The Tempest DVD

Deustche Grammophon has announced the release of The Metropolitan Opera's production of "The Tempest." The DVD is slated for release in August and stars Audrey Luna, Simon Keenlyside, Isabel Leonard, Alek Shrader and Alan Oke. 

The Barber of Seville Opens Today

Isabel Leonard and Alek Shrader lead the new English translation of The Barber of Seville. Yves Abel Conducts the Met Orchestra in Bartlett Sher's hit production

For more information on the Barber of Seville Click here to read our preview

For more on Isabel Leonard and Rodion Pogossov's Barber of Seville read last years review linked here.

For more on Alek Shrader click here for our Tempest Review.

The Barber of Seville Preview 2012-2013

Isabel Leonard leads the cast of The Barber of Seville in Bartlett Sher's hit production. The production part of the Met's Holiday season presentations. 

The Production

Bartlett Sher's production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia returns to the Met. The production which premiered in 2006 has become one the Met's best new productions since the inception of the Gelb era. The production was revived last year and continues to be refreshing. It is made up of doorways, trees and an anvil. It has a walkway in front of the orchestra which can sometimes get in the way of the acoustics but helps to bring some intimate moments Critics have called delightful and one of the highlights of Peter Gelb.The revival this year may be one of the least interesting revivals but what is intriguing is what cuts will be made for the English version. The production which flows so well will most likely be reworked for the cuts and for the new text.     

Met Opera Review: Robert Lepage and an Incredible Cast Ignite The Tempest's Monotonous Score

by Francisco Salazar

(For the November 6, 2012 Performance)

Shakespeare has been the subject of many composers' masterpieces from Verdi with Macbeth, Otello, Falstaff, Rossini with Otello, Britten with Midsummer Night's Dream and Wagner with Measure for Measure (one of his earlier operas). In 2004 Thomas Ades joined this circle with an adaptation of The Tempest, Shakespeare's 1611 play. Meredith Oakes adapted the work and according to Ades used modern English to be all the more faithful and concentrate on the drama. The work tells the story of Prospero who has been exiled from Naples by his brother Antonio and seeks revenge.

According to Ades, he set the music to be faithful and sought to give each character a different palette of music in order to fully flesh the multi-faced aspects of the drama. While I don't mean to criticize his score because it has lots of merit, the music did not do much for me. Going into the opera I knew the music was difficult to follow and could get a little austere at times. However I thought that seeing it live would be a better experience than on recording. The result was the opposite. Ades' score never really builds and while it has some ravishing moments such as the opening Storm (a tumult of strings and winds that creates the effect of unbridled fury) and the Miranda and Ferdinand duet at the end of act two (which builds to ecstasy with the strings and winds crescendo to one of the more memorable melodies), The Tempest's music is rather bland and forgettable. I commend Ades for giving each character a specific type of music. For example the spirit Ariel is characterized through her high tessitura and eeriness in color. Ariel never descends from high D's, E's, F's and even G's and has some of the more energetic music in the work. Prospero on the other hand never has any sort of melody and music is characterized by the gruff orchestration. The two lovers Miranda and Ferdinand get the most romantic music with some lush melodies and the most legato singing. All these features enhance the score but the biggest problem is that you never really feel a climatic moment in the opera as the music becomes monotonous by the end of the work and the audience is never given an opportunity to feel the cathartic moments that Prospero or any of the characters feel.

The Tempest opens tomorrow

The Metropolitan Opera premiere of The Tempest opens tomorrow starring Simon Keenlyside. Isabel Leonard, Alek Shrader and Audrey Luna join the all star cast led by Thomas Ades in the podium in Robert Lepage new production. 

For more information view our preview linked here.

For more information on Isabel Leonard view our barber of Seville review.

For more on Robert Lepage view our Gotterdammerung, Siegfried and Rheingold reviews  

The Tempest Preview 2012-2013

Simon Keenlyside leads an outstanding cast in Thomas Ades contemporary work in a new production by Ring director Robert Lepage.

The Production

The Tempest makes its New York Premiere at the Metropolitan Opera House on October 23. The opera which was composed by living composer Thomas Ades was first staged at the Royal Opera House. It later received a premiere in the US at the Santa Fe Opera and then was premiered in Canada in the Robert Lepage production that will now come to the Met. Lepage who made his debut in 2008 in La Damnation de Faust has been repeatedly accused of playing with his productions to create visuals and never really focusing on the text nor the story. For example his Ring cycle at the Met became one of the most polarizing productions to date as many criticized the lack of inventiveness in the production. Critics stated that it was a bunch of repetitive projections, none of which really exhibit technological advance that is leaps and bounds ahead of more traditional theatrical tricks? Where were the flashy images that would make us feel truly immersed in the environment created by these expensive, heavy, and even dangerous planks? Were a bunch of zebra stripes between scene changes because lack of imagination the most abstract LePage could come up with? Not to mention the different combinations of imagines portraying wood. Or all that running water time and again. Where were the plethora of shapes that these planks would form as previewed by the original Ring trailer? Was a spinning wheel really all it could come up with? For all the critiques, Lepage has obtained another chance with the Met. For his new production, he has decided to bring the action to the 18th century inside the original La Scala theater. He stated that La Scala was a magical place in the 18th century and because the opera is magical, he thought it would be interesting to subvert the action within the theater. The production premiered this past summer in Quebec where critics were mixed about it as they complained that production simply isolates the audience with its effects. Certain elements that bothered included Prospero overhearing Miranda and Ferdinand in a prompters box and Ariel manipulating a clunky spotlight. They also did not like the whole concept as it took away from the magic of Shakespeare's play. However on a good note they stated that the opening storm was inventive. Usually after first runs directors look back at their missteps and try and fix them as they did with Gotterdammerung and even Tosca. Working with a new cast Lepage will most likely find new territory  to cover that could make his vision more understandable and hopefully enjoyable. The Tempest marks Lepage fourth HD transmission