Friday, November 15

Tag: Michael Levine

Madama Butterfly – Metropolitan Opera
REVIEWS

Madama Butterfly – Metropolitan Opera

Paula Williams’ revival of Anthony Minghella’s original production is full of good intentions but too many gimmicks get in the way of Puccini’s devastating tragedy about a young geisha who falls in love with an American naval officer. Marriage broker Goro (Tony Stevenson) shows US naval lieutenant Pinkerton (Jonathan Tetelman) around the home he will share with his bride-to-be in Nagasaki, although American Consul Sharpless (Lucas Meachem) warns him of the tragic consequences that may follow. The Butterfly duly lands in the form of young Japanese girl Cio-Cio-San (Asmik Grigorian) supported by maid Suzuki (Elizabeth DeShong), and they are married by the Commissioner (Paul Corona). Her love makes her willing to sacrifice everything which sees her disowned by her uncle, a Bonze (Robert Po...
Carmen – The Metropolitan Opera
REVIEWS

Carmen – The Metropolitan Opera

Carrie Cracknell’s contemporary take aims at reinvigorating this classic with its resetting to present-day America but sadly is mostly firing blanks in its representation of a world that I’m not sure most Americans would even recognise. In an unnamed town somewhere along the border with Mexico, naïve army corporal Don José (Piotr Beczała) falls head over heads in love with Carmen (Aigul Akhmetshina), a seductive and free-spirited girl working at the ammunitions factory that he and his men are guarding. Infatuated, Don José abandons his childhood sweetheart, girl-next-door Micaela (Angel Blue) and neglects his military duties only to lose the fickle Carmen to the glamorous rodeo rider, Escamillo (Kyle Ketelsen). So far so good but given that much of the allure of the original is its s...