The Passion of Opera

No, this post is not about Rigoletto . In fact, this is a review of the Met's rebroadcast of last year's Carmen . I was, all in all, blown away by the production. I will supply this caveat to that statement however: the last time I attended Carmen the production was overall abhorrent. The woman playing Carmen , Jossie Pérez, in addition to being gorgeous, did an excellent job (as she did playing Maddalena in Rigoletto , on which occasion I had the honor of meeting her). Overall however, the rest of the cast was uninspired and vocally troubled, the production didn't have a lot of pizazz, and the choice to reset the show in Cuba didn't really succeed. Thus, I'm predisposed to find this performance better. However, Elīna Garanča far surpassed even Jossie Pérez in her interpretation of the title role. Overall, this performance can best be described as having incredible presence. The character's came to life, the emotions were in your face, the sultriness of the w...

Just days after having the wonderful opportunity to see Ben Heppner in recital in Stratford I was offered a free ticket to attend an encore screening of the Met's 2009-2010 production of Madama Butterly . Though the production was certainly not flawless, I was quite impressed by what I saw. Anthony Minghella crafted the beautiful production (more on that later) Puccini’s opera. I will start with my general impressions, and then review some roles/places specifically. The roles: Cio-Cio-San (Butterfly) - Patricia Racette B. F. Pinkerton - Marcello Giordani Maria Zifchak - Suzuki Dwayne Croft - Sharpless The big theme that I found while viewing this production was the "slow getting started" feel. I will make the caveat upfront that part of this could well be attributed to the writing of Puccini, Luigi Illica, or Giuseppe Giacosa (the two librettists). Though of course all opera lovers are familiar with Madama Butterfly , I will confess that I have not seen ...