Gloriana

Stage director.....David McVicar
Conductor..........Ivor Bolton

Queen Elizabeth I........................Anna Caterina Antonacci
Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex...Leonardo Capalbo
Frances, Countess of Essex..........Paula Murrihy
Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy...Duncan Rock
Penelope, Lady Rich...................Sophie Bevan
Sir Robert Cecil..........................Leigh Melrose
Sir Walter Raleigh......................David Soar
Henry Cuffe................................Benedict Nelson

This production on medici.tv of Benjamin Britten's Gloriana comes from Teatro Real de Madrid, 2018.  The opera was composed to honor the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953.  The queen herself came to the first performance.  It looks as you wish it to.  The costumes are magnificent.

The relationship between Elizabeth I and the Earl of Essex is well known.  Less well known is his rivalry with Lord Mountjoy.

There is a masque portraying Concord dancing.  I am fascinated to see that this female role is played by a man in drag.  Accurately in short.  All the dancers are guys.  It's fun.  All is to glorify the Queen who adores it.

The star of this production is Anna Catarina Antonacci whom I have seen in Carmen with Kaufmann, in La Ciociara by Marco Tutino in San Francisco, in Sancta Susanna by Paul Hindemith at the Paris Opera, and in La Voix humaine by Poulenc in San Francisco.  This is a wonderful variety of roles all performed by a great singing actress.  There is great range in her portrayals, and that certainly is true here as well.  Her Elizabeth is mature.

Here we see Essex and Mountjoy plotting treason against the Queen.  Other versions slant the story more in favor of Essex. I'm fascinated that with the inclusion of period musical forms Britten is trying to bring the past to us.  The music is still Benjamin Britten and not Elizabeth's time.  There is a gathering of the court for entertainment, and Essex has brought his wife dressed more beautifully than the Queen.  Elizabeth orders the women to change their attire and steals Frances's dress.  When everyone reappears, Elizabeth is wearing the beautiful dress which she declares too long.  It is surprising that at this moment she sends Essex off to Ireland.  The scene ends with yet another dance.

In the next scene Essex returns from Ireland offering a truce.  The Queen wanted victory, not a truce.  There is something stunning about this.  The use of musical forms to frame the scenes is very attractive.  Why have I never seen it before?  I feel they are trying to show the truth, very rare in an opera.

Giulio Cesare from Glyndebourne

Conductor William Christie
Director David McVicar

Giulio Cesare - Sarah Connolly, mezzo
Curio - Alexander Ashworth
Cornelia, Pompei's wife - Patricia Bardon
Sesto, Pompei's son - Angelika Kirchschlager, mezzo
Cleopatra - Danielle de Niese, soprano
Nireno - Rachid Ben Abdeslam, countertenor
Tolomeo, Cleopatra's brother - Christophe Dumaux, countertenor.
Achilla - Christopher Maltman, baritone

This performance of Handel's Giulio Cesare took place at Glyndebourne in 2005.  This is the David McVicar version that ran at the Met with David Daniels and Natalie Dessay in 2013.  I called it Julius Caesar the Musical.  I enjoy remembering that Natalie was ill for one of the performances, and Danielle de Niese was in town.  Naturally she took advantage of the opportunity and stood in for Natalie.  That would have been fun to see.

We are projected in time into the British Empire.  The Egyptian servants wear the Fez, and the Roman Army are dressed in the red uniforms of the British Army.  There is no evidence of Islam, I guess.  Cleopatra looks like a modern woman.  There are WWII ships and dirigibles.
In the real time of Julius Caesar the rulers of Egypt were descendants of one of the generals of Alexander the Great but still called themselves Pharoahs.  This is the original and in my opinion is better than the Met version.

I think I prefer this cast.  They are sincere in their change from Roman to British empire.  Angelika Kirchschlager is maybe the best trouser singer I have ever experienced.  It's worth it to see her alone. 
I'm never really wild about countertenors, so I am happy to see that Giulio Cesare is sung by the great Dame Sarah Connolly.  She even sort of looks like Caesar and carries herself like a great general.  This is Danielle de Niese's first big success, indeed this is her masterpiece.  She sings, she dances, she brings us joy.

I notice that the two dead guys, Tolomeo and Achilla, come back to life.  I also noticed this in Cecilia Bartoli's version.  The characters must have singing in the finale.  Here it is staged, but we're not sure what it should mean.

I loved it.  It runs for a little longer from Glyndebourne, so try to see it.

Roberto Devereux Stream

👍🏻

People don't give Peter Gelb enough credit.  In this production of Roberto Devereux, from 2016, he has chosen the perfect cast.

Elisabetta: Sondra Radvanovsky (soprano)
Sara, Duchess of Nottingham: Elīna Garanča (mezzo-soprano)
Roberto Devereux: Matthew Polenzani (tenor)
Duke of Nottingham: Mariusz Kwiecien (baritone)

He has also chosen the great Englishman, David McVicar, to create this wonderful production.  Of the three queens, I prefer this one because it isn't so dark and drab.

I like Sondra Radvanovsky in other operas, but this is her masterpiece.  The opera comes to life because of the wonderful intensity she brings.

The plot is nonsense, of course.  Elizabeth was a truly great queen who would never have allowed the execution of one of her courtiers on anything so trivial as sex.  My understanding is that Devereux tried to overthrow the queen, the precise meaning of being a traitor.  I doubt that having a girlfriend qualifies.  It wouldn't make an opera, though.

Thank you all.

Anna Bolena stream

👍🏻

Conductor.......................Marco Armiliato
Production......................David McVicar

Anna Bolena (Anne Boleyn).......Anna Netrebko
Giovanna (Jane Seymour).........Ekaterina Gubanova
Enrico (Henry VIII).............Ildar Abdrazakov
Riccardo (Lord Richard Percy)...Stephen Costello
Mark Smeaton....................Tamara Mumford
Lord Rochefort..................Keith Miller
Sir Hervey......................Eduardo Valdes

In the announcement before Donizetti's Anna Bolena, 2011, began we were told that this was the first time this opera had played at the Met.  When Beverly Sills sang her three queens, it was across the plaza at City Opera.

We are not to see the happy time when Anna Bolena married Henry VIII.  Instead we come in at the point in her marriage where he has already moved on to his next wife, Jane Seymour.  In this context she as portrayed as loved by many men, but still remaining faithful to her husband.  The sets are dark and uninviting, but much love has gone into creating costumes that are true to the period of Henry VIII.  In this era of modern black business suits in virtually any opera, we are grateful.

Donizetti is the closest to Verdi of any of the Italian composers.  This could be early, or even middle Verdi.  There is much bombast.  Everyone earns a big aria.  The top three singers are all Russian, so we are treated to some magnificent Russian style singing characterized by big voices and big production.  Perhaps this is what prompts Stephen Costello to sing in this big voiced style.  It's the heaviest I remember for him.

Netrebko wished to sing this.  It is probably the intensity of emotion that attracted her.  The duet with Gubanova is especially dramatic.  Ildar makes Henry an angry asshole.  Seen from this perspective, he does seem like a megalomaniacal pervert.

Dear Anne Boleyn, Someone has written this opera for you, and now some other people have made this wonderful performance.  I think it's the best we can do for you.

What we love so unreservedly about Anna Netrebko is how completely she commits to the inner emotions of her performances.  She gives it all.  Viva.

Agrippina in HD

👍🏻

Conductor...............Harry Bicket
Production..............David McVicar

Agrippina.............Joyce DiDonato
Nerone, her son.........Kate Lindsey
Claudio, her husband the emperor.....Matthew Rose 
Poppea, her rival..........Brenda Rae
Ottone..................Iestyn Davies (countertenor)
Narciso.................Nicholas Tamagna (countertenor)
Pallante................Duncan Rock
 
Deborah Voigt announced that Handel's Agrippina, 1709, was the oldest opera ever presented at the Met.  As I mentioned after the last time I saw it, it was composed for Venice early in the era of Neapolitan opera.  That means lots and lots of da capo arias and a happy ending.  What is more Venice than Naples is the mixing of comic and serious elements.  The Venetians weren't fussy about that stuff.

This is the most I have enjoyed a Baroque opera maybe ever.  This is regie, of course.  The clothes are modern with lots of WWII military uniforms.  There is a bar scene where all the characters seem to meet by accident.  Maybe it's on the frequently mentioned Campidoglio. When Rome conquers England, they return with Elizabeth II's crown.  One of the scenes showed the ceiling of the Pantheon which brought some character to the mostly abstract sets.

What makes this a great opera is the well designed plot.  No matter how difficult the complexities are for our heroine, she conquers them all.

I was going to say there is no hit tune until Nerone sang "Come nembo" while snorting cocaine.  This is known because Bartoli recorded it.  The most unusual thing about this production is the staging of the character Nerone.  I think we are to presume that he is a very athletic, well-tattooed juvenile delinquent.  He loves his mother and acts up continuously.  Kate Lindsey said she had to train for this role.  We believe her.  Her rendition of "Come nembo" was excellent.

The music was always excellent, but no one topped the magnificent Joyce DiDonato who created a wonderful, perfectly believable evil character and topped it with gorgeous singing.

I masnadieri

Conductor Michele Mariotti
Staging David McVicar

Massimiliano, Count Moor..Michele Pertusi, bass
Carlo, his elder son......Fabio Sartori, tenor
Francesco, his younger son..Massimo Cavalletti, baritone
Amalia, his niece........Lisette Oropesa, soprano
Moser, priest...... Alessandro Spina, bass
Arminio, servant..Francesco Pittari, tenor
Rolla...Matteo Desole, baritone

This year Verdi's I masnadieri (The Bandits) was presented at La Scala.  We have taken notice because the female role is sung by Lisette Oropesa.

This traditional production completely violates my rules of portraying a plot.  The director's primary job is to explain the plot.  So who the hell is this guy in the military uniform that wanders around the stage in all these scenes?  Carlo before he became a bandit?  Francesco before he became a shit? Who?  Carlo is the fat guy.  So perhaps the director didn't like him and gave all his stuff to someone else.  Sigh.  I hate that.  He carries around a notebook where he occasionally writes, so the speculation is that he might be Schiller, the original writer of the story.

Lisette is spectacularly good in this, moving gently away from her soubrette Fach into full lyric repertoire.  I like her sound, her technique, her phrasing, anything else I can't think of.  She is developing into a truly wonderful singer.  This role was written for Jenny Lind who appears to have been a lyric soprano.  There is a lot of bombastic early Verdi singing throughout this opera, but the soprano is sweet and lyrical throughout.  It is an excellent role for Lisette.

The bandits seem to be having a lot of fun except for Carlo.  They leap and dance around. Francesco repents but the priest refuses to forgive him.  The silent writer comes to life and kills Francesco.  Then Amalia comes out and says that whether Carlo is an angel or a devil, she will always be his wife.  So then he kills her.  This plot is basically BS.

The male singers are all on the same page with the big Verdi sound.  The most applause was for Pertusi, Sartori and Oropesa, all well deserved.  I never have to see this opera again.  Just listening and ignoring the action is always an option.

Faust from London

 👍🏻
Conductor: Dan Ettinger
Director: David McVicar

Faust Michael Fabiano
Méphistophélès Erwin Schrott
Marguerite Irina Lungu
Valentin Stéphane Degout
Siébel Marta Fontanals-Simmons

Gounod's Faust came to a theater near me from the Royal Opera in London where it was live on April 30.  Faust is a kind of morality myth of no specific era, so it cannot be considered regie that it is staged for the period of it's original appearance in 1859.  The settings bring the story to life.  I always remember that the Germans call this opera Marguerite.  For at least its first 50 years this opera was wildly popular, but musical tastes have moved on, and it's heard now as a bit corny, I think.

Erwin Schrott played Méphistophélès for laughs, something he's very good at.  I loved Michael's voice in his aria "Salut, demeure chaste et pure."   I enjoy his style as a romantic hero very much. Irina Lungu was a replacement for Diana Damrau who I understand has a slipped disc.  I liked her.

This is as close to a traditional production as you are likely to see these days.

This is the second opera where I've seen Erwin in a dress.  The other one was Verdi, I think.  This role better suits the voice of Rene Pape, but Erwin is much funnier and cuter.  The Walpurgis Nacht is done as a ballet with a dancer appearing as pregnant Marguerite.  Valentin comes back from the dead, followed by an orgy.  Marguerite appears with her baby.  Then a small casket.  Then a jail.

The ending is perfection.  Marguerite rejects both Faust and the Devil, prays to God, and an angel appears to declare her saved.  Faust is again an old man.  The Devil laughs.

It worked for me much better than the Met version.

Adriana Lecouvreur in HD

👍🏻
Conductor:  Gianandrea Noseda
Production:  David McVicar

Adriana Lecouvreur, an actress:  Anna Netrebko
Maurizio, the Count of Saxony:  Piotr Beczala
Princess di Bouillon, also in love with Maruizio:  Anita Rachvelishvili
Prince di Bouillon, her husband:  Maurizio Muraro
Michonnet, stage manager:  Ambrogio Maestri

Today the metropolitan Opera brought us Francesco Cilèa's Adriana Lecouvreur in HD.  Our host was Matthew Polenzani.  The opera is from 1902 in the era of verismo.

It was a single set production with a raised stage area in the center.  This was useful in portraying an opera about an historical figure who was an actress.  Most of the scenes have some kind of performance, including a ballet.  I enjoyed when the stage was shown from the angle of the wings, always my favorite perspective.

Gianandrea Noseda shaped the music in the most beautiful way.  Today was my best reaction to his conducting.  In his interview he expressed his respect for the vocal performers.

At the beginning we see that Adriana has not heard from her lover whom she believes to be a soldier away at battle.  She is preparing for her entrance where she plays Roxane, the heroine of Cyrano de Bergerac, I believe.  He comes in, woos her ardently and arranges to meet her after the play.  Adriana's most beautiful arias "Io son l'umile ancella" comes in this act. The plot is a bit hard to follow here.  Who exactly is Duclos?  Her name is not listed in the cast. Maurizio receives a letter and cancels on Adriana.  He is obviously a cad whatever his feelings might be.  Michonnet wants Adriana to marry him.

Not to be outdone, the Princess sings "Acerba voluttà, dolce tortura" while anxiously awaiting the arrival of Maurizio.  Again more plot complexities.  Maurizio arrives, Adriana arrives and figures out who Maurizio actually is, the Princess's husband arrives and they sneak her out of the meeting place without Adriana discovering who she is.  By the end of the opera everyone has discovered the identity of everyone else, Adriana is angry with the Princess and insults her, and finally Adriana is poisoned with flowers, aria "Poveri fiori".  The person who deserves the anger, the Count of Saxony, gets off.

The plot confusion interferes with ones overall pleasure.  It's rather like a murder mystery.  The music is sweet and not at all murder-mystery-like.  The cast is spectacular.  Ambrogio Maestri is very sweet as the stage manager in love with Adriana.  I have only seen him as Falstaff.

Anita rose to her angry bitch character to make the perfect foil for Anna  Piotr convincingly wooed both women, demonstrating his skills at seduction.

But this performance belonged to Anna Netrebko, intense in every scene, the diva incarnate.  All hail Anna.  Perhaps I will go again on Wednesday.
______________________________

P.S  A commenter left this on Facebook:

Roxane here is a character of "Bajazet" which is a tragedy by Racine. That is why at some point Adriana is called Gran Sultana. This is about the character she was portraying in first act. (Cyrano de Bergerac was written at very end of 19th Century. Therefore Lecouvreur could not have played it).

Il Trovatore Rerun

👍🏻
Conductor:  Marco Armiliato
Production:  David McVicar

Leonora:  Anna Netrebko (soprano)
Azucena:  Dolora Zajick (mezzo-soprano)
Manrico:  Yonghoon Lee (tenor)
di Luna:  Dmitri Hvorostovsky (baritone)
Ferrando:  Štefan Kocán (bass)

This is the performance of Verdi's Il Trovatore where Dmitri Hvorostovsky steps forward and is showered with white roses from the orchestra.  Since he originally sang this Met Live in HD performance, he has died.  I cried in the theater today.  Everything is simply wonderful.  It plays again in the evening so be sure to see it.

Rigoletto from the ROH

Conductor; Alexander Joel
Director: David McVicar

Duke of Mantua: Michael Fabiano
Rigoletto: Dimitri Platanias
Gilda: Lucy Crowe
Sparafucile: Andrea Mastroni
Maddalena: Nadia Krasteva

My local cinema brought me Rigoletto from the ROH in London.  They are attempting a realistic Rigoletto.  The duke's court is an actual orgy with nudity and obvious sexual brutality.  No wonder Rigoletto wants to keep his daughter away from them.  Usually the duke makes it with everyone but the rest of the court are relatively well behaved.  The story makes a lot more sense this way.

Michael was his usual fantastic self, but vocally I didn't get excited about the other singers.  If you want to understand this opera, this is the one.

Tosca in HD

"Muori"

👍🏻
Conductor...............Emmanuel Villaume
Production..............David McVicar

Tosca...................Sonya Yoncheva
Cavaradossi........Vittorio Grigolo
Scarpia.................Željko Lučić

Now wasn't that interesting.  I'm talking about the new McVicar production of Puccini's Tosca in HD from the Metropolitan Opera.  It was originally supposed to star Jonas Kaufmann, Kristine Opolais and Bryn Terfel, and its conductor would have been Andris Nelsons.  So everyone is completely different.  And now I'm going to be frank:  I don't think anyone from the original cast could have improved on today's spectacular performance.  So thank you all for finding something else to do today.  Emmanuel Villaume replaced James Levine in turn and did well.

First of all let's talk about the production which is a replacement for the unpopular Bondy production, which in turn replaced Franco Zeffirelli.  Act I is remarkably similar to Zeffirelli.  It takes place in a church in Rome which anyone may visit.  Act II takes place in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome which is now the French embassy and cannot be casually visited.  Unfortunately for me, my collection of books includes a photo collection of Palazzo Farnese.  This means I know exactly what it actually looks like.  None of these productions even remotely resemble it, but perhaps an exact portrayal would be distracting.  The McVicar is like Palazzo Farnese seen by someone extremely near sighted.

The third act shows us the roof of the Castel Sant'Angelo pretty much as it actually is.  Why try to improve on perfection?  For me all three of these sets, though large and difficult to assemble, functioned well as background for our story.  It's traditional and fuddy duddy, but for me it works.

Which brings us to our singers.  Scarpia is the slimiest of slimy villain baritones, and Zeljko Lucic knows how to turn on his dark side.  His voice is also good.

Vittorio Grigolo as Cavaradossi is right in his element.  His beautiful Italian overacting seems like it was made for Tosca.  You believe in his passion for his beloved as never before.  I enjoyed all three of his arias, but especially "O dolci mani."  [Oh sweet hands.]

While interviewing Sonya Yoncheva, Isabel Leonard exclaimed, "You are very brave!"  In this performance series Sonya made her debut as Tosca.  That means she has never performed Tosca before.  A debut in a leading role at the Metropolitan Opera and on the HD series.  Yes.  Very brave indeed.  I have heard her only a few times, and this seems the role that most suits her dark voice.  You will have noticed by now that I love best the dark voices.  For my ears her sound most resembles Callas of anyone I have heard.  Today she was simply glorious.  Viva Yoncheva.  I added her name to the singers list at the left.

Norma in HD

 👍🏻 
Conductor...............Carlo Rizzi
Production..............David McVicar

Norma...................Sondra Radvanovsky
Pollione................Joseph Calleja
Adalgisa................Joyce DiDonato
Oroveso.................Matthew Rose
Clotilde................Michelle Bradley

Above is the staging for "Casta diva" from Bellini's Norma live in HD from the Metropolitan opera. The goddess to whom she prays is the moon, so the scene must appear to be moonlit.  This is the greatest complaint about this production, that the sets are too dark.  Our screen was quite large and generally easy to see, except for the very beginning, before the moon-rise, which was almost black.

My Normas have been Joan Sutherland, Montserrat Caballe, Cecilia Bartoli and Sondra Radvanovsky, whom I heard first in San Francisco.  For me this version was best of all for the acting. I loved Cecilia's Norma for this quality, but here it balances across the cast.

We know we are at war by the presence of bodies.  What is to be their position toward the Romans?  Norma recommends reaching a peace with them, but we know that her motives are suspicious.  She probably recommends peace because of her relationship to Pollione, the Roman proconsul.  In the first act religious ceremony Adalgisa assists Norma in the rite.

In Norma's house Adalgisa reveals that she is in love with Pollione and has promised to go with him to Rome.  Norma does not reveal to Adalgisa until later that she has two children by Pollione. The increase in the significance of Adalgisa and the increased strength of her tie to Norma changes the emotional dynamic of the opera. 

So when Norma calls her followers together again, she recommends war.   We see Norma's range of emotions, especially her rage against Pollione.  She knows someone must die, but is not sure who should be killed.  She finally arrives at herself as the person at fault.  Adalgisa appears at the end to watch her lover and her friend walk off together to their deaths.

Sondra was magnificent, a giant, intense performance still wonderfully sung.  Joyce was also magnificent in both singing and acting.  I even liked Calleja.  When watching the old timers long ago, one hardly knew there was a plot.  Here we get the best of both worlds--a traditional staging with a lot of emotional interaction and magnificent singing.
#ad

Andrea Chénier from San Francisco

Conductor Nicola Luisotti
Director David McVicar

Carlo Gérard:  George Gagnidze *
Maddalena di Coigny:  Anna Pirozzi *
Bersi:  J'Nai Bridges *
Contessa di Coigny (Maddalena's mother): Catherine Cook
Andrea Chénier: Yonghoon Lee *

Giordano's Andrea Chénier from the San Francisco Opera was a real treat. The above performers with * next to their names were making their San Francisco Opera debuts.  My favorites in order were George Gagnidze, Anna Pirozzi, J'Nai Bridges and Yonghoon Lee.  Gérard's aria in the prison scene was especially wonderful.  I have seen Gagnidze a few times before.  I'll try to remember him this time.  This is an excellent group of debuts.

I saw this production in the film from the Royal Opera in London.  I thought the final scene made a better effect here.  I like the way the entire production looks.

Most surprising was Anna Pirozzi who began her performance with a relatively small tone and continued to increase in volume until the really quite loud finale.  It was thrilling.  She was new for me.

I have seen Yonghoon Lee before in Il Trovatore from the Met.  I felt he handled Verdi much better than he managed Giordano.  Chénier is a role that best fits a voice like Mario del Monaco while Lee seems to try too hard and creates the impression he is struggling.

This is highly recommended from me.  I enjoyed it very much.

I went to the lecture where we were told that Maddalena actually got away.  Sigh.

Roberto Devereux in HD

Conductor: Maurizio Benini
Production: David McVicar

Elisabetta: Sondra Radvanovsky (soprano)
Sara, Duchess of Nottingham: Elīna Garanča (mezzo-soprano)
Roberto Devereux: Matthew Polenzani (tenor)
Duke of Nottingham: Mariusz Kwiecien (baritone)

Roberto Devereux by Donizetti completed Sondra Radvanovsky's tour de force trilogy of Donizetti's three queens in a single season.  For my money this is the opera that most suits her gifts.  Overheard talking to myself, "But this is a wonderful opera."  Perhaps it is wonderful because a constantly enraged queen suits so perfectly the voice of Sondra Radvanovsky.  I did not see in Sondra's portrayal the nonsensical pseudo-butch portrayal of Bette Davis, but saw instead someone with difficulty walking and deteriorating health.

Each of the four stars listed above gets wonderful music, perhaps also perfectly suited to their gifts.  Benini found the drama in the singing. 

What a mess of a plot.  Perhaps Roberto once truly loved the queen as she clearly thought he did.  And then he fell in love with the decades younger and still unmarried Sara.  He goes off to war and after clearly winning it, he is accused of being a traitor.  While he was away, Sara with the queen's help married the Duke of Nottingham because her father died. Women at that time required the protection of a man, either husband or father.  The opera opens with her clear unhappiness.  It is not clear if she is unhappy because Roberto is returning, or if perhaps it is her marriage to someone she does not love and who seems also not to love her.

The queen marches down into her tomb and dies at the end.  This is a poetic rather than a historically accurate ending.  The opera plot more closely resembles the movie The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex than it does historical fact.  It's important to remember that opera is about love, and historical accuracy is irrelevant.

Debbie Voigt announced it as a play within a play, but this is only true if you count the fully costumed chorus clapping when the audience clapped.  In the bows the characters turn and bow to the chorus.  This was all discrete and not at all annoying.  It provided a context for the frequent choruses.  In the period there would have been courtiers standing around watching.

I loved it.  It was filled with both beautiful singing and overwhelming dramatic intensity. 

And yes, that was indeed "God save the Queen" in the overture.

Die Meistersinger

Conductor Sir Mark Elder*
Production Sir David McVicar

Hans Sachs: James Rutherford (bass-baritone)
Walther von Stolzing: Brandon Jovanovich (heldentenor)
Eva: Rachel Willis-Sørensen* (soprano)
Magdalene: Sasha Cooke (mezzo-soprano)
David: Alek Shrader (tenor)
Sixtus Beckmesser: Martin Gantner* (baritone)
Veit Pogner: Ain Anger * (bass)

Last night the San Francisco Opera opened its new production of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by David McVicar. The plot is a bit similar to Tannhäuser. The production comes from Glyndebourne. I watched Katarina Wagner's Meistersinger in 2012, and then the Salzburg version in 2013. Both of these were in sharp contrast to this very conservative production.

Historical footnote: the last Meistersinger guild disbanded in Memmingen in Bavaria in 1875, which means that there were still active Meistersingers when Wagner completed his opera in 1868.

This is Meistersinger as Wagner imagined it. Each scene moves through the story carefully. Pogner offers his eldest daughter to the winner of a Meistersinger contest. Hans Sachs ponders this situation and decided that he must rescue her. He must find a suitable mate who can win the singing contest, and once the potential husband is identified, Sachs must see that Walther wins. It takes forever.

This performance often seemed more like conversation than singing. All the singers were very good, with Brandon Jovanovich at the top of the heap, but they chatted their way through most of the scenes. Even German can be sung legato. It was announced before the third act that Jovanovich had a cold, but he did fine. James Rutherford seemed an excellent Hans Sachs, but a bit young for the part. Perhaps they were saving their voices.

It was comforting but not very exciting to be able to follow the story so easily.

Il Trovatore in HD 👍🏻

Conductor:  Marco Armiliato
Production:  David McVicar

Leonora:  Anna Netrebko (soprano)
Azucena:  Dolora Zajick (mezzo-soprano)
Manrico:  Yonghoon Lee (tenor)
di Luna:  Dmitri Hvorostovsky (baritone)
Ferrando:  Štefan Kocán (bass)

Heard in the theater during intermission of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD simulcast of Verdi's Il Trovatore, "Does it get better than this?"  Followed by, "No!  No, it does not!"  It truly does not.

People get really confused by the plot of this opera, and I think the main reason is because it spends so much time explaining things that took place in the long ago past.  A young prince got sick right after he had been visited by a gypsy woman who seemed like a witch.  When the gypsy woman was taken off to be burned at the stake, her daughter Azucena kidnapped the sick child.  Then seeing her mother burning and her mother shouting out "avenge me," Azucena grabbed the nearest child and threw her own baby into the fire.  She kept the kidnapped child and raised him as her own.  This story gets told twice and then is referred to constantly by the different characters.  We would just rather watch the people we are seeing on the stage.

Azucena is really quite mad and is really quite happy when the son she has raised and loved is killed because at last her mother is avenged.  Yes.  Being avenged is what matters most.  And no one either sings or plays the really quite mad Azucena better than Dolora Zajick who owns this role.  She is the first block in the "four greatest singers" quadrangle required for this opera.

The plot on the stage is just your garden variety love triangle.  Both Conte di Luna and the gypsy Manrico love Leonora.  Manrico serenades Leonora and di Luna just lurks around looking dour.  It isn't hard to grasp why she prefers Manrico.  Enough about the plot.

Two, Anna and Dmitri, of this trio of singers are my absolute favorites in their respective Fachs.  (Or what is the plural of Fach?)  Much fuss was made over Dmitri because he is still in treatment for his brain tumor.  He spoke to us and thanked us for all the love.  His singing was powerful and emotional, a genuine experience.

A year ago after watching the stream of this opera from Salzburg I wrote, "I love Anna and find that she almost achieves the greatness here that she desires and will do so in the future."  I am very pleased to report that she has.  This is the greatest Leonora I have ever seen.  Her gorgeous voice is receiving spectacular attention to detail while retaining all of her wonderful emotion.  She is the opera singer for our age. 

Yonghoon Lee would rate a lot more raves if he were in any cast but this one.  Nevertheless he was outstanding.  It was all in all an emotional day at the opera.

At the end the orchestra repeated their ovation of white roses for Hvorostovsky.  Be well, maestro.

Footnote.  The San Francisco Opera also uses the McVicar production for this opera.

Why Do We Go to the Opera?

👍🏻
Conductor: Donald Runnicles
Production: David McVicar

Troy:
Cassandra: Anna Caterina Antonacci
Aeneas: Bryan Hymel *
Coroebus: Brian Mulligan

Carthage:
Dido: Susan Graham
Aeneas: Bryan Hymel
Anna: Sasha Cooke
Narbal: Christian Van Horn

For this, oh yes, for this.

Hector Berlioz' Les Troyens was a work of love.  Virgil's Aenead was one of his favorite things from childhood.  You can tell this because he composes everything.  He can't bear to leave anything out.  He didn't seem to care how hard it was to get such a long opera produced.

Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci in HD

CONDUCTOR: Fabio Luisi
PRODUCTION: Sir David McVicar

Cavalleria Rusticana

Turiddu: Marcelo Álvarez (tenor)
Santuzza: Eva-Maria Westbroek (soprano)
Mamma Lucia: Jane Bunnell (contralto)
Alfio: George Gagnidze (baritone)
Lola: Ginger Costa-Jackson (mezzo-soprano)

The final HD from the Metropolitan Opera for this season was a new production of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci.

It might probably have been a good idea for me to wait to watch the Salzburg film until after this one.  Though in black and white, the Salzburg production was far more visually interesting.  I chose the above picture as the most colorful from the Met's Cavalleria.

I seldom say this so here goes:  The Met Orchestra was absolutely fabulous in both operas.  I know they are supposed to be... but I don't generally have this reaction.  Luisi must get a big piece of the credit. This is a very beautiful opera, and Luisi brought exactly the right feeling to it,  This cannot be said of Thielemann in Salzburg who could have been conducting Strauss.

It is impossible not to compare the two performances.  And there is much to contrast.  The Salzburg performance was beautiful and dignified.  Everyone is dressed for Easter.  Santuzza and Turiddu have a child who is an altar boy.  Mamma Lucia is the most northern Italian mother I've ever seen.  It was unbelievably restrained.

The Met performance despite its extreme low-stimulus production was the right one for Marcelo Alvarez.  His mother is very much the warm Italian mother.  Lola's husband is a tough.  I'm not sure about Eva-Maria Westbroek.  Sing something a bit lighter.

I Pagliacci

VAUDEVILLE CONSULTANT: Emil Wolk

Tonio: George Gagnidze (baritone)
Canio: Marcelo Álvarez (tenor)
Beppe: Andrew Stenson (tenor)
Nedda: Patricia Racette (soprano)
Silvio: Lucas Meachem (baritone)

Pet peeve out of the way--venti-tre ore means twenty-three oclock or 11 pm, not sunset or whatever other goofy times appear in the translations for this.  They have siesta in these places.

I enjoyed very much Susan Graham's interview with Patricia Racette in the intermission.  Racette informed us that Nedda is much closer to her real personality than the parts she generally plays.  She bragged about riding in on a horse with no hands, but she forgot to mention she was side-saddle with no hands.  She was by far the funniest Nedda I have ever seen.  We already knew she could do anything, but now we know that anything includes riding horses, dancing, doing slapstick comedy, and covering the emotional gamut in a single opera.

Tonio in the picture above is using the chicken (duck?) as a ventriloquist dummy.  He sang an excellent prolog.

This is the perfect opera for Marcelo Álvarez whom I sincerely doubt is as serious as his character here.  When he needs the big emotions, he rises to the occasion.

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.

Footnote.  Some one in our audience asked me what "toi" was, and I said it is "toi, toi, toi," means nothing in particular and is said instead of "break a leg" for good luck.  At this point in life I treasure the first time it was said to me.

Andrea Chénier

I always have to be a bit nostalgic.  My first Andrea Chénier was in 1965 at the San Francisco opera and starred Richard Tucker and Renata Tebaldi.  I recall she entered from upstage to great applause.  The stage director was Lotfi Mansouri who knew that the great star required an entrance.

I have watched the link on the comment of Andrea Chénier from the ROH.  I didn't mind at all the absence of titles.  They have all made an excellent case for this opera.  This is not a story like Tosca and Butterfly.  They are real people who lived and died in a way much like this.  They have honored the story with real costumes such as they might truly have worn.  I even liked the two Madame Defarge characters knitting in the front row of the tribunal scene.

And for this most real opera they have hired two wonderful singers, Jonas Kaufmann and Eva-Maria Westbroek, who just may be the two most sincere singers today.  For only absolute sincerity will carry the last scene, one of the greatest in all opera.  Lučić was remarkable, too, showing a very wide range of emotions.

For love, for poetry, for art.  Bravi tutti. 

Andrea Chénier, a poet tenor Jonas Kaufmann
Carlo Gérard, a servant baritone Željko Lučić
Maddalena de Coigny soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek
Bersi, her maid mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves
La comtesse di Coigny mezzo-soprano Rosalind Plowright
Pietro Fléville, a novelist bass Peter Coleman-Wright
Mathieu, a sans-culotte buffo or baritone Adrian Clarke
The Abbé, a poet tenor Peter Hoare
The Incredible, a spy tenor Carlo Bosi
Roucher, a friend of Chénier bass or baritone Roland Wood
Schmidt, a jailer at St. Lazare bass or baritone Jeremy White
Madelon, an old woman mezzo-soprano Elena Zilio
Fouquier-Tinville, the Public Prosecutor bass or baritone Eddie Wade
Dumas, Master of the Household bass Yuriy Yurchuk
#ad

Julius Caesar, the Musical

There is so much to write about Handel's Giulio Cesare simulcast from the Metropolitan Opera.  Let's start with this head which appears broken in the production.  We're clear that this is Pompey the Great, right?  Not Julius Caesar who looked more like this.

 

Everyone calls the production Bollywood, a genre I'm not particularly familiar with. 
This opera staging has nothing to do with Rome and everything to do with the British Empire in Egypt.  It is much easier to distinguish the two ethnic groups, Europeans and Egyptians, than other productions of the opera I've seen.  When the Egyptians woo Cornelia (Patricia Barton), she is convincingly repulsed by them.  The British appear often in their red and khaki uniforms.  Julius Caesar wears a long, calf length coat.  The Egyptian serving men wear the fez, a red cap that does not fall off when they bow.  Ptolemy and Cleopatra are constantly changing their clothing throughout the opera.  Renée Fleming even interviewed the dressers.

Conductor:  Harry Bicket
Production:  David McVicar

Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar):  David Daniels
Cleopatra:  Natalie Dessay
Cornelia:  Patricia Bardon
Sesto (Sextus):  Alice Coote
Tolomeo (Ptolemy):  Christophe Dumaux

Natalie Dessay is a fine dancer as well as a wonderful singing actress.  I may have imagined it, but didn't she leave out "Tutto puo donna vezzosa?"  If you search carefully, you can find a film of Natalie singing it with one bare breast.  My mind may have wandered, but I was specifically looking for it.  I went out in the first act, so perhaps it came then.  My favorite staging in this style was definitely "Da tempeste."  Enormous fun.  This production is very entertaining, but the emphasis on dancing may limit the enjoyment of the singing.

I'm going to have to get a score of this.  There was a lot more recitative in this one than in Cecilia's version.

Now I must discuss David Daniels.  He has such a reputation that it has simply made me curious.   Now I know why.  I have never heard a countertenor with so much emotional range.  He dominates the role of Julius Caesar in a way that the others I have heard do not even approach.  It is extremely exciting and definitely moves the opera to center on the title character.  Bravo.

Harry Bicket conducted and played the recitatives.  He praised the Met orchestra for their growth in the performance of Baroque repertoire.

Giulio Cesare is unquestionably the greatest of all the Baroque operas, for the marvelous and varied character of the Queen of Egypt, for the rapid movement from serious to comedy and back again, for the gorgeous arias, for the opportunities it gives to great singers of each passing generation.



#ad