Tuesday, February 23, 2010

New/"New" at the Met




2012-2013



The Metropolitan Opera in New York


New Productions:

September 2012- February 2013: L'elisir d'Amore [dir- Bartlett Sher, cnd- Maurizio Benini, cast: Anna Netrebko, Matthew Polenzani, Mariusz Kwiecien, Ambrogio Maestri]

October 2012- November 2012: The Tempest (opera by Thomas Adès) [dir- Robert Lepage, cnd- Thomas Adès, cast: Simon Keenlyside, Alek Shrader, Isabel Leonard]

November 2012- December 2012: Un Ballo in Maschera [dir- David Alden, cnd- Fabio Luisi, cast: Karita Mattila, Dolora Zajick, Dmitry Hvorostovsky, Marcelo Alvarez]

December 2012- January 2013: Maria Stuarda [dir- David McVicar, cnd- Maurizio Benini, cast: Joyce DiDonato, Francesco Meli, Elza van den Heever...]

January - May 2013: Rigoletto [dir- Michael Mayer, cnd- Michele Mariotti, canst: Zeljko Lucic, Diana Damrau, Piotr Beczala/Vittorio Grigolo, ]

February - March 2013: Parsifal [dir- François Girard, cnd- Daniele Gatti, cast: Jonas Kaufmann, Evgeny Nikitin, Katarina Dalayman, René Pape, Peter Mattei...]

April - May 2013: Giulio Cesare [dir- David McVicar, cnd- Harry Bicket, cast: Natalie Dessay, David Daniels, Christophe Dumaux, Alice Coote, Patricia Bardon...]



Long list of revivals includes:

Three Cycles of The Ring des Nibelungen [dir- Robert Lepage, cnd- Fabio Luisi]

Cast: Rheingold [Harmer, Blythe, Arwady, Margita, Siegel, Delavan, Owens, Selig, König], Walküre [Voigt, Serafin, Blythe, O'Neill, Delavan, König], Siegfried [Voigt, Arwady, Morris, Siegel, Delavan, Owens], Götterdämmerung [Voigt, Harmer, Cargill, Morris, Paterson, Owens, König]







NEW PRODUCTIONS 2010-2011


New productions:

  • Anna Bolena [dir-David McVicar, cnd-Marco Armiliato, cast: Anna Netrebko/Angela Meade, Elina Garanca, Stephen Costello, Ildar Abdrazakov, Tamara Mumford]
  • Don Giovanni [dir-Michael Grandage, cnd-James Levine, cast: Marina Rebeka, Barbara Frittoli/Annette Dasch, Mojca Erdmann/Isabel Leonard, Ramón Vargas/Matthew Polenzani, Mariusz Kwiecien/Gerald Finley, Luca Pisaroni/John Relyea, Štefan Kocán /James Morris       
  • Siegfried [dir-Robert Lepage, cnd-James Levine, cast: Deborah Voigt/Katarina Dalayman, Bryn Terfel, Gary Lehman/Stephen Gould, Gerhard Siegel/Robert Burbaker, Patricia Bardon, Eric Owens/Richard Paul Fink
  • Götterdämmerung [dir-Robert Lepage, cnd-James Levine, cast: Deborah Voigt/Katarina Dalayman, Gary Lehman/Stephen Gould, Iain Patterson, Wendy Bryn Harmer, Hans-Peter König, Waltraud Meier/Karen Cargill, Eric Owens/Richard Paul Fink
  • Faust [dir-Des McAnuff, dir-Yannick Nézet-Séguin /Alain Altinoglu, cast: Angela Gheorghiu/Marina Poplavskaya, Michèle Losier/Kate Lindsey, Jonas Kaufmann/Roberto Alagna/Joseph Calleja, Russell Braun/Brian Mulligan/George Petean, René Pape/Ferruccio Furlanetto]
  • Manon [dir-Laurent Pelly, dir-Fabio Luisi, cast: Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczala, Paulo Szot, David Pittsinger]

C.f. press release to consult the repertoire list


NEW PRODUCTIONS 2010-2011

LE COMTE ORY 
March 24, 29, April 2, 5, 9, 14, 18, 21 - 2011
Conductor    Maurizio Benini
Production    Bartlett Sher

Countess Adèle    Diana Damrau
Isolier    Joyce DiDonato
Ragonde    Susanne Resmark   
Count Ory    Juan Diego Flórez
Raimbaud    Stéphane Degout
The Tutor    Michele Pertusi


BORIS GODUNOV   
October 11, 15, 18, 23, 25, 30 - 2010, March 9, 12, 17 - 2011
Conductor    Valery Gergiev/Pavel Smelkov
Production    Peter Stein

Princess Marina    Ekaterina Semenchuk
Dimitri    Aleksandrs Antonenko
Shuisky    Oleg Balashov
Rangoni    Evgeny Nikitin
Boris Godunov    René Pape
Pimen    Mikhail Petrenko
Varlaam    Vladimir Ognovenko


DAS RHEINGOLD
September 27, 2010
September 27, 30, October 4, 9 - 2010; March 30, April 2 - 2011
Conductor    James Levine
Production    Robert Lepage

Freia    Wendy Bryn Harmer
Fricka    Stephanie Blythe
Erda    Patricia Bardon
Loge    Richard Croft
Mime    Gerhard Siegel
Wotan    Bryn Terfel
Alberich    Eric Owens/Richard Paul Fink
Fasolt    Franz-Josef Selig
Fafner    Hans-Peter König


DIE WALKÜRE
April 22, 25, 28, May 2, 5, 9, 14, 2011

Conductor    James Levine
Production    Robert Lepage

Brünnhilde    Deborah Voigt
Sieglinde    Eva-Maria Westbroek
Fricka    Stephanie Blythe
Siegmund    Jonas Kaufmann
Wotan    Bryn Terfel
Hunding    Hans-Peter König



"NEW" PRODUCTIONS 


NIXON IN CHINA
February 2, 5, 9, 12, 15, 19, 2011

Conductor    John Adams
Production    Peter Sellars

Chiang Ch’ing    Kathleen Kim
Pat Nixon    Janis Kelly
Mao Tse-tung    Robert Brubaker
Chou En-lai    Russell Braun
Richard Nixon    James Maddalena
Henry Kissinger    Richard Paul Fink


LA TRAVIATA
December 31, 2010; January 4, 7, 12, 15, 19, 22, 26, 29, 2011

Conductor    Gianandrea Noseda
Production    Willy Decker

Violetta    Marina Poplavskaya
Alfredo Germont    Matthew Polenzani/Francesco Meli
Giorgio Germont    Andrzej Dobber


DON CARLO               
November 22, 26, 29, December 3, 7, 11 mat, 15, 18, 2010

Conductor    Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Production    Nicholas Hytner

Elisabeth de Valois    Marina Poplavskaya
Princess Eboli    Anna Smirnova
Don Carlo    Roberto Alagna/Yonghoon Lee
Rodrigo    Simon Keenlyside
Philip II    Ferruccio Furlanetto
Grand Inquisitor    Eric Halfvarson

6 comments:

  1. Oh well, since i am unlikely to see them live i can drool over the prospect of many radio broadcasts and some HD cinema sessions :-)))) Some interesting conductors and definitely some interesting casts. And nah i am not very excited about the Lepage productions either, but am on the casts. Hm, i think Werther is probably tougher than Siegmund, probably Lohengrin is also tougher than Siegmund and my guess is JK has alined his ducks knowingly. He would never take the role or the debut in it and even less at the Met lightly :-) Instinctively i would probably say it will be easier for him than Lohengrin ... and maybe also than Werther :-) It will certainly be fun to find out ;-)

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  2. I certainly hope you're right. I'd hate to see him start crashing like Villazon.

    Werther and his previous repertoire are totally different from Siegfried. Once he starts diving in this heavy Wagnerian roles he won't be able to go back and sing Werther (for example). There are so many examples of that in recent history...

    Peter Gelb must have talked him into this adventure. If it was only to sing the Winterstürme, I wouldn't say a word. But singing the full role alongside Eva-Maria Westbroek in the huge hall of the Met & all 7 times in a row.... err...

    Dunno! I'm sure this is a risk his team thought was worth taking right now so we have to trust them.

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  3. Although i am sure we will talk about this again when he does it , it is not the first risk he has taken, but i think they are all wellc alculated as he has been taking these "risks" for a while now :-) Doesn't mean he will start singing one Siegmund after another, just as he doesn't do that now with the Lohengrin :-) You know he has sung Parsifal already a few years back, right ? :-) He's said various times that the mix works best for him, like for example in this interview:
    http://www.musicomh.com/classical/features/jonas-kaufmann_0909.htm
    And you should have heard the recent Konigskinder in Zurich. The voice has indeed grown, but it was a gradual careful process and he is probably right in saying that it is the mix that keeps it flexible. He will try out the role and see how it works for him and only then decide how much of it he wants to sing in the future and we will always be getting a mix of Italian, French and German with him and of course the Liederabend... which is all that he does this autumn until later on when he starts reheatsing the Adriana. And there are always the Marios and Joses to come back to, etc. He's been around for 20 years and has sung way over 30 roles already and has almost lost his voice and found it again :-)

    I understand where you are coming from and many voice these concerns. Even i wondered how these would sit and then he sang the heaviest of arias in a 2 h concert and felt like giving 4 encores after that. He can and he could do much more, he could just do Wagner and many would be happy indeed, but it is neither what he would want to do nor what he seems to feel is right for his voice. I've heard the voice grow and find ever new colours over the last 3 years. It is not the first time the Met have calles, by no means, it is the first time he felt certain enough to say yes. And he knows better than anyone else how his instrument feels like and what he can do. But if people expect him to belt his lungs out just because the Met is bigger, they are in for a surprise ;-)

    Honestly, my own tastes apart, somebody who is in his 40ies and has achieved what he has pretty much on his own and has the roles and kind of experience and repertoire he has, wether more or less people paid attention to it or not i think deserves credit for being professional and knowing their stuff.

    Just because more people know him or want to hear him, or want him to sing the things they would like to hear him sing, doesn't change in the slightest who Jonas Kaufmann, the professional opera singer is, he is the same he alwasy was, conducting his instrument and growing alongside it.

    PS Pity the concert in Dusseldorf didn't get recorded, it would have been entertaining to watch people listen and watch it.. taught me a good lesson too.. never ever come within less than 2m of that instrument when it is let loose on Wagner, i'm thankful my hearing made a full recovery! ;-))))

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  4. Thanks for your note. I want to believe the risk is calculated and his team know what they're doing.

    There is no doubt his Winterstürme will be magnificent. My only worry is what happens after, say, summer 2010. We'll certainly talk about it again...

    I think I listened to that Duseldorf concert. There was a link on your blog ;) But of course live it's a totally different experience.

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  5. Lohengrin at Bayreuth this summer, Siegmund spring of 2011?!?!? what's up with that?

    He's beautiful in Werther, no doubt about it. I agree with his quoted remarks that Wagner wanted bel canto singing in Lohengrin and that it's rarely done that way. But why should Kaufmann strain a relatively young voice (he's 40-41)to prove a point? Let a half-assed voice do it instead.

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  6. Hi Jim. That's how I see it too. My little finger tells me PGelb talked him into this.

    Siegmund is not Lohengrin and Jonas is all but heldentenor.

    On the other hand he's 41, not 14 so... :)

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