Saturday,. July 5, Part 2

And now a look at tht live stuff starting at 1:30PM EDT and beyond:

• Sveriges Radio P2 - From Opéra-comique in Paris, a march 15th performance of Ferdinand Hérold's Zampa, with Richard Troxell, Bernard Richter, Patricia Petitbon, Doris Lamprecht and Vincent Ordonneau, conducted by William Christie.
• BBC Radio 3 - From the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, with Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, Aleksandra Kurzak, Peter Mattei, Barbara Frittoli, Anna Bonitatibus, Ann Murray, Robert Lloyd, Robin Leggate, Harry Nicoll, Kishani Jayasinghe and Donald Maxwell, conducted by Charles Mackerras.
• NPR World of Opera - From Washington National Opera, a rebroadcast of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, with Gordon Hawkins, Indira Mahajan, Terry Cook, Angela Simpson, Laquita Mitchell, Marietta Simpson, Eric Greene and Jermaine Smith, conducted by Wayne Marshall.
• KBYU - From Utah Festival Opera, a 2006 performance of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, with Darrell Babidge, Kara Shay Thomson, Kristopher Irmiter, Suzanne Woods, Sarah Austin, Vanessa Schukis, David Barron, Isai Jess Munoz, Venetia-Maria Stelliou, Nathan Anthony and David Bailey, conducted by Barbara Day Turner.
• KSUI, WFIU, WOI-FM & WRTI - per their schedule listings, these stations will be starting the WFMT Opera Series Fidelio at 1:30 EDT.
• Radio Oesterreich International - From Teatro Lirico, Cagliari, an April 24th performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitesh, with Mikhail Kazakov, Vitaly Panfilov, Tatiana Monogarova and Mikhail Gubsky, conducted by Alexander Vedernikov.
• WCNY - also broadcasting the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions finals concert.
• France Musique - Live, direct from the International Festival of Baroque Opera in Beaune, a performance of Scarlatti's Ottavia ou le trône retrouvé (Création en première française), with Yolanda Auyanet, Filippo Minaccia, Maria Grazia Schiavo, Maria Ercolano, Valentina Varriale, Giuseppe de Vittorio and Paolo Lopez, conducted by Antonio Florio.
• Radio Tre (RAI) - From Teatro Comunale di Ferrara, a May 25th performance of Vivaldi's Motezuma, with Vito Priante, Mary-Ellen Nesi, Laura Chierici, Franziska Gottwald, Theodora Baka and Gemma Bertagnolli, conducted by Alan Curtis.
• KUAT - per their schedule page, they start their broadcast of the WFMT Opera Series Fidelio at 3:00Pm EDT
• Lyric FM - Bellini's Norma, with Edita Gruberova and Jose Cura.
• WDAV - NPR World of Opera: Verdi's La Traviata from Vienna State Opera, with Krassamira Stoyanova, Piotr Beczala, Zeljko Lucic, Sophie Marilley, Gergely Nemeti, In-Sung Sim, Eijiro Kai and Alfred Sramek, conducted by Renato Palumbo.

Happy listening.

Saturday,. July 5

I hope all our American friends had a glorious Fourth of July. We sloughed off a bit, but are working hard to get everything posted in time for all this weekend's broadcasts. Here's a "quick and dirty" look at the live offerings starting at 1:00PM EDT this afternoon:

• CBC Two - From Rome, Rossini's Guillaume Tell, with John Osborn, Michele Pertusi, Alex Esposito, Norah Amsellem, Frédéric Caton, Darren Jeffrey, Vincent Ordonneau, Jérôme Varnier, Laura Polverelli and Ellie Dehn, soprano, Antonio Pappano conducting.
• Cesky Rozlhas 3-Vltava - From Prague, Dvorak's Dimitri, with Leo Marian Vodicka, Drahomíra Drobková, Magdaléna Hajóssyová, Lívia Ághová, Peter Mikuláš, Ivan Kusnjer, Ludek Vele, dene(k Harvánek and Pavel Haderer, conducted by Gerd Albrecht.
• DR P2 - A May, 2005 performance of Wagner's Siegfried, with Stig Fogh Andersen, James Johnson, Susanne Resmark and Sten Byriel, conducted by Michael Schønwandt.
• KBPS - The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions final concert.
• RTP Antena 2 - From Teatro da Zarzuela, Madrid in October 2006, a gala concert celebrating 150 Years of Teatro da Zarzuela, with Milagros Martín, Verónica Villarroel, Ana Maria Sánchez, Maria José Montiel, Isabel Rey, Maria Bayo, Lola Casariego, Luis Dámaso, António Gandia, Guillermo Orozco, José Bros, Luis Alvarez, Marco Moncloa, Juan Pons, José Julián Frontal, Manuel Lanza and Carlos Chausson, conducted by Miguel Roa.
• WETA - From Washington National Opera, Saint-Saens' Samson and Delilah, with Olga Borodina, Karl Tanner, Alan Held and Kyle Ketelson, conducted by Giovanni Reggioli.
• WFMT Opera Series (numerous stations) - From Los Angeles opera, Beethoven's Fidelio, with Anja Kampe, Klaus Florian Vogt, Eike Wilm Schulte, Matti Salminen, Oleg Bryjak, Rebekah Camm, Greg Fedderly, Robert MacNeil and James Creswell, conducted by James Conlon.
• WQXR - a rebroadcast of Janet Baker's historic farewell appearance at Catnegie Hall in Gluck's Orfeo et Eurydice,
• XLNC1 - A rebroadcast of the WFMT Opera Series performance of Verdi's Falstaff, from Chicago Lyric Opera, with Andrew Shore, Veronica Villarroel, Boaz Daniel, Meredith Arwady, Elizabeth De Shong, Stacey Tappan, Bryan Griffin, David Cangelosi, Rodell Rosel and Andrew Funk, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.

More to come....

Happy listening

URGENT RED ALERT!! FRAU at GMT 1630 / EDT 12:30 PM!!

The Subject-head says it all. A sudden switcheroo(!!!!!): the start time is one half hour earlier than previously stated -- now at GMT 1630 / EDT 12:30 PM!!

Enjoy! -- and catch it in time!!!!!!

Two banner events in the next 36 hours!

• MET Web Stream / WQXR - Met Summer Concert: Live in Prospect Park
  The Met's summertime tradition of free outdoor performances returns with a special one-night only event in Prospect Park. Celebrate the start of summer with two of opera's biggest stars - Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna- singing popular arias and duets. Ion Marin conducts the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus in the operatic event of the summer, sponsored by Bank of America.

Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna have sometimes been referred to as "The Love Couple" of opera, but together or apart, they always generate the kinds of thrills in actual performance that make some opera lovers reach for extravagant comparisons. You can judge for yourself how extravagant at GMT 0000 / EDT 8:00PM (Friday) this evening, when WQXR and the official Metropolitan Opera Web Stream carry tonight's Gala Concert at Prospect Park under the stars. Ion Marin leads Gheorghiu and Alagna and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus in popular arias and duets. This is a special one-night only event, marking the beginning of summer.

• WFMT Opera Series (numerous stations) - From Lyric Opera of Chicago, Richard Strauss's Frau ohne Schatten-- Sir Andrew Davis conducts a cast featuring Deborah Voigt as the Empress, Christine Brewer as Dyer’s Wife, Jill Grove as the Nurse, Robert Dean Smith as the Emperor, Franz Hawlata as Barak, Quinn Kelsey as the Spirit Messenger, Stacey Tappan as Voice of the Falcon, John Easterlin as Hunchbacked Brother, Daniel Sutin as One-Eyed Brother, and Andrew Funk as One-Armed Brother, and the Lyric Opera Orchestra and Chorus.

Maybe the most exciting Web event of the entire summer will be this Saturday's airing of this past season's performance of Richard Strauss's finest opera, Frau ohne Schatten (Woman without a Shadow), from the Chicago Lyric Opera. This performance received rave reviews at the time. It will be heard this coming Saturday afternoon on the Net and over the air at GMT 1700/EDT 1:00PM! It looks as if this performance may have beaten the jinx that this work habitually must endure, because it's almost impossible to cast with all five principal roles done by equally gifted singers who each possess both genuine vocal power and genuine musicality.

The last time I remember a cast of such magnitude was in the late '60s, when Karl Boehm led performances featuring Leonie Rysanek, Christa Ludwig, Irene Dalis, James King and Walter Berry. Since then, there have always been one or two roles that have been "undercast", making the overall experience not the transcendent odyssey through some of humanity's deepest feelings that Strauss clearly intended. The role of the Dyer's Wife in particular (sung by Christa Ludwig in that marvelous '60s ensemble) has suffered terribly since and has now been ghettoized inside the unmusical throats of downright bizarre character singers only. This for a part that was first written for the celebrated Lotte Lehmann!!

I have personally heard, either "live" or over the air, each one of the five singers in this Chicago revival within the past 18 months, and I can vouch that each of them has given real musical pleasure during that period.

Although I didn't regard Voigt this past season as a truly authentic Isolde, primarily because her lower register does not have the richness of texture and color that I expect in an Isolde, her voice today soars effortlessly in its upper reaches, as demonstrated in this past season's account at Carnegie Hall of Strauss's Four Last Songs. This song cycle is considerably closer to the vocal "map" of the Empress's role in Frau ohne Schatten than is Isolde, and I heard Voigt do a splendid Empress at the Met just a few seasons back that showed me the role is a perfect fit for her. The fact that this season she was able to display the same qualities in Strauss's autumnal song cycle reassures me when it comes to the leading role in Frau ohne Schatten.

As for Brewer, every time I've heard her, she has shown unfailing beauty of tone through the most dramatic and heroic vocal territory, and it will be a pleasure hearing the Dyer's Wife truly sung, after the kind of anti-musical vandalism it has routinely received for the past generation.

Smith's Tristan, heard this past season at the Met, was one of the few I've heard that showed not a bit of fatigue in the final act (no mean feat!), and his approach was always musical and lyrical. He may not have the sheer power of James King in the role of the Emperor (in that superb '60s ensemble), but he should have the same musicality.

Hawlata also maintains an authentic musicality whenever he performs, and I always appreciate that.

Finally, it is rare indeed for a Magdalene to dominate the second act of Wagner's Meistersinger, but, on a recent star-studded occasion, Grove's Magdalene more than held her own, making an indelible mark in her impatience with David at the opening of the act, in her melifluous delivery, still brimming over with mischief, of the exchange where Magd. decides to appear at the window as Eva, and in her soaring cries of alarm during the riot at the act's close. Here is a star, and her Nurse in Frau ohne Schatten should be exciting.

So on paper, this could be a superb performance, well worth hearing.

One Chicago patron has written us, giving us a taste of the excitement generated by this ensemble:


"I never expected to see FRAU live and with 5 superb singers. Well, 4 were well known to me, from other productions. Dean Smith was the unknown. The performance was so thrilling that I immediately booked a second trip and just trusted someone would turn in a decent seat for the sold-out night that I could return. It worked. And was equally satisfying the 2nd time.

Although all 5 were superb, Brewer 'stole the show' for me. The beauty of her voice was breathtaking. As we will all hear in a few days!"


Bottom line: I fervently hope many of you can tune in this Saturday afternoon at GMT 1700 / EDT 1:00PM and enjoy!

Happy listening.....

Live offerings - Saturday, June 14, 2008 - Part III

And now for those live items starting at GMT 1800/EDT 2:00PM and later....

Espace 2 - From Opéra Royal de Wallonie, a May 3rd performance of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, with Patricia Ciofi, Marianna Pizzolato, Danilo Formaggia, Diana Axentii, Federico Sacchi and Mario Sacchi, Conducted by Luciano Acoccella.
Cesky Rozhlas 3-Vltava -

Live offerings - Saturday, June 14, 2008 - Part II

To continue with programs brginning at GMT 1730/EDT 1:30PM and later .... still more live offerings, several of surpassing interest:

• BBC Radio 3 - From English National Opera, Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, with Janice Watson, Sarah Connolly, John Tomlinson, Sarah Tynan, Andrew Shore, adeleine Shaw, Stuart Kale, Janice Cairns, Barry Banks, Nicholas Folwell and James Gower, conducted by Edward Gardner (it's not clear whether this will be sing in German or English).
• Espace Musique - Roussel's Padmâvati, with Sylvie Brunet, Finnur Bjarnasson, Alain Fondary, Yann Beuron, Laurent Alvaro, François Piolino, Blandine Folio Peres and Alain Gabriel, conducted by Lawrence Foster.
• France Musique - From the théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, a March 19th concert performance of Hande;'s Orlando, with Christophe Dumaux, Elena de la Merced, Jean-Michel Fumas, Rachel Nicholls, Alain Buet, conducted by Jean-Claude Malgoire.
• NPR World of Opera - From Houston Grand Opera, the World premiere production of Daniel Catan's Salsipuedes, a Tale of Love, War and Anchovies, with Ana Maria Martinez, Zheng Cao, Chad Shelton, Scott Hendricks, James Maddalena, Oren Gradus, Nicholas Phan, Laquita Mitchell, Heidi Stober, Joseph Evans and Pablo Bracho, conducted by Guido Maria Guida.
• MDR Figaro - From Weimar, a July 9, 2007 performance of Liszt's Die Legende von der Heiligen Elisabeth, with Renatus Mészár, Dagmar Pecková, Mario Hoff, Melanie Diener, Alexander Günther, Dennis Palsa, and Klara Fröhlich, conducted by Carl St. Clair.
• NRK Klassik & NRK P2 - Yet another chance to hear the performance of Verdi's La Traviata from Vienna State Opera, with Krassimira Stoyanova, Sophie Marilley, Waltraud Winsauer, Piotr Beczala, Zeljko Lucic, Gergely Nemeti, Marcus Pelz, Eijiro Kai, Dan Paul Dumitrescu, and Wolfram Igor Derntl, conducted by Renato Palumbo.
• Radio Osterreich International - A February 23rd performance of Rossini's La Cenerentola, with Vivica Genaux, Maxim Mironov , Fabio Maria Capitanucci, Bruno de Simone, Raffaella Milanesi, Giorgia Milanesi and Giovanni Furlanetto, conducted by Giuliano Carella.
• Sveriges Radio P2 - From Leipzig, a February 24th performance of Wagner's Rienzi, with Stefan Winke, Marika Schönberg, Pavel Kudinov, Elena Zhidkova, Jürgen Kurth and Christopher Robertson, conducted by Axel Kober.
• Espace 2 - From Opéra Royal de Wallonie, a performance from early June of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, with Patrizia Ciofi, Marianna Pizzolato, Danilo Formaggia, Diana Axentii, Federico Sacchi and Mario Sacchi, conducted by Luciano Acoccella.

And that's the remaining live offerings for this afternoon...

Happy listening,

Live offerings - Saturday, June 14, 2008 - Part I

• Klara - Already underway, a performance of Wagner's Götterdämmerung from Vlaamse Opera, with Lance Ryan, Jayne Casselman, Robert Bork, Christina Niessen, Sara Fulgoni, Werner Van Mechelen, Attila Jun, Sara Fulgoni, Corinne Romijn, Christina Niessen, Hendrickje Van Kerckhove, Xenia Konsek and Corinne Romijn, conducted by Ivan Törzs.
• KUSC - From LA Opera, a performance of Puccini's La Bohème with Maija Kovalevska, Massimo Giordano, Laquita Mitchell, Luca Salsi, Oren Gradus, Brian Leerhuber and Philip Cokorinos, conducted by Plácido Domingo.
• CBC Two - Another chance to hear a performance form Lyric Opera of Chicago, Handel's Guilio Cesare, with Danielle de Niese, David Daniels, Maïte Beaumont, Patricia Bardon, Christophe Dumaux, Wayne Tigges, Gerald Thompson and Darren Stokes, conducted by Emanuelle Haim.
• Deutschlandradio Kultur - From the Vienna State Opera, a June 7th performance of Strauss' Capriccio, with Renée Fleming, Bo Skovhus, Michael Schade, Adrian Eröd, Franz Hawlata and Angelika Kirchschlager, cinducted by Philippe Jordan.
• DR P2 - A May 31st performance of Verdi's I due Foscari, with Leo Nucci, Francisco Casanova and Manon Feubel, conducted by Bertrand de Billy.
• Dwojke Polskie Radio - From Vienna a November 2, 2007 performance of Wagner's Die Walküre, with Johan Botha, Ain Anger, Juha Uusitalo, Nina Stemme, Eva Johansson, Michaela Schuster, Caroline Wenborne, Alexandra Reinprecht, Aura Twarowska , Zoryana Kushpler, Amanda Mace, Sophie Marilley, Daniela Denschlag and Cornelia Salje, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst.
• KBYU - Another chance to hear Lyric Opera of Chicago's performance of Verdi's La Traviata, with Renée Fleming, Matthew Polenzani, Thomas Hampson, Philip Kraus, Buffy Baggott, Marjorie Owens, David Portillo, Phillip Dothard and Paul Corona,k conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.
• Latvia Radio Klasika - From Geneva, a September 22, 2007 performance of Berlioz Les Troyens, with Anna Katerina Antonacci, Anne Sofie von Otter and Kurt Streit, conducted by John Nelson.
• Radio Clasica de Espana & Radio Tre (RAI) - both stations are running homages to Leyla Gencer who died earlier this year.
• RTP Antena 2 - From Boston, a January 16, 2007 performance of Lully's Psyche, with Carolyn Sampson, Karina Gauvin, Yulia van Doren, Teresa Wakim, Amanda Forsythe, Mireille Lebel, Ricard Bordas, José Lemos, Jason McStoots, Colin Balzer, Zachart Wilder, Matthew Shaw, Aaron Engebrecht and Oliver Laquerre, conducted by Paul O’Dette.
• WFMT Opera Series (numerous stations) - From Lyric Opera of Chicago, a performance of Puccini's La Bohème, with Elaine Alvarez, Robert Aronica, Nicole Cabell, Quinn Kelsey, Andrea Silvestrelli, Levi Hernandez and Dale Travis, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.

And that's only the 1700/1:00PM slot! More to come...

Happy listening

Saturday, June 7, 2008 - Live offerings

Some interesting live offerings today: from the Holland Festival comes Messiaen's Saint Francois d'Assise with Camilla Tilling and Rodney Gilfry; from LA Opera a Don Giovanni with Erewin Schrott, Alexandra Deshorties, Charles Castronovo and Maria Kanyova; From Budapest, Siegfried (Act 2 now underway) with Christian Franz and Alan Titus; France Vivace is airing the 1955 Bayreuth Siegfried with Windgassen, Varnay, Hotter and Neidlinger, conducted by Keilberth; BBC 3 is carrying an Opera North performance of Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, with Leonardo Capalbo as Romeo; From Vienna Staatsoper, a number of stations are presenting Richard Strauss' Capriccio with Renée Fleming, Bo Skovhus, Michael Schade and Angelika Kirschlager, Philippe Jordan conducting; from l'Opéra de Lyon comes Porgy and Bess; from Genoa, Radio Tre is airing the Italian premiere of a Tan Dun opera, Tea: A Mirror of Soul . . . . details follow:

• Bartok Radio - From Budapest, a performance of Wagner's Siegfried, with Christian Franz, Michael Roider, Alan Titus, Hartmut Welker, Walter Fink, Cornelia Kallisch and Susan Bullock, Gál Gabi conducting.
• LRT Klasika and CBC Two - for those who missed it, another chance to hear La Traviata from Vienna with Krassimira Stoyanova.
• Radio 4 Netherlands - Live from Amsterdam's Holland Festival, Messiaen's Saint Francois d'Assise, with Camilla Tilling, Rodney Gilfry, Hubert Delamboye, Henk Neven and Tom Randle, conducted by Ingo Metzmacher.
• KUSC - From LA Opera, a performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni, with Erwin Schrott, Kyle Ketelson, Charles Castronovo, Alexandra Deshorties and Maria Kanyova, conducted by Hartmut Haenchen.
• Deutschlandradio Kultur - From Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, a March 29th performance of Roussel's Padmâvatî, with Sylvie Brunet, Finnur Bjarnasson, Alain Fondary, Yann Beuron, Laurent Alvaro, François Piolino and Blandine Folio Peres, conducted by Lawrence Foster.
• Dwojke Polskie Radio, DR P2, Radio Oesterreich International & Sveriges Radio P2 - From the Vienna State Opera, a performance of Strauss' Capriccio with Renée Fleming, Bo Skovhus, Michael Schade, Adrian Eröd, Angelika Kirchschlager and Franz Hawlata, conducted by Philippe Jordan.
• France Vivace - From Testament's reissue of the 1955 Bayreuth Ring Cycle, Wagner's Siegfried, with Wolfgang Windgassen, Hans Hotter, Astrid varnay and Gustav Neidlinger, conducted by Joseph Keilberth.
• RTP Antena 2 - From Paris, a February 2007 performance of Handel's Ricardo Primo, with Geraldine McGreevy, Nuria Rial, Lawrence Zazzo, Tim Mead, Curtis Streetman and David Wilson-Johnson, conducted by Paul Goodwin.
• WFMT Opera Series (numerous stations) - From Lyric Opera of Chicago, Handel's Julius Caesar, with David Daniels, Danielle de Niese, Patricia Bardon, Maite Beaumont, Chistophe Dumaux, Wayne Tiggs, Gerald Thomson and Darren Stokes, conducted by Emmanuelle Haim.
• BBC Radio 3 - From Opera North, a performance of Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, with Leonardo Capalbo, Bernarda Bobro, Grant Doyle, Peter Wedd, Frances Bourne, Geoffrey Dolton, Peter Savidge, Nicholas Sharratt, Yvonne Howard and Henry Waddington, conducted by Martin Andre.
• Espace Musique & WDAV - From Paris, a performance of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, with René Schirrer, Laura Claycomb, Toby Spence, Laurent Naouri, Hilary Summers, Jane Henschel, Ales Briscein and Ugo Rabec, conducted by Edward Gardner.
• France Musique - From l'Opéra de Lyon, a May 17th concert performance of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, with Derrick Lawrence, Janice Chandler-Eteme, Timothy Robert Blevins, Ronald Samm, LaVerne Williams, Magali Léger, Rodney Clarke, Kristin Lewis, Bernard Abervandana, Keel Watson, Odile Dovin, Larry Hylton and Phumzile Sojola, conducted by William Eddins.
• NPR World of Opera - From Washington National opera, Verdi's I Vespri Siciliani, with Maria Guleghina, Franco Farina, Lado Ataneli, Vitalij Kowaljow, Erin Elizabeth Smith, Robert Baker, Corey Evan Rotz, J. Austin Bitner and James Shaffran, conducted by Placido Domingo.
• NRK KLASSISK & NRK P2 - From Opéra Bastille in Paris, Berg's Wozzeck, with Simon Keenlyside, Jon Villars, David Kuebler, Gerhard Siegel, Roland Bracht, Angela Denoke, and Ursula Hesse v.d. Steinen, conducted by Sylvain Cambreling.
• Cesky Rozhlas 3-Vltava - From La Monnaie in Brussels, a performance of von Weber's Euryanthe, with Gabriele Fontana, Kurt Streite, Jolana Fogašová, Detlef Roth, Jan-Hendrik Rootering, Robin Tritschler and Hendrickje van Kerckhoven, conducted by Kazushi Ono.
• Espace 2 - From Teatro Lirico de Cagliari, an April 24th performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's La Légende de la Ville invisible de Kitège et de la Vierge Fevronia, with Tatiana Monogarova, Vitaly Panfilov, Mikhail Gubsky, Vsevolodovic Kazakov, Gevorg Hakobyan, Marika Gulordava, Riccardo Ferrari, Stefano Consolini, Alessandro Senes, Valery Gilmanov, Alexander Naumenko, Rosanna Savoia, Elena Manistina, Gianluca Floris and Marek Kalbus, conducted byAlexander Vedernikov.
• Klara - From Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, with Patrizia Ciofi, Marianna Pizzolato, Diana Axentii, Danilo Formaggia, Federico Sacchi and Mario Cassi, conducted by Luciano Acocella.
• Latvia Radio Klasika - From Munich, a December 11th performance of Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, with Ramon Vargas and Violeta Urmana, conducted by Marko Armiliato.
• WQED - The Metropolitan Opera National Council Grand Finals Concert, held February 24th, with the Metropolitan opera Orchestra conduted by Stephen Lord.
• Radio Tre (RAI) - LIVE, from Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, the Italian premiere of Tan Dun's Tea: A Mirror of Soul, with Seiko Haijing, Fu Lan, Nancy Allen Lundy and Lu Ning Liang, conducted by Lawrence Renes.
• Lyric FM - From the Vienna State Opera, Verdi's La forza del destino, with Nina Stemme and Salvatore Licitra, conducted by Zubin Mehta.
• KING - From Lyric Opera of Chicago,a reairing of last week's offering, Tchaikovsky's Eugen Onegin, with Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Dina Kuznetsova and Frank Lopardo, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.
• Concert FM (New Zealand) - From Opera Australia, Puccini's Il Trittico, with Nicole Yuol, Carlo Barricelli, Jonathan Summers, Graeme Macfarlane, Stephen Bennett, Elizabeth Campbell, Michael Martin, Hye Seoung Kwon, Milijana Nikolic, Henry Choo and Teresa La Rocca, conducted by Andrea Licata.

Happy listening.....

Saturday, May 31, 2008

First off, starting at noon today, we are treated to one of the towering masterpieces in all opera, Janacek's Jenufa, starring today's leading interpreter of the title role, Karita Mattila, surrounded by a cast of distinguished colleagues, including Eva Urbanova, Kim Begley and Jorma Silvasti! Accomplished Janacek maestro James Conlon is at the podium:

• KUSC - Janacek's Jenufa, with Karita Mattila, conducted by James Conlon, from the Los Angeles Opera.

Then starting at 1:00PM:

• FRANCE MUSIQUE - Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride, starring Mireille Delunsch and Stéphane Degout, under the baton of Ivor Bolton, from the Opéra Garnier.
• Lyric Opera of Chicago (numerous stations) - A broadcast of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, with either Dmitri Hvorostovsky or Mariusz Kwiecien in the title role (different sources conflict here) and Sir Andrew Davis conducting.

Starting at 1:30PM:

• CATALUNYA MÚSICA / RADIO CLASICA DE ESPANA / RTP ANTENA 2 - Wagner's Die Walküre in a star-studded cast, including, in order of appearance, Placido Domingo, Waltraud Meier, Rene Pape, Alan Held and others; Sebastian Weigle conducts, at the Gran Teatro del Liceo.
• BARTOK RADIO - A re-broadcast of a splendid performance of Verdi's La Traviata, which this listener heard when first aired some weeks back, featuring today's budding dramatic coloratura Krasimira Stojanova in the title role, and worthy colleagues Piotr Beczala and Zeljko Lucic as Germont fils and pere; conducted by Renato Palumbo.
• NPR World of Opera on a number of stations - A broadcast of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, with Patrizia Ciofi in the title role and Luciano Acocella conducting.
• RADIO OESTERREICH INTERNATIONAL - Francisco Casanova stars in Verdi's I due Foscari, conducted by Bertrand de Billy (re-broadcast at 3:00PM over LYRIC FM).
• VPR CLASSICAL - Cesare Valletti stars in Rossini's La gazza ladra.

Starting at 2:00PM:

• CESKY ROZHLAS 3 - VLTAVA - Verdi's Attila with a cast that includes Hasmik Papian and Paolo Gavanelli -- Ildar Abdrazakov is heard in the title role.
• ESPACE 2 - From the Opéra Bastille, a re-broadcast of Berg's Wozzeck, from this past April, featuring Simon Keenlyside in the title role and Angela Denoke as Marie; Sylvain Cambreling conducts.
• KLARA - Laura Claycomb and Toby Spence are the two principals in Stravinsky's Rake's progress, conducted by Edward Gardner.

All these offerings and much more on hand for all operatic tastes on this day of web-casting.

Happy listening,

Geoffrey

Saturday, April 19, 2008 -- B

At 2:30PM:

• LATVIA RADIO KLASIKA - Verdi's Don Carlos, in a cast that boasts Yvonne Naef and Simon Keenlyside in principal roles.
• WDAV - Starting at 7:00PM, a rebroadcast of a "live" Forza del destino from this season, starring Salvatore Licitra and conducted by Zubin Mehta.

Happy listening,

Geoffrey

Saturday, April 19, 2008 -- A

Starting off the afternoon at 1:00PM:

• DEUTSCHLANDRADIO KULTUR - Stravinsky's Rake's Progress, with Laura Claycomb, Toby Spence, Laurent Naouri and Jane Henschel, conducted by Edward Gardner.
• Metropolitan Opera (numerous stations) - Starting at 1:30PM, a broadcast of Glass's Satyagraha, with Richard Croft and Rachelle Durkin, conducted by Dante Anzolini.
• CATALUNYA MÚSICA - At 2:00PM, a double bill of Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle and Janacek's Diary, with Willard White, Katarina Dalayman, Michael König, Marisa Martins, Assumpta Mateu and Beatriz Jiménez, under the baton of Josep Pons.
• ESPACE 2 - Richard Troxell stars in Hérold's Zampa, conducted by William Christie.
• FRANCE MUSIQUE - Simon Keenlyside stars in Berg's Wozzeck, with Angela Denoke and Jon Villars, conducted by Sylvain Cambreling.
• KLARA - Paolo Gavanelli stars in Verdi's Nabucco, with Maria Guleghina, conducted by Paolo Carignani.
• RADIO STEPHANSDOM - Tune in for arguably the finest uncut "live" Tristan und Isolde extant, a rare occasion at the 1952 Bayreuth Festival with both Ramon Vinay and Martha Mödl in easy opulent voice, conducted by a youthful and more energized Herbert von Karajan than many of us know, newly restored on the ORFEO label.

More to come, but these are starting now....

Happy listening,

Geoffrey

Saturday Highlights - Part 1 -- 4/5/2008

Starting off the afternoon at 1:00PM:

• Cesky Rozhlas 3-Vltava - Wagner's Rienzi, with Stefan Vinke, Marika Schönbergová, Pavel Kudinov, Elena Zhidkova, Jürgen Kurth, Christopher Robertson, Martin Petzold, Thomas Oerte-Gormans and Gabriela Scherer, conducted by Axel Kober.
• DR P2 - A rebroadcast of La Scala's opening night performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, with Ian Storey, Waltraute Meier, Michelle De Young, Matti Salminen, Gerd Grokowski and Will Hartmann, conducted by Daniel Barenboim.
• Dwojke Polskie Radio - Celebrating the 100th Birthday of Herbert von Karajan, a 5 hour program: From 1956, Verdi's Falstaff, with Tito Gobbi, Luigi Alva, Rolando Panerai, Tomaso Spataro, Elizabeth Schwartzkopf, Nicola Zaccharia, Anna Moffo, Nan Merriman and Fedora Barbieri; from 1977-78, Strauss's Salome, with Karl-Walter Bohm, Heinz Zednik, David Knutson, Martin Vantin, Gerhard Unger, Erich Kunz, Dieter Ellenbeck, Jules Bastin, Gerd Nienstedt, Kurt Rydl, Horst Nitsche and Helge von Bomches.

More to come, but these are starting now....

Happy listening,

Tristan Unseen

Our friend Sam caught one last Tristan:

Have you ever attended an opera performance and wished the awful sets would disappear? Of course, you can always simply listen to broadcasts or recordings. But nothing quite takes the place of being in medias res, especially if there's a ballet, battle or parade that you don't want to miss.

You CAN have your wish and hear it too at the Metropolitan Opera.

Score desks are located along each side of the uppermost tier next to the seats in the Family Circle boxes. They cost $10 (for regular performances). They afford no view of the stage, but they have (mostly) superb acoustics. You can hear nuances in the voices and instrumental details that sound engineers manning hi-def mikes rarely pick up. The lamp-lit desk allows enough room for a score or a libretto. If the performance is going great, the aural experience is made all the more exciting. If it sucks, you can substitute the score with a book, magazine or racing form. (Newspapers are not advised. Even tabloids are too large and make a racket when you turn pages.)

Visually, there's not much to miss in the Met's current production of Tristan, which finished its six-performance series on Friday night. The unit set is unremittingly dreary (perhaps intentionally). Brief splashes of retina blasting back-lighting give little respite. And Tristan, unfortunately, has no ballets.

Friday night, I attended my fourth Tristan at the Met in little over two weeks, and I really didn't want to spend five more hours counting all the triangular forms built into the scenery. So I acquired a score desk.

No diversions were necessary. It was arguably the best performance of the four I heard in the house, and a photo-finish with last Saturday's broadcast. Ben Heppner AND Deborah Voigt appeared together for the first time in the title roles at the house, after illness forced them each to cancel several performances. (Heppner dropped out before the season premiere; Voigt withdrew from one performance in the middle of the second act, and skipped another one entirely.)

Heppner rarely has sounded better, despite some wrongly sung passages in the second act. Voigt regained her poise and confidence, following intermittent vocal squalls in previous performances. Michelle deYoung (replacing Margaret Jane Wray), Eike Wilm Schulte, and the redoubtable Matti Salminen rounded out what turned out to be as close to a dream cast as anyone could hope for in this day and age.

But the star of the show was the Met Orchestra under James Levine. The ensemble always plays well, and frequently scales the heights, but the muses were in attendance last night: the playing was uniformly Olympian. Primus inter pares: Pedro R. Diaz in the English horn solos.

If you didn't make it to the Met on Friday night, you could have experienced almost exactly what I heard. At the last minute, the Met decided to stream the performance live via its website. That meant that opera lovers anywhere in the world with access to a computer could have heard it. The Met should do it more often -- but with a bit more advance notice.

© SAM H. SHIRAKAWA

Yet another TRISTAN wrinkle!

The Metropolitan Opera has just announced that they have added another Webcast to their publicly streamed series at the last minute(!): Since no TRISTAN UND ISOLDE this season has yet featured both Heppner and Voigt together, the Metropolitan has decided, at the last minute, to publicly stream this Friday evening's TRISTAN, the last of the season, for the pleasure of opera lovers everywhere! It looks as if this one time the scheduled duo of the whole series, Ben Heppner and Deborah Voigt, will finally appear together for real (perhaps instead of singing "Begehrt, Herrin, was Ihr wuenscht", Heppner might sing "So finally we meet!"...........). Be sure to tune in!

This is now entered onto the top of our This Saturday page with the full (expected) cast from the Met site. You'll find our new entry at the first GMT 2300/EDT 7:00PM slot towards the top of the page at

http://www.operacast.com/thissat.htm

I did stipulate here the "expected" cast, of course. Given the way this run has been going, nothing -- but nothing -- seems for sure. Maybe, not only will Heppner cancel this time to balance Voigt's canceling the previous performance, but someone out of the blue (lyric tenor Juan Diego Florez????????) may do his first TRISTAN tomorrow.....................

Given the history of this run, anything is possible.

Happy listening,

Geoffrey Riggs

Saturday operas - March 22, 2008

After all the travails the Met has been through in the past week or two (Heppner bows out of the first four Tristans, Mac Master fills in for the first T &I but disappoints in Act III, Swenson cancels Traviata, Lehman sings admirably in the second perf. of T & I, but Voigt walks off in Act 2 with a stomach bug, Lehman again sings in the third perf. - although Robert Dean Smith was rumored to appear, but didn't - but almost gets decapitated early in Act 3, and on Friday Radvonowsky cancels Ernani to be replaced by Angela Meade -- who then gets a sensational reception on the night), can it put on a flawless Tristan today? Robert Dean Smith is scheduled to appear in today's Hi-Def broadcast. He is certainly a more experienced Tristan than Gary Lehman, having sung the role at Bayreuth and elsewhere over the past couple of years. I still hope that Heppner returns for the remaining performances - no word on that as yet. IF the broadcast goes "normally", it should be one of the special ones. The rest of the cast are all wonderful.

By coincidence, listeners have a choice between two different operas with Robert Dean Smith and Eike Wilm Schulte this afternoon. Cesky Rozhlas 3-Vltava is offering them both in a star-studded 2006 Parsifal from Monte Carlo a bit later in the afternoon.

For the Easter week, we not only have Parsifal; there are also quite an assortment of oratorios and various settings of the Passions by a number of composers on offer during the next 48 hours.

So here's what's on this afternoon:

LRT Klasika - a rebroadcast of Rameau's Castor et Pollux from Amsterdam,
Metropolitan Opera (numerous stations) - Starting at 12:30 EDT, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, with Deborah Voigt, Robert Dean Smith, Michelle De Young, Matti Salminen, Eike Wilm Schulte, Tony Stevenson, Mark Schowalter, Stephen Gaertner and James Courtney, conducted by James Levine.
Cesky Rozhlas 3-Vltava - From Monte Carlo, a 2006 performance of Parsifal with the mouth-watering lineup of Robert Dean Smith, Konrad Jarnot, Bjarni Thor Kristinsson, Kristinn Sigmundsson, Eike Wilm Schulte, Petra Lang, Ferdinand Seiler,Hans Griepentrog, Martina Rüping, Cécile van de Sant, Christian Elsner, Keith Ikaia-Purdy, Sabina Cvilka, Claudia Galli, Kristen Grotius and Caroline Stein, conducted by Marek Janowski.
Deutschlandradio Kultur / Radio Tre - From Brussels, a February 2nd concert performance of Weber's Euryanthe, with Gabriele Fontana, Jolana Fogasova, Kurt Streite, Detlef Roth, Jan-Hendrik Rootering, Hendrickje van Kerckhoven and Robin Tritschler, conducted by Kazushi Ono.
DR P2 - From Paris, a performance of Herold's Zampa, with Richard Troxell, Bernard Richter, Patricia Petibon and Doris Lamprecht, conducted by William Christie.
France Musique - From Palais Garnier in Paris, Stravinsky's The rake's Progress, with René Schirrer, Laura Claycomb, Toby Spence, Laurent Naouri, Hilary Summers, Jane Henschel, Ales Briscein and Ugo Rabec, conducted by Edward Gardner.
Latvia Radio Klasika - From Rome, yet another Parsifal from January 23rd, with Simon O'Neill, Lucio Gallo, Evelin Herlizius and George Zepenfeld, conducted by Danielle Gatti.
Radio 4 Netherlands - A March 21st performance of Janacek's Katia Kabanova from Amsterdam, with Amanda Roocroft, Kathryn Harries and Kurt Streit.
NDR Kultur - A four-hour special on the heritage of the celebrated Maria Malibran with some rarely heard material sung by Cecilia Bartoli.
WDAV - A new opera, Adamo's Lysistrata, is heard in the NPR World of Opera series, featuring Emily Pulley and Arturo Chacón-Cruz, among others.

Happy listening!

Travails of Tristan continued...

Can one believe that the Met's jinxed Tristan run this season has fallen prey to yet another disaster? Read on . . . .

Tristan und Isolde - Metropolitan Opera, March 18, 2008

First Ben Heppner took ill and withdrew from the Met season's first performance of Tristan und Isolde last week. His place was taken by John Mac Master. At the next performance, Gary Lehman replaced Mac Master and Deborah Voigt quit in the middle of the second act, felled by an upset stomach. Last night, a scenery malfunction in the last act knocked out Gary Lehman, who was singing Tristan.

Here's how it looked like it happened. The mat on which Lehman was lying supinate apparently cut loose from its moorings and sent him like a trajectory head-first down the steeply raked stage right into the prompter's box. A computer glitch could also have been to blame, because the mat glides slowly down stage from the rear over the course of several minutes. Suddenly the mat simply raced toward the prompter's box.

Mark Showalter and Eike Wilm Schulte, who were on stage at the time, rushed to the side of the motionless Lehman, followed by several stage personnel. Lehman stood up after a few moments, and walked about the stage, rubbing his neck. The curtain was brought down, and a stage manager appeared to say, "Gary is o.k., but he needs a few moments and a glass of water before he continues."

According to the Associated Press report, a doctor examined Lehman, before allowing him to proceed with perhaps the most arduous scene for any singer in all opera. When the curtain went up again about 10 minutes later, a huge round of applause greeted Lehman, who was again lying, arms outstretched, on the killer mat. By any standard, he gave a towering performance of Tristan's delirium ridden visions -- all the more astonishing, given the potentially serious injury he had just sustained.

At the final curtain calls, could James Levine, who is well-known for passing around complements, have given Lehman a pat on the back, an extra solo bow or some kind of acknowledgment? Yes. Did he even bother to shake Lehman's hand in full view of the public? No.

Despite a momentary memory lapse by Lehman late in the second act, and some rhythmic uncertainty from Voigt shortly after her third act entrance, the performance was, by and large, the best of the three given so far. Michelle De Young, Matti Salminen and Schulte were in especially good form.

So who will sing Tristan at Saturday's world-wide live telecast? At last night's intermissions (both long enough to hit the head twice), the video screen above the box office said, TBA. According to Robert Dean Smith's website, he will go to the Mat from Hell on Saturday (the Associated Press refers to him as Roger Dean Smith.)

© 2008 Sam Shirakawa

Notes on Ernani - Met, March 27, 2008

Sam Shirakawa's short take on the Met's Ernani - Thanks, Sam!

Why has Sondra Radvanovsky appeared infrequently at the Met in recent seasons? What ever the reason, she's back. Hooray for that.

At Monday's first Ernani of the season, the audience was told that she would sing in spite of suffering from a virus. What virus? Excepting a tentative moment or two during "Ernani involami" she sounded better than ever. That electric vibrato as she ascends the scale is bringing her about as close to becoming a real Verdi soprano as we're likely to hear in this day and age. For some reason, though, she's yet to surge into the realms of Divadom. She remains the opera world's best kept secret.

Her lover for the evening was Marcello Giordani in the title role. His hi-def appearances at the house have gained him a cache of glamor in recent seasons, and he is among the emerging tenors heading into the spotlight that L and P held for decades. Some don't like him; I do, at least, when he's performing Verdi. The voice is attractive, the top notes are usually secure, and he has pleasant if not recondite stage presence.

Why is Thomas Hampson singing Carlo, much less Verdi? He still maintains a gorgeous, evenly placed voice, but it would better serve the Gallic repertoire, modern works or Lieder, where his sun really shines.

Ultimately it was veteran Ferruccio Furlanetto as Silva, who dominated the performance, showing everybody what superb singing is all about. The voice has character and the kind of warm, dark verve often associated with Pinza and Pasero.

Conductor Roberto Abbado kept the beat going, despite one or two ensemble issues between the pit and the stage. Pier Luigi Samaritani's utility sets from 1983 are holding up.

© Sam H. Shirakawa 2008

Tristan - latest scuttlebutt

Word was that Robert Dean Smith would be singing Tristan tomorrow night. However the latest scuttlebutt is that Smith will not be singing and that Gary Lehman, who sang the role so successfully on Friday night will be repeating the role. No news yet about who will be singing for the broadcast (which is also being broadcast in HD to movie theaters everywhere...).

I am assuming that Voigt will be back tomorrow to sing Isolde. . . .

TAG TRISTAN AND A TALE OF TWO ISOLDES

Herewith Sam Shirakawa's take on Friday evening's Tristan (and he had NOT read my post before sending this to me):

Friday, 14 March 2008

Opera distills mankind's noblest instincts. Opera harmonizes the cognizance of what lies within our innermost selves. Yadda yadda yadda. Mozart said so. So did Wagner.

Attending the first two performances of the Met's Tristan this season has made me cognizant about something of my innermost self: I'm a blood sport fan.

The indisposition of Ben Heppner last Monday (10 March) pushed a certain John Mac Master into the Coliseum of modern day opera. Nearly four thousand pairs of ears heard him come close to eviscerating his lovely fragile voice in the Killer Third Act.

John Mac Master emerged bloodied, but apparently not sufficiently able-bodied to be thrown to the lions again on Friday night (14 March). Heeding the implicit mumblings for fresh meat, the Met's management shoved one Gary Lehman onto its mopped-up stage. His Met debut (!) was preceded by an appeal for understanding for the intrepid Christian from guilt-edged Met General Manager Peter Gelb, doing his utmost to refrain from sounding like a carnival barker.

Lehman's first act went better than I, at least, expected. In fact, for someone who was singing the role for the first time professionally, he performed beyond expectations exceedingly. But Lehman's Trial by Tristan was far from over.

A seemingly long first intermission had some speculating that James Levine was furiously tickling the ivories backstage, taking Lehman through pesky parts of the next act. Maybe.

But another drama was unfolding.

Shortly before the love duet in the second act, the evening's franchise, Deborah Voigt, walked off, leaving Lehman to continue singing his part, even after the tabs were brought down. A stage manager or such promptly appeared to say that Voigt was feeling unwell, but the performance would continue shortly with Janice Baird.

The switch must have been pre-determined, because James Levine never left the podium, and the performance continued at roughly the same place where it had dribbled to a halt. When the curtain went up again, a huge round of applause greeted Lehman and his new Isolde. And just as though you were switching your remote from CD 9 to CD 10, Baird picked up as if she had been performing from the start.

Statuesque and exuding confidence, Baird went on to conquer. She already had created a buzz so positive in the unpaved parts of the operatic world over the past decade, that I've often tried to chase down her Salome, Bruhnnhilde, or ANYTHING at Chemnitz, Essen and a couple of other venues. But her schedule never coincided with my travel plans until last night.

Now, suddenly, I was confronted with an Isolde whose luminosity emanated from within, rather than from the real and metaphorical spotlights thrown on her. Voigt already had traversed the two ceiling-level Cs before Baird stepped in, but Baird evinced the requisite range and palate for adumbrating what remained with variety, flexibility and most appealing vulnerability. A few gaffes here and there centered mostly on patches of un-centered intonation. Eminently forgivable if you remember that some other Isoldes have shlepped through whole evenings under the note.

Baird is listed on the Met's current roster, but a search of the Met's website turned up no scheduled performances. If this was also her Met debut [editor's note: it was.] under most unusual or unique circumstances, didn't she too warrant a let's-give-it-up-for-Jan pep spiel from Gelb? But more substantively: If you're playing Tag Tristan with the guys, Pete, how about letting a gal join the game? There are four performances left in the current series.

Changing partners left Lehman unfazed, as he forged on to surmount the rigors of the love duet and the terrors of the third act with blazing thrusts of energy and voice. This was heady stuff -- about as close as opera is likely to come anytime soon to Manning and Tyree in that Unforgettable Fourth Quarter.

The vice that nearly trapped him a couple of times, though, was sporadic rhythmic sluggishness. No big deal. Before we get ahead of where he's possibly heading, though, let's realize that Lehman may be a herrliches Knabe, but he is no force of nature yet. Now that he's proven that he can do big Wagner in the Big Time right out of the box, he should stick to Erik and Parsifal for a while.

The rest of the cast sounded even better than on Monday night. Especially Salminen.

For the record, the performance drew to an end around half-past midnight, making it a candidate for the Guinness Book of Records.

All in all, my thirst for blood sport, or just blood, was certainly aroused on Friday but left largely unquenched. But then, there's next week...

That's when it's said that a tenor who has sung Tristan more than once will face the lions. If Robert Dean Smith does as well as he's been doing in Europe of late -- and he has done well every time I have heard him in person -- nobody will be confusing him with Harry Dean Smith.

© SAM H. SHIRAKAWA 2008

Is There a Tristan in the House? . . .

On second thought ... is there an ISOLDE in the house?

Last night's Tristan und Isolde was nothing if not an adventure. The audience was forewarned by Mr. Gelb before the curtain rose that Gary Lehman, the night's Tristan (and the second in as many performances) was singing the role, not only for the first time at the Met, but for the first time EVER. There was an audible "Ooph!" from the audience ... and then cathartic laughter. The Met has been doing its best to fill the ailing Ben Happner's shoes, but John Mac Master, who had sung Tristan on opening night, had been booed (something I don't think is ever justified when a cover singer is doing his best to fill in at the last moment).

Lehman was several cuts better than Mac Master, from comments I heard during the first intermission. His voice, while not the most beautiful instrument I have ever heard, was clear and large - at times he sounded bigger than Voigt. His German diction was excellent. Lehman looks good on stage. There were a few awkward moments, mostly due to his lack of proper rehearsal. But he was a stalwart stand-in. As the performance progressed, he became obviously more comfortable. I found his exchange in Act Two with King Marke, where Marke asks him to explain his betrayal, particularly moving. And best of all, he sang through all of his Act Three monologues with understandable caution, but without a hint of strain or fatigue. The circle of international Wagner tenors has just grown by one.

One wonders what was really in that potion Tristan and Isolde drank at the end of Act One. Overshadowing Mr. Lehman's impressive debut, however, was Deborah Voigt's sudden indisposition during their discussion of that potion toward the beginning of Act Two. Shortly after Brangaene had left the stage, as her Tristan continued to sing to her, Ms. Voigt ran off stage right, and shortly after that the curtain came down, the lights in the pit were doused, and the music came to a halt. Someone came out in front of the curtain to announce Ms. Voigt's indisposition and begged the audience's patience while her cover, Janice Baird, was put into her costume and makeup. Some ten minutes later, the house lights dimmed and the performance resumed.

Ms. Baird has a warm, ample sound, not quite large enough to surmount the loudest that James Levine's orchestra put out. But she never forced her voice and was always musical. Especially in the beginning, and in the Liebestod, when she was tiring a bit, she displayed some flatness. But her performance was overall a pleasure.

The first intermission seemed longer than usual, and when Levine only entered the pit several moments after the house lights went down, I assumed that he had been doing last-minute coaching with the evening's Tristan (still a third singer has been announced for the Tristan next Tuesday, March 18th). But the New York Times reports that Ms. Voigt told management after Act One that she might not be able to complete the performance. The cover was called and Ms. Voigt went on for the beginning of Act Two. I heard no hint of her indisposition in her singing, save for a couple of less than stellar top notes, usually the glory of her voice.

Overall, notwithstanding all the distractions, it was a successful Tristan. Matti Salminen continues to amaze as King Marke. In his mid-sixties, with occasional slight unsteadiness, he is still a musical force of nature. He conveys the gravitas and grief of the King better than any other singer I have heard in this role (including René Pape, who isn't old enough yet to entirely capture the exquisite grief of the aging and childless King). Eike Wilm Schulte, as Kurwenal, was also astounding. I have always enjoyed hearing him. Schulte is one of those rare singers who communicates the music without getting in the way of it. As one of my companions last night said, he's so natural you don't realize just how good he is.

The performance ended at 12:35 with generous ovations for all involved, especially the Tristan and Isolde, Lehman and Baird. I can only send the Met good wishes for the next performance of Tristan on Tuesday....

March 15, 2008 Highlights

This will be a somewhat abbreviated highlights post. I got home very late from a historic Tristan at the Met last night (more on that later...), so here's the quick and dirty on today's live lineup:

• Metropolitan Opera (numerous stations, and also being simulcast to movie theaters in HD) - Britten's Peter Grimes, with Anthony Dean Griffey, Patricia Racette, Anthony Michaels-Moore, Felicity Palmer, Jill Grove, Leah Partridge, Erin Morley, Greg Fedderly, Bernard Fitch, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, John del Carlo and Dean Peterson, conducted by Donald Runnicles.
• DR P2 - From Vienna State opera, Verdi's La Forza del Destino, with Nina Stemme, Salvatore Licitra, Carlos Alvarez, Alastair Miles and Nadia Krasteva, conducte by Zubin Mehta.
• France Musique & Radio Tre (RAI) - From the Opera Comique in Paris, a concert performance of Hérold's Zampa (ou La fiancée de marbre), with Richard Troxell, Bernard Richter, Patricia Petitbon, Doris Lamprecht and Vincent Ordonneau, conducted by William Christie.
• Radio Oesterreich International (OE1) - Rebroadcasting the Met's historic broadcast from April 1975, of Rossini's L'Assedio di Corinto, with Beverly Sills, Shirley Verrett, Justiono Diaz, Harry Theyard and Betsey Norden.
• Latvia Radio Klasika - a rebroadcast of the Met's performance of Prokoviev's War and Peace, with Marina Poplovskaja, Kims Begley, Aleksexis Markovs, Larisa Sevcchenko and Vasilijs Gerello, conducted by Valery Gergiev.
• Radio Stephansdom - An historic live performance of Verdi's Don Carlo (recorded at the Vienna State Opera in 1970), with Franco Corelli, Eberhard Waechter, Martti Talvela, Tugomir Franc, Gundula Janowitz, Shirley Verrett, Edita Gruberova, Ewald Aichberger and Judith Blegen, conducted by Horst Stein.
• WDAV - From NPR World of Opera, a performance from Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam of Monteverdi's Orfeo, with Jeremy Ovenden, Judith van Wanroij, David Cordier, Pascal Bertin, Tania Kross, Alan Ewing, Panajotis Iconomou, Wilke Te Brummelstroete, Ilse Eerens, conducted by Stephen Stubbs.

Happy listening . . . .