When the critic James Jorden proposed in November that Robert Lepage’s woeful Metropolitan Opera production of Wagner’s Ring cycle be scuttled and handed over, stage-filling set and all, to the directors Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch, he was only half-joking. His recommendation had a serious side. Read More
It was the evening after Christmas in 1900 when the Metropolitan Opera Company, on tour in Los Angeles, premiered La Bohème. It was years before Giacomo Puccini’s opera became widely acknowledged as the masterpiece it is, and, just four years old at the time, it was by no means an immediate success, still requiring the star power of soprano Nellie Melba. Ms. Melba, encouraged by the applause, as well as the box office, would return after the final curtain call to sing the grueling “Mad Scene” from Lucia di Lammermoore. These days, La Bohème remains one of the only operas that doesn’t require such gimmicks to keep the house full, as proved by its triumphant return to the Met this fall. Read More
In the 12 years after Philip Glass first worked with sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar in 1965, the composer frequently traveled to India, becoming fascinated with Mohandas K. Gandhi, a man whose photograph he often encountered in railway stations and public waiting rooms. Inspired to learn more about the “father of the India,” the shaggy-haired experimentalist read Gandhi’s autobiographical book Satyagraha (‘Truth Force’ to those whose Sanskrit is a little rusty), which described the events of his formative years in South Africa when a young Gandhi was first inspired to develop his mantra of non-violent protest. Shortly thereafter, the composer, famous for such works as the 12-toned “Music in Twelve Parts” and “Another Look at Harmony,” decided to honor his inspiration by composing an opera about the famous pacifist. Read More
Eight hundred photographs of the world’s most celebrated opera stars ceremoniously decorate the lobby concourse of the Metropolitan Opera. These legends of the stage look on from behind their glass windows into the hallowed Founder’s Hall. And there, framed among his peers is Bavarian-born, lyric-dramatic tenor Jonas Kaufmann, most recently honored by being invited to perform a solo concert, a grand gesture that recognizes the tremendous contributions of a truly magnificent performer. Mr. Kaufmann, along with long-time collaborator, pianist Helmut Deutsch, performed musical selections from composers Strauss, Duparc, Mahler and Liszt, vocal repertoire which deftly showcased Mr. Kaufmann’s beautiful timbre and breathtaking vocal control. Read More
Novelists are known to love reading fiction, and most visual artists make regular rounds of the galleries, but opera singers, with surprising frequency, are not opera fans. Read More
After a two-day hurricane delay, the Metropolitan Opera’s third annual Summer HD Festival, which presents previously recorded Met performances in glorious high-definition video in Lincoln Center Plaza, will begin tonight.
The canceled screenings, of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale (1843) and Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra (1857), which were scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, respectively, will not be rescheduled, Read More
Whatever crimes ABT may have committed through the years–however many Cinderellas, Ladies of the Camellias, Snow Maidens, Pied Pipers, gimcrack Swan Lakes and Sleeping Beauties–they’ve made up for it this season by giving us another brief taste of the Royal Ballet’s supremely gifted Alina Cojocaru in her greatest role, Giselle. Her one performance of it Read More
I’ve seen many performances of Elijah Moshinsky productions at the Metropolitan Opera, but according to Elijah Moshinsky, I have never seen an opera actually directed by Elijah Moshinsky.
“I don’t understand how revivals work,” Mr. Moshinsky, 64, said by phone from his home in London, England, reflecting on the Met’s current remounting of his 1993 Read More
David Patrick Columbia, the author of the Web site New York Social Diary, was sitting where he often sits, at the front table at Swifty’s on the Upper East Side. He was talking about what makes the arts possible, the web of money, power and ambiguous motives that has for a long time successfully convinced Read More
How intense is Peter Gelb‘s new “Ring” cycle? Intense enough that the set is in danger of collapsing the stage.
According to today’s Times, the Met has installed three 65-foot girders underneath the stage to support the 45-ton set for Wagner’s four epic operas. The paper says the structure is “the Read More
