Joined
·
220 Posts
All done beautifully. I only wish the announcer, Debra Lew Harder, would stop pronouncing Pagliacci as "Polly-yachi".
Most annoying to this voice-over actor.
Most annoying to this voice-over actor.
The Met Saturday Morning Broadcasts are back.....
81 - 100 of 178 Posts
Next up.........
February 18, 2023
Verdi’s Don Carlo
Performance from fall 2022
Carlo Rizzi; Russell Thomas (Don Carlo), Eleonora Buratto (Elisabetta di Valois), Peter Mattei (Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa), Yulia Matochkina (Princess Eboli), Günther Groissböck (King Filippo II), John Relyea (The Grand Inquisitor)
February 18, 2023
Verdi’s Don Carlo
Performance from fall 2022
Carlo Rizzi; Russell Thomas (Don Carlo), Eleonora Buratto (Elisabetta di Valois), Peter Mattei (Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa), Yulia Matochkina (Princess Eboli), Günther Groissböck (King Filippo II), John Relyea (The Grand Inquisitor)
Händel, Glück, Monteverdi, Purcell, Sainte-Colombe, Wagner, Verdi, Римский-Корсаков, Стравинский
Joined
·
984 Posts
Matochkina! 😍
Joined
·
862 Posts
Ready to listen on my CM radio (streaming) station, WFMT.
Joined
·
862 Posts
I found that to be a phenomenally good performance! I have a new favorite Verdi opera! The singing was the best I've heard in a long time - I'm not very experienced with present-day singers, but I am blown away, I didn't know this quality was out there.
Joined
·
220 Posts
Disappointing
Being that it is my favorite opera I really appreciate when I hear a voice that stands out like the Eboli of today. I also liked the GI of Relyea. Many people really like Buratto as Elisabetta but I was disappointed in her and in Thomas' Don Carlo.
As for Mattei, he was just fine but I am afraid I have Hvorostovsky on the brain when it comes to Posa. Groissbach did well.
Joined
·
22,551 Posts
I think Don Carlo(s) has some of Verdi's most powerful music, especially in acts 3 and 4. Philip, Eboli and Elisabetta have three of my very favorite Verdi arias; Philip's "Ella giammai m'amo" is a pinnacle of dramatic writing. His subsequent exchange with the grand inquisitor is unique. Only in a couple of places does Verdi fall into the old rum-ti-tum musical conventions that he finally left completely behind in his last two operas. Catchy as it is, and as poignantly as he refers to it later in the opera, the vow of friendship duet strikes me as one of those conventional moments. I'm not too keen on the auto-da-fe scene either.
It's quite a pessimistic opera, isn't it? Politics, religion, love, friendship - nothing goes well or ends well. Everyone is frustrated and miserable, and there's no light at the end of the tunnel. Only Carlo's and Rodrigo's vow of friendship offers relief from the shadows, and we see what becomes of them, although what becomes of Carlo depends on the version and the production. Schiller, I gather, had him dragged off to prison or worse. I suspect that Shakespeare, Verdi's idol, would have injected a little comic relief into the grimness of it all.
Today's performance wasn't one for the ages, but it put the work across pretty well. Nobody was awful except the so-called "celestial voice," which sounded more like a third-string Santuzza than an angel. I suspect the singer has been doing that role for about fifty years and they haven't the heart to retire her. I thought the conductor could have let the music breathe more in places. I guess that's a lost art. One of several.
It's quite a pessimistic opera, isn't it? Politics, religion, love, friendship - nothing goes well or ends well. Everyone is frustrated and miserable, and there's no light at the end of the tunnel. Only Carlo's and Rodrigo's vow of friendship offers relief from the shadows, and we see what becomes of them, although what becomes of Carlo depends on the version and the production. Schiller, I gather, had him dragged off to prison or worse. I suspect that Shakespeare, Verdi's idol, would have injected a little comic relief into the grimness of it all.
Today's performance wasn't one for the ages, but it put the work across pretty well. Nobody was awful except the so-called "celestial voice," which sounded more like a third-string Santuzza than an angel. I suspect the singer has been doing that role for about fifty years and they haven't the heart to retire her. I thought the conductor could have let the music breathe more in places. I guess that's a lost art. One of several.
Next up...............
February 25, 2023
Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
Performance from October 12, 2022
Keri-Lynn Wilson; Svetlana Sozdateleva (Katerina Ismailova), Brandon Jovanovich (Sergei), John Relyea (Boris Ismailov), Nikolai Schukoff (Zinovy Ismailov), Alexey Shishlyaev (Police Sergeant), Rodell Rosel (Shabby Peasant), Alexander Tsymbalyuk (Old Convict), Maria Barakova (Sonyetka), Goran Jurić (Priest)
February 25, 2023
Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
Performance from October 12, 2022
Keri-Lynn Wilson; Svetlana Sozdateleva (Katerina Ismailova), Brandon Jovanovich (Sergei), John Relyea (Boris Ismailov), Nikolai Schukoff (Zinovy Ismailov), Alexey Shishlyaev (Police Sergeant), Rodell Rosel (Shabby Peasant), Alexander Tsymbalyuk (Old Convict), Maria Barakova (Sonyetka), Goran Jurić (Priest)
Joined
·
220 Posts
Conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson is married to Peter Gelb.
30 minutes to curtain.............
Joined
·
220 Posts
If only the singers would have shut up I might have been able to get through it with Shosty's powerful music but....no!
Joined
·
22,551 Posts
Bingo!
Joined
·
22,551 Posts
Did I hear that we're going to get La Favorita with Pavarotti?
Joined
·
220 Posts
..and Verrett? (is that right??)
Joined
·
22,551 Posts
I think so.
Joined
·
220 Posts
I just picked out my seat--right next to the table with the cheese and wine.
81 - 100 of 178 Posts
