Tag Archives: Met Opera
The Metropolitan Opera Announces its 2024–25 Season
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 25th February 2024The 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…
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A Few Random Bits
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th February 2020Michael 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…
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Finale 17 – Semiramide Act 1
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 20th February 2018Last 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…
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Il Tabarro at the Met 1981
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 21st June 2014The 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…
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Hansel and Gretel in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 2nd January 2008The 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….
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Sirius, The Met, and Rhapsody or Why Recording Executives Should be Permanently Retired
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 2nd December 2007Peter 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…
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