Latest updates

I'm transitioning to another appointment (the kind that promises tenure at the end of the tunnel!), which is why I've been absent the past few months. In the next few weeks, I'll have to figure out how to achieve productive homeostasis between work and play, because I don't want Sieglinde to "die" just like that. But the new job is grueling, and the demands for tenure daunting, so no promises. Meanwhile, I have an inch thick of tickets to the Met, for an ambitious list of 20+ operas this season (many for multiple viewings, especially the Armida and the Attila). What was I thinking when I bought these tickets? Well, we'll see how things equilibrate. We may just have to settle for twitter-type blog entries, who knows.

In the meantime, I invite you to enjoy the latest edits on Brad's Met Futures page:

For the 2010-11 season: Madama Butterfly has been dropped; Anna Netrebko has been taken off La Traviata; Joyce Di Donato has been taken off Le Comte Ory. For Wozzeck, Peter Rose has been taken off the roster, while Walter Fink has been added; and for Don Carlo, Patricia Racette replaces Angela Marambio. Maestro Roberto Rizzi Brignoli will debut to conduct La Boheme, and Cristina Gallardo-Domas will share the role of Mimi. Vittorio Grigolo will share the role of the Duke in Rigoletto (after his debut in La Boheme in the same season). Dwayne Croft has been added to the roster of La Fanciulla del West to sing Sonora, while Salvatore Licitra will sing Cavaradossi in Tosca.

For the 2012-13 season: Francesca da Rimini remains in the repertory, but it may not be a new production. Don Carlo will have Angela Marambio, Anna Smirnova as Eboli in her debut, Eric Halfvarson as the Grand Inquisitor, and Maestro Lorin Maazel as conductor.

Met Futures: March Madness edition

Sieglinde, in the midst of work-related turmoil, brings you the latest juicy updates to Brad's Met Futures page:

For the 2010-11 season: Sondra Radvanovsky has been added to the cast of Tosca; Simon O'Neill will join the cast of Die Walküre as a second Siegmund; for Don Carlo, Simon Keenlyside has been tapped to sing Posa, and Maestro Lorin Maazel has been removed as conductor; In Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Cristina Gallardo-Domas will be Antonia; and in Nixon in China, Janis Kelly will debut as Pat Nixon.

For the 2011-12 season: Aida has been added to the roster, with a cast that includes Violeta Urmana, Stephanie Blythe, and Stefan Kocan as Ramfis; Maria Guleghina returns as Abigaille in Nabucco; and the Rodelinda cast will feature the return of celebrated portrayals by Renée Fleming, Stephanie Blythe, Andreas Scholl, and Kobie van Rensburg, alongside Iestyn Davies, who will debut as Unulfo.


For the 2012-13 season: Parsifal will be a new production, co-produced with Opera de Lyon and directed by Francois Girard, which will star Jonas Kaufmann; Simon Keenlyside will be Prospero in The Tempest; and Mariusz Kwiecien will be Onegin.

[Sieglinde at the moment is too busy to blog, but she's been to a bunch of things since she last wrote. Who knows if she'll get around to sharing her thoughts, trashing a few conductors, and not trashing Natalie Dessay for a change.]

There's always next (next) year

Now that the Met 2009-10 season roster has been officially announced, it's time to shift our collective obsession to seasons 2010-11 and beyond. Brad Wilber's Met Futures page, which will remain in Sieglinde's Diaries for the foreseeable future, has just been updated with the following info:

In La Boheme, Vittorio Grigolo and Kristine Opolais will make their Met debuts in the fall of 2010 as Rodolfo and Musetta respectively, joining a cast which already includes several debuting international artists.

In the new production of Das Rheingold, Eric Owens is Alberich, and Hans-Peter Koening is Fafner.

In Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Isabel Leonard will sing Nicklausse.

In Don Carlo, Sonia Ganassi will take the role of Eboli.

Recession special: three giants on stage for $15

Cilea ADRIANA LECOUVREUR, Met 10.II.2009; c. Armiliato; Guleghina, Borodina, Domingo, Frontali.

Rush review: in his slow decline, Placido Domingo can still convene a worldclass performance. A bounty of audience goodwill goes a long way, of course. His tours above the staff are understandably calculated, with some top notes on the verge of faltering, but with Domingo there is never fear of total meltdown (cf. Villazon). Thus, no matter how arduous it seems for him to scale the heights these days, the audience never feels uncomfortable or burdened. A true wonder that it's his 40th year at the Met. In the style department, he remains unmatched, bailing out this artless opera with rare elegance. Nothing he can do with his Adriana, however. Maria Guleghina is always the show within the show. Her elements were present: extraterrestrial sound, massive resonance, diminuendos galore, crystal pianos, and stage deportment matched only by her big feet. Too dominant, she's always Maria and never the role, and we've all learned to love her that way. During her duets with Domingo, I imagined instead another scene involving incestuous twins, and just how grand it could be. Why the f*ck doesn't she move onto Wagner already. I'd forsake pork shoulder for one her "Rache! Tod! Tod uns beiden!" I mean, really. The highlight of the evening, of course, was the bitch slap with Olga Borodina (who was stellar, by the way). They turned it way on, I swear they looked like they were going to burst out laughing. Forget Cilea, forget Adriana: it was Ukraine vs. Russia. All the queens went home happy.