Lulu’s back in town
Continuing coverage of the Met’s new Alban Berg spectacular.
Metropolitan Opera
The mothership and mecca of opera in America—and home base for Parterre Box.
Cherchez la femme (fatale)
Lilith. Pandora. Circe. Salome. “La Belle Dame sans Merci.” Carmen. Brigid O’Shaughnessy: the eternal “femme fatale” still fascinates us.
Veiled threat
Angela Gheorghiu‘ s idiosyncratically alluring, sometimes maddening, always fascinating Floria Tosca inevitably became the evening’s unmissable raison d’être.
Separated at cleavage
Don’t tell Sonya Yoncheva, but it looks like Angela Gheorghiu has stolen her costume from Otello Act 3.
Tosca è a palazzo!
Angela Gheorghiu is physically in New York and is rehearsing and being fitted for costumes (not pictured) for her impending brace of Tosca performances.
La povera mia cena
“Puccini’s Tosca is what is known in the trade as a ‘bread and butter’ opera.”
Lounge act
After nearly three years and over 20 performances Michael Mayer’s “Las Vegas” production of Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera still outrages many.
Where’s the fire?
“Everyone complains about how there is no great singing in opera anymore, but last week’s performances suggest that’s not so. The singing today is mostly fine; it’s everything else that’s the problem.”
Starry starry night
Although the season is less than three weeks old, Metropolitan Opera audiences may hear nothing else this season as beautiful as Peter Mattei’s “Song to the Evening Star.”
Foundling
Lianna Haroutounian will sing the role of Amelia Grimaldi in all performances of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra at the Met this season: April 1, 5, 9 matinee, 13, and 16.”
Joseph Gordon-Who?
This weekend Il Trovatore outgrossed the The Walk, a new IMAX film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ben Kingsley.
The Friday afternoon news dump in excelsis
“Met Music Director James Levine has decided to lighten his workload by removing the new production of Berg’s Lulu from his schedule so that he may focus his energies completely on Wagner’s epic drama Tannhäuser.”
Cavalier treatment
“Roberto Aronica will sing Cavaradossi in the first five performances of Puccini’s Tosca at the Met this season—October 16, 21, 24 matinee, 29, and November 2—replacing Massimo Giordano, who is ill.”
Prison break
“Taylor Stayton will sing the role of Percy in this evening’s performance of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, replacing Stephen Costello, who is ill,” says the Met press office.
Man of steel
“This throwback to the golden age of opera—superhuman singing greeted with frenzied ovations—was a function of a perfect storm of excitement.”
Don’t axe me why
The Metropolitan Opera’s much vaunted so-called “Tudor Ring” of three royal operas by Donizetti got off to a bumpy start Saturday afternoon with a revival of Anna Bolena that stubbornly refused to cohere either musically or dramatically.
The gleam of his smile
A clearly moved Hvorostovsky basked in the moment and momentarily broke character to acknowledge the love.
Everything’s coming up Jamie
Mezzo-of-the-moment Jamie Barton’s future Met assignments include . . .
The unanswered question
Would exciting American dramatic soprano Christine Goerke be the next great ice-princess we have been waiting for?
A whiter shade of pale
While the celebrity-studded, expensively-dressed audience gathered for the gala opening of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2015-2016 season seemed genuinely enthralled by Monday evening’s performance of Otello, it was more likely swept away by the power of Verdi’s genius than by Bartlett Sher’s puzzling, inert new production.
The puff preliminary
Anna, Bart and Peter talk about the Met’s new season with the always engaging Michael Cooper of the New York Times.
“We’re looking at everything”
Naming rights, Sunday performances, an extension of the Met’s lobby forward into Lincoln Center Plaza . . . Peter Gelb puts all that and more on the table.
Poor wan Rusalka
The winter 2014 final run of the Met’s first/only Rusalka production (a new one is scheduled in a few seasons) seemed both a nod to the theater’s past and a hint of its future.
Phases of the moon
Dmitri Hvorostovsky has withdrawn from three performances of Verdi’s Il Trovatore at the Met this season, on October 7, 10, and 17.
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).