Anna Netrebko throwing thunderbolts

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin

Anna Netrebko, Tatiana
Petter Mattei, Onegin
Alexey Dolgov, Lenski

Alexey Dolgov sings the role of Lenski, and Robin Ticciati conducts. - See more at: https://www.curzoncinemas.com/film-info/met-opera-tchaikovskys-eugene-onegin#sthash.CVaST5DU.dpuf

Elena Maximova, Olga Stefan Kocan, Gremin

Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra
Robin Ticciati, conductor

22 April 2017, The Metropolitan Opera New York, live cinema broadcast
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Anna Netrebko as Tatiana

One of the advantages of the Met's live broadcasts is having Renee Fleming speak with the cast, often seconds after having finished an Act.  Poor conductor Robin Ticciati was waylaid in his room when he clearly just wanted to get up to his orchestra for Act III (he arrived late). 

This being Tchaikovsky's famous opera of the even more famous Pushkin novel, various Russian singers were asked the obvious question: explain for a worldwide audience what Onegin means to you.  Apart from its ubiquity on the school curriculum, none left us any the wiser.   

Similarly, we had to take the emotional intensity of the opera's plot on faith in this performance much of the time.  Why does Onegin stir such volcanic feelings in Tatiana?  Why does Onegin change his mind so dramatically in Act III?  Ill health had removed Dmitri Hvorostovsky from the line-up for this performance alongside Anna Netrebko.  Taking his place was Peter Mattei, sure of voice but a stolid acting presence.  Perhaps this was the prime reason why the emotional and dramatic logic of the evening was not always clear. 

Alexey Dolgov's Lenski was on surer ground, and Netrebko's Tatiana a brilliant thing.  The letter scene was magnificently paced, and at its conclusion overwhelming, Netrebko's voice throwing thunderbolts out into the house.

So, an evening filled with very fine singing, but with more uneven acting.  The setting was the usual Met traditional and true to the original.  Although was that a conceptual landscape at the end?  The palace setting for the ball combined with the frozen lake from the duel.  What will the upper east side say? 

Anna Netrebko, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Štefan Kocán, Alexey Dolgov, Elena Maximova - See more at: https://www.curzoncinemas.com/film-info/met-opera-tchaikovskys-eugene-onegin#sthash.CVaST5DU.dpuf

Anna Netrebko, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Štefan Kocán, Alexey Dolgov, Elena Maximova - See more at: https://www.curzoncinemas.com/film-info/met-opera-tchaikovskys-eugene-onegin#sthash.CVaST5DU.dpuf

Anna Netrebko, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Štefan Kocán, Alexey Dolgov, Elena Maximova - See more at: https://www.curzoncinemas.com/film-info/met-opera-tchaikovskys-eugene-onegin#sthash.CVaST5DU.dpuf

Anna Netrebko, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Štefan Kocán, Alexey Dolgov, Elena Maximova - See more at: https://www.curzoncinemas.com/film-info/met-opera-tchaikovskys-eugene-onegin#sthash.CVaST5DU.dpuf

Placido Domingo sings Nabucco

Verdi: Nabucco

Liudmyla Monastyrska, Abigaille
Jamie Barton, Fenena
Russell Thomas, Ismaele
Placido Domingo, Nabucco
Dmitry Belosselskiy, Zaccaria

James Levine, conductor
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

7 January 2017,  The Metropolitan Opera New York, live cinema broadcast
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Placido Domingo as Nabucco

Placido Domingo has for some years now been taking on baritone roles after his tenor voice weakened.  Now in his 70s, the voice carries less burnished metal and heft, but Domingo's greatness has always rested on a charismatic and acting talent equal to his technical musical gifts.

He can most certainly still act and carry a stage, is quite wonderfully musical, and the voice too communicates with ease. 


Around him were more powerful, youthful voices, not least the impressive Liudmyla Monastyrska.   Though of quality they seemed a little cumbersome in comparison.  Or was that the Met Live close miking again, making almost everyone sound like a belter.

In the pit was James Levine, it would appear now wheelchair bound.  The commentary at interval stated Domingo and Levine had done over 1000 performances at the Met together.  As Levine had introduced Nabucco back into the Met's reportoire, it was a fitting choice.  The production was Met-lavish as we have come to expect, and critically the chorus was splendid throughout.  Their rendition of the famous slaves chorus more than justified its immediate repeat.

Don Giovanni at the Met

Mozart: Don Giovanni

Simon Keenlyside, Don Giovanni
Hibla Gerzmava, Donna Anna
Malin Bystrom, Donna Elvira
Serena Malfi, Zerlina
Paul Appleby, Don Ottavio
Adam Plachetka, Leporello
Matthew Rose, Masetto
Kwangchul Youn, The Commmendatore

The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & Chorus
Fabio Luisi, conductor

The Metropolitan Opera, New York live HD broadcast to Curzon Cinemas, 22 October 2016
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Having been impressed by several ballet live cinema broadcasts, this was a first try-out of opera in the cinema.  The New York Met Opera, live to Wimbledon.  Results were mixed.  Naturalistic it was not. 

Simon Keenlyside and Serena Malfi

Any cinema broadcast has to make a choice whether it is trying to reproduce the experience of being in a seat at the opera house, or created something more cinematic.  The Met seems to favour the cinematic.  First up was the sound: either all the lead singers were surreptitiously miked for the broadcast sound, or there was some heavy microphone spotlighting going on.  At any rate all the voices sang at mezzo forte and louder the whole evening, the orchestra sounded as if they sat alongside them onstage rather than in the pit, and the poor chorus was lost badly in the background.  Most disturbingly, a very un-Met auditorium reverb seemed to be added to the voices (presumably to compensate for the close miking ).  For shame.    

Add to this the cameras.  One of the pleasures of the theatre is how the set is managed to create artifice.  Does one really need cameras rising up mid-shot and gliding sideways across a character as they sing?  Maybe there was a wish to enliven what was a surprisingly drab set.  It was meant to be Seville, but a particularly dingy red-light district Seville where the various aristocrats looked distinctly out of place.

Simon Keenlyside was our Don, and eschewed any dashing allure for a more world weary attitude.  His dalliances were no longer of great thrill to him, but on no account was he going to give up his libertine lifestyle.  Maybe because of this, the emotional high point of the evening came with the cries of Viva la liberta at the end of Act 1.

Don Giovanni descends

Of the other singers, the Donna Anna and Don Ottavio of Hibla Gerzmava and Paul Appleby stood out.  Dramatically they made a formidable pair, and Don Ottavio was not the anaemic character he can often be.  Both Masetto and Leporello were huge, dwarfing the more diminutive Keenlyside.

So a mixed evening production-wise.  But nothing can take away from this masterpiece its almost overwhelming magnificence.  One marveled at its musical and dramatic depth.  And almost agreed with Kierkegaard, who thought the character of Don Giovanni in the opera to be music personified, and that only music could express the life within him.  Of the opera itself; it was simply the greatest thing ever written, by anyone, in any genre, anywhere.