Category: Opera

blog posts about operas

Opera in HD: Mozart’s Le Nozze Di Figaro at The MetOpera

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Opera in HD: Mozart’s Le Nozze Di Figaro at The MetOpera

Mozart’s Le Nozze Di Figaro by Mozart in the modernized setting from the Metropolitan Opera stage

Stream from anywhere on Saturday, July 18, 2020

Susanna Phillips as the Countess, Nadine Sierra as Susanna, and Luca Pisaroni as Figaro in Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro."
Susanna Phillips as the Countess, Nadine Sierra as Susanna, and Luca Pisaroni as Figaro in Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro.” Photo: Marty Sohl / Met Opera

A cornerstone of any opera house’s repertoire, Mozart’s Le Nozze Di Figaro is available to stream on Saturday, July 18, 2020. Sir Richard Eyre’s dynamic production had opened 2014-2015 Met Opera season. The recording from October 18, 2014 features sopranos Marlis Petersen and Amanda Majeski; Isabel Leonard sings the role of the pageboy Cherubino; Ildar Abdrazakov leads as Figaro and Peter Mattei is Count Almaviva. James Levine is conducting.

Premiered at the Met in the 2014-2015 season, the current production transposes the action from the late 18th century Spain to an elegant villa of the 1930s. It fluidly employs the rotating stage for the fast change of the decor and uninterrupted action when moving from scene to scene. The creators and the cast present a highly entertaining and instructive storyline about the virtues of love, decency, loyalty, and the vice of jealousy.

Ingeniously using a sequence of comic scenes with hidings and cross-dressings, Beaumarchais’s play denounces the feudal rules and highlights the wits and smarts of the lower classes. According to Beaumarchais’s contemporaries, the play foreshadowed the French Revolution.

The libretto for the opera was written by Mozart’s favored collaborator Lorenzo Da Ponte. Da Ponte adapted a popular play La Folle Journée, ou Le Mariage de Figaro by Beaumarcheau for his libretto which he completed even before Mozart started writing music for the opera.

At the MetOpera, Le Nozze’s magical music and catchy arias are delivered by the incredible cast with confidence and mastery. The beauty of the duets and the ensemble arias are well-matched by the orchestral work while the comic scenes and the moments of tension are skillfully calibrated and are presented with vitality and affection.

Enjoy the vibrant production of the timeless masterpiece by Mozart and Da Ponte.

The opera’s run time is 3 hours and 30 minutes with one intermission; sung in Italian with the subtitles. The stream starts at 7.30 pm and is available for 23 hours.

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Opera HD: Samson et Dalila at the Metropolitan Opera

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Opera HD: Samson et Dalila at the Metropolitan Opera

Stream Saint-Saens’s biblical epic with Elina Garanca and Roberto Alagna in the title roles from the MetOpera stage on June 24, 2020

Roberto Alagna and Elena Garanca in Saint-Saëns's "Samson et Dalila." Photo: Ken Howard / Met Opera
Roberto Alagna and Elina Garanca in Saint-Saëns’s “Samson et Dalila.” Photo: Ken Howard / Met Opera

Darko Tresnjak’s production of sensual French Grand Opera by Camille Saint-Saens on the biblical story of Samson et Davila can be streamed from anywhere on June 24, 2020 from 7.30 pm. The stream is available for 23 hours.

The explosive duo of tenor Roberto Alagna, Samson and soprano Elina Garanca, Dalila, and the rest of the powerful cast in this brave production make for an exciting opera night. Tellingly, it opened the 2018-2019 season of MetOpera on a very high note.

Darko Tresnjak, a 2014 Tony Award Winner for best direction of a musical, debuts at the Met Opera with a monumental staging that brings us to ancient Gaza of 12th century BC from the Old Testament’s Book of Judges. Sensual music, an electrifying performance, and vivid stage design promise a memorable experience for every opera fan.

 

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Opera HD: Tosca from the Metropolitan Opera

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Opera HD: Tosca from the Metropolitan Opera

Love, idealism, and ruse in a thrilling drama by Giacomo Puccini

Bring the Metropolitan Opera’s magnificent experience to your home by streaming the historic December 1978 performance with Luciano Pavarotti; watch from anywhere on Thursday, June 4, 2020

Sonya Yoncheva as Tosca and Željko Lučić as Scarpia in Metropolitan Opera
Sonya Yoncheva as Tosca and Željko Lučić as Scarpia / Photo: Ken Howard / Metropolitan Opera

MetOpera offers the archival recording of Puccini’s masterpiece with the star-studded cast delivering a passionate tale. This memorable performance features riveting soprano Shirley Merrett in the title role, tenor Luciano Pavarotti as her lover Cavaradossi, and baritone Cornell MacNeil as Scarpia. The opera was recorded on December 19, 1978.

From its premiere in the early 1900s, Puccini’s Tosca has triumphantly entered the repertoire of every opera house. Eagerly anticipated by the fans, the opera is a highlight of the MetOpera season.

The most recent production of Puccini’s Tosca by Sir David McVicar at the Met Opera, which has staged in the 2017-2018 season, offered a grand theatrical experience for the opera fans. The set and costume design for this production was done by John Macfarlane, who as a painter added to the depth of the characters through the rich design of the decorations and the period costumes. McVicar’s production which a review by AP describes as “similar to Zeffirelli’s”. It replaced a spare modern staging of Tosca by Luc Bondy which was not warmly received by the Met opera buffs.

You can stream Tosca from home on June 4, 2020.

 

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Opera in HD: Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera

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Opera in HD: Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera production of Verdi’s masterpiece about a court jester Rigoletto

Stream from anywhere on Saturday, May 16, 2020

A scene from Rigoletto by Verdi at the Metropolitan Opera
A scene from Rigoletto by Verdi at the Metropolitan Opera; photo by Marty Sohl

Rigoletto in Las-Vegas? Verdi’s extremely popular opera set to a powerful play by Victor Hugo seems to be destined for any epoch and impervious to the time and place transformations. With an ever-relevant fable and beloved arias widely familiar to opera fans and recognizable to those new to the genre, this opera is a time-tested favorite of every opera house.

Shifted to Las Vegas in the 1960s, Michael Mayer’s 2013 production of Rigoletto gets a modern look while telling the same centuries-old story of corruption, evil, and love. While the power of the old man curse put at the center of the tale seems less believable in the 20th century, the dirty intrigues and the ruthlessness of the lonely figures doing shady business look rather plausible.

For the free streaming on Saturday, May 16, 2020, Met Opera selected the production performance on February 16, 2013 with Zeljko Lucic as Rigoletto, Diana Damrau as Gilda, Piotr Beczala as Duke; Michele Mariotti conducts.

 

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