Tag Archives: Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera Premieres
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 14th November 2018My last post commented on the latest work to be premiered by the Metropolitan Opera. I mentioned that only the two by Giacomo Puccini had achieved lasting success. Below is a list of both the world and American premieres mounted by the company since its beginning in 1883. You can thus form your own judgement…
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Met Opens Season with Samson and Delilah
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 24th September 2018The Met opened its current season with Saint-Saëns’ Samson and Delilah. The performance was streamed throughout the world and will doubtless last until the heat death of the universe. It will be telecast on Oct 20 as the second of the 10 operas that will make up the company’s HD series for this season. I’ll…
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The Met’s House Tenors
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 29th May 2018The definition I’m using here is this: A Met house tenor is one who has sung at least 500 performances in leading tenor roles with the company. Thus, comprimario singers are not included. Using this rule there are only six tenors who qualify. They are listed below in the order of their birth followed by…
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Lawrence Tibbett
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 20th May 2015Lawrence Tibbett (1896-1960) – born in Bakersfield, California – was the first in a succession of great American baritones who have been dominant performers at the Metropolitan Opera and throughout the world during much of the 20th century. He made his Met debut in 1923 as Lavitsky in Boris Godunov. For the next few years he…
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La Fanciulla Del West from the Met 1992
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 24th May 2014Defunct Met video Added June 15, 2014 – So this YouTube video is also gone. Instead, listen to this performance from 1954. It’s in the public domain and thus will be around for a while. It features Eleanor Steber (Minnie), Gian Giacomo Guefi (Jack Rance), Mario Del Monaco (Dick Johnson), and Dimitri Mitropoulos (conductor). It…
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Eugene Onegin in HD Plus a Bit on Language
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 25th January 2014Tchaikovsky’s most popular and best opera, Eugene Onegin (Евгений Онегин), opened this season at the Met. It was telecast on Oct 5, 2013. But I didn’t get around to it until today. This new production had a troubled delivery. Deborah Warner was in charge of it, but had to pull out a month before opening night…
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Richard Tucker’s 100th Birthday
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 28th August 2013Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Richard Tucker. Tucker is the only American tenor who is the equal of the greatest European tenors. America has had a number of great baritones, but among the greatest tenors Tucker is the sole American. His parents emigrated to the United State from Bessarabia in 1911….
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Ernani in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 25th February 2012Today (Saturday Feb 25, 2012) the Metropolitan Opera presented Verdi’s Ernani on it’s HD network. There was something about a Spanish setting that set Verdi’s creative fire at conflagration level. Ernani in style and color most closely resembles Il Trovatore, though of course, it’s not as inspired even if its plot is almost as crazy. Verdi was…
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The Opera Gestapo
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 18th August 2011One doesn’t usually associate the Metropolitan Opera with thought control or antagonism to free speech. After all, who pays much attention to what goes on in an opera house save for a few semi-demented diehards like me. For the past 15 years an opera fan, Brad Wilbur, has run a website devoted to puzzles and…
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Operatic Excerpts
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 22nd June 2011A few of grand opera’s more embarrassing outtakes Opera has the fewest masterpieces of any major art form. In fact, take away the operas of only four composers (Mozart, Wagner, Verdi, and Puccini) and there wouldn’t be much to perform. A period of only a century and a half includes all the operas in the…
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