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 2013-2014 Lyric Opera of Chicago Season Announced

The Chicago Opera has announced their new season with Anna Maria Martinez (Rusalka, Otello), Jonas Kaufmann (Gala Concert), Joyce Didonato (La Clemenza di Tito), Joseph Calleja (La Traviata) and Johan Botha (Otello) leading an all star season. Falk Struckmann (Otello), Brandon Jovanovich (Rusalka), Isabel Leonard, Nathan Gunn (Barber of Seville) and Thomas Hampson (Parsifal) will also take part in the season.

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.     

San Francisco Opera 2013-2014 season announced

The San Francisco Opera has announced their 2013-2014 season. Patricia Racette will lead the season opening with Mefistofele as well as with Showboat and Madama Butterfly. Ramon Vargas, Dolora Zajick, Ildar Abdrazakov, Isabel Leonard, and Bryn Terfel also make up the lineup.

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

More opening night Pictures!

The Met has just released new pictures from opening night! Check pictures of Anna Netrebko, Renee Fleming, Matthew Polenzani, Deborah Voigt, Carmen Giannattasio, Janai Brugger, Michael Mayer, Mariusz Kwiecien, Isabel Leonard, Alec Schrader and Placido Domingo.

Guess who graced the Red Carpet?

Last night the Met opened its 2012-2013 season and the celebrities came out to walk the carpet. Among them included Patrick Stewart, Martha Stewart, Maggie Grace, Lee Pace and Zac Posen. Even some of Opera's most talented came out icluding Renee Fleming, Deborah Voigt (She hosted), Maria Guleghina, Placido Domingo, Isabel Leonard, Lissette Oropesa and of course Anna Netrebko and her husband Erwin Schrott.

Here are couple of selections:

Met Opera: Il Barbiere Di Sivilgia Review

By David Salazar (for 10/22/11 performance)


Saturday's matinee performance of Rossini's famed "Barber" was nothing short of splendid in every possible way. The production, by Met's veteran director Bartlett Sher has continuously made it's return since its triumphant debut in 2006 and has cemented itself as one of the most successful productions to make its debut under the management of Peter Gelb. Sher's approach to his opera productions is vibrant and energetic (with a touch of the mystical and magical), regardless of the source material (dopplegangers in Offenbach's "Hoffmann," an endless bed in Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette," etc.). The "Barber" production was no exception. The staging's dominant feature is a series of doorways that constantly move about the stage to create a vast array of environments and locations. The staging is mainly minimalist in concept, but the coordination and positioning of the doorways enables the audience enough depth to be able to recreate the environment in his or her head. Sher litters the environment with enough furniture to strengthen his concept and it is clear that his actors know exactly where they are in each given set up and environment. The only problem that I have with Sher's production is the extended walkway that that wraps around the orchestra all the way to the audience. The problem with this walkway is not necessarily aesthetic (though people tend to lean forward to see it, causing difficulty for those seated behind). It does have some intriguing moments and tends to bring the singers closer to the audience. However, it tends to drown out/muffle the orchestra's sound.

The other plus of Sher's productions is that it tends to bring out the best from his cast. Nowhere was this better displayed than in this "Barber" performance. Over the last few years, this production has been a calling card for the leading Rosinas in the world. At it's debut, soprano Diana Damrau had a breakout run of performances to establish herself as a rising Met star. The following spring, Mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato did the same. A few seasons later, Latvian mezzo soprano Elina Garanca made her Met debut in this role and continues to be one of the Met's most promising stars. This year, the task came to young mezzo soprano Isabel Leonard, who is a different kind of singer. It has become custom for Rosina to be sung either by a light soprano or a mezzo soprano with an extended range despite that Rossini did not write this role for any of the three. Isabel Leonard's performance is likely the closest one can find to the original intentions of Rossini, still filled with tremendous coloratura flourishes, but without the stratospheric high notes that have become tradition. The beauty of the performance was that it proved that this role has so much texture and complexity with or without the high notes. Leonard's voice, which specializes (at the moment) in Mozart, Handel, and Rossini, seemed completely at home with the difficult coloratura passages that the role tasks its leading lady with. But it wasn't all about the rapid flourishes, as Leonard's voice added elegance and delicacy to the rare intimate moments of the opera. A prime example would be the trio at the end of the opera in which Rosina and Almaviva declare their love for one another. It also did not hurt that Leonard is a tremendous actress filled with versatility and energy. Her Rosina could be the flirtatious, adventurous, scheming Viper that she describes in her first aria "Una Voce Poco Fa"and still be the young girl clinging to the dream of love.

Tenor Javier Camarena had huge shoes to fill for me. I don't generally like to compare singers, but it is difficult to overlook the fact that Tenor Juan Diego Florez has essentially owned not only this role, but this repertoire for the last few years and has done it not only with his great voice, but also his tremendous acting ability. Few tenors have the two qualities able to match him. It was great to see a tenor who has that potential in Camarena who not only has the great (and young) voice, but strong control over character and acting. Camarena's Almaviva seems to hint more at the character that Count eventually becomes in Beaumarchais sequel "The Marriage of Figaro" (famously made into an earlier opera by Mozart) rather than the ideal hero that is usually played on stage. He was aggressive and impatient toward the townspeople in the opening scene, he was manipulative with Figaro and Basilio at the necessary moments. There seemed to be hints that this man could be violent, which made him all the more interesting. Camarena's agile, nuanced voice only added to the thrill of the performance. The final aria "Cessa Di Piu Resistere" had been left out of the repertoire for a long time, but has since been reinstated. It remains too difficult for many tenors today, but Camarena was more than up to the task, bringing every passage to life of this extended aria with depth and refinement. Rossini's coloratura demands for the tenor are unrivaled in the entire repertoire. They are long, fast, push the singer's range, and at times seem never ending. Camarena didn't seem the least bit troubled by their demands on breath control and tessitura.

Rodion Pogossov was a solid Figaro. He seemed a bit tentative vocally as he started his afternoon. Of course, he had to start with the massive task that is "Largo al Factotum" the opera's most famous aria. After that however, he swept through the performance with security, strength, and tremendous comic timing. His Figaro was an overconfident, greedy schemer, but still tremendously likable at the same time. Maurizio Muraro was a solid Dr. Bartolo tackling the difficult "A un dottor della mia sorte" with ease and agility. Samuel Ramey, here as Don Basilio, has already passed his best years and his voice has taken a wobbly nature that is not pleasant for some repertoire. However, Ramey was an imposing prescence as Basilio and despite the wobbly nature of his voice, its volume and strength remain incomparable. It is also essential to mention, that nobody is more familiar with the acting demands of Rossini's repetoire and Ramey reminds us why he was a major Rossini bass for so long. Jennifer Check was a also solid as Berta in her brief appearances. For this production Sher has added a silent character Ambrogio (played here by Rob Besserer) for comic relief. Besserer was simply splendid throughout, giving the audience some formidable gags (getting hit by trees, oranges, trying uselessly to stop and anvil, etc.).

Conductor Maurizio Benini had a strong performance. However, as aforementioned, the orchestra (a reduced one at that) lacked the potency and vibrancy that one is accustomed to, presumably because of the production itself.

Nonetheless, this "Barber" was exactly what one expects from a night at the Met. A creative production, great singing, great acting, lots of fun.