Review: Sierra, Bernheim Soar in the Met's ROMEO ET JULIETTE
by Richard Sasanow
- Mar 10, 2024
While I’ve admired soprano Nadine Sierra’s before, she seemed to reach a whole new level with her glorious turn as Juliette in the season’s first performance of Gounod’s ROMEO ET JULIETTE at the Met the other night. She was vivid and a delight to watch as she inhabited the teenaged heroine of the piece. Perhaps it was her stage partner, French tenor Benjamin Bernheim, who egged her on to such heights, with his nuanced singing and boyish demeanor.
Review: What's the Destiny of the Met's New FORZA? Close Your Eyes and Listen to the Fine Cast
by Richard Sasanow
- Feb 27, 2024
Much was made of the fact that it’s been almost 20 years since Verdi’s LA FORZA DEL DESTINO was last seen at the Met. For its heralded return, they picked a choice cast (starting with Lise Davidsen), a fine conductor (Music Director Yannick Nezet Seguin) and a director (Mariusz Trelinski) who’s, well,… Two out of three ain’t bad, considering the cast. So we might as well start there.
Review: LISE DAVIDSEN's 'Wesendonck Lieder” Highlights Met Orchestra Concert at Carnegie under Nezet-Seguin
by Richard Sasanow
- Feb 5, 2024
The foray of the Met Orchestra under Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin into the concert hall the other night—Carnegie Hall to be specific, during its “Fall of the Weimar” series—was in some ways like a three-part meal that mixed the order of the courses. First came an appetizer (running less than 10 minutes) in the form of Bach’s “Fuga [Ricercata] a 6 voci” from Musical Offering, BWV 1079, a late work by the composer (1747) rethought by Anton Webern in the 20th century. Then there was dessert in the form of Wagner’s “Wesendonck Lieder,” gloriously sung by soprano Lise Davidsen to thunderous applause. Finally, there was the main course: Mahler’s 5th Symphony, which was greeted rapturously by concertgoers.
Review: Met Audience Entranced by DiDonato and McKinny in Heggie-McNally DEAD MAN in House Debut
by Richard Sasanow
- Sep 27, 2023
It’s rather surprising, really, for the audience to embrace a contemporary piece like DEAD MAN WALKING, no matter how easily it falls upon the ears, considering the subject matter. In this Ivo van Hove production, it starts with a rape and double murder in a rather graphic piece of film, the use of video being one of van Hove’s trademarks. It ends with a death by lethal injection, also graphically shown in live video.
Conductor Gemma New And Violinist Randall Goosby Make Lincoln Center Debuts This Summer
by A.A. Cristi
- Jul 20, 2023
This August, Lincoln Center presents two of classical music's most dynamic young figures in the Wu Tsai Theater at the newly reimagined David Geffen Hall. As part of its Summer for the City series featuring the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Lincoln Center first presents the debut of acclaimed conductor Gemma New – hailed for her “impassioned, richly detailed” style (Opera News) – in concerts highlighting Mozart's “Prague Symphony” on August 1 and 2, 2023 at 7:30PM.
Review: In This Corner �" Terence Blanchard's CHAMPION Arrives at the Met with Ryan Speedo Green
by Richard Sasanow
- Apr 13, 2023
In search of new audiences, the Met has followed Terence Blanchard’s FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES with the jazz musician/composer’s first opera, CHAMPION, the story of closeted boxer Emile Griffith’s rise and fall from grace. Honestly, never have I heard people whose usual venues are Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium and Monday Night Football on ESPN talk about how they “wanted to see the new opera at the Met.”
Review: Met's New LOHENGRIN Is Thrillingly Sung but Close Your Eyes and Listen
by Richard Sasanow
- Feb 27, 2023
The Met’s new production of Richard Wagner’s LOHENGRIN showcases startlingly good singing from tenor Piotr Beczala in the title role, supported ably and nobly by soprano Tamara Wilson’s Elsa, bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin’s Telramund and bass Gunther Groissbock’s King Heinrich. And soprano Christine Goerke’s evil Ortrud nearly steals the show. With the Met’s orchestra and chorus in glorious form, led by music director Yannick Nezet-Seguin in the pit, the performance made you want to scream and yell for more.
Review: Met Opera Continues Support of Ukraine with CONCERT OF REMEMBRANCE
by Richard Sasanow
- Feb 27, 2023
Friday night, the Metropolitan Opera gave its second concert honoring “Ukraine and its brave citizens as they fight to defend their country and cultural heritage.” The country’s colors flew above the performance, which opened with a pretaped video message from First Lady, Olena Zelenska, along with the Ukraine national anthem. She remarked that the concert wasn’t really marking the one-year anniversary of the horrendous, illegal conflict (although, indeed, it did), but a time closer to peace for its citizenry.
Review: THE HOURS Goes by in Minutes as Met Gives Birth to Fascinating Opera by Puts and Pierce
by Richard Sasanow
- Nov 25, 2022
The Met gave birth to a fascinating new opera on Tuesday and it wasn’t a moment too soon to unleash composer Kevin Puts’s THE HOURS on an audience that sometimes seems doomed to die inundated by too many AIDAs, BOHEMEs and CARMENs. The world premiere production of THE HOURS by Puts and Greg Pierce was directed by Phelim McDermott. The cast was a starry one, led by soprano Renee Fleming, soprano Kelli O’Hara and mezzo Joyce DiDonato.
Ben Neill to Present FANTINI FUTURO in NYC This Week
by Blair Ingenthron
- Nov 6, 2022
On Thursday, November 10, 2022 at 7pm, composer and instrumentalist Ben Neill will present his immersive electronic opera Fantini Futuro at Basilica of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, located at 261 Mott Street in New York. This one night only performance also acts as the premiere of the opera's full presentation, as well as a benefit for restoring the church's historic organs.
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