Tag

Met Opera

Verdi’s Macbeth Opens Met Season

September 23, 2026

A new production of Verdi’s first Shakespeare based opera opened the 26-27 season last night. The cast was headed by Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen. Obviously I’ll have to wait until Oct 17 to see the production as it is the second opera of this season’s Met in HD series. The performance was broadcast on […]

The Metropolitan Opera Archives

August 16, 2026

The performance history (1883-1985) of the Met was compiled in print and released in the massive Annals of the Metropolitan Opera in 1989. It was published in two volumes. The first was Chronology 1883-1985, while the second was Tables 1883-1985. I had a copy of the print edition that I used frequently. In 2005 the […]

More on the Met’s Problems

August 14, 2026

In this post and the one to follow, I will discuss two problems that are characteristic of the difficulties that have accumulated to the point where the continued existence of one of America’s cultural treasures is threatened or at least seriously challenged. One, the subject of this discussion, is beyond the control of the company. […]

Eugene Onegin

May 2, 2026

I was unable to get to the theater today to catch the live in HD transmission of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. I’ll go to the encore presentation next week and post a full review then. I was able to listen to the audio broadcast of the opera. Here are a few thoughts based on an audio […]

Jonas Kaufmann Will No Longer Sing in London or New York

December 28, 2025

Star tenor Jonas Kaufmann recently announced that he would no longer appear at Covent Garden in London and at the Met in New York. It’s been more than seven years since he last appeared at the Met, and that was after a four year absence. Kaufmann expressed dissatisfaction with how the Met treated its chorus […]

Jonas Kaufmann Will No Longer Sing in London or New York

Is the Met Opera Dead?

November 8, 2025

Is it a zombie? Animate but lifeless? It’s probably too soon to tell, but it’s well on its way to the six-foot trench. Is the terminal event linked to the Met alone or to the art form in general? A caveat, I’m not as good at predicting the future as was Yogi Berra, so you […]

The Met’s New Aida – Brief Review

January 8, 2025

Last night a performance of the Met’s new production of Aida was broadcast over the company’s Sirius channel. It’s always hazardous to make judgments based on a single listen, so I’ll make a fiew tentative comments. I’ll expand these after seeing the production on January 25th as part of this year’s HD series. The vocal […]

The Metropolitan Opera Announces its 2024–25 Season

February 25, 2024

The Met season opens September 23 with the Met premiere of Grounded by Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori, starring Emily D’Angelo as an Air Force drone pilot and conducted by Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. It features six new productions, including additional Met premieres of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick, and John Adams’s Antony […]

The Metropolitan Opera Announces its 2024–25 Season

A Few Random Bits

February 10, 2020

Michael Spyres made his long awaited Met debut this month. He appeared all of two times in the title role of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust. Alas, he wasn’t in very good voice; at least from the evidence of last Saturday’s broadcast. He’s been singing the most taxing of roles all over the place and […]

Finale 17 – Semiramide Act 1

February 20, 2018

Last night was the first performance of the Met’s revival of Rossini’s final italian opera, Semiramide. I’ll have more to say about this opera and its current Met run after the telecast on March 10. The colossal finale of its first act is one of the glories of Italian opera. Here is this finale from […]

Il Tabarro at the Met 1981

June 21, 2014

The video below presents the telecast of Puccini’s Il Tabarro. The performance by the Metropolitan Opera was on November 14, 1981. The cast is also below. The recording was apparently made from a home TV. The sound and picture quality are marginable, but just north of acceptable. I doubt the Met will have YouTube take […]

Hansel and Gretel in HD

January 2, 2008

The Met’s second high definition galaxy wide broadcast on New Year’s Day was Engelbert Humperdink’s Hansel and Gretel. This fairy tale opera has been very popular since its premiere in 1893. Why I can’t fathom. The work is both Wagner-lite and Grimm-lite. The music is pleasant enough, but nothing really memorable or very dramatic happens. […]

Sirius, The Met, and Rhapsody or Why Recording Executives Should be Permanently Retired

December 2, 2007

Peter Gelb has earned much praise for the innovations he has initiated during his brief tenure as General Manager at the Metropolitan Opera. Among these is broadcasting several live performances a week on Sirius. He also has released past performances from the Met’s 75 year old archives, again on the Sirius network. But remember he […]