Met On Demand free nightly stream

[gurnemanz]

We enjoyed Cenerentolla the other night and also took the opportunity to get to know Donizetti's Anna Bolena, dodgy history and a not too exciting staging but very dramatic and some marvellous singing.

We saw Aida was on but went for a rather different stream in the end. Hampstead Theatre's extraordinary dramatic reconstruction of Ai Weiwei's arrest and interrogation via Guardian website. Only available till tomorrow.

[DracoM]

Yes - Met 'Turandot' was the 2016 prod. .

[Dave2002]

Yes - Met 'Turandot' was the 2016 prod. .

I think we are more or less in agreement. The most recent one, though similar, was very much better.

Now wondering if I/we have time to watch Luisa Miller, which I don’t know at all.

[bluestateprommer]

Watched the 2010 presentation of Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet, with "the other Sir Simon" (pre-knighthood, to be sure) and Toby Spence as Laerte representing your side of the pond in this production. Marlis Petersen was apparently something of an 11th-hour replacement as Ophelie, and an excellent replacement at that. In general, I haven't been watching these free streams, because I've seen already in the cinema the great majority of these HD-casts when they first ran. But for some reason, I missed this HD-cast of Hamlet at the time. Now having seen it a few days ago, I am tremendously sorry that I missed it then. Keenlyside was splendid in the title role, as you would expect. Perhaps some of Jennifer Larmore's stage manner as Gertrude seemed a bit too reminiscent of, of all things, Elsa Lanchester's appearance in Bride of Frankenstein (in facial gestures, not make-up), in maybe overdoing the stage villainy of her character just a bit. While the opera isn't Shakespeare, to be sure, it's a pretty good riff on Shakespeare in opera form, with, if nothing else, a 33% lower body count by the end (both Gertrude and Polonius are still alive in this version at the end, even though Polonius' part is reduced to very little, if also much more overtly a conspirator with Claudius for the latter to seize the throne by way of offing old King Hamlet).

Looking ahead to next week's offerings, the Met is dipping into the pre-HD archives twice, for Ariadne auf Naxos and Lucia di Lammermoor (as well as bestowing an accidental knighthood on Donald Runnicles):

https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/week-9/

PS (very late): Watched the 1977 La boheme, featuring Scotto and Pavarotti, and introduced by no less than Felix Unger (sorry, Tony Randall), in the first-ever 'Live from the Met' opera presentation on PBS. That historical status alone makes this video of interest. Because this production is from 1977, it is most definitely not the Zeffirelli extravaganza, with Act II in particular not letting the Paris spectacle distract from the characters (even if the fundamental plot absurdity of setting tables outside the Cafe Momus on a cold Christmas Eve night still doesn't make sense, but this is opera, after all). Perhaps one result of this less extravagant production was that Benoit and Alcindoro featured separate singers, rather than the same singer doing double duty.

[Dave2002]

Met: 'Turandot' streamed last night [2.v.20]
Is it just me, but Nina Stemme - do not get the adulation.
I'm afraid I turned the event off...I could not take the voice.

I think next week Turandot comes round again, but this time it should be the 2019 production. Pretty much the same set, but you may very much prefer the cast.

https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/

Thursday/Friday next week.

[bluestateprommer]

Watched the 1983 (according to the credits; the Met's own page says "1982") video of Lucia di Lammermoor, with La Stupenda in the title role and Alfredo Kraus as Edgardo, with Mr. Sutherland (natch) on the podium. Dame Joan obviously rules during the Mad Scene (spoiler alert; 2 minutes of applause afterwards), but perhaps the biggest pleasure was a re-appreciation of Alfredo Kraus. Obviously I never saw him live, and while I certainly knew his name and the odd recording from my younger days, I don't have many such memories of him from recordings or the odd Met Opera relay when I was a lad. Watching this video, that was clearly my loss.

Also watched the John Doyle HD-production of Peter Grimes, with surprisingly plentiful intermission material, and also variable Americanism slips from some of the supporting singers like Jill Grove as Auntie, but to his credit, not Anthony Dean Griffey as PG, nor Patricia Racette as Ellen Orford. Representing your side of the pond are Anthony Michaels-Moore (Balstrode) and Dame Felicity Palmer (Mrs. Sedley), as well as Donald Runnicles on the podium (the Met's Week 9 page mistakenly titles him "Sir Donald Runnicles", FWIW). Perhaps not quite everything about the "wall" staging worked in terms of verisimilitude, but if nothing else, the flat surface that close to the footlights certainly must have helped the singers project well into the house.

[bluestateprommer]

Caught Act I of the 1978 Don Giovanni, again with La Stupenda in the cast, and also a young pre-Wotan James Morris as Don G.. Of note is that this selection is also a tribute to two old pros who left us very recently, Gabriel Bacquier (Leporello) and John Macurdy (the Commendatore). Visually, the TV color obviously has a faded look 40+ years on (as well as a fairly audible prompter at times, like in the premiere "Live from the Met" TV-cast of La boheme), but at least for an old-school production, the "park and bark" quotient comes off rather lower than expected. It's kind of nice to see Tony Randall again introducing the proceedings, and you also hear Peter Allen speaking over curtain calls.

[bluestateprommer]

Not sure if anyone saw the Met's most recent nightly stream offering, a 1980 TV broadcast of Don Pasquale, with Gabriel Bacquier in the title role (another tribute offering to him, evidently), Beverly Sills as Norina, Hakan Hagegard as Dr. Malatesta, and Alfredo Kraus as Ernesto. As usual with the older Met videos in this series, there is a very fusty feel to the TV image look, but also here to the sound, which seems a bit boomy in the lower frequencies. Since we all seem to be spoiled with HD-cast quality sound, this can be a bit of a shock.

Perhaps the bigger shock, though, was the conducting technique of Nicola Rescigno, which is, to write rather unpleasantly, quite possibly the lamest conducting technique that I've ever seen in any format, live or Memorex. For whatever reason, NR oriented his baton across his torso, rather than the pointing the baton tip outwards. He pointed the tip of his baton downwards as well. In other words, the only musicians who could have seen the tip of his baton, and thus gotten clear signals, were the musicians pretty much directly in front of him. Moreover, his arm technique looks extremely limited, where for the most part, he bobbed both arms up and down pretty much in sync, with very little variety, except to stop his left arm occasionally. It says something about the Met Opera orchestra that they delivered an efficient accompaniment in spite of those conductor limitations. But I guess that this could be the same of any orchestra that knows a given score well enough that the musicians can overcome a subpar conductor.

[Dave2002]

But I guess that this could be the same of any orchestra that knows a given score well enough that the musicians can overcome a subpar conductor.

However, I don't think that stick technique is the only aspect of conducting. Some might have a good baton technique and be less good as conductors, and others may have a pretty terrible stick/arm technique, and still give really great performances. I'm not say that's always the case, but I think it's possible.

[bluestateprommer]

Caught the 2013 relay of Eugene Onegin, with Mariusz Kwiecień in the title role and Anna Netrebko as Tatyana. FWIW, while I saw Deborah Warner as director, I didn't realize that the production had originated at ENO. Her production is 'traditional', but in the very best sense, a case where one can still stage an opera in period (or updated a few decades apparently, to later 19th century Russia rather than Pushkin's own time) and make it look fresh. Admittedly, the wonderfully clear HD-cast quality video helps, compared to the dated TV relays from the first years of the Met telecasts from the late 1970s / early 1980s. However, one production misfire (no pun intended), at least IMHO, was her use of rifles rather than pistols in the Act II duel. But that aside, very well done indeed. It'll make for interesting comparison when (or if) I watch the Komische Oper production from the Opera Vision site before it goes unavailable in a few weeks.

However, I don't think that stick technique is the only aspect of conducting. Some might have a good baton technique and be less good as conductors, and others may have a pretty terrible stick/arm technique, and still give really great performances. I'm not say that's always the case, but I think it's possible.

In general principle, I see your point. But in the case of Nicola Rescigno in the DP video last weekend, his technique struck me as so unbelievably lame (nowhere near good enough even to be 'meh') that I saw no point in him even being in the pit. A 6' tall metronome could have done the job just as well in there. By comparison with this most recent video, Gergiev, w/o baton or even toothpick, was far more expressive and varied in his conducting style compared to Rescigno, admittedly not a high bar to jump.

The Don Pasquale experience was in contrast, admittedly, to another opera video that I had watched last weekend, San Francisco Opera's video of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah (rather interesting choice for July 4 weekend, given its depiction of US Southern religious narrow-minded thinking). The conductor there was Karen Kamensek, who also conducted the Met's recent Akhnaten that was HD'ed (and she had conducted Akhnaten at ENO). KK's baton technique is infinitely superior to Rescigno's, clear and easily discernible to the entire orchestra.

[Dave2002]

Yet another Marriage of Figaro

Tonight's MET offering is yet another MoF - and it's rather good when one gets into it. Whatever else one might think Mr Levine did a rather good job with the music - though should we be enjoying this?