The Metropolitan Opera Archives

Don Giovanni – The Metropolitan Opera Live in HD

22May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

Don Giovanni – The Metropolitan Opera Live in HD

Mozart’s retelling of the Don Juan myth dates from 1787 and its tale of a serial, sexual predator sadly remains far too relevant some 235 years later. Don Giovanni (Peter Mattei) has seduced some 1,800 women, all catalogued by servant Leporello (Adam Plachetka), and he is looking to add another name with his attempted rape of Donna Anna (Federica Lombardi) that results in him killing her father, the Commendatore (Alexander Tsymbalyuk), and which her fiancé Don Ottavio (Ben Bliss) swears to revenge. Donna Elvira (Ana Maria Martinez), an earlier conquest, has come in search of Don Giovanni, although he is now trying to seduce peasant girl Zerlina (Ying Fang) on her wedding day to Masetto (Alfred Walker) and later attempts to rape her at his party. The next day, Giovanni forces Lepo...

Der Rosenkavalier – MET Opera Live in HD

Paula Suozzi’s revival of Robert Carsen’s 2017 production, which moved the setting from the cusp of revolution in the 18th century to the brink of World War I in 1911, the year in which it premiered, remains eerily evocative with its tale straddling three generations, the imminent collapse of the old order, the uncertainty of what is to come, and the maturity to accept both. The Marschallin (Lise Davidsen) is having an affair with the young count Octavian (Samantha Hankey) whilst her country cousin, Baron Ochs (Gunther Groissböck) is engaged to Sophie (Erin Morley), the young daughter of a nouveau-riche arms dealer, Faninal (Brian Mulligan). When Ochs meets Octavian, hastily disguised as a chambermaid to avoid discovery, he makes advances towards ‘her’ and the Marschallin is appa...

Don Carlos – The Metropolitan Opera, New York

The Met Opera’s original five-act French version of Verdi’s epic opera of doomed love among royalty is in fact an amended version of the 1867 Paris edition with some omissions as well as the addition of elements from later Italian versions, but if the intention was to serve up the best version possible then there is no doubt that this comes pretty close with the magnificence of its delivery. Photo: Ken Howard It's a tough story with far too real parallels to events unfolding in the Ukraine which serves to reinforce the piece’s uncompromising assessment of the ways of human nature as we are thrust via a love triangle into the courtly world of 16th Century Spain complete with its religious Inquisition and destructive suppression of protest in Flanders. At almost five hours, there i...