Met Opera 2014-2015 season Opening Night: Richard Eyre to Direct New Le Nozze di Figaro

The New York Times reports that Peter Gelb has changed the director of the 2014-15 season opening night. Richard Eyre will direct a new production replacing Michael Grandage who can not do the production. Peter Mattei will sing the Count but it is unknown who the rest of the cast will be. Rumor has it Maija Kovalevska, Marlis Petersen and Mikhail Peterenko are set to star. Continue reading

Deutsche Grammophon Announces Red Square DVD

 The Yellow label has announced the DVD to the historical Red Square concert and the cover art is exactly the poster that was used to promote the concert. The program featured works by Verdi, Tchiakovsky, Giordano, Puccini and Cilea.

2014 Salzburg Festival Plans

Alexander Perriera has previewed the 2014 Salzburg Festival and promises a lot of surprises. The director said that he is planning a new production of Il Trovatore with Anna Netrebko, Placido Domingo and Francesco Meli. He is also planning a new production of Der Rosenkavalier with Zubin Mehta conducting. There will also be a Don Giovanni production and Scubert's Fierrabras. On the concert schedule there will be a full cycle of Bruckner sypmphonies, conducted by the likes of Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Muti, Daniele Gatti, Riccardo Chailly, Philippe Jordan, Bernard Haitink and Christoph Eschenbach. No details have been revealed yet but more will come in November. 

Elina Garanca To Change Repertoire

The Latvian Mezzo soprano recently told the Kurier her desire to change repertoire and revealed that she wants to sing Verdi. 

She stated, "As I turn 40 I want to sing more Verdi, and look more at the dramatic repertoire. I dream of Amneris in Aida, that would be the summit. I have Parsifal at home right now, and I'm looking at Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde. Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana is already scheduled, and in Don Carlo is on the books for 2016."

Met 2015-19 Predictions

As the season comes to a start new details on the upcoming Met season have been released by La Cieca on Parterre. The site announced the replacement of the Faust as well as the opening night for the 2015-16 season.

According to the blog, the 2014-2015 season is going to go off pretty much as predicted, except that Faust is not going to happen.A possible revival of Macbeth will take its place, though most likely without Anna Netrebko, whose Lady Macbeth  will not arrive in New York until later.

2015-16: Netrebko will sing Desdemona in the 2015-2016 opening night production of Otello, starring Alexsandrs Antonenko and Zeljko Lucic, under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. However Netrebko will sing Il trovatore and Don Pasquale.  The Deborah Warner Messiah has been canceled and a revival of Die Fledermaus will also happen. Placido Domingo will return to Simon Boccanegra. A new production of  Manon Lescaut will premiere with  Jonas Kaufmann and Kristine Opolais.

2016-2017: The Dmitri Tcherniakov Der Rosenkavalier will happen with Joyce DiDonato,Erin Morley and Renée Fleming.  That season also sees the long-awaited return of Guillaume Tell to the Met repertoire featuring Bryan Hymel/John Osborn, and Angela Meade/Marina Rebeka . Netrebko is featured in a revival of Onegin and a revival of Manon Lescaut.

2017-2018:  Semiramide will return to the repertoire with DiDonato in the title part.  Netrebko will sing Lady M.

Between 2017 and 2019 plans are obviously very flexible. Stefan Herheim‘s Meistersinger is, as we know, on its way, but La Cieca’s source says the Met is “putting out feelers” for a new Lohengrin as well. Sometime (sooner rather than later) Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo will team for new productions ofRoméo et Juliette and Les pêcheurs de perles directed by Mary Zimmerman. There are also plans for Netrebko to sing Norma.

Anna Netebko Verdi Album review

I recently published my first Cd review through Latinospost. Here is a sample of the review and you can continue reading.

"It has been five years since Anna Netrebko recorded a solo album for her record company Deutsche Grammophon. This year she celebrates her tenth anniversary with the company with a CD dedicated to Giuseppe Verdi's 200^th anniversary entitled "Verdi." The CD is a selection of arias that were personal favorites of the soprano and a preview of works she will add to her repertoire in the coming seasons.Since her album "Souvenirs" Netrebko's voice has obtained a larger, heavier and darker sound. The soprano who once sang the coloratura and lyric roles proves in her latest album she is ready for more dramatic ones." Continue Reading.

Alice Coote and Sophie Koch To Replace Elina Garanca

The Met press office has just released the following press statement: “Elina Garanca has withdrawn from her 2013-14 Met engagements because she is pregnant with her second child, who is due this winter. Garanca was originally scheduled to sing Octavian in three performances of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier and Charlotte in a new production of Massenet’s Werther. Two star mezzo-sopranos will replace her in these performances: Alice Coote in Der Rosenkavalier and Sophie Koch, making her Met debut, in Werther.“

Jonas Kaufmann in First Don Carlo Pictures From Salzburg

The first pictures of Salzburg's Don Carlo have been revealed. And I am happy to announce that it is not all black. After seeing Munich and the Met's hideous productions, Peter Stein seems to have realized that Verdi operas can also have color. This is by far the most anticipated production of the year and one that am most looking forward to. The opera will be broadcast from Medici and ORF and should eventually get a DVD (Hopefully). 

Anna Netrebko to Sing Lady Macbeth at the Met

Anna Netrebko has revealed her future plans for the upcoming season. She revealed that she has already signed a contract with the Met to sing Lady Macbeth and that she will do a new production of Il Trovatore in Salzburg. She also said she would sing Manon Lescaut with Riccardo Muti conducting and would also sing Adriana Lecrouveur. She also plans on singing the role of Elsa in Lohengrin and the four last songs. For more information click here.

Aleksandra Kurzak Pregnant; Elina Garanca Rumored as Well

Polish coloratura soprano Aleksandra Kurzak has announced that she is pregnant to Roberto Alagna's child. The singer posted the following comments on facebook: Today is my birthday, and the most happy one, so let's make it official...
We are expecting BABY!!!

No news on how this development will affect her performances at the Met in November. However Congratulations.

An email from Ernesto Palacio, manager to Elina Garanca, states, “Elina Garanca is waiting for a second baby. Would arrive on December. She would cancel Rosenkavalier at the Met, Carmen in London and MAYBE Werther at the Met.”

In other baby news, La Cieca is also hearing rumors that Elina Garanca is pregnant and that she may cancel Werther for this Met season. Nothing has been confirmed.

The Met Gets a New Eugene Onegin Director

The just sent out a press statement which said that Deborah Warner would direct her production of Eugene Onegin in September. 

The statement was the following: 

Deborah Warner, director of the Met’s season-opening new production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, will be unable to direct her staging at the Met due to an unexpected surgical procedure and the anticipated recovery time.

Replacing Warner as director of the production will be actress and director Fiona Shaw, Warner’s frequent artistic collaborator.

Shaw makes her Met debut with this production. Her previous directorial credits include Henze’sElegy for Young Lovers, Vaughan Williams’s Riders to the Sea, and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at English National Opera, and an upcoming production of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia at the Glyndebourne Festival.

The twenty-five-year working partnership between Fiona Shaw and Deborah Warner started with a landmark production of Electra in 1988. Their many collaborations since then have included Medea, The Waste Land, Happy Days, and The Testament of Mary (all of which were seen in New York).

Ms. Shaw’s numerous honors include Best Actress awards from the London Critics’ Circle, the Olivier Awards, and the Evening Standard Awards, as well as a Tony Award nomination; in 2001, she was made a Commander of the British Empire for services to drama.

Eugene Onegin opens the Met season on September 23, and continues for thirteen performances through December 12. The opening night cast, conducted by Valery Gergiev, features Anna Netrebko as Tatiana, Oksana Volkova as Olga, Piotr Beczala as Lenski, Mariusz Kwiecien as Onegin, and Alexei Tanovitski as Gremin. Later performances, conducted by Alexander Vedernikov, star Marina Poplavskaya as Tatiana, Elena Maximova as Olga, Rolando Villazón as Lenski, Peter Mattei as Onegin, and Štefan Kocán as Gremin. 

Rusalka Preview 2013-2014

Renee Fleming returns to her acclaimed turn in Dvorak's Fairy Tale Rusalka. Piotr Beczala, Dolora Zajick and Emily Magee round out the cast in Otto Schenk's classic production.