Beginning January 26, the Met will present a double-bill of two rarely performed one-act operas: Tchaikovsky's romantic fairy tale Iolanta, with Anna Netrebko in the title role of a blind princess and Piotr Beczala as Count Vaudémont, a knight who loves her; and Bartók's harrowing Bluebeard's Castle, with Nadja Michael as a bride who discovers the terrifying truth about her new husband, sung by Mikhail Petrenko. Valery Gergiev returns to the Met to conduct both operas, which will be presented in a production by acclaimed Polish director Mariusz Treli?ski in his Met debut. This season's performances will be the company premiere of Iolanta, Tchaikovsky's final opera, and the Met's first-ever staged performances of Bluebeard's Castle in the original Hungarian. The February 14 matinee performance will be transmitted worldwide as part of the Met's Live in HD series, which now reaches more than 2,000 movie theaters in 69 countries around the world.
Heidi Stober will sing the role of Gretel in the January 1 and January 3 matinee performances of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel. As previously announced, Aleksandra Kurzak sings Gretel on December 18, 23 matinee, 27, and 30 matinee, and Andriana Chuchman sings the role on January 8. As the Met's annual holiday presentation, the opera will be performed in English with family-friendly ticket prices and special weekday matinees.
Continuing a tradition inaugurated in 2006, the Met will offer a holiday presentation this December and January: an English-language performance of an opera, with special weekday matinees and discount pricing designed to make the Met affordable for families with children. This year's production, Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, opens tonight, December 18.
Continuing a tradition inaugurated in 2006, the Met will offer a holiday presentation this December and January: an English-language performance of an opera, with special weekday matinees and discount pricing designed to make the Met affordable for families with children. This year's production, Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, opens December 18 and will star Aleksandra Kurzak, Heidi Stober, and Andriana Chuchman as Gretel; Christine Rice and Jennifer Johnson Cano as Hansel; Michaela Martens and Dwayne Croft as Gertrude and Peter, the wayward children's parents; and Robert Brubaker as the wicked Witch who captures them. Sir Andrew Davis will conduct all seven performances of the opera, which plays through January 8. There will be special weekday matinees at 11 a.m. on December 23 and December 30.
Only someone who arrived convinced of the opera's bias could have found the Met's premiere of the John Adams-Alice Goodman THE DEATH OF KLINGHOFFER to be anti-Semitic. On the other hand, that doesn't mean that it's even-handed.
The Metropolitan Opera's 2014-15 season kicked off with the controversial John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer, conducted by David Robertson and directed by Tom Morris.
Metropolitan Opera's General Manager, Peter Gelb, wrote in the NY Post: 'Monday night's premiere of “The Death of Klinghoffer” was not one of the easiest nights in the history of The Metropolitan Opera, but it was one of the most important.'
The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live transmissions to more than 2,000 movie theaters in 65 countries around the world, will feature ten operas in the 2014-15 season, including all six new productions in the Met season. All ten performances, transmitted live from the Met stage, will feature the world's finest singers, conductors, and theatrical artists.
Heidi Stober will sing the role of Gretel in the January 1 and January 3 matinee performances of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel. As previously announced, Aleksandra Kurzak sings Gretel on December 18, 23 matinee, 27, and 30 matinee, and Andriana Chuchman sings the role on January 8. As the Met's annual holiday presentation, the opera will be performed in English with family-friendly ticket prices and special weekday matinees.
At a time when things seem challenging for opera, the Santa Fe Opera holds strong. Santa Fe is among the oldest opera festivals in America and is the largest and most important. It has made its reputation as a distinctive company with a flair for the unusual. This summer they presented operas such as “Dr. Sun Yat-Sen” by Huang Ruo, and Beethoven's “Fidelio.”
WIENER STAATSOPER LIVE ZU HAUSE: Funf Vorstellungen der Wiener Staatsoper * von 'La Boheme' bis 'Das schlaue Fuchslein' * werden bis Saisonende live in HD ubertragen
The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live transmissions to more than 2,000 movie theaters in 65 countries around the world, will feature ten operas in the 2014-15 season, including all six new productions in the Met season. All ten performances, transmitted live from the Met stage, will feature the world's finest singers, conductors, and theatrical artists.
The Metropolitan Opera's 2014-15 season will feature 26 operas, three of them company premieres, in six new productions and 18 revivals showcasing the talents of the world's leading singers, conductors, and theater artists. The three operas that will have their first-ever Met performances, each staged by a director making his Met debut, are John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer, conducted by David Robertson and directed by Tom Morris, opening October 20; Rossini's La Donna del Lago, conducted by Michele Mariotti and directed by Paul Curran, opening February 16, 2015; and Tchaikovsky's one-act opera Iolanta, conducted by Valery Gergiev and directed by Mariusz Treli?ski. Iolanta will be presented in a double bill with a new staging of Bartok's one-act Duke Bluebeard's Castle, also conducted by Gergiev and directed by Treli?ski.
Katarina Dalayman is one of a handful of top Wagnerian sopranos in the world, but for the first act of the Met's GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, the climax of the Met's second 'Ring' cycle of the season, she didn't seem very heroic. Neither, for that matter, did tenor Jay Hunter Morris, who caused quite a stir when he jumped into GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG's premiere season a year ago. Who knows what was wrong? In any case, they recovered vocally for Act 2 and excitingly sailed through the rest of the mammoth, exhausting work.
The preeminent Italian conductor Fabio Luisi, who holds top posts at the Metropolitan Opera and the Vienna Symphony, begins his appointment as music director of the Zurich Opera at the start of the 2012-13 season with Jenufa, Janacek's searing 1904 opera about an out-of-wedlock pregnancy.
Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, sung in English, will return to the Met December 16 as the company's annual holiday presentation. Performances of the opera this season will include weekday matinees and special ticket prices designed to appeal to families with children. The fairy tale adaptation, which will be seen in Richard Jones's fanciful production, will star Aleksandra Kurzak in her Met role debut as Gretel, opposite Alice Coote and Kate Lindsey (also making her Met role debut), who alternate in the role of Hansel. Michaela Martens and Dwayne Croft will sing the roles of the adventurous children's parents, Gertrude and Peter, while Robert Brubaker will sing the Witch who wants to turn them into gingerbread cookies. Jennifer Johnson Cano will sing the Sandman, who coaxes the children to sleep, and Lindemann Young Artist Development Program member Lei Xu the Dew Fairy, who awakens them. The rising British conductor Robin Ticciati, currently music director of the Glyndebourne Festival, will make his Met debut.
Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, sung in English, will return to the Met December 16 as the company's annual holiday presentation. Performances of the opera this season will include weekday matinees and special ticket prices designed to appeal to families with children. The fairy tale adaptation, which will be seen in Richard Jones's fanciful production, will star Aleksandra Kurzak in her Met role debut as Gretel, opposite Alice Coote and Kate Lindsey (also making her Met role debut), who alternate in the role of Hansel. Michaela Martens and Dwayne Croft will sing the roles of the adventurous children's parents, Gertrude and Peter, while Robert Brubaker will sing the Witch who wants to turn them into gingerbread cookies. Jennifer Johnson Cano will sing the Sandman, who coaxes the children to sleep, and Lindemann Young Artist Development Program member Lei Xu the Dew Fairy, who awakens them. The rising British conductor Robin Ticciati, currently music director of the Glyndebourne Festival, will make his Met debut.
The Metropolitan Opera's 2011-12 season will feature the world's leading singers, conductors, and stage directors in seven new productions, including a world premiere, a Met premiere, and the first complete performances of a new Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle conducted by Music Director James Levine and directed by Robert Lepage.
