Met-A-Mora 1848 - Articles Page 3

It's a busy week for Piotr Beczala, at least on the Met on Demand. It started with Monday's free broadcast of 2014's RUSALKA, opposite Renée Fleming (when the interview that follows was conducted) to Saturday night's free ADRIANA LECOUVREUR performance opposite Anna Netrebko, from January 2019. You can also hear him in excerpts from WERTHER, opposite Joyce DiDonato, which was scheduled for last month at the Met, but sidelined by COVID-19. The arias were recorded in JDD's living room, to give audiences a glimpse of what they might have missed in the complete performance.

Musical sensation Will Muse released his third single a?oeI Met a Girla?? today, along with a music video showing a whole new level of growth and maturity while remaining true to his unique sound and vocal ability. As part of this special release, just in time for Valentine's Day, Will shows that there is a chance for love and it can happen to anyone.

In the video below watch Elīna Garanča sings an excerpt from Marguerite's Act  IV aria in the final dress rehearsal. Conductor: Edward Gardner.

Beginning December 27, Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads a brilliant new staging of Berg's masterpiece by William Kentridge, starring Peter Mattei and Elza van den Heever. On stage through January 22. 

For a composer so well known for his dramatic operas--SALOME and ELEKTRA the most famous of them--Richard Strauss's most popular work remains the more comic DER ROSENKAVALIER, which just made its season debut under the scintillating baton of Sir Simon Rattle, with a bevy of first-rate singers.

Beginning December 27, Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads a brilliant new staging of Berg's masterpiece by William Kentridge, starring Peter Mattei and Elza van den Heever. On stage through January 22. 

I know it takes a leap of faith for the Met to schedule something outside the ABC operas--AIDA, BOHEME, CARMEN plus a TOSCA, TURANDOT and a few others--and go for something a little more off the beaten track. Tchaikovsky's QUEEN OF SPADES certainly falls into that category, even though it isn't exactly an unknown. The current production by Elijah Moshinsky, conducted by Vasily Petrenko, which still looks like new and opened the other day for the season's run, is not just well-sung and beautiful to see but makes a very good case for doing it more often.

Three casts of captivating artists bring Puccini's classic tragedy of bohemian friends and lovers to life in Franco Zeffirelli's immortal staging. Tenors Matthew Polenzani, Roberto Alagna, and Joseph Calleja trade off as the exuberant Rodolfo, alongside sopranos Ailyn Pérez, Hei-Kyung Hong, and Maria Agresta as the fragile Mimì. Marco Armiliato and Emmanuel Villaume share conducting duties.

In the video below, Jamie Barton sings an excerpt from Orfeo's Act III aria in the final dress rehearsal. Production: Mark Morris. Conductor: Mark Wigglesworth.

Get a first look at rehearsals for James Robinson's new production of the Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, which features choreography by Camille A. Brown and opens the 2019a?'20 season on September 23.

Get a first look at rehearsals for James Robinson's new production of the Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, which features choreography by Camille A. Brown and opens the 2019a?'20 season on September 23.

Get a first look at rehearsals for James Robinson's new production of the Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, which features choreography by Camille A. Brown and opens the 2019a?"20 season on September 23.

For those of us who couldn't wait to hear mezzo Joyce DiDonato in a fully staged performance of Handel's AGRIPPINA—heading to Covent Garden in September and the Met in February in different productions next season—she has given us a first-class preview at the Liceu in Barcelona. For a couple of weeks at the end of May, she tootled around major cities in Europe giving concert performances of the opera, one of Handel's first hits, from Christmas 1709 in Venice when he was finishing his sojourn in Italy.

Wagner's visionary initial installment of the Ring Cycle depicts the original sin of the theft of the sacred golden treasure, the vanity of the gods, the greed of the Nibelungen, the fratricide of the giants, and the building of Valhalla. Bass-baritone Greer Grimsley sings the role of Wotan, the conflicted lord of the gods. Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton sings her first Wagner role at the Met as Wotan's embattled wife, Fricka.

Baritone Ambrogio Maestri brings his larger-than-life portrayal of the title role back for the first time since his Met role debut in the 2013-14 season. Robert Carsen's insightful production-which moves the action to postwar England in the 1950s-features an exceptional cast that includes soprano Ailyn Pérez as Alice Ford and soprano Golda Schultz as Nannetta.

Verdi's tragic jester returns in Michael Mayer's neon-bedecked, Las Vegas-themed production. Baritones Roberto Frontali and George Gagnidze share the title role, and soprano Nadine Sierra reprises her portrayal of Gilda, the role that helped launch her now-blossoming Met career. Tenors Vittorio Grigolo and Bryan Hymel share the role of the lascivious Duke, and Nicola Luisotti conducts.

Mezzo-soprano Clementine Margaine reprises her remarkable portrayal of opera's ultimate seductress, a triumph in her 2017 debut performances, with impassioned tenors Yonghoon Lee and Roberto Alagna as her lover, Don Jose. Omer Meir Wellber and Louis Langree share conducting duties for Sir Richard Eyre's powerful production, a Met favorite since its 2009 premiere.

Baritone Peter Mattei and bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni star as opera's most notorious seducer in Mozart's masterpiece of dark comedy. Cornelius Meister makes his Met debut conducting performances that also include sopranos Rachel Willis-Sørensen and Guanqun Yu as Donna Anna, sopranos Federica Lombardi and Susanna Phillips as Donna Elvira, and basses Ildar Abdrazakov and Adam Plachetka as Leporello. 

Watch in the video below as Paul Appleby, as Pelléas, and Isabel Leonard, as Mélisande, sing an excerpt from Act IV in the final dress rehearsal. Production: Sir Jonathan Miller. Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Talk about baptism by fire! That's what Gustavo Dudamel--that wunderkind of the classical conducting world--faced as he reached the podium of the Met for the first time Friday night. Not only was he conducting Verdi's great opera, OTELLO, but he was doing so with a last-minute substitute in the title role. The result: All went well with the Met's production of the masterwork.

Greenbrier Valley Theatre, in a partnership with the Met: Live in HD, will be presenting Verdi's La Traviata via live stream on Saturday, December 15th, 2018.

Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducts Michael Mayer's richly textured new production, featuring a dazzling 19th-century setting that changes with the seasons. Soprano Diana Damrau plays the tragic heroine, Violetta, and tenor Juan Diego Florez returns to the Met for the first time since 2015 to sing the role of Alfredo, Violetta's hapless lover. Baritone Quinn Kelsey is Alfredo's father, Germont, who destroys their love. Later performances feature Anita Hartig, Stephen Costello, Artur Ruci?ski, and Placido Domingo.

The Metropolitan Opera and WQXR, New York's all classical music station, announce ARIA CODE, a new 10-episode podcast series that pulls the curtain back on some of opera's most legendary arias.

The Met is offering Robert Carsen's 1999 production of Arrigo Boito's MEFISTOFELE to show us what bass-baritone Christian Van Horn--winner of this year's Richard Tucker Award--could do in his first starring role at the house and the answer was: plenty.

BroadwayWorld has a first look at Nico Muhly's new opera Marnie, starring Isabel Leonard, Christopher Maltman, and Iestyn Davies, with Robert Spano conducting Michael Mayer's production.