It’s a week for confronting evil and corruption at least in opera. And a highlight is the Met’s recent production of Handel’s Agrippina.
Handel’s fabulous music (he was 24!) elevates these characters, drawn (sort of) from history, to monstrous proportions, tempting director David McVicar to allude to current political events. As NYTimes puts it, ‘What if the Roman Empire — with all its decadence, corruption and power-grabbing rulers left unchecked by an oddly docile Senate — never really ended?’ The Met made its politics clear at launch of the season. “I should say that we’re grateful to the White House for making ‘Agrippina’ feel more immediate,” said general manager Peter Gelb, to cheers. “We like to think of the impeachment trial as a co-promotion for our new production.”
Reviews are worth reading for the history and the music. NYTimes here . Operawire concludes, in a very detailed review, ‘This is a truly mesmerizing production’.
The production stars Joyce DiDonato in her now famous representation of the appalling empress and mother. How to inhabit such a character? There’s a very funny and informing talk with her and Kate Lindsay, who plays Nero, here.
“This, for me, is the genius of what I think opera can do better than anything, but what art is meant to do,” Ms. DiDonato said. “How many times do we have to be knocked over the head with history, with the facts that are right before us? As a society, we still don’t get it. We still don’t get it. So we’ll keep telling the stories until we get it.”
Look, it’s basically a comedy, as this review clearly places it. But 'its satire on grasping for power and being undone by lust is as contemporary as can be’.
This is what opera does best - telling the tragedy in comedy. Vesti la giubba... Ridi, Pagliaccio. (The words? Click 'SHOW MORE' for the lyrics.)
And the Rake Progresses
Another comedy/tragedy about morality, but so different.
That's because Handel is so different from Stravinsky.
From 3 Aug 2am-9 August | Glyndebourne live streams their 2010 production of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. It’s a Glyndebourne classic, designed by David Hockney with sets and costumes of brilliant wit and colour. Trailer here .
Stravinsky put mad music to the story depicted in Hogarth’s paintings of one man’s path from pleasure to ruin ‘like a Mozart opera that has wandered into a musical hall of mirrors – at once elegant and anarchic’. Comedy and tragedy compete and clash.
For more detail on Stravinsky and this opera, go to our opera group page in 2017 And yes, the Devil, as usual has the last laugh.
Watch for free on the Glyndebourne website or YouTube Channel.
Guardian review here. 'Glyndebourne's production of The Rake's Progress ... is still widely regarded as the benchmark staging of Stravinsky's great, if difficult, opera... Hockney's designs mediate between the 18th century and the 20th, just as the score self-consciously shuttles between Mozartian models and modernism.'
Edward Seckerson fusses about accents - you can't please everyone. As this reviewer comments, we're offered a famous revival. 'When David Hockney (in his first designs for the opera stage) and director John Cox mounted a production of The Rake's Progress for Glyndebourne, in 1975, the result was one of the most famous creations in the history of the art form.’ In this revival, ‘even for the home viewer, the wit, inventiveness and beauty of the production remain intact. So even for us in isolation, this is a gem.
By the way, there’s more wild operatic politics with Handel coming up next week as Glyndebourne moves to their David McVicar production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare. More in next week's post.
And at the Met
A Wagner moment coming up.
On Monday, August 3 the Met screens Wagner’s Die Walküre Starring Christine Goerke, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Jamie Barton, Stuart Skelton, Greer Grimsley, and Günther Groissböck, conducted by Philippe Jordan. From March 30, 2019.
The casting of Westbroek and Skelton as the ill fated (adulterous and incestuous) twins is brilliant – their voices meld. And the Met’s new Brunnhilde, Christine Goerke, plays a playful daughter to Wotan with a wonderful Wagnerian soprano.
Tuesday, August 4 Mozart’s The Magic Flute Starring Ying Huang, Erika Miklósa, Matthew Polenzani, Nathan Gunn, and René Pape, conducted by James Levine. From December 30, 2006.
Wednesday, August 5 Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann Starring Erin Morley, Hibla Gerzmava, Kate Lindsey, Christine Rice, Vittorio Grigolo, and Thomas Hampson, conducted by Yves Abel. From January 31, 2015.
Thursday, August 6 Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra Starring Kiri Te Kanawa, Plácido Domingo, Vladimir Chernov, and Robert Lloyd, conducted by James Levine. From January 26, 1995.
Friday, August 7 Puccini’s Madama Butterfly Starring Kristine Opolais, Maria Zifchak, Roberto Alagna, and Dwayne Croft, conducted by Karel Mark Chichon. From April 2, 2016.
You didn't get enough Wagner on Monday. This is the Wagner marathon, and with the classic cast. It's such a challenge we didn't have a session on Parsifal when we first met Wagner, at the start of our opera group. Read about the opera first!
These are the most famous portrayals of the 'innocent fool' Parsifal and the wicked woman Kundry. Listen here.
(The Met revived this production later with Domingo and Jessye Norman.) NYTimes archived review is very enthusiastic. 'Waltraud Meier, bringing her acclaimed performance as Kundry to the Met for the first time, was seductive and gentle in her first approach to Parsifal, holding in reserve a strength and determination that gave her singing an eerie calm. That calm was broken by Siegfried Jerusalem, who also brought his rare abilities to the Met for the first time in the opera's title role.' There's a fascinating interview with Meier about the Kundry character, including a wonderful video of Kundry's seduction scene, here. No time to read an interview - just listen to this glorious Wagner voice in the video here.
Starring Waltraud Meier, Siegfried Jerusalem, Bernd Weikl, and Kurt Moll, conducted by James Levine. From March 28, 1992.
Sunday, August 9 Handel’s Agrippina Starring Brenda Rae, Joyce DiDonato, Kate Lindsey, Iestyn Davies, Duncan Rock, and Matthew Rose, conducted by Harry Bicket. From February 29, 2020.
See above!!
Monday, August 10
Mozart’s Don Giovanni
Starring - after a long absence on health grounds - Simon Keenlyside, with Hibla Gerzmava, Malin Byström, Serena Malfi, Paul Appleby,and Adam Plachetka, conducted by Fabio Luisi.
From October 22, 2016.
Good reviews for Keenlyside's return after throat surgery. He's a fine actor as well as a great baritone. And the live in HD production was lit by a hilarious speech he gave in the 'interview' the Met requires in intervals! Read about it in this review.
Lyn, 31/07/20