... create operas? Well they can, but it's rare for English operas to be featured, and rarer for an opera company, especially an American one, to focus on English opera. The full array of English operatic writing over the years is seldom explored. (If you want a summary, check out this one.)
This week the Met is gathering productions in English language, albeit by a multinational collection of composers.
At the Met, it’s Week 39, 'In Plain English'!
They’re definitely not plain, these operas, though they are all presented in English. They come variously from composers who were English (Adès and Britten), American (Adams and the Gershwins), Italian-American (Corigliano) and German (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny was composed by Kurt Weill to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht and translated for this production.)
Almost all have been screened already this year, and several are pretty special.
...the island's full of noises...
Brilliant viewing this week is the wildly strange production of Thomas Adès’s 'The Tempest', directed by Robert LePage for the Met. Here's the NYTimes detailed review. Very British, very exploratory in all his music, Adès premiered this opera in 2004 at ROH, a very different production with a different conception of the drama. Guardian review here. There's a short video here.
But balance this enthusiasm with the Observer's grumpy reading. (They didn't like the LePage Ring either.) Find out more from his website, ex machina. His Tempest story is here.
'You are playing with a world of the real and the surreal. You know, you have real characters onstage, and then you have this array of spirits and illusions and all of that. So you have to make sure that you understand, within the music, what accompanies what, what music is the actual subtext of the real characters and what layer of music is actually the charm, the illusion, and the magic. They cohabitate very, very closely.'
Tuesday, December 8 Thomas Adès’s The Tempest This is a formidable adaption of Shakespeare to opera. It's conducted by the composer, and directed by one of the leading exploratory opera directors of the time. From November 10, 2012.
Starring Audrey Luna, Isabel Leonard, Iestyn Davies, and in a towering performance as a (theatre impressario) Prospero, Simon Keenlyside. (Luna and Keenlyside played these roles in London.)
Yes, it's in English, but the Met chose LePage (Canadian) to direct this production - a testament to their approval of his 'machine' production of Ring des Nibelungen. (Interestingly, LePage had already directed numerous acclaimed productions of Shakespeare’s play, Tempest, in both French and English. More detail here.)
The extraordinary Audrey Luna is a brilliant, rebellious, high-note-tearing Ariel. (You can see and hear her again later this week in the second opera by Adès taken up by the Met - Exterminating Angel.)
We looked at this clever, strange and beautiful opera in our Shakespeare term in 2018. A firm favourite among our selections of innovative productions. Read our page here, linked to libretto, synopsis and many reviews and interviews. Now's your chance to watch it through. Like several of the other operas screening this week, it was seen early in September.
Wednesday, December 9 John Adams’ Doctor Atomic
Did you miss it in June when it screened? Check out my account of this brilliant opera in the blog post then. 'This is an extraordinary, very operatic version of the story of the Manhattan Project, the creation of the atomic bomb, telling in image, lyrical music, bureaucratic reports and poetry how the scientists, military men, and others involved wrestled with the implications of their work. '
Starring Gerald Finley (Canadian) in an extraordinary performance as Oppenheimer. Listen here to his aria from John Donne's sonnet, Batter my Heart as they await the test explosion. Conducted by Alan Gilbert. From November 8, 2008.
Thursday, December 10 Britten’s Peter Grimes
Britten's searing account of loneliness, hope and violence in a small fishing village. Review here.
Starring Patricia Racette, Anthony Dean Griffey, and Anthony Michaels-Moore, conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles. From March 15, 2008. " ...libretto based on part of an early 19th-century collection of sociologically-inclined poems by George Crabbe....The cinematographic qualities of Britten’s music are brought out with great skill by the orchestra under veteran Scottish conductor Ronald Runnicles." (Bachtrack review of this video)
Friday, December 11 Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel
and this one isn't very jolly either, but fascinating. It screened recently - check my comments in the post then. Starring Audrey Luna, Amanda Echalaz, Sally Matthews, Sophie Bevan, Alice Coote, Christine Rice, Iestyn Davies, Joseph Kaiser, Frédéric Antoun, David Portillo, David Adam Moore, Rod Gilfry, Kevin Burdette, Christian Van Horn, and John Tomlinson. conducted by Thomas Adès. From November 18, 2017.
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Saturday, December 12 The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess Starring Angel Blue, Golda Schultz, Latonia Moore, Denyce Graves, Frederick Ballentine, Eric Owens, Alfred Walker, and Donovan Singletary, conducted by David Robertson. From February 1, 2020. The Met opened its 2019–20 season with a new production of Porgy and Bess - Eric Owens and Angel Blue - both wonderful singers - sing the title roles, the reviews are outstanding.
Sunday, December 13 Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny Starring Teresa Stratas, Astrid Varnay, Richard Cassilly, and Cornell MacNeil, conducted by James Levine. From November 27, 1979.
The team of composer Kurt Weill writing to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht produced the Threepenny Opera. This is different – NYTimes review
Monday, December 13 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. Here's our earlier post on this production.