From San Francisco, it's the final opera in the Wagner Ring Cycle, Twilight of the Gods.
The production has led us to the twilight of the world, following the lead of the famous Bayreuth Centenary production. Here's Clive Paget in Limelight, back in 2018 when the SF Opera Ring we are seeing first screened.
'Anyone who considers bringing climate change and man’s destruction of the planet into Wagner’s Ring merely a hippie-dippy 21st-century directorial fad need look no further than the poem for Götterdämmerung. As reported by the three Norns, the mutilated world-ash-tree has withered and been cut down, the spring has dried up. Add merciless images of factories and power plants belching acrid smoke and a river bed strewn with plastic bottles and you have the visual background to the final part of Francesca Zambello’s cohesively argued and increasingly impressive production of Wagner’s mighty tetralogy.'
Götterdämmerung will be streaming for free Sunday-Monday our time. Go to our blog post on the SF Ring for details.
Do you want more reading to prepare you for this ending?
Well here's our introduction to the opera several years ago.
Here's Limelight's detailed review .. And here's Bachtrack.
And SFOpera provides some interesting educational materials.
At the Met, the theme is Myths and Legends.
IWeek 54 of their free live streamings offers a nice collection of the myths opera enjoys, and some great viewing.
Tuesday, March 23 Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice Starring Danielle de Niese, left, as Euridice and Stephanie Blythe as Orfeo.
'This is Ms. Blythe’s show... a vocally commanding and deeply poignant portrayal of Orfeo,' according to NYTimes Tommasini. Here she is as Orpheus (down in the underworld noticing the pure sky and clear sun!).
Australian star Danielle is pretty and good as the cause of it all, Euridice.
Watch for the audience of historic notables. Production by Mark Morris. From January 24, 2009.
Wednesday, March 24 Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust Starring Susan Graham, Marcello Giordani, and John Relyea, conducted by James Levine. Production by Robert Lepage. From November 22, 2008.
Thursday, March 25 Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride Starring Susan Graham, Plácido Domingo, Paul Groves, and Gordon Hawkins, conducted by Patrick Summers. Production by Stephen Wadsworth. From February 26, 2011.
Friday, March 26 Strauss’s Elektra Starring Nina Stemme, Adrianne Pieczonka, Waltraud Meier, and Eric Owens, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. Production by Patrice Chéreau. From April 30, 2016. Yes, it's been screened last year, but it's still the most brilliant portrayal of the myth and its heroine. Stemme is rivetting, and her singing superb . Check our blog post here.
Saturday, March 27 Mozart’s Idomeneo Starring Hildegard Behrens, Ileana Cotrubas, Frederica von Stade, Luciano Pavarotti, and John Alexander, conducted by James Levine. Production by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. From November 6, 1982.
Sunday, March 28
Mozart’s Don Giovanni
Starring Renée Fleming, Solveig Kringelborn, Hei-Kyung Hong, Paul Groves, Bryn Terfel, Ferruccio Furlanetto, and Sergei Koptchak, conducted by James Levine. Production by Franco Zeffirelli. From October 14, 2000. A likeable Don? Bryn Terfel brings Welsh sense of mischief. Here's his instructions for setting up an impromptu party (lyrics here), the Champagne Aria ('Fin ch' han dal vino'). Here it is sung by Teddy Tahu Rhodes in black leather mode.
Monday, March 28 Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer - Flying Dutchman.
This one also screened recently. Here's our discussion and links to reviews on the 2020 blog post. It's the Met's new production using visuals throughout, strongly, though sometimes unsuccessfully. . Starring Anja Kampe, Mihoko Fujimura, Sergey Skorokhodov, David Portillo, Evgeny Nikitin, and Franz-Josef Selig, conducted by Valery Gergiev. Production by François Girard. From March 10, 2020.
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