What's on this week from 16 March

In San Francisco, the Ring Cycle continues free livestreaming. See our separate blogpost on this cycle.

Screening (our time) Sunday 21st March - Monday 22nd is Siegfried.

Synopsis and our earlier exploration are here.

Here's Limelight's detailed review of the production. And here's Bachtrack's.

SFOpera information, photos, videos here. Will our pure hero save the despoiled world?

At the Met, there's a wild collection for Week 53 - termed "Viewers’ Choice" Dates are for Melbourne.

It includes several special performances. For fans of Joyce DiDonato these include her Rosina in Barber of Seville and her extraordinary Agrippina. For a treat, listen to her in this Euronews recording.

But first - a rivetting Tales of Hoffmann.

Tuesday, March 16 Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann It's a formidable production. Starring Anna Netrebko, Kathleen Kim, Ekaterina Gubanova, Kate Lindsey, Joseph Calleja, and Alan Held, conducted by James Levine. Production by Bartlett Sher. From December 19, 2009. Review here from NYTimes.

Kate Lindsay as Nicklausse

Mezzo Kate Lindsay is brilliant as the mysterious Nicklausse, Hoffmann's sidekick. (See her in a totally different androgynous role as the son of Agrippina on Monday! Interview with her here.

NYTimes offers a very thoughtful review here. And here's Netrebko singing about the turtledove. Yes, you know the Barcarole - listen here to Anna Netrebko & Elīna Garanča.

Wednesday, March 17 Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West Starring Eva-Maria Westbroek, Jonas Kaufmann, and Željko Lučić, conducted by Marco Armiliato. Production by Giancarlo Del Monaco. From October 27, 2018.

Thursday, March 18 Donizetti’s Anna Bolena Starring Anna Netrebko, Ekaterina Gubanova, Tamara Mumford, Stephen Costello, and Ildar Abdrazakov, conducted by Marco Armiliato. Production by Sir David McVicar. From October 15, 2011.

For some, the most brilliant of Donizetti's Tudor Queens, a trilogy of his most magnificent historical works. Click here for detailed account of these operas, and the production screening, in our earlier blog post. It's a much praised performance from Netrebko.

Friday, March 19 Philip Glass’s Akhnaten Starring Dísella Lárusdóttir, J’Nai Bridges, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Aaron Blake, Will Liverman, Richard Bernstein, and Zachary James, conducted by Karen Kamensek. Production by Phelim McDermott. From November 23, 2019.

This is your third chance to see the praised production of Glass's most admired opera. Our blog post on the production is here.

Saturday, March 20 Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia Starring Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Flórez, Peter Mattei, John Del Carlo, and John Relyea, conducted by Maurizio Benini. Production by Bartlett Sher. From March 24, 2007.

The Barber of Seville is more than a baritone patter song - though this is a pretty good one. Click here for our notes on the opera and an earlier brilliant production we viewed.

Earlier versions screened recently, and in a past meeting we viewed the classic movie version with Hermann Prey. This 2007 Met production stars Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez, who took their Count and Rosina partnership around the big opera houses. And Figaro? Top baritone Peter Mattei is Figaro – listen here to that patter song, his "Largo al factotum".

A truly wonderful cast for a wonderful comedy. Juan Diego Florez is an apparently sensational Almaviva and Joyce DiDonato brilliant as Rosina. Here’s her falling-in-love aria. Watch here the Rossini-superb Act I finale and see if you can resist watching the whole.

Sunday, March 21 Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin Starring Renée Fleming, Ramón Vargas, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, conducted by Valery Gergiev. Production by Robert Carsen. From February 24, 2007.

Mother and Son: Joyce DiDonato, Kate Lindsey, both brilliant in Agrippina

Monday, March 22 Handel’s Agrippina Starring Brenda Rae, Joyce DiDonato, Kate Lindsey, Iestyn Davies, Duncan Rock, and Matthew Rose, conducted by Harry Bicket. Production by Sir David McVicar. From February 29, 2020.

It's an amazing opera and she is brilliant - that sums it up. Here's our blog post when it screened last year. Great intro to the opera here from the star. And here are Kate Lindsey and Joyce DiDonato having fun.

San Francisco Ring livestreams in March

A full Wagner Ring Cycle! And an impressive one.

Streaming for free from San Francisco. Each weekend in March, SFO is streaming their 2018 production of the Ring in sequence for free. From predawn each Sunday till Monday at 7pm.

The cycle started with Das Rheingold 7-8 March. Coming up

• Sunday 14th March - Monday 15th is Die Walküre. Synopsis and lots to read about the production here.

• Sunday 21st March - Monday 22nd is Siegfried

• And then, the world (and our U3a term) ends with GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG Sunday March 28– Monday 29th.

Yes it's his sword (briefly)

The operas are available HERE - all day and night each Sunday and daytime Monday. (See below for the calculation *)

The SFO 2018 Ring was hugely ambitious and well reviewed. Their Wotan, Greer Grimsley, is a top baritone who's made the role his across the world. This review has a lot of images from the production, whose environmental and critical tone is clearly in the tradition set by the Bayreuth centenary production we viewed today. Some wonderful images and detail of the production and its achievements and messages in this fascinating account.

Our response to the first screening - Rheingold - was delight. It's the most fast-paced and human production we've seen. A splendid combination of wonderful orchestral and sung music, with sharp characterization of those mythical gods and a wicked sense of always relevant comedy and very clearly telling the story of the Ring. Loge in particular, is lol witty. A totally different Wotan - overshadowed by the clever and the loving...

Greer Grimsley (Wotan) and Iréne Theorin (Brunnhilde) in Act III of Die Walkure

There's a wealth of information and videos on their website. Go HERE for the timetable, and a lot of events, videos and Zoom discussions you can join for a small ticket price. And then - Go HERE to access the live stream.

* Oh yes, that timing calculation: Streaming starts at 10am Pacific on Saturdays (that's 4am Sunday our time) and ends the next day at 11:59pm Pacific (Monday 5.59pm our time. But when it's daylight saving here - it's 6.59pm). View schedule. Warning: these are long operas, so don't start viewing too late on Monday!!

Streaming this week from 8 March

'Verismo Passions' at the Met

At the Met, it's the 52nd week of livestreaming. Pretty impressive. They are offering 'Verismo Passions'. Here's what you can view (our dates).

Tuesday, March 9 Puccini’s Manon Lescaut It was Pucchini's first triumph, and this production of his Manon Lescaut is a vintage Met triumph. Starring Renata Scotto and Plácido Domingo, it's conducted by James Levine. Production by Gian Carlo Menotti. From March 29, 1980.

NYTimes asserts, 'One cannot imagine a much better ''Manon Lescaut'' than this one, taped at the Metropolitan Opera House on March 29, 1980. Renata Scotto.. is in her best late voice; her singing has empathy and style, and her acting is convincing. Placido Domingo (also in photo) is a wonderfully ardent and lyrical Des Grieux'.

It's the historic 'period' Manon, contrasting dramatically with recent productions. Check out our blog post on the opera, its origins and its music. And meet Manon, and her story, in our earlier post.

The Met's fascinating account of the history of its productions of this opera proudly quotes a review of the 1980 production screening tonight, “The new Manon Lescaut had an old-style lushness and eye-filling realism that had the public in ecstasies”

Wednesday, March 10 Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci Starring Eva-Maria Westbroek, Marcelo Álvarez, and George Gagnidze; Patricia Racette, Marcelo Álvarez, George Gagnidze, and Lucas Meachem, conducted by Fabio Luisi. Production by Sir David McVicar. From April 25, 2015.

Well it's not Zeffirelli. This is the Met's longawaited McVicar production of the classic verismo opera double-bill and it's deliberately departing from the Zeffirelli mode.

Everyone agrees the stars do well - especially Patricia Racette (left) in Pagliacci. The production is the complaint. A qualified success says Bachtrack. Classical Voice is not impressed. But the music remains - Vulture concludes, 'The most powerful reason to see this production is to hear the conductor Fabio Luisi bring old-fashioned briskness to an often overboiled score.'

Thursday, March 11 Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur Starring Anna Netrebko, Anita Rachvelishvili, Piotr Beczała and Ambrogio Maestri, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. Production by Sir David McVicar. From January 12, 2019.

Never heard of the opera or the composer? Cilea was not helped by writing in the time of Puccini, and is on the list of composers with just one successful opera - (a list which of course includes Mascagni and Leoncavallo.) But this opera is revived not so much for the versimo drama (it's a pretty simple plot) but for the lead roles, especially for soprano and mezzo. David McVicar’s staging—which recreates an 18th–century French theater in exacting detail—is the work’s first new Met production in more than 50 years.

They both love him (and it's not that simple)

The Met produced this vehicle for three of its box office stars, Anna Netrebko, Anita Rachvelishvili and Piotr Beczała (here's his interview in the intermission). It was their opening Gala performance - not bad for a little-known work, and a clear sign of the importance of star names. Netrebko and Rachvelishvili come to it from playing the rivals in Aida, a similar plot if you boil it down!

Here are these formidable women in discussion of loving the same man. And Netrebko triumphs in the solo arias. Listen to her final aria "Poor flowers". Tommasini for NYTimes applauded - and gives some background to the opera.

Friday, March 12 Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini Starring Eva-Maria Westbroek, Marcello Giordani, Robert Brubaker, and Mark Delavan, conducted by Marco Armiliato. Production by Piero Faggioni. From March 16, 2013.

Saturday, March 13 Giordano’s Fedora Starring Mirella Freni, Ainhoa Arteta, Plácido Domingo, Dwayne Croft, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, conducted by Roberto Abbado. Production by Beppe De Tomasi. From April 26, 1997.

Sunday, March 14 Giordano’s Andrea Chénier Starring Maria Guleghina, Wendy White, Stephanie Blythe, Luciano Pavarotti, and Juan Pons, conducted by James Levine. Production by Nicolas Joël. From October 15, 1996.

Monday, March 15 Puccini’s Tosca Starring Sonya Yoncheva, Vittorio Grigolo, Željko Lučić, and Patrick Carfizzi, conducted by Emmanuel Villaume. Production by Sir David McVicar. From January 27, 2018.

McVicar again, and a rapid shift back for the Met to a Tosca set in detailed reality, as it had been by Zeffirelli. Bachtrack here. strongly approved! Yoncheva and Grigolo are both performing role debuts - and won strong reviews. Here's wqxr.

Vittorio Grigolo and Sonya Yoncheva .

Sonya Yoncheva (Tosca) and Željko Lučić (Scarpia)

Read all about the opera and its settings in our blog post here. Željko Lučić, is an extraordinary example of the power of a baritone actor. Interview here. Our blog here on the role of Scarpia. but there was criticism for his Scarpia in this production.