Tag Archives: Met HD
Turandot in HD 2022
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th May 2022Puccini’s farewell to opera returned for the third time as part of the Met’s HD series. Franco Zeffirelli’s brick for brick reconstruction of Imperial Peking will likely survive the heat death of the universe. The assembly of the Act 2 set takes longer than many of the operas in the Mets repertory. This go around…
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Don Carlos in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 27th March 2022No Verdi opera has as many versions as Don Carlos. There are at least eight. Alas, the composer never designated any of them as definitive. The Met has done both four and five act Italian versions, but never until this season the five act French original. Well, not really the original. The Met’s current go…
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Ariadne Auf Naxos in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 12th March 2022German opera after Mozart became increasingly self conscious. Strauss’s Ariadne Auf Naxos is an example of this solipsistic trait. It was originally intended to be a half hour divertissement to follow Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s adaption of Molière’s Le Bourgeois gentilhomme. Strauss also wrote incidental music for the play. The 30 minute opera grew to 90…
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Rigoletto in HD – 2022
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 29th January 2022The Met seems to have a problem finding the locale of Verdi’s dark masterpiece. They moved it from Mantua to Las Vegas in 2013. That production didn’t last long; it was replaced this year by one set in the capital city of the Weimar Republic. Why? Who knows? Which site is weirder? Hard to tell….
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La Fille du Régiment in HD 2019
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 2nd March 2019Donizetti’s spaghetti stuffed eclair smeared with schmaltz reappeared on today’s Met in HD telecast. This production was previously telecast in 2008 with Natalie Dessay in the title role. I wrote this about her performance: Natalie Dessay was as bouncy as a spaldeen. She looked like a combination of Fanny Brice and Edith Piaf on steroids and happy…
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Carmen in HD 2019
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 2nd February 2019The Met presented Carmen for the 3rd time in its HD series. Overall the company has performed Bizet’s opera about a gypsy who smokes 1,897,346,104 times since its first staging by the New York ensemble during its initial season. Actually, the Met first did Carmen in Boston where after a run of 2,000 shows it…
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Marnie in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th November 2018The Metropolitan Opera has been premiering new operas since 1907. This practice is an admirable attempt to vivify the art form. Yet only two operas premiered at the Met have found a place in the standard repertory – both by Puccini. The first Met commissioned opera was La Fanciulla Del West in 1907. It’s better…
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La Fanciulla Del West in HD 2018 – Great
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 28th October 2018Wagner ‘s goal was to write opera that consisted of endless melody. I don’t think he reached that goal, but Puccini did in La Fanciulla Del West. Saturday’s performance, the last of seven of this season’s run at the Met, was a spectacular success. Puccini’s luminous score received a dazzling reading by the Met’s orchestra,…
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Aida in HD 2018
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 6th October 2018Aida was performed today by the Met for the 1166th time. This broadcast was HD telecast number three for Verdi’s Egyptian extravaganza. The hook for this run of the perennial was Anna Netrebko in the title role. There’s nothing new anyone can say about this opera so let’s get right to the show. Netrebko is…
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La Bohème Returns in HD Redux Again Back By Popular Demand Anon
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 24th February 2018Puccini’s La Bohème was performed by the Met today for the 465,196,276,982,653rd time in a performance telecast to beyond the Andromeda galaxy. The opera is so popular that even where I live, at the end of the line, it’s been done multiple times. A cursory search of the internet shows that the work has been…
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