What made this particular production memorable for the Metropolitan Opera and its fans is it marked the return of James Levine to the podium after a nearly two-and-a-half year absence due to health issues. Using disguise, deception and a wicked sense of humor, Mozart’s opera ends happily ever after for one and all. Don Alfonso challenges the men to a bet revolving around the women and their ability to be faithful. Lorenzo Da Ponte, who wrote the libertti for The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni, wrote the libretto.įerrando and Guglielmo are vacationing with their fiancées, Dorabella and Fiordiligi. Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte had its world premiere in Vienna in 1790. This is a revival of Lesley Koenig’s 1996 production from the 2013-2014 season. Wednesday, July 8 – Mozart’s Così fan tutteĬonducted by James Levine starring Susanna Phillips, Isabel Leonard, Danielle de Niese, Matthew Polenzani, Rodion Pogossov and Maurizio Muraro. Later, his ‘Ah, si, ben mio’ was meltingly ardent and unmistakably the work of a genuine lyric tenor. In the opera’s most famous aria, ‘Di quella pira,’ his voice simply lacked the bite and thrust required for this showpiece of the Italian robust tenor.” Pavarotti was in good vocal health, immediately making ears prick up with his offstage song in the duel scene. While critics were not so keen on Melano’s direction, Donal Henahan, writing for the New York Times, liked much of Pavarotti’s performance. Pavarotti sang the role of Manrico throughout. When this production first opened that season at the Metropolitan Opera, Joan Sutherland sang the role of Leonora and Richard Bonynge was conducting. The opera has rarely been hailed for its story, but it certainly ranks as one of Verdi’s finest compositions. Several stories happen simultaneously and sometimes share the same characters. To offer up a quick synopsis here would be a fool’s game to play. The setting is Zaragoza, the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon, circa 1412. The opera had its world premiere in Rome in 1853. The libretto was written by Salvadore Cammarano with additions by Leone Emanuele Badare. Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore is based on the play El trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez published in 1836.
This Fabrizio Melano production is from the 1988-1989 season. Fabiano was the fourth person to sing the role of Rodolfo (following Dmytro Popov, Jean-Francois Borras and Russell Thomas).Ĭonducted by James Levine starring Éva Marton, Dolora Zajick, Luciano Pavarotti and Sherrill Milnes.
Phillips was the second woman to sing the role of Musetta. Yoncheva was the third person to sing Mimi (following Angel Blue and Anita Hartig).
This production had multiple casts during this season’s performances. (If this sounds like the musical Rent, it is because La Bohème served as Jonathan Larson’s inspiration for that musical.) They fall in love, but Mimi’s weakness may be a sign of something far more life-threatening than they know. Rodolfo stays home and meets a young woman named Mimi. Successfully getting out of a potentially bad situation with their landlord, all but one go out on the town. The story centers on four friends who are unable to pay their rent. The opera is based on Henri Murger’s 1851 novel, Scènes de la vie de bohème. The libretto is by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. This is a revival of Franco Zefferelli’s 1963 production from the 2017-2018 season.Įasily one of the most popular operas in the world, Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème had its world premiere in Turin, Italy in 1896. Here is the line-up for Week 17 at the Met:Ĭonducted by Marco Armiliato starring Sonya Yoncheva, Susanna Phillips, Michael Fabiano, Lucas Meachem, Alexey Lavrov, Matthew Rose and Paul Plishka. If you read this column early enough, you might still catch Rossini’s La Donna del Lago before it becomes unavailable at 6:30 PM EDT/3:30 PM PDT on Monday, July 6th. The schedule and start times are subject to change. They remain available for 23 hours of free viewing. Week 17 at the Met finds four huge crowd-pleasing operas sharing the week with a much lesser-known opera from 1914, one of Tchaikovsky’s operas and my personal favorite, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde.Īs you know, the Met Opera is making each production available on their website beginning at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM EDT.