Met's 2009-2010 Subscription Highlights and Lowlights

Dear Metropolitan Opera,

I would like to first introduce some proposed improvements to your recent presentation of subscriptions...Lowlights!

• Will someone PLEASE make sure that Rolando Villazon gets his life in order before we all get our hopes up about Contes d'Hoffmann????? From recent reports via Parterre and Opera Chic should we get the hint that maybe Rolando isn't going to be appearing at the Met if not after an extended absence, then ever? This whole situation makes me rather depressed.
• Someone just remind me why we are replacing the Zefferelli Tosca? No, no I shouldn't think like this. I'll be open minded: Will someone reassure me that the new production will be fantastic??
• Why, for goodness sake, can't the Met fit in a Der Rosenkavalier into any of the Saturday Evening subscriptions? That is one of the few operas that I am absolutely dying to go see and I can't squeeze it in to any of my subscription choices! I will have to buy tickets separately, but can't the Met replace anything with Rosenkavalier?
• Another little detail they forgot about in the Saturday subscriptions: The Nose. This is another opera I want to see so badly (just for Paulo Szot, but shhhh don't tell anyone!) and it's nowhere to be found on Saturday Evening!
• I just have this to say about Renee's new production of Armida: Can we trust Mary Zimmerman with another bel canto opera?

Alright, that's all the complaints I have. On a lighter note, here are some events I'm looking forward to this season...Highlights!!!

• I'm very curious about From the House of the Dead. I have a very funny feeling about it, but a good funny feeling. Something is going to make this opera interesting. I'm intrigued!
• The new Carmen! I'm usually very conservative when it comes to new productions, especially when they're for such staples as Carmen, but this is another case where I have a good feeling about it. I'm hoping that even if the production turns out eurotrashy or just flat out obnoxious (ie. the recent Sonnambula) the stellar cast will keep it afloat.
• As I said in the Lowlights, I'm looking forward to the Der Rosenkavalier and The Nose, but for very different reasons. The primary reason in The Nose is, of course, Paulo Szot, but I'm trying to branch out into more contemporary opera to see if I like it. Trying to stay hip and "with it." =) Der Rosenkavalier, on the other hand is a shameless guilty pleasure. Not only does it star my dear Renee Fleming, but oh look! there's Susan Graham and Thomas Allen! Did I mention that this is one of my favorite operas of all time?
• Maybe this season I'll finally get to see Damnation de Faust or Il Trittico. I wanted to see Damnation this year, but never got around to it. It looked like a strange production!!!! Il Trittico is in support of my darling Patricia Racette. She's got the triple bill going and I wouldn't miss it for the world!!!!!

This is sure to be a season of opportunity. There are so many new operas and genres to try, new productions to explore, and new singers to fall head-over-heels for (namely Paulo Szot). Even if we hate (or love to hate?) every single new production, or if we bash every singer in a revival, we KNOW that this season will NOT be boring. The blogosphere and Angela Gheorghiu will make sure that we will always have something to talk about during the 2009-2010 season!!!

Happy Listening!!! =)

PS. *sighhhhh* I missed posting! =)

Met in the Park Gone (After My First Season!) And My Summer Plans Are in Sudden Disaray!

So after last summer's performance I vowed to go every year to the Met in the Parks concerts. Now that I planned my whole summer around going (not really... hyperbole is my specialty!) Mr. Gelb is cancelling them (for good?), but have no fear! The Alagnas are here! They're doing a concert (not a full length opera) in Prospect Park.

This is a big scale down (even though Mr. Gelb would have us supposed otherwise) and according to some it's due to the "financial troubles" (total Rumor Patrol) that the Met has been having. If that's the case then scale it down! We'll just miss all the history and tradition that goes along with the park concerts. =(

NOTE: This is not a reproach on Mr. Gelb. He has done so many great things for the Met. The Sirius Radio, the HD movie transmissions, the press... The list goes on! We can't expect these things to pop out of thin air and not cost a significant amount of money. I still support Peter Gelb. We can't turn on him (I'm not saying anyone has, I'm just warning) because of this. He knew that it would take some time to pay all of this off. Yes. Of course! I just hope that he can continue with the great things he has planned for our glorious temple of opera.
Viva Peter Gelb!
Viva!


Happy Listening!!! =)

"La Boheme Makes Me Wish I Had Consumption"

I would like to start this review by profusely thanking Peter Gelb for all that he has done. I've done this before and I'll do it again. Peter Gelb is a genius. His HD broadcasts bring the Met all over the world to all sorts of people that would never think to enter an opera house. I bow down to you, Mr. Gelb.

Now that I'm done groveling let me tell you about the opera.

It was perfection. After such an ending I can hardly give anyone a bad review. I was in tears a full twenty minutes before Mimi died and during "Donda lieta usci." Angela Gheorghiu, who you know is not by any means my favorite soprano, was so wonderful. Whenever I see a singer I don't particularly care for they always win me over! I'm a sucker for wonderful performers. Ms. Gheorghiu's voice is so lovely and what an actress! She might take a long time to get to the stage door because she has to pick the scenery from her teeth first. One thing that irked me was that when she sings she moves around so much. She mouth goes all over and, at least from what I saw, her body is constantly moving. Ramon Vargas was a very effecting Rodolfo. I saw him first last season in Onegin and he was better in this I think. He has more to do here and more to sing. At first he was a either a little tentative or not fully warmed up. By the end of "Che Gelida Manina" he was beautiful. His high notes were fabulous. During the third and fourth act he was so heartbreaking, you really felt for Rodolfo.

Out of what opera adoring universe did Ludovic Tezier spring from? I had never heard of him before today, but my gosh what a voice! The first time he opened his mouth I had to gasp and thought "Who is that??" Some people were not so thrilled by him, but I was! He was rather handsome, but even with my eyes closed (which they never were, by the way) I could hear that his voice was rich and beautiful. Oren Gradus and Quinn Kelsey were agile (to say the least) and hysterically funny as Colline and Schaunard. The "Vecchia Zimarra" by Mr. Gradus was beautiful and sentimental. Schaunard is usually a character who is forgotten or just floats into the background. Not this Schaunard, he was front and center with his humor and charm. Ainhoa Arteta, who I saw in this role last season, was funny, flirty, and had a marvelous voice. Her "Quando M'en Vo" definitely stood out, and her acting quite overshadowed Ms. Gheorghiu in the second act. It was great because at the end she really cried when Mimi died. After the curtain came down we (that is, the people in the movie theaters) saw her continually wipe her eyes and her cheeks. Fantastic! Paul Plishka, of course, was a comic force for this opera. His Benoit/Alcindoro combination were so funny. It's so great to still have him around and just hanging around the house. Nicola Luisotti conducted fabulously. I've heard people complaining that he took it too slow. It's interesting, because in the theaters no one complained about it, but everyone who heard it on the radio said it was slow! Interesting...

As usual, there's nothing to be said about the chorus and orchestra that hasn't been said already. Remarkable. Truly spectacular.

Renee Fleming hosted today and what a cute job she did! We saw the obvious question cards for the interviews, which caused a few chuckles, but that's not a huge problem. She interviewed the head of the Children's Chorus and the children themselves, Angela and Ramon, Joe Clark (now a regular for interviews), and Nicola Luisotti. There was a tribute to Franco Zefferelli (who I didn't mention before because I don't need to say anything about the production) that had clips from all of his productions from the Met including Tosca, Otello, Cavalleria/Pagliacci, Turandot, and others. Another montage, if you will, featured a clip or two from every HD broadcast both last season and this season. There was a trailer for the upcoming Fille broadcast with footage from the Covent Garden production.

The backstage camera angles were so incredible. During the pause between Act I and Act II you saw the Parisian rooftops slide off the stage and the Latin Quarter (with the whole chorus already on board) moved slowly and quietly from stage right. The whole set moved onto the stage. It was insane. I couldn't get enough of it.

Renee also mentioned that next season there will be ten HD broadcasts to theaters everywhere. Guess who's excited!!!! =)

Happy Listening!! =)

Who's Excited For Boheme in HD???

Me! Me! I'm excited!!!!

My local movie theater is showing it today. It's the first one they've done, so I'm praying there's no glitches. I easily bought tickets this morning (hardly in advance...), so I hope that doesn't mean that there won't be a lot of people there. I know of quite a few opera enthusiasts in town. However, some might have gone to the bigger movie theater a couple of towns over. Oh well, I'm pumped.

Speaking of HD Broadcasts, I loved the Romeo et Juliette the other night on PBS. I remembered so much about it from seeing it in October. Of course, I saw Marcello Giordani and he was fabulous, but Alagna held his own. Anna was great, and when she passed the camera backstage she made a funny face which I thought was cute. Some of the camera angles were amazing, especially during curtain calls. I'm just upset they didn't show the intermission features.

Happy Listening!!! =)

Be Jealous. Because I Am!!! And Other News

Hearing about anything exciting that happens at the Met makes me want to drop out of school and just live in the Met. Not a bad life. I'll make friend with the Grand Tier Restaurant people, get great food. I'll steal an usher outfit and show everyone how well I know my way around. Plus, you get paid to watch the opera! Usher!!!!!!!!!!! (Dream college job.)
If anyone would like to support me in my new life style feel free to let me know. If you knows someone who knows someone who can get me a little space where I can live in the Met, that's cool. If a friend of a friend can arrange to get me free tickets every night that would be pretty great also.

What prompted this ramble? Well, hearing about the fabulous tribute to Franco Zefferelli is one thing. The 347th performance of Boheme is another. Oh wait, they're the same thing. A star studded event that cut right in the middle of the performance, after the famous and illustrious Act II. Some of the guests were (just to name a few) Rosalind Elias, Richard Stilwell, Lucine Amara, Eva Marton, Leona Mitchell and Justino Diaz. Nice. I was there in spirit of course, but it's not the same. Oh yeah, I heard the actual performance was good, too. Just if you were wondering.

In totally unrelated and random news:
So I have two major crushes in the opera world. It's bad, because they're both married. There's also the age thing. Whatever. Brad Pitt is old(er), too. =P So anyway, my two major crushes are:

Juan Diego Florez. You don't even know. No, you really don't know. Julia Trappe is lucky she got there first. So, JDF is staring in Rigoletto in Peru right now. I'm temporarily moving my home from the Met to Peru. Opera Chic has a couple of videos showing the ever amazing Juan Diego in the ever amazing role of the Duke of Mantua. *sigh* Dear Peter Gelb, give this man a Rigoletto. I seem to be ordering Peter Gelb around a lot lately. Still, Juan Diego deserves it.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Married before I got there. Oh, well. It started with the Onegin last season where my friend and I dubbed him "white haired guy." For a while that's all we talked about and our other friends thought we were nuts. Well, she got over him. Umm... me? Not so much. He's still one of the best barihunks in the business and the NY Times knows how to tell it to you straight. He's just fabulous. Really, really fabulous. (P.S. In the first video of him I really wish they didn't make him wear a wig... oh well)


Quick Recap:
I'm dropping out of school and living at the Met (it's a secret of course). I'm then taking a vacation to Peru and seeing JDF in Rigoletto. I'm stealing some one's job as an usher at the Met. Oh, and I also told you me two secret (not really, it was quite obvious) operatic crushes.
Get it?
Got it?
Good.



Happy Listening!! =)

Angela Gheorghiu Gets FIRED and more other news

Let's do the "other news first."
It has been announced that, to many people's dismay, Isabel Bayrakdarian has taken (ahem) a 9 month hiatus. Her replacement will be soprano Lisette Oropesa who will sing Susanna at the premiere of Le Nozze di Figaro and at least one other performance. Ms. Oropesa is a member of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Very impressive. Maybe I'll see her then? If I'm not seeing her, then I might be seeing Ekaterina Siurina or our lovable TBA in the role of Susanna.

ANGELA GHEORGIU HAS BEEN FIRED FROM THE CHICAO LYRIC OPERA. Ms. Gheorghiu was fired from the production of La Boheme because she "missed 6 out of 10 rehearsals, including a piano dress rehearsal and both staging rehearsals with the orchestra." She apparently also missed a critical stage-orchestra rehearsal. Ms. Gheorghiu also violated her contract when she left unanounced to go to New York. Oh, and one more thing, La Gheorghiu was spotted at the premiere of Gounod's Romeo et Jiuliette at the Met. And who was staring as the leading man that night? None other than her husband, Roberto Alagna. Coincidence? I would think not. =O Scandaloussssss