Royal Opera House Cinema 2014-15 Schedule Leaked

Yesterday the cinema schedule for the Royal Opera was leaked. The link was immediately taken down but the schedule is as follows: 

The official program of the Live Cinema Season 2014/15

Thursday 16 October 2014 [7:15pm]

The Royal Ballet

MacMillan: MANON (live)

Cast tbc

Monday 27 October 2014 [7:15pm]

The Royal Opera

Verdi : I DUE FOSCARI (live)

New Production

Plácido Domingo / Francesco Meli / Conductor: Antonio Pappano

Wednesday 26 November 2014 [7:15pm]

The Royal Opera

Donizetti: L’ELISIR D’AMORE (live)

Vittorio Grigolo / Lucy Crowe / Bryn Terfel / Conductor: Daniele Rustioni

Tuesday 16 December 2014 [7:15pm]

The Royal Ballet

Wheeldon:  ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND (live)

Cast tbc

Thursday 29 January 2015 [7:15pm]

The Royal Opera

Giordano: ANDREA CHÉNIER (live)

New Production

Jonas Kaufmann / Eva-Maria Westbroek / Conductor: Antonio Pappano

Tuesday 24 February 2015 [7:15pm]

The Royal Opera

Wagner:  DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER (live)

Bryn Terfel / Conductor: Andris Nelsons

Tuesday 17 March 2015 [7:15pm]

The Royal Ballet

Petipa: SWAN LAKE (live)

Cast tbc

Wednesday 1 April 2015 [7:15pm]

The Royal Opera

Weill: RISE AND FALL OF THE CITY OF MAHAGONNY (live)

Anne Sofie von Otter / Willard White / Christine Rice

Conductor: Mark Wigglesworth

Tuesday 5 May 2015 [7:15pm]

The Royal Ballet

Ashton: LA FILLE MAL GARDÉE (live)

Cast tbc

Wednesday 10 June 2015 [7:15pm]

The Royal Opera

Puccini: LA BOHÈME (live)

Anna Netrebko / Joseph Calleja / Conductor: Dan Ettinger

Sunday 5 July 2015 [2:45pm]

The Royal Opera

Rossini: GUILLAUME TELL (live)

Gerald Finley / John Osborn / Conductor: Antonio Pappano

Royal Opera House Rumors

The Royal Opera House is taking a while to announce their season but there are some things that are rumored for next season. 

Mariusz Kwiecien  has already announced on his website that he will be joined by Saimir Pirgu in Steffen Aarfing's production of Szymanowski's King Roger in June of 2015.

Meanwhile Dmitri Platanias will sing the title role of Nabucco, which will be revived for the first time since the new production premiered. The Royal Opera will also stage Andrea Chenier  with Jonas Kaufmann, Eva-Maria Westbroek and Željko Lucic. The production will most likely be featured in the Live in Cinemas series. 

Another big opera will be Verdi's I Due Foscari. The production will star Maria Agresta as Lucrezia and Placido Domingo who will also perform Simon Boccanegra. Once again these are all rumors and things can change by the time the company announces the season. 

Met Future season rumors

With the Met announcing the 2014-15 season in the next two weeks, Met Wiki has provided an updated list of what the season is looking like. A couple of changes from the previous list revealed a number of months ago include Jonas Kaufmann singing Don Jose in Carmen instead of Don Carlos, Anna Netrebko singing Lady Macbeth in Macbeth with Zeljko Lucic, Rene Pape and Joseph Calleja. Nathan Gunn has also been added to the cast of the Merry Widow while Eva Maria-Westbroek will perfom the role of Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana. Bryan Hymel has been added to the cast of La Boheme and Piotr Beczala will sing Un Ballo in Maschera instea do Yonghoon Lee. Meanwhile Bryn Terfel Emily Magee and Matthew Polenzani will not sing the revival to Die Meisteringer. A Number of Opera are still missing casts including Die Zauberflote, Hansel and Gretel, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

For the Complete List of Rumors Click Here. And Tell Us what Your xcited for and what you think will be the HDs of the year.

Anna Netrebko's First Desdemona Live Stream

Anna Netrebko sings her first Desdemona at the Verbier Festival on July 25 along with Aleksandrs Antonenko as Otello. The performance will only include the first act of the opera and will also feature Alexy Markov as Iago. The second half of the concert will include Bryn Terfel in the third act of Die Walkure with Irene Theorin and Eva Maria Westbroek. Valery Gergiev will conduct the concert. For more information click here and for the live stream click here.

Met Opera Review: Westbroek delivers on her Promise in Zadonai's eratic score

Its been over 25 years since the Metropolitan Opera presented Zadonai's opera Francesca da Rimini. The opera based on Dante's Inferno was first brought to the Met in 1916 and only returned in 1984 and 1986 with Placido Domingo and Renata Scotto in the title role.

The amount of time it took to revive is no surprise as the work as a whole is difficult vocally  and the music is  demanding for the audience as it is spare on melodies. However there are some great moments such as the conclusion to the first act where the cello plays the lushes love theme which is then repeated at the end of the third act when Francesca and Paolo read the Lancelot and Guinevere story. Another great moment in the score is Malatestino and Giovanni's duet. While the music lacks any clear melodies, the way Zadonai contrasts Malestino's comic sardonic character and Giovanni's anger is brillant. Malatestinos music is represented by light winds while Giovanni's music uses the orchestra's brass and full string section. The final duet is also a highlight as the music brings out Francesca and Paolo's desires. It is no longer restrained and subtle, it is explosive with swelling violins and ends in a climatic verismo style with the two singers going to the top of their ranges. It is one of the most passionate moments in the entire opera.

While there are these brilliant moments Zadonai takes too long with generic characters such as in the third act when he takes twenty minutes on spring songs that do not move the plot forward. He could have used a more extensive love duet in that act. The other issue is the work ends up being a bit to cold and its hard to actually connect with it. However it is still an opera that definitely deserves more performances and one that should be exposed to the public.

2014-2015 Met Opera Season Rumor

After the long awaited 2013-2014 was announced we now have some news on the next season. 2014-15 looks to be even more exciting with 6 new productions and even more exciting revivals.

Opening night will  be with a new production of Le nozze di Figaro, a production that is in a bit of flux at the moment since Anna Netrebko elected not to add Contessa Almaviva to her stage repertoire at the moment.  As it stands now, the new Mozart  will be conducted by James Levine in a production by Michael Grandage. The cast will be Maija Kovalevska, Marlis Petersen and Mikhail Petrenko but by the lack of stars the Met will most likely add a more marketable singer to the list.

Five further new productions dot the season:

The Death of Klinghoffer. Director: Tom Morris (ENO production]

Iolanta/Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. Conductor: Valery Gergiev. Director: Mariusz Trelinski. Cast includes Anna Netrebko and Alexei Tanovitski in theTchaikovksy, with  Nadja Michael and Mikhail Petrenko in the Bartók.

The New Year’s Eve extravaganza this season will be The Merry Widow, Conductor TBA. Susan Stroman directs Renée Fleming; later in the season the show returns with Susan Graham and Rodney Gilfry.

La Donna del Lago. Conductor: Michele Mariotti.  Director: John Fulljames.Joyce DiDonato, Daniela Barcellona, Juan Diego Florez.

Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci. Conducto: Fabio Luisi. Director: TBA. Marcelo Alvarez, Barbara Frittoli.

The repertoire will further include revivals of:

Aida with Liudmyla Monastyrska, Dmitry Belosselskiy.

Un Ballo in Maschera  with Sondra Radvanovsky, Yonghoon Lee.

Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

La Boheme with Maria Agresta.

Carmen with Elina Garanca/Anita Rachvelishvili, Roberto Alagna, Anita Hartig/Ailyn Perez.

Les Contes d’Hoffmann with Susanna Phillips, Matthew Polenzani.

Don Carlos with Barbara Frittoli, Nadia Krasteva, Jonas Kaufmann/Yonghoon Lee, Simon Keenlyside, Ferruccio Furlanetto. Chef d’orchestre for the first-ever Met performances in the original French will be Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Don Giovanni

Ernani  with Placido Domingo as Don Carlo.

Faust with Anna Netrebko, Joseph Calleja, Rene Pape. [This production was described to La Cieca as "hanging by a thread," with nobody involved feeling enthusiastic about the project.]

Hansel and Gretel

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk with Eva-Maria Westbroek, Brandon Jovanovich,Raymond Very.

Lucia di Lammermoor with Olga Peretyatko, conducted by Maurizio Benini.

Manon with Diana Damrau, Vittorio Grigolo.

Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg with Emily Magee, Karen Cargill, Johan Botha, Matthew Polenzani, Bryn Terfel, conducted by James Levine.

The Rake’s Progress with Lisette Oropesa, Stephanie Blythe, Gerald Finley.

La Traviata with Marina Rebeka, Francesco Demuro.

Die Zauberflote.

What do you guys think of this season!

Die Walkure premieres tonight on PBS

The second installment of the Ring Cycle premieres tonight. Two years ago I named this performance the best of HD of 2011 and it is truly an incredible performance with an all star cast that includes Deborah Voigt, Bryn Terfel, Jonas Kaufmann, Stephanie Blythe, Eva-Maria Westbroek, and Hans-Peter Konig. James Levine Conducts this exciting new ring.

For information read our review.

New Met Rumors!

Opera magazine has just released a slew of rumors regarding the furture of the Met and the Royal Opera House. Here is a look.....

Notable DVD and CD releases for the Month of July

This month a slew of DVDs are released from the greatest theaters in the world. 

The featured DVD of the month is from the Royal Opera House. Il Trittico conducted by Antonio Pappano stars Eva Maria Westbroek, Lucio Gallo, Aleksandrs Antonenko, and Ermonela Jaho. The production is by Richard Jones. The performance was hailed as glorious and rewarding.