’s Prodaná Nev?stá produced by Stephen Wadsworth and conducted by James Levine, the Armide at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater was a bare-bones semi-staging by Fabrizio Melano, conducted by Jane Glover. Read more »
“A revival of Verdi’s Ernani at the Met on Thursday proved tastefully understated. In other words, it missed the point entirely.” Our Own JJ was there for the 
Orlando is the first of three Händel operas based Orlando Furioso, Ariosto’s 15th-century adaptation of the 12-century poem, Chanson de Roland, the other two operas being Alcina and Ariodante. This epic tale of heroism, love, reason and madness also served as the basis for operas by Lully, Vivaldi, Haydn and Scarlatti. In fact, Händel based his Orlando on a libretto written by Carlo Capece for a proposed Scarlatti setting. (In more recent times, Chanson de Roland was adapted by novelist Stephen King for his best-selling Gunslinger series.) 
Cher Public