To be perfectly honest I haven’t been to a Met in HD broadcast in ages. Regular readers will perhaps have noticed that I’m usually insanely busy on weekends as it is! That said, I know that people appreciate a few thoughts on what;’s upcoming so I took a look at the 2023/24 season offering. It’s an intriguing season. The first three productions are more or less contemporary which must be some kind of record. They are:
- October 21st – Jake Heggie – Dead Man Walking. This is just not my favourite opera but I understand why it’s popular. The cast is stellar with Joyce DiDonato, Susan Graham and Ryan McKinney, among others, and Yannick conducts. For many people this will be a “must see”.
- November 18th – Anthony Davis – X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. I’ll be honest. I have no idea about this one.
- December 9th – Daniel Catán – Florencia en el Amazonas. I don’t know much about this either but it’s based on Marquez and it has Ailyn Perez in the cast so I’d be inclined to take a punt on it.
Here’s my quick preview of the recently announced 2022/23 Live in HD series from the Met.
There’s a Met in HD season again with ten shows starting in October. All shows start at 12.55pm New York time. Three out of ten performances are 21st century operas which is as surprising as it is welcome. There are some interesting looking new productions and one or two that fit into a Met formula that doesn’t work for me usually. And there are two remarkably venerable productions that surely are past their sell by date. Here are my thoughts on each:
First the bad news. Calgary Opera have cancelled their fall production of Fidelio citing uncertainty over rehearsal, performance and audience management issues. I’m not surprised and I expect we will hear something similar from the COC next week. The performing arts really don’t seem to figure at all on the Ontario government’s priorities or plans which isn’t a surprise but is a bit depressing. 
Well, after a fashion… The good news is that 
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