The Met is celebrating women’s history month with a week devoted to female characters who are feisty, funny and formidable. Here's the lineup (dates for Melbourne time.)
Tuesday, March 2 Donizetti’s Don Pasquale It's all about Norina, and this production is all about Beverly Sills. It was the Met's farewell to Sills, and she wowed them! Here's Norina's "I know a few tricks" aria. She was given a lush production of this bel canto farce, and was backed by a fine cast. Details in the review here. The baritone Don is Gabriel Bacquier. Joined by Alfredo Kraus, Håkan Hagegård, and conducted by Nicola Rescigno. Production by John Dexter. From January 11, 1979. NYTimes considers and approves the setting in Victorian period.
Wednesday, March 3 Verdi’s Falstaff It’s been called Verdi’s greatest work and was his last opera. Lots about it on our 2018 website.
This 1992 production has all the sparkle you want. Watch the finale here. Starring wonderful stars as the wonderful Windsor women - Mirella Freni, Barbara Bonney, Marilyn Horne. and Falstaff is played by the very experienced Paul Plishka. Meg Page (Susan Graham), Alice Ford (Mirella Freni) working awhiles with Mistress Quickly (the wonderful Marilyn Horne) and young Nanetta (Barbara Bonney) rule the screen.
. NYTimes commented - way back then!-, ‘It would have been very easy, given contemporary operatic tastes, to turn the plot's ridicule of Falstaff into a campy farce. This is, after all, an opera about excess…But Mr. Plishka gave the role an almost touchingly human quality… This performance found an unusual balance between sympathy and irony, physical exuberance and charm.’
Thursday, March 4 Wagner’s Die Walküre It's all about Wotan, father of most of the characters and doom of all. The ultimate part for a baritone, and in this classic performance, it's James Morris playing the torn and bumbling king of the gods. His portrayal is vastly different from the more recent baritones who've starred in the role. Listen here to his gentle farewell to his daughter.
The women of the story in this production are formidable: Starring Hildegard Behrens (above) as Brünnhilde and Jessye Norman as Sieglinde, with Christa Ludwig. Conducted by James Levine. Production by Otto Schenk. From April 8, 1989.
This production was livestreamed last year - read our blog post then. And if you can't view it, at least listen here to Jessye Norman as Sieglinde - singing "O hehrstes Wunder!" in 1989. If you are new to the Wagner Ring Cycle, that earlier post has links to brisk synopses and discussions of the story and the music.
“You felt like a god on that set and in those costumes. In other productions, I felt like a person, because I was fighting the sets and costumes,” Morris said about this production, in this thoughtful interview many years later.
Friday, March 5 Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte Starring Golda Schultz, Kathryn Lewek, Charles Castronovo, Markus Werba, and René Pape, conducted by James Levine. Production by Julie Taymor. From October 14, 2017.
Saturday, March 6 Britten’s Peter Grimes Starring Patricia Racette, as the kindly and strong woman, Ellen, and Anthony Dean Griffey as Grimes, in an apparently brilliant performance. Conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles. Production by John Doyle, his Met debut - interesting comments from him here. 'Few operas explore ambiguity with more piercing clarity and musical specificity than this 1945 work.' NYTimes review here.
From March 15, 2008. Britten's dark but brilliant opera arguably is his best for music about humankind and imagery. 'The cinematographic qualities of Britten’s music are brought out with great skill by the orchestra under veteran Scottish conductor Ronald Runnicles.’ (Bachtrack review here.)
Sunday, March 7 Dvořák’s Rusalka There's a detailed post on this opera in last year's blog here.
This production stars Renée Fleming, Emily Magee, Dolora Zajick, Piotr Beczała, and John Relyea, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Production by Otto Schenk. From February 8, 2014.
Screened several times last year - see our blog then. (Note that as in Il Trovatore, the gypsy is once again played by Dolora Zajick.)
Monday, March 8 - International Women's Day!
Verdi’s La Forza del Destino Starring Leontyne Price, Giuseppe Giacomini, Leo Nucci, and Bonaldo Giaiotti, conducted by James Levine. Production by John Dexter. From March 24, 1984.
Here's the Met's account of Leontyne Price at the Met. And the plot and her character, Leonora? 'It is melodrama in its most undiluted form -- characters who are caricatures, spending all their time in extreme emotional states and blundering through a plot crammed with wild improbabilities, coincidences and absurdities.' But what music! Washington Post review here.
Bachtrack reports that (as we saw in her Aida, livestreamed last month), the voice triumphed and you forgave the wooden acting. But the Met gave us 48 hours to view it. NYTimes ruled that ' it offers one of our century's greatest singers in one of her greatest roles. No soprano has emerged to wear her mantle as becomingly as Leontyne Price still wears it. For her, this should not be missed.' It also has some fabulous Verdi music - starting with That Overture! OA music director recorded insights into the music here when they performed the opera in 2013.