It’s back to business as usual at the Met, for better and for worse.
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A snarky commentator might dub last night at the Met “Boris of the divo hair flip” but that would do a disservice to a serious, often effective performance of the challenging original version of Mussorgsky’s masterpiece.
With composer Terence Blanchard and librettist Kasi Lemmons‘ incendiary Fire Shut Up in My Bones, the Met makes long overdue history and Will Liverman ascends to superstardom.
This was a great and happy event, but it wasn’t so much a musical one.
By John Yohalem
La Cieca has received a copy of a message, apparently from the Metropolitan Opera, announcing the departure of Diane Zola from the company.
By La Cieca
As the Met gears up for its first performances in a year and a half. the company is already canceling shows in the early fall.
By La Cieca
For the Met, high ticket costs, hostile unions and COVID are only part of the problem, according to performer, teacher and writer David Rohde.
By La Cieca
Last year at this time, performance arts organizations in NYC were announcing that the COVID pandemic would force closures through the summer. We here at parterre box, having honed our mantic powers predicting the precise timing of a singer’s vocal collapse, foresaw a grimmer reality.
By Dawn Fatale
The Metropolitan Opera announces two further concerts in the Met Stars Live in Concert series.
By La Cieca
The eventually reopened Metropolitan Opera promises a swift return to its status quo ante as a farm team for the English National Opera, sharing the London company’s new Ring cycle directed by vieillard terrible Richard Jones.
By La Cieca
The catch: Employees would have to agree to a 30 percent cut in pay, half of which would be restored once the Met’s box office returned to pre-pandemic levels.
By La Cieca
The Met settled with disgraced former music director James Levine for a cool $3.5 million.
By La Cieca
Fueled by a fierce intelligence, deep earnestness, exceptional eloquence, and social media savvy, Joyce DiDonato is a presence and a power, as much when speaking and thinking as when singing. Who better to imagine a program that would suit this (we hope) unique moment?
Stay tuned as La Cieca attends this Zoom press conference with Peter Gelb and special guest zoomers.
By La Cieca
The Metropolitan Opera is heading for a very rocky couple of years.
By La Cieca
The Metropolitan Opera announced today that the company has made the difficult decision to cancel the first few months of its 2020–21 season, based on current information regarding the ongoing health crisis. The new season is now scheduled to begin on December 31, 2020, with a special gala performance, the details of which will be shared at a later date.
By La Cieca
What options are there for the Met and the other performing arts organizations trying to envision restarting performances in the fall?
By Dawn Fatale
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Metropolitan Opera announced today that the company has canceled the remainder of the 2019–20 season, which was to have ended on May 9, 2020.
By La Cieca
A Saturday afternoon iteration of this season’s ubiquitous revival.
By La Cieca
While last year’s finals were dominated by early nineteenth-century bel canto arias, this year’s finalists took on a remarkably broad range of music from a variety of repertoires.
I never imagined I’d see such a rote park-and-bark Wagner production created in 2020!
After tonight’s dark drab dud of a Dutchman, I was plunged into despair.
Wagner’s early masterpiece returns to the Met conducted by Valery Gergiev (not pictured).
By La Cieca
The season’s second cast delivered a satisfying, if not transcendent, La Traviata at the Met last night as they struggled to emerge from piles of jewel tone brocade and gold filigree.
