Highlights of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2019-2020 season will include the company premiere of Glass’s Akhnaten featuring Anthony Roth Costanzo and first local Turandot of Anna Netrebko (not pictured), according the always intriguing Met Future Wiki. Read more »
“After five flops in a row, Mr. McVicar continues to win new assignments from the Met: in the 2017-2018 season alone, he’s booked for Bellini’s Norma and Puccini’s Tosca, with Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur down the line.” [Observer]
Ne Quittez Pas, director James Darrah’s new site-specific reimagining of Poulenc’s 1958 monodrama La voix humaine, adds a cabaret-style prologue of Poulenc art songs on texts by Guillaume Apollinaire and others, as well as additional poetry by both Apollinaire and Cocteau, expanding the one-act monologue to an evening-length presentation. Starring as La voix humaine’s sole character is Grammy-winning powerhouse soprano Patricia Racette, with the prologue sung by Edward Nelson, praised by Bachtrack for a “ringing baritone” that is “a thrill to listen to.” The production is led by music director and pianist Christopher Allen, winner of the 2017 Sir George Solti Conducting Award. Read more »
Unlike my friend Greg Freed, who entertainingly wrote of his ambivalence about seeing Il trovatore in a movie theater this season, I have embraced the Met Live in HD transmissions as a part of the modern operagoing experience. Since my first, the Salome of 2008, I have gone to more of the HDs than I have skipped, and I have caught up with many of the ones I missed via PBS broadcasts, DVD releases and Met Player. Read more »
Lilith. Pandora. Circe. Salome. “La Belle Dame sans Merci.” Carmen. Brigid O’Shaughnessy: the eternal “femme fatale” still fascinates us.
Cher Public