Opera Performance Blog - New York

La Damnation de Faust at the Met - Nov 9th, 2009

2009-11-14T11:22:00.000-08:00

After a nice dinner at a restaurant near the Lincoln Center, we headed towards the Met Opera to attend a performance of Berlioz´ opera "La Damnation de Faust".

Divided into 4 parts, this is a work that wasn´t really intended for the opera house but for the concert stage (and it was premiered as such). I wasn´t very happy with the work, it was too long for what it really had, no memorable melodies (this is Berlioz, no surprise there), story was weak and confusing. Some beautiful music here and there, nothing I would call a masterpiece. However, the Met production was great, it had lots of high-tech effects unusually seen in an opera stage, it really made the performance more pleasant. Singers Ramón Vargas and Olga Borodina did a great job, so did conductor James Conlon. Wonderful, as usual. We met at the usual meeting point during the only intermission (between parts II and III), nice to see several new members of our group. I would recommend "La Damnation..." at the Met if you are a Berlioz fan, or if you like original and creative productions, even if they are matched with uneven work quality in the musical side.

AIDA at the Met - October 7th, 2009 - Opera for Beginners Event

2009-10-12T13:26:00.001-07:00

We had some 20-25 people attending the pre-opera talk, a good sign that members are following our events and are interested in learning more about the operas they will attend. Only a few were first timers, most have seen only a few operas before.

Aida at the Met was a great experience for everyone, sets are really beautiful, one of the best productions the Met has right now. I liked all singers in the cast, although I wasn´t thrilled with anyone. Urmana was strong as usual, did a great job in the title role (I know some members didn´t agree with me on this), Botha was a competent Radamés, he saved his voice too much and was hard to hear at times, had a couple of notes in the wrong pitch in Act I. Zadjik as Amneris was the best of the night. I did not like the director, whom I never heard before, he overshadowed the singers a few times during performance, most specially in Act I.

A common problem I see at the Met is that Act I usually has singers without enough warm up, and their performance noticeable improves during the rest of the opera. I don´t know if others think the same, some members have told me they agree on that.

Overall, it was a very pleasant night for all, I am happy we do this events for beginners with the pre-opera intro talk, I felt members appreciated and made the best of it.

New Met Production of TOSCA, October 6, 2009

2009-10-11T09:15:00.000-07:00

The Met’s controversial new production of that venerable old mainstay, Tosca, has been the talk of the town since its melodramatic opening night two weeks ago, where the production team was so wildly booed that the curtains were brought down hastily, perhaps to prevent thundering herds of staid opera goers from *gasp* rampaging the stage. The outrage centers on the audacity of Swiss director Luc Bondy in dispensing with the theatrical elements that Tosca audiences have come to expect, e.g., Tosca doesn’t place candles by Scarpia after she murders him; she lolls on the sofa opposite the dead Scarpia rather than running off to find Caravadossi. Act II opens to a Scarpia fraternizing with prostitutes rather than alone with his dinner. Tosca leaps to her death at the end but her fall is freeze-framed midair.

It’s much ado about nothing. Bondy’s conception of Tosca focuses on the psychologies of the characters, giving each a refreshing depth and multi-dimensionality that’s rarely fleshed out in opera today. This requires detailed, nuanced acting by the singers and work on the part of the audience, who has become too accustomed to Zeffirelli’s spoon feeding. The story of Tosca is about jealousy and the abuse of power, which are complex matters, and not as pretty as Zeffirelli would have us believe. As OperaChic aptly observed, “[s]tripped of its sentimentality, this was a thinking man’s Tosca”.

Bondy’s production was, in fact, relatively true to the original setting. The church in Act I evoked thoughts of rustic churches plentiful in Italy. Admittedly, Act II was a massive eyesore, with its drab lighting, primary colors and pair of red velvet sofas bordering a carpet resembling a Parchesi board. The set did, however, serve a purpose insofar as it enhanced Bondy’s vision of the evil Scarpia as a corrupt, sado-masochistic power monger and, as most of us agreed; the performances were so superb that one didn’t even notice the set. Act III, at Castel Sant’Angelo, was a stunner in its simplicity -- elegant, serene and entirely faithful to the story’s setting -- surpassing Zeffirelli’s set by far. The production was not perfect and certainly there were aspects that could be better executed, but it was undeserving of the harsh criticism garnered.

Mattila and Alvarez were phenomenal as Tosca and her lover Cavaradossi. Although Mattila doesn’t posess the ideal Italiante voice, she has a beautiful lyricism and an astounding range. Her voice was rich, creamy and filled the house easily that night without strain or slightest hint of a wobble. Whatever glitches there were on opening night have ironed out. The role of Caravadossi is natural to tenor Alvarez, who sang easily, with great warmth and thoughtful phrasing. Gagnidze, as Scarpia, was scratchy and inaudible in Act I but improved significantly in Act II, where he held his own admirably with Mattila and Alvarez.

This Tosca is worth seeing, for the stellar casting and character insights if nothing else. Catch it now with the Mattila-Alvarez-Gagnidze trio and/or see it in the spring with Dessi-Terfel-Kaufmann, which should make for a fascinating comparison musically.

La Cenerentola - Live from the Met at BAM - May 9th, 2009

2009-05-11T06:37:00.001-07:00

What a fantastic performance of La Cenerentola! We loved the entire cast, most especially latvian mezzo-soprano and star singer Garança and canadian bass John Reylea. Reylea was just awarded the Beverly Sills award to young singers, a 50,000$ prize, the largest in the US. His bass voice was truly beyond belief at the theater, so was Garança´s - she not only sang beautifully but showed excellent acting skills. I was also very pleased with the rest of the cast, public raved at the time of applause.

Production values were more on the simple setting side, not much on stage to look at. I can´t say it wasn´t good, but I wasn´t too happy , neither were those from the group who came with me.

If you missed this production of Rossini´s "La Cenerentola", too bad for you: this was the last performance for the season and the last OF the Met season!. Now we´ll have to wait until late September to see more opera at the Met. Try to get the video when it comes out!

L´ELISIR D´AMORE at the Met - March 31st, 2009

2009-04-08T07:19:00.000-07:00

This was one of our OPERA FOR BEGINNERS event - Around 18 members showed up for the pre-performance talk for Beginners, several new to Opera and a few attending an opera performance for the first time!.

Performance was wonderful, a truly delightful experience with a strong cast - Unfortunately Villazón , who was originally going to perform as Nemorino, wasn´t there but anyway, Massimo Giordano performed excellent. We saw him before in HD at Symphony Space, and liked him again, this time live. Angela Georghiu was great as usual, she is one of my top sopranos. Production values war very good, this is a very colorful production that is attractive to the eyes but not too lavish. I like the fact that this is more in the traditional style, placing the characters and sets in the time the action was originally intended to take place. This is why I don´t like so many modern productions (like the current Sonnambula at the Met).

If you get the chance to attend a performance of this production of L´Elisir, then take it!

La Sonambula - Live from the Met in HD at BAM March 21st, 2009

2009-03-23T06:37:00.000-07:00

This was such a wonderful opera experience! - We were just a very small group of members , as most couldn´t find tickets for this - but we did. Pre-performance brunch was very pleasant, great food and a very knowledgable speaker who introduced us to this opera.

Performance was superb, one of the best I have ever seen from both Florez and Dessay (who isn´t one of my favorites, though). Both sang beautifully and acted so well, with Dessay a bit overacted as usual.

My only criticism is to this production that most people don´t seem to like and guess what: me neither!. Set in modern time Manhattan and in a rehearsal room, it is nearly impossible to know when they are rehearsing and when they are in the real world. They should have made something to let the public know and avoid so much confusion, a green light that is on when rehearsing is going on, perhaps?. Sets are nice for 1 act, not to set the entire opera. I think this production destroys in part the magic and the superb performance given by the cast - I liked all the cast, most especially Flórez, one of my favorites.

Rusalka, March 12, 2009

2009-03-15T08:17:00.001-07:00

The NYT attributed the opening night audience’s lukewarm reception of this production to last Sunday‘s the time change or possibly the “damp chill” in the air. It would, therefore, seem that, four days later, New Yorkers still had not adjusted to having set their clocks ahead one hour. Or the damp chill. Frankly, the production is just that -- lukewarm. And that’s being charitable.

Fleming in what is one of her signature roles was hugely disappointing. The group agreed that Fleming was the weak link of the evening, projecting poorly from the back of the set and inaudible in the numerous passages dipping into the lower registers. There were a few moments of beauty when Fleming was within her comfort zone, but these moments were fleeting and served to produce a disorienting, truncated effect to the ear. Fleming’s portrayal of the water nymph was beautifully executed; indeed, quite lovely to watch, but failed to make up for the emotionally one-dimensional vocals.

By contrast, certain of the supporting cast deserved high marks. Stephanie Blythe was marvelous as the witch Jezibaba, a welcome breath of fresh air as she sung with purity of tone, lusty zeal and great humor, while the newcomer tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko sang solidly, with lyricism and ease, in the role of the prince.

All in all, a miss.

Adriana Lecouvreur at the Met - Feb 28th, 2009

2009-03-05T06:45:00.000-08:00

It was such an enjoyable night! We were around 10 members of the New York Opera Meetup enjoying this performance at the Met. It was the first time I saw this opera on stage, since it hasn´t been performed at the Met for many years. Production was great, visually very attractive in colors and lightning. Singing was fantastic: Domingo as Maurizio did a great job although he is now a bit past his voice (this role was his Met debut in 1968), Maria Guleghina in the title role was great too a very powerful voice that filled the house, not the most attractive soprano voice for me though, and Borodina was excellent as well. This opera has lots of beautiful music, a good libretto and a wonderful production. Highly recommended for any opera fan.

Mattila-Hampson in Tchaikovsky's EUGENE ONEGIN

2009-02-22T13:28:00.001-08:00

Productions of Eugene Onegin invariably invite comparison with the Fleming-Hvorostovksy pairing two seasons ago and any Onegin will be measured against Hvorostovsky, who is viewed by most as the quintessential Onegin.

During last night’s performance, most of us agreed that Karita Mattila was superb as Tatiana, blowing Fleming away both vocally, with her rich tone, color and thoughtful phrasing, as well as in her transformation from infatuated teenager to graceful woman of society. The famous “Letter Scene” was especially striking for its logical progression and artistic coherence. With Fleming, I knew what was going on. With Mattila, I believed it. Fabulous.

Thomas Hampson fared tolerably well as Onegin. He was at times strained vocally and lacked the natural aloofness and youthful arrogance of Hvorostovsky’s Onegin. The “lecture”, rather than conveying the audacity of the words, seemed merely an act of kindness. On the other hand, Hampson’s desparate, practically violent, attempt to win Tatiana in the last act had a creepy, stalker-like quality that made one thankful Tatiana decides to stay with the good Prince Gremin.

Piotr Beczala, a relative newcomer, was admirable as the young, idealistic Lenski. His pre-dual aria (“Kuda, Kuda”) garnered wild applause though, in my view, it fell short. We’ll no doubt be seeing more of him in upcoming seasons.

Carson’s production of Onegin is one of my all-time favorite “new” era productions. Its stark settings and intelligent use of lighting is more powerful and effective than many of the recent, interchangeable Hollywood-director productions combined.

New Production of La Rondine at the Met

2009-01-04T15:11:00.000-08:00

Twelve of us attended the Met’s new production of La Rondine, featuring Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna as the young lovers, Magda and Ruggero. Rondine is widely viewed as a problematic opera, a middling Puccini work last produced at the Met in 1936, but Gheorgiu’s and Alagna’s performances were so superb last night that it transcended the inherent weaknesses of the opera – a happy surprise. Gheorghiu was in top form; the best I’ve seen from her since her Violetta (La Traviata) of three seasons ago. Her voice was rich, milky and controlled, yet expressive – the Gheorghiu I had come to love but hadn’t heard in ages. Gheorghiu and Alagna were completely believable as the lovers, both looking and playing well their parts. (That they are married in real life probably helped!) The quartet at Bullier’s in Act II, one of the musical high points of La Rondine, was beautifully balanced with chorus, the voices soaring nicely above the superb string section of the Met Orchestra led by the excellent Marco Armiliato.

Unlike the Rondine we saw in HD last year, one got the sense that this Magda’s decision to leave Ruggero was truly a sacrifice made out of love rather than a necessary separation based on incompatibility. Act III was poignant, compelling. We saw the traditional ending, as opposed to the alternative used by some opera companies today where Ruggero learns from a letter that “Paulette” is really Madga, the mistress of Rambaldo, after which Madga walks into the sea and drowns herself.

Nicolas Joel’s conception of La Rondine takes place in the 1920’s, replete with gorgeous Art Deco sets and costumes; the audience gasped and applauded in appreciation when the curtains opened in Act III to a wide expanse of enormous Tiffany stained glass windows and French doors dripping with blue and green foliage. If you’ve never seen La Rondine – or if you have and think you don’t like it – check out this production. You won’t be sorry!

THAIS in HD - Live from the Met

2008-12-23T22:29:00.001-08:00

We were 5 people from the New York Opera Meetup at BAM (in Brooklyn), to enjoy together this performance of Thais in high definition.
Renee Fleming, one of the Met superstars, performed in the title role of Massenet´s opera "Thais", with Thomas Hampson as Athanael. They both performed fantastically, especially Fleming who put a lot of charm into the character. Her dancing is terrible, however.
I never loved Hampson as a singer, and this performance of Thais doesn´t change that.
Production values are very good, this are not the most lavish settings but it is overall excellent. It was an entirely new experience to see the backstage and the interviews during intermissions, all thanks to the HD broadcast. A very enjoyable afternoon for all of us, if you get the chance to see Thais at the Met this season, don´t miss it.

Opera for Beginners: MADAMA BUTTERFLY at the Met

2008-11-13T12:47:00.000-08:00

This was a joint event with the Broadway Shows, theatre, museum Meetup group. We were some 35 people at the pre-opera talk (for which I was the speaker). I think talk was informative and not too long or boring, people seem to have liked it, we went upstairs right on time for the start of Madama Butterfly. Cast singers were changed, as Racette (Butterfly) was sick, so was Roberto Aronica (Pinkerton). So both main roles had to be performed by other singers, we had Gravrilova as Butterfly, she was just ok, definitely not as good as Racette would have been, and Pinkerton was Marcello Giordani, we were very lucky with this change as he is known to be a magnificent Pinkerton. I don´t think Arónica would have been this good.

Production was great, I saw this production in 2006, opening night, they changed several things and made it a bit more attractive to the eye. I still hate that puppet, I prefer a real kid performing as Madama Butterfly´s son. Why they need THREE guys to move the puppet is also a mistery to me. Anyway, it was a solid cast singing a solid story and an even more solid music score. Wonderful. We met at meeting point during both intermissions, the first one had much more people (probably 20 went there). Overall, it was a very enjoyable night.

La Vida Breve with the New York Philharmonic

2008-10-19T15:15:00.000-07:00

Awesome performance by the NY Philharmonic and the Coro Nacional de España!. We saw together La Vida Breve, a short opera in Spanish language by Manuel de Falla. All performers were wonderful, especially the flamenco dancer who was really fantastic.

We were 4 meetup groups doing a joint event, over 90 people attended in total, 70+ of them belonged to the New York Opera Meetup, The NY Classical Music Meetup and the NY Spanish Language Meetup. It was great that some 25 members decided to come to the restaurant (O´Neals) after performance.

Concert at Bryant Park - A Taste of the Met´s 125th Season

2008-09-30T23:36:00.000-07:00

Concert at Bryant Park was overall great - It was performed mostly by young singers being trained under a program at the Met Opera (the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program). I wasn´t expecting big name singers anyway. Program included several arias from operas in the 2008-09 season, and a few popular songs which I didn´t really like. Most important of all, there was a very large audience and people enjoyed it
Attendance was only 20 people, not bad for an event of our group, but considering we had almost 80 RSVPs, this is quite low.

Visit to the Enrico Caruso Museum - Brooklyn, New York

2008-06-29T18:47:00.000-07:00

We had a very enjoyable visit to the Enrico Caruso Museum, located in Brooklyn. We were 10 members of the New York Opera Meetup, most of them visiting the museum for the first time. Museum owner and curator Aldo Mancusi gave as a great lecture on the life and work of the great tenor Enrico Caruso, followed by a short demonstration of his collection of antique gramophones and recorded sound playing machines. At the end, we saw some vintage footage of Caruso in Mexico and New York, and a short documentary about the museum. We all left very happy with the visit and enjoyed afterwards a meal at a nearby diner.

La Rondine in HD from Teatro La Fenice, Venice

2008-06-09T22:36:00.000-07:00

WHEN: June 8th, 2008 @ 3 pm.

WHERE: Symphony Space, New York
PERFORMANCE: A balanced cast, with Magda's aria ("Chi il bel sogno di Doretta") in Act 1 and Magda, Ruggero, Lisette and Prunier's quartet ("Bevo al tuo fresco sorriso") at Bullier's in Act 2 representing the vocal high points of the production and Act 3 viewed by many as the best of the three. Firorenza Cedolins was plainly the shining star of the bunch as Magda, with excellent dramatic presence and the strongest and most consistent performance throughout. Fernando Portari as Ruggero also very good, improved steadily as the opera progressed and well matched to Cedolins. PRODUCTION VALUES: Graham Vick's vision of La Rondine reimagined against the backdrop of 1940's Paris was solidly realized through intelligent direction and a sumptuous set, particularly with Act 1 set in a sleek elegant duplex. As with Il Trittico, the HD images were clear and crisp and the filming mostly excellent, though here, too, a few sudden burps at various points throughout the production were a bit jarring and disrupted the flow of the story. More shots of Maestro Carlo Rizzi and the orchestra would have been most welcome and added to the feel of "being there". MAM

GRANDISSIMO - A LOVING TRIBUTE TO LUCIANO PAVAROTTI

2008-05-21T22:22:00.000-07:00

WHEN: May 20th, 2008

WHERE: Town Hall (43rd Street b/t 6th & 7th Av.), New York

PERFORMANCE: Presented by the Met Opera Guild, this was a video tribute show, with a lot of great footage showing the great Luciano Pavarotti in performance (opera stage and recitals). At the beginning, there was a short video showing highlights of his life and career, then a lot of video from different performances. The selection was just AWESOME, and public responded enthusiastic with warm ovation. Presenters of these videos (and speakers) were Aprile Millo, Sherill Milnes and Roberta Peters. They told a few funny stories and made the show quite more entertaining than just listening music while watching videos. There was also a guy (don´t remember his name) who was a friend of Pavarotti, replacing Federica von Stade who didn´t show up. Announcement also indicated "with appearances by" James Levine and Shirley Verrett, although neither of them were there. NM

IL TRITTICO IN HD from TEATRO LA SCALA

2008-05-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

WHEN: May 18th, 2008
WHERE: Symphony Space (95th & Broadway), New York.
PERFORMANCE: Performance was overall great, with great singers in all 3 operas (Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi). We especially enjoyed Barbara Frittoli as SUOR ANGELICA, gosh she was so fabulous!.
IL TABARRO had a strong cast, with Juan Pons as Michele, he did a great job although was not superb. Leo Nucci was excellent as GIANNI SCHICCHI, great acting!
PRODUCTION VALUES: excellent in general, I didn´t like that much the Suor Angelica, with a giant statue of a nun. There were a few technical glitches in the HD video, image quality was outstanding, but there were a couple of very short interruptions that were a bit annoying. NM
More Info: http://opera.emergingpictures.com/