No less than seven new productions highlight the new season at the Metropolitan Opera
BY SARA EVANS
F or us New Yorkers, regardless of what the calendar says, the New Year actually starts in September. School starts. People flock back to the city from the Hamptons and the Berkshires. The air turns crisp and the light of the city dazzles. We reconnect with one another. And the Metropolitan Opera season begins. Thanks to the amazing generosity of such patrons as Sid and Mercedes Bass, the Ziff Family, the Zilkhas and other deep-pocketed supporters, the Met will present seven exciting new productions for the 2011-12 season.
The season opens with a brand-new production of Donizetti’s “Anna Bolena,” the most tragic of his three “Queen” operas. It was revived at La Scala in Milan in the 1950’s with Maria Callas, but has never before been performed at the Met. Filled with rich, Tudor-era costumes, it will be sung by the glorious Anna Netrebko, will portray the ill-fated queen who was driven mad and then beheaded by the villainous Henry the Eighth. This opera will launch Donizetti’s “Queen” series, a trio of historical operas. “Anna Bolena” will be succeeded in coming seasons by “Maria Stuarda” and “Roberto Devereux,” all to be directed by David McVicar.
In October, a new production of Mozart’s beloved “Don Giovanni,” a gift of the Braddock Family Foundation along with a major gift from Mr. and Mrs. Ezra K. Zilkha, will debut. Director Michael Grandage notes, “Don Giovanni has a charismatic lust for life, but he’s not just some serial seducer; he’s a dark, complex individual.” Marius Kwiecien will star as Don Giovanni and the acclaimed Latvian soprano, Marina Rebeka will debut at the Met as Donna Anna. This production will involve two separate, stunning casts, gleaned from opera companies around the globe, and two important conductors, James Levine and Andrew Davis.
But what has opera lovers around the world truly abuzz is the Met’s presentation of two brand-new productions from Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle, all created by Canadian genius Robert Lepage. The new productions of “Siegfried” and “Gotterdamerung” the breathtaking Twilight of the Gods, will culminate in no less that three complete presentations of the entire four-opera Ring cycle in April and May. This is a truly significan, rare and spectacular event in the world of opera, and promises to draw Wagnerians to New York from around the world. The new “Siegfried” will be conducted by Maestro James Levine and sung by Gary Lehman as Siegfried, with Bryn Terfel as the Wanderer and the luminous DeborahVoight as Brunnhilde, thanks to the patronage of the Ziff family. They have also underwritten the new Lepage production of Gotterdamerung, which will launch at the end of January. This climax of the Ring cycle, which will also star Voight and Lehman, has a cataclysmic ending, with the star-crossed lovers in Valhalla, the realm of the Gods.
Another new production, Gounod’s “Faust,” will debut at the end of November. A co-production of the Met and the English National Opera, this production updates the action to the early 20th century and will showcase many of the Met’s finest singers, and is directed by Des McAnuff. He observes, “Personal responsibility….that’s the Faustian journey right there. It’s trying to escape from ultimate knowledge, which includes evil.”
There’s a real treat in store for lovers of spectacle and of Baroque music this season at the Met. In December, a new pastiche, “The Enchanted Island,” based on Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Tempest,” will be sung in English from a brand-new libretto by Jeremy Sands, in collaboration with Baroque expert/conductor William Christie. The production will debut at a New Year’s Eve Gala. Although new and somewhat radical within the context of contemporary opera, the pastiche is an operatic tradition that goes back to the late 17th and early 18th centuries. “The Enchanted Island” will include imaginative sets and lighting, as well as projections and animation, and the voices of such luminaries as Danielle de Niese and the beloved Placido Domingo. This “Pasticcio” will include music by Handel, Rameau and Vivaldi. It speaks to the energy and imagination that General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director James Levine bring to the house these days. Gelb notes, “I believe this hybrid creation will showcase some of the great music of the period in a way that will honor the Baroque tradition yet be modern in spirit….”
Manon, one of the most beloved French operas in the canon, will get a new treatment in the spring. The leading role will be sung by the luminous Anna Netrebko starring as the tragic, beautiful and impetuous courtesan. This new Met production of Massenet’s 1884 opera was first presented last year at the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden, and was created by Laurent Pelly. He has updated this classic from the Belle Epoque to the modern era, and notes this opera provides “an adventure that amuses, moves and frightens.”
With its mix of new productions and tried-and-trues from the repertory, this season, the Metropolitan promises musical joys for all of us.
(To learn more about the forthcoming season and to reserve tickets, check out www.metopera.org).
