Video: Act III Quartet from RIGOLETTO at the Met Opera
by Joshua Wright - Jan 16, 2025
Watch Erin Morley, Rihab Chaieb, Pene Pati, and Luca Salsi sing an excerpt from the Act III quartet in a recent performance. Reigning Verdi baritone Quinn Kelsey reprises his devastating portrayal of the title court jester, and soprano Nadine Sierra, following her acclaimed performances as Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette last season, sings the role of his daughter, Gilda, as they lead the first of two casts beginning.
Review: AIDA and the Temple of Doom Comes to the Met with Angel Blue
by Richard Sasanow - Jan 6, 2025
Someone at the Met should have been giving out flu shots (before RFK Junior makes them illegal), because something is obviously going around the cast of the new AIDA. They should have handed out a scorecard to help the audience keep track of who-was-who.
Review: Top Singing and Tap Dancing Highlight Richard Tucker Awards Gala
by Richard Sasanow - Nov 3, 2024
As usual, the gala concert of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation started off with an interloper from the golden age of opera: Richard Tucker himself, singing Mascagni’s “Addio alla Madre” from CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA. A tough act to follow for those singing live at Carnegie Hall, but happily no one seemed daunted by it. That doesn’t mean everything went smoothly at the gala concert, which is par for the course of the annual event. Despite the prestige of the Richard Tucker Awards, the world doesn’t stop when the Tucker Foundation comes a calling.
More Artists Join Lineup for Richard Tucker Music Foundation 2024 Opera Gala at Carnegie Hall
by Stephi Wild - Oct 10, 2024
The Richard Tucker Music Foundation presents its annual Gala on Sunday, October 27, 2024 at 6:30 p.m. at Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, tenor Anthony Léon, soprano Nadine Sierra, and soprano Elena Villalón join the star-studded line-up of previous Richard Tucker Award Winners, Grant Recipients, and special guests.
Review: With Great Music But Little Jesting, RIGOLETTO Returns to the Met
by Richard Sasanow - Oct 7, 2024
“This is not a cathartic tragedy or a tale of noble sacrifice. There are no admirable characters here, no moral lesson, no redemption, and no silver lining. There is only a merciless depiction of society’s dark side,” say the Met’s program notes for RIGOLETTO. I’m not so sure.
Verdi's RIGOLETTO to Return to The Met This Month
by Chloe Rabinowitz - Sep 20, 2024
Verdi's Rigoletto will return to the Metropolitan Opera starring reigning Verdi baritone Quinn Kelsey, and soprano Nadine Sierra. Rigoletto has been performed 926 times at the Met since its company premiere on November 16, 1883. Sher’s production premiered on December 31, 2021. Learn more and see how to purchase tickets.
Puccini's TOSCA to Return to The Metropolitan Opera This Month
by Chloe Rabinowitz - Sep 13, 2024
Soprano Lise Davidsen will sing her first Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera, opposite tenor Freddie De Tommaso, who will make his Met debut, as David McVicar’s production of Puccini’s Tosca returns to the Met. Learn how to purchase tickets.
Review: Plenty of High Notes at Unusually Low-Key Richard Tucker Awards Gala
by Richard Sasanow - Nov 2, 2023
An historic recording of golden age tenor Richard Tucker singing “Sound an Alarm” from Handel’s JUDAS MACCABEUS” set the tone for the Richard Tucker Music Foundation’s Gala concert at Carnegie Hall. There was wonderful singing ahead of us—but of a certain kind.
Like many other classical organizations, the Tucker Foundation, has found that, as Charles Dickens said in “A Tale of Two Cities,” “It was the best of times, the worst of times.” The “best” is for the quality of the singers that the foundation has supported through varying kinds of grants. The “worst”? Money from the usual donor pool is in shorter supply than usual, which meant a less elaborate evening
Review: Met Revival of BALLO IN MASCHERA Opens in Alden Production
by Richard Sasanow - Oct 23, 2023
One of the troubles of being a major institution like the Met is that when they produce a new production of a major opera--and Verdi’s UN BALLO IN MASCHERA, which opened in revival the other night, certainly falls into that category--it’s an expensive undertaking. It's true that sometimes a production can be pulled out of its death tumble, with a new cast or simply time making the absolutely awful suddenly make sense. In the case of the current run of the opera, with Angela Meade, Charles Castronovo and Quinn Kelsey heading the cast, even good and sometimes inspired singing can’t save the day. Alden’s take is simply too laden with concept for it to breathe.