Log In


Reset Password
Performing Arts

Mad, bad, sad and spectacular for new MET season

2014-15 performances offer you eclectic choices

When The MET: Live in HD opens its 2014-15 season with Verdi’s jet-black “Macbeth,” brace yourself. It’s the beginning of a main course of tragedies sprinkled with a few frothy comedies and one weepy melodrama.

Many opera fans like it that way. But if you haven’t sorted out your own preferences, this season is a good one for experimenting. The live transmissions of Metropolitan Opera matinees generally start around 11 a.m. Saturday mornings. Screened in the Vallecito Room at Fort Lewis College, the seating is open and comfortable, and sometimes it’s a little cool. If you like, bring a jacket, thermos and pack a snack.

Once again, classics will be mixed with works that haven’t been seen in a long time. There are no contemporary operas on this year’s roster. “The Death of Klinghoffer” had been scheduled, and for unknown reasons, the tragedy was replaced by Rossini’s foamy, musical shaving mug: “The Barber of Seville.”

MET revivals will alternate with new productions conceptualized by leading international directors. There’s also only one MET premiere: Rossini’s “La Donna del Lago” – hard to believe the MET has never staged it before. Joyce DiDonato, the queen of bel canto, will sing the lead.

If you’re a traditionalist and can’t let go of old-fashioned, waistcoat-and-wig costume operas, you may be offput by some time traveling. That will be true for British Director Adrian Noble’s “Macbeth” and his countryman’s production of “The Marriage of Figaro.” Richard Eyre sets Mozart’s comedy in 1930s Seville, and his freshly steamed interpretation of “Carmen” leaps over the composer’s original time slot of 1830 to the 20th century. For the adventuresome, fresh takes on classic works are the best way to keep grand opera current. Broadway choreographer Susan Stroman and her creative team have has been invited to update the schmaltzy “The Merry Widow,” and the party’s going to Maxim’s.

Here’s the roster:

Oct. 11, Verdi’s “Macbeth,” with Anna Netrebko and Zeljko Lucic, in a revival of the 2007 production by Adrian Noble.

Oct. 18, Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro,” with Ildar Abdrazakov and Marlis Petersen, a new production directed by Richard Eyre.

Nov. 1, Bizet’s “Carmen,” with Anita Rachvelishvili and Aleksandrs Antonenko, in the 2009 production conceptualized by Richard Eyre.

Nov. 22, Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia,” with Isabel Leonard and Lawrence Brownlee.

Dec. 13, Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg,” with Johan Reuter, Johan Botha and Annette Dasch in a marathon performance of six hours.

Jan. 17, 2015, Lehár’s “The Merry Widow,” with Renée Fleming and Nathan Gunn, directed by Broadway’s award-winning Susan Stroman.

Jan. 31, Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann,” with tenor Vittorio Grigolo, Hibla Gerzmava, Erin Morley and Christine Rice as the three heroines as well as American baritone Thomas Hampson as the Four Villains.

Feb. 14, Tchaikovsky’s “Iolanta” and Bartok’s “Bluebeard’s Castle,” with Anna Netrebko, Nadja Michael and Mikhail Petrenko, directed by Mariusz Trelinski in a 1940ish film noir style.

March 14, Rossini’s “La Donna del Lago,” with Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez, a MET premiere, based on a novel in verse by Sir Walter Scott.

April 25, Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana” and Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci,” with tenor Marcelo Álvarez singing both lead roles, in a new production conceived by Sir David McVicar set in two time periods but the same Sicilian location.

jreynolds@durangoherald.com. Judith Reynolds is a Durango writer, art historian and arts journalist.

If you go

The 2014-15 season of The MET: Live in HD at Fort Lewis College will kick off Oct. 11 with “Macbeth” and run through April 25. Season subscriptions and individual tickets are on sale now. Visit www.durangoconcerts.com for more information.



Reader Comments