New Met seasons 2021-22 & 2022-23

[kernelbogey]

I actually now understand why it is an audience favorite and why it will probably never be retired from the Met's production repertoire. The extravagance of the Act II staging is the core reason for that, with the audience applauding in delight at said extravagance...

This is also the production at Covent Garden - but hasn't it now been retired?

The one debit is a generic one that somehow the Met has never figured out, namely not to start to lower the curtain before the music has stopped playing, so that we lose the quiet ends to Acts I & III, and the quiet just before the slam-bang end of Act III.

And presumably also the reason that we radio-liisteners to Met broadcasts are generically subjected to applause and cheers over the last few bars of music on many occasions.

[Ein Heldenleben]

This is also the production at Covent Garden - but hasn't it now been retired?



And presumably also the reason that we radio-liisteners to Met broadcasts are generically subjected to applause and cheers over the last few bars of music on many occasions.

Have the last few bars of La Boheme Act One ever been heard at the Met ?

[ARBurton]

I seem to be having great difficulty in finding any cinemas showing the next "Met in HD" season - anyone else experienced this?

[LHC]

This is also the production at Covent Garden - but hasn't it now been retired?



And presumably also the reason that we radio-liisteners to Met broadcasts are generically subjected to applause and cheers over the last few bars of music on many occasions.

The venerable production of la Boheme at Covent Garden was directed by John Copley, and was very definitely not the same as Franco Zeffirelli’s bloated Met production. Copley’s production with designs by Julia Trevelyan Oman was premiered in 1974, and lasted until 2016. It was replaced by Richard Jones’ rather dull new production in 2017 with uninspiring designs by Stewart Laing.

Zeffirelli’s Met production dates back to 1982 and Zeffirelli designed as well as directing the production. The multi-level set and the large number of extras used for Act II were so heavy that the Met stage had to be specially reinforced before the production could be put on.

[bluestateprommer]

Although it might not be strictly appropriate to use this thread for the Metropolitan Opera's 2022-2023 season, I'll do that anyway here, as long as no one minds ;) . Did anyone see the Met's HD-cast of Cherubini's Medea this past week? I caught the evening encore Wednesday night. This was obviously a showcase for Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role. While her voice sounded a bit thin in places, that's an extremely minor complaint, given the sheer on-stage time and vocal marathon demands of the role. Carlo Rizzi summed it up well in his chat with Joyce Di Donato, to the effect that "if you don't have a soprano who can sing Medea, then don't stage Medea". The general thinking is that the opera lives very much in the shadow of Maria Callas, and thus anyone who dares to essay Cherubini's opera has to contend with that ghost.

On balance, Sondra R. did exceptionally well, and the house understandably exploded in cheers at the first curtain call, with her alone on stage. She looked genuinely overwhelmed and touched at the audience reception, with all the ticket stubs and other confetti raining down on her (not to mention the orchestra musicians), although she was probably totally exhausted and wrecked at the end as well. David McVicar was even present to take a bow, and to chat with JDD, which is highly unusual, given that the director generally leaves for his/her next gig, or back home, after the first night. (The NYT's Zachary Woolfe did carp here that this was DMcV's 12th production at the Met, and that just maybe it's time for fresh directorial voices.)

The one tech glitch was the dropping out of the sound on occasion, which must have happened in real time on Saturday as well. However, it may say something about the music that when the sound picked up again, I kind of didn't completely cry at missing those bits. However, I will credit Carlo Rizzi for mentioning how Cherubini's music seems to jump forward a century in Act III, which was my impression with the Act III prelude.

[kernelbogey]

I've amended the thread title to encompass the current season.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Although it might not be strictly appropriate to use this thread for the Metropolitan Opera's 2022-2023 season, I'll do that anyway here, as long as no one minds ;) . Did anyone see the Met's HD-cast of Cherubini's Medea this past week? I caught the evening encore Wednesday night. This was obviously a showcase for Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role. While her voice sounded a bit thin in places, that's an extremely minor complaint, given the sheer on-stage time and vocal marathon demands of the role. Carlo Rizzi summed it up well in his chat with Joyce Di Donato, to the effect that "if you don't have a soprano who can sing Medea, then don't stage Medea". The general thinking is that the opera lives very much in the shadow of Maria Callas, and thus anyone who dares to essay Cherubini's opera has to contend with that ghost.

On balance, Sondra R. did exceptionally well, and the house understandably exploded in cheers at the first curtain call, with her alone on stage. She looked genuinely overwhelmed and touched at the audience reception, with all the ticket stubs and other confetti raining down on her (not to mention the orchestra musicians), although she was probably totally exhausted and wrecked at the end as well. David McVicar was even present to take a bow, and to chat with JDD, which is highly unusual, given that the director generally leaves for his/her next gig, or back home, after the first night. (The NYT's Zachary Woolfe did carp here that this was DMcV's 12th production at the Met, and that just maybe it's time for fresh directorial voices.)

The one tech glitch was the dropping out of the sound on occasion, which must have happened in real time on Saturday as well. However, it may say something about the music that when the sound picked up again, I kind of didn't completely cry at missing those bits. However, I will credit Carlo Rizzi for mentioning how Cherubini's music seems to jump forward a century in Act III, which was my impression with the Act III prelude.

Hi BSP - I went to the Saturday live relay. Quite eventful as it turned out as our local relay was disturbed by bass rumblings and seat shaking from the senssurround screen next door. With 15 mins to go the lights went up and the screen shut down as the local cinema thought the screening was over. Following a small deputation the screening restarted with about a minute left. The manager very gracefully gave us free tickets and a meal voucher for the next relay. As one audience member put it “But I missed the bit where she kills her children” - a statement that outside Opera that might raise eyebrows.
I thought the performance was superb with SR as you say absolutely outstanding. The other principal roles were very strongly cast with Ekaterina Gubanova on particularly good form. An excellent production from David MacVicar - so well directed and so much better than the recent Aida from Carsen at the ROH. Much better acting as well. I reckon D MCV stayed in New York for the relay as this wasn’t the first night - given the global audience a good idea. Be careful what you wish for as in my view he is streets ahead of just about any one else around.
Finally praise for the tv relay team. Just about the best directed live relay I’ve ever seen with truly excellent camera framing and focus work - the latter a very under appreciated skill. Both my wife and I are ex ( in my case very ex ) tv directors and we were full of admiration for shot selection , framing , shot development etc .

[bluestateprommer]

Two nights ago, saw the first night of the world premiere staged production of The Hours, music by Kevin Puts and libretto by Greg Pierce, based on the Michael Cunningham novel (which I've read, a long time back) and the Stephen Daldry film (which I've never seen) adapted from MC's novel:

https://www.metopera.org/season/2022-23-season/the-hours/

Link to the pdf of the program for the first night:

https://www.metopera.org/globalassets/season/2022-23/hours-the/programs/112222-the-hours.pdf

From just the one listen, Puts' music is most certainly 'audience-friendly', quite tonal, rather 'nice' and 'pleasant'. If anything, and while it's really difficult to articulate, the music might have been too nice too often for its own good. To his credit, Puts does differentiate the 3 stories in musical style, especially when he "goes Hollywood" (1940s-1950s romantic sheen, with some big band drum kit) in the Laura Brown (Kelli O'Hara) segment. The piano also has a notable prominence in the score, and thus obviously takes up loads of room in the orchestra pit. One notable moment was when Puts reduced the orchestra to feature particularly the harp with the piano.

Of course, part of the appeal of this production for larger audiences who aren't necessarily into the cachet of a world premiere is the presence of "3 divas" in the lead roles:
* Renee Fleming (Clarissa Vaughan, the Meryl Streep role)
* Joyce Di Donato (Virginia Woolf, the Nicole Kidman role)
* Kelli O'Hara (Laura Brown, the Julianne Moore role)

Of the "3 divas", I thought that Kelli O'Hara came off the strongest, especially interesting as KO'H is the one "non-operatic" singer of the three. This was also my first time ever seeing her live, but I knew about her reputation as one of the current leading ladies of Broadway, even without ever having seen her in a Broadway show. Based on this performance, I totally understand KO'H's reputation now. She holds her own vocally in the company of Fleming and Di Donato, and brings excellent acting skills from her Broadway experience that not all opera singers may necessarily have. Likewise, JDD did very well as Virginia Woolf, and generally didn't overdo it regarding the mental illness aspect of her character.

By contrast, Fleming was the weakest link vocally of the three, IMHO. Her voice sounded a degree smaller than the admittedly few other times that I've seen her at the Met (Manon, Rusalka), each of these well over a decade ago, although this was not a case of her voice being in tatters from over-singing in recent years, not at all (especially as she dialed back her opera career very carefully over the past few years). Also, she has a reputation for not having the clearest diction, which I kind of got at times. Glancing at the Met titles did help me a bit. But RF was clearly committed to this role, as she wanted this opera to happen and got wheels moving to make it so.

The close of the work is a pretty overt homage to Der Rosenkavalier, in featuring two sopranos and a mezzo, but also where it was pretty much a given that one way or the other, the opera had to feature these "3 divas" on stage at the end. Dramaturgically, it was definitely a forced plot point to get all 3 characters on stage to sing together, even if making a connection between 2 of them was fairly easy (I'd forgotten that one plot twist from the book), and the Clarissa Vaughan segment does appear to replicate the plot of Mrs. Dalloway (which I've never read).

Whatever my mixed feelings about the opera, it was heartening to see a very well packed house for this first night; not quite sold out, but pretty darn good. RF got applause from the audience at her first entrance, in standard Broadway tradition, but then this was her return to the Met after 5 years, after all. If and when this opera gets revived or a new production elsewhere (and it is by no means clear that The Hours will be staged elsewhere at this time), it'll be interesting to see if it has legs. The HD-cast is set for December 10.

An excellent production from David MacVicar - so well directed and so much better than the recent Aida from Carsen at the ROH. Much better acting as well. I reckon D MCV stayed in New York for the relay as this wasn’t the first night - given the global audience a good idea. Be careful what you wish for as in my view he is streets ahead of just about any one else around.

I will admit that the generic gray that I've seen from DMcV in many a Met HD-cast has worn thin. However, as you say, DMcV is an excellent director of singers and gets consistently strong results. I also have the sense that Peter Gelb and DMcV get along exceedingly well, so that DMcV productions new and old at the Met aren't going away any time soon. I prefer to think that Zachary Woolfe is saying that the Met needs to feature other directors besides DMcV, rather than making DMcV the de facto "house director" for the Met.