Tuesday, September 18, 2007
I’m gearing up for the new opera season, which for me is kicked off with the Met’s opening night on Monday. A new production of "Lucia di Lammermoor" is the chosen event and stars the coloratura soprano, Natalie Dessay.
I’m hoping Dessay tears it up. . . . Last year’s Madama Butterfly, while wonderful, lacked the awe that, say, Renee Fleming had a few years back when she did her first Traviata. There was no diva element. Nonetheless, I will certainly LOVE to hear the opera’s mad scene, where Dessay must convince the audience she is crazy enough to kill her bridegroom and stumble around in the town square with a bloody dress (waving a knife) while singing a duet with a flute.
But the rest of the season is chalk full of diva-dom. What am I going to see??? Glad you asked. Renee Flemming brings her “Traviata” back to us (thank GOD!!!); Angela Brown, virtually unknown to the opera world until she filled in as Aida, makes her company debut as, you guessed it, “Aida” and also sings “Un Ballo in Maschera;” Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” and “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” (which I’ve never seen) are on my subscription; Mom and her friend Paula coming in before the holidays to see “War & Peace”, “Romeo et Juliet” and “Ballo” with me. Mom returns in February to see a set of operas I’m EXTERMELY excited about: “Otello” and “Die Walkure” – both have dream team casts, and are operas that --in my opinion-- contain some of the best music ever written. We are also seeing Barbiere, which will be difficult to top last year’s, but we had an evening to kill. Other notable things is a new production of “Hansel un Gretel” that looks pretty cool and “Ernani,” which is not performed too often these days.
Of course, these operas are only about 1/3 of what the Met stages, and you know I can always be counted on seeing La Boheme, and some of the other staples. There’s also three other new productions I’d like to check out there.
Bring it on!!
