(By Tom)
What is? Politics of course! If you didn’t know that, you haven’t been living on this planet for the last four years. And as its contribution to the Big Day of Tuesday November 3rd, The Met is offering us Politics in Opera.
Here we go, dates are Melbourne time. Click on the title links to read the Met’s blurb on their production.
Tuesday, October 27 Verdi’s Don Carlo Starring Renata Scotto, Tatiana Troyanos, Vasile Moldoveanu, Sherrill Milnes, and Paul Plishka, conducted by James Levine. From February 21, 1980.
5 acts, in French, about Spain, by an Italian. Based on fact and a play by Schiller, there’s the inevitable love triangle: Prince Carlos and Elizabeth of Valois are the loving betrothed, but a peace treaty forces her to marry Carlo’s dad, the feared King Philip II of Spain. Ask Elizabeth I of England about him! There’s the usual mistaken identity at night in the garden, a note from the wrong person, a secret affair, and a lover’s portrait in the wrong hands. Politics is about the Reformation, the suffering of Flanders, a Grand Inquisitor who knows what’s most important (hint: not people), and an Auto-da-Fe. Good stuff, and Verdian music too. Read all about it in Wikipedia.
Wednesday, October 28 Handel’s Agrippina Starring Brenda Rae, Joyce DiDonato, Kate Lindsey, Iestyn Davies, Duncan Rock, and Matthew Rose. From February 29, 2020.
Read all about it in our blog post when this wonderful production was first screened.
With Kate Lindsey in a trouser role as the hopelessly nasty and narcisstic Nero and Joyce DiDonato as his wily seductress mum Agrippina, this is a superb production with equally superb singing and acting.
It’s a dark satire on the personal politics of power, in a world where power is the only aim in life (partly because if you try and fail, you’re dead.)
The NY Review of Books has a fascinating review of this memorable performance, and much on the political history of these events. This is my choice of the week.
Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra Starring Adrianne Pieczonka, Marcello Giordani, Plácido Domingo, and James Morris. From February 6, 2010.
Unlike Donizetti who also lived through the reunification turmoil on C-19 Italy, Verdi was a political animal. But of course you couldn’t express your politics in any way the censors would object to. So you wrote about (disliked) Spanish rulers or, as here, events long in the shadow of the past. Boccanegra was the first Doge of Genoa, from a mercantile family and opposed by the aristocracy. The opera is a mixup of unknown identities, impossible love, poison, and simplistic politics. Domingo as Boccanegra here reverts (yes!) to his baritone voice, and plays a majestic but doomed peacemaker. New York Times review here.
Friday, October 30 John Adams’s Nixon in China Starring Kathleen Kim, Janis Kelly, Robert Brubaker, Russell Braun, James Maddalena, and Richard Paul Fink, conducted by John Adams. From February 12, 2011.
Pure politics – but not political intrigue – Adams captures the personalities of the leaders in one of the most important political events of that century, with major repercussions in this one. He made Nixon, in his words “a sort of Simon Boccanegra, a self-doubting, lyrical, at times self-pitying melancholy baritone.” (Wikipedia)
Saturday, October 31 Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov Starring Ekaterina Semenchuk, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Oleg Balashov, Evgeny Nikitin, René Pape, Mikhail Petrenko, and Vladimir Ognovenko, conducted by Valery Gergiev. From October 23, 2010.
“…the unstoppable river of Russia’s tragic history rolls ever onwards." A Russian cast, a Russian conductor, a Russian crisis, and a play by Pushkin. Poor old Boris as Tsar is trying to pick up the pieces after the death of Ivan the Terrible, but the aristocracy are conspiring against him. "Towering over it all is René Pape, who sings and acts with extraordinary commitment, his powerful voice conveying every nuance of Boris’ emotions." Read the Bachtrack review.
Sunday, November 1 John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles Starring Teresa Stratas, Håkan Hagegård, Gino Quilico, Graham Clark, Marilyn Horne, and Renée Fleming, conducted by James Levine. From January 10, 1992.
This production screened in June - if you missed it, check our blog post here.
Commissioned by the Met and premiered in 1991, this is (sort of) the third Figaro comedy by Beaumarchais except that Corigliano’s librettist has Beaumarchais come into the plot to rescue Marie Antoinette. Got it? Political — it’s about her execution. Comedy — Figaro and the Count and Rosina (who’s borne Cherubino’s child) rock up, and there’s lines like “I want to live again! Can you do that, Beaumarchais?” “Yes! We shall live in Philadelphia.” “If you call that living.” Wikipedia might help you untangle it.
Can’t wait! Changed my mind – this is my choice of the week, sight unseen.
Monday, November 2 Philip Glass’s Satyagraha Starring Rachelle Durkin, Richard Croft, Kim Josephson, and Alfred Walker, conducted by Dante Anzolini. From November 19, 2011. Reprise of an earlier Live in HD streaming.
New to Glass, and his minimalist music? Our blog from June - here - offers some introductions to Glass and this opera. Wikipedia has a detailed intro to the man and the music here, and there's a strong article in NYTimes here. More here.
You either love or hate Mr Glass.
Your chance to enjoy or avoid his tale of Gandhi again. But do first get some background here. I think I might appreciate it second time through.
Tom 23 October 2020.
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