It’s that time of year when I look at what the Met will be offering in cinemas in the coming season. Once again they will be offering eight shows and they are a mix of fairly bold, quite interesting and frankly dull. Here goes…
October 18th: Bellini – La Somnabula. Rolando Villazon directs a new production which is interesting. I haven’t seen any of his work as a director so don’t really know what to expect. It does have Nadine Sierra as Amina which is a big plus. Continue reading
Before looking forward to next month I want to mention a couple of things this weekend that I haven’t previously noticed. Saturday (Jan 25th) at 12.30pm there is a Met HD broadcast of new production of Aida with a pretty interesting looking cast. Later, at 6pm there’s a rather special concert at the Arts and letters Club to celebrate the 100th birthday of Morry Kernerman (former assistant concertmaster of both the TSO and OSM). The concert is presented by Canzona Chamber Players and wiull feature Trio Uchida-Crozman-Chiu. Continue reading
The Met HD in cinemas line up has been announced for 2024/25 so here’s my take on it. The first thing to notice is that there are only eight shows. There have been ten per season since 2012/13 and twelve before that. This is likely a reflection of the problems with audience numbers that all North American opera companies have been having. In the same time period the COC has cut back from 65-70 main stage performances per year to 42 and the Met’s “in house” audience problem has been well publicised. So what does that leave us with?
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:
Here’s my quick preview of the recently announced 2022/23 Live in HD series from the Met.
Cherubini – Medea – October 22nd 2022 – A strong start. It’s a new David McVicar production with Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role and a generally strong cast. The combination of McVicar and Radvanovsky in Rusalka was one of the best things I’ve seen in years. Continue reading
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:
If anybody in Canada is interested in seeing the HD broadcast of the Met production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess I may be able to help. I can’t do anything about this upcoming weekend’s live broadcast but I do have, courtesy of Touchwood PR, a couple of tickets to give away for the encore presentations. It’s a Canada only deal and you could pick any showing between Saturday, March 28th and Sunday, April 5th at the movie theatre of your choice. This link should serve to figure out when it’s on where. Comment with an email address and I’ll sort out logistics with the lucky winner. First come first served.
So what do the first couple of weeks of 2020 hold. First up Toronto Operetta Theatre their traditional Mew Year run. his year it’s Johann Strauss’ The Gypsy Baron and there are five shows between December 28th and January 5th. The cast includes Michael Barrett, Meghan Lindsey and Beste Kalender. It plays at the St. Lawrence Centre.
If you can even contemplate the thought of another late night drinking Against the Grain’s Opera Pub is on at 9pm on January 2nd at the Amsterdam Bicycle Club. The following night tenor Zach Rioux has a free recital of mostly Italian rep in Mazzoleni Hall at 7.30pm (ETA CANCELLED).
The Metropolitan Opera has announced its HD broadcast schedule for next season. I think it’s a bit more interesting than the last couple of years and may even tempt me to go to a couple of shows. So here’s the line up: Continue reading
Once again there are ten productions in the line up for next season; five of them productions that have been seen before. I don’t see anything terribly compelling here but there are a few reasonably interesting shows. All performances are 12.55pm unless otherwise indicated. Here’s the scoop.
operaramblings 