I am going to be rather forward with you. This analysis of Wednesday’s “Don Giovanni” at the Metropolitan Opera will kick off on a positive note before turning a bit sour in tone. But lo and behold, after that, I am going to return to my boyish enthusiasm for what I experienced at the opening of this revival run. The {…}
Opera season is in full swing in the United States and Canada with a ton of offerings across the continent. Here is a look at the big highlights. East Coast The Metropolitan Opera will showcase “Der Rosenkavalier” on Friday before giving “Der Fliegende Holländer” Saturday afternoon and “Don Giovanni” on Saturday evening. OperaWire will attend the Friday performance with a {…}
Every opera singer has a dream of performing at the Metropolitan Opera in a leading role. The dream takes a lot of work and hours of rehearsing, practicing, auditioning and, in many ways, luck. But it also takes years of building an international career. For Amber Wagner 2017 marks her first big contract with the theater after making her debut {…}
Wagner’s first masterpiece “Der Fliegende Holländer” returns to the Metropolitan Opera on Tuesday, April 25 after a seven-year absence. Despite being well-known throughout the opera world, “The Flying Dutchman,” as translated in English, has had a rather interesting history at the Met marked by long hiatuses. The opera opened the 1889-1890 season in its first-ever performance. The cast that included {…}
Let’s just throw it out there. You could be anywhere in the U.S. this weekend and find an opera somewhere nearby. The Metropolitan Opera will have a few performances over the weekend, namely “Der Rosenkavalier” on Friday, an HD broadcast of the Saturday matinee of “Eugene Onegin” and “Rigoletto” in the evening. Also in New York, Tri-Cities Opera will perform {…}
It was March 31, 2017, one day before the infamous day where people play tricks on one another. Soprano Jennifer Rowley was getting some shuteye, her days consumed by the task of taking on Samuel Barber’s “Vanessa” at the Toledo opera. On that very night, she would be singing the first of two performances for the demanding work. The phone {…}
Joel Revzen will conduct tonight’s performance in the absence of Robin Ticciati, who is ill. The Metropolitan Opera announced the news via Twitter this afternoon. The cancellation marks the second performance that Ticciati cancels as he was indisposed for Saturday’s performance. Revzen has been on staff with the Met Opera throughout the season, covering performances for such operas as “L’Italiana in {…}
The Metropolitan Opera has just announced a major cast change – Jay Hunter Morris will not perform “Der fliegende Holländer” this season. The tenor first became a star at the Met when he saved the day during the company’s Ring Cycle premiere, taking on the role of Siegfried when Gary Lehman canceled eight days before the opening of the massive {…}
Gianni Raimondi and Siegfried Jerusalem had nothing in common, except for the fact that they were both tenors and also share a birthday, April 17. Those who have read past articles know that we often turn this into a “What Roles did they Share” kind of piece, but unfortunately, there is nothing to put together for these two singular artists. {…}
Diana Damrau will be at the Met Opera shop this May 4 at 3 P.M. EDT signing copies of her latest album. The German soprano is releasing a CD dedicated to the works of Meyerbeer, featuring arias from the composer’s popular opera “Le Prophète,” “L’Africaine,” “Robert Le Diable,” “Les Huguenots,” and rarer works like “Emma di Resburgo,” “Il Crociato in {…}
There will be a different maestro in the pit at tonight’s “Eugene Onegin” at the Metropolitan Opera. Joel Revzen will conduct the performance in the absence of Robin Ticciati, who is ill. Ticciati has conducted the entire run to this point, with OperaWire remarking that his conducting last Friday “wasn’t a revelatory account of Tchaikovsky’s score, but every note was {…}