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.“