Yannick Nézet-Séguin Archives

Roméo et Juliette – Met Opera Live in HD

24Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

Roméo et Juliette – Met Opera Live in HD

Bartlett Sher’s production may be rather staid and static in its staging of Gounod’s sumptuous Shakespeare adaptation but this tale of two star-crossed lovers touched the heavens tonight as its two stars shone brightly and lit up the stage. Lord Capulet (Nathan Berg) is hosting a ball where he hopes to pair off his daughter Juliette Nadine Sierra) with Count Paris (Daniel Rich) but she is not keen. When Roméo (Benjamin Bernheim) appears however the two are immediately love-struck and he has to hide from his friends Mercutio (Will Liverman), Stéphano (Samantha Hankey), and Benvolio (Thomas Capobianco). Her cousin Tybalt (Frederick Ballantine) is less than impressed with the presence of these sworn enemies and accompanied by Gregorio (Jeongcheol Cha), he swears revenge. Romeo and Juliette...

La Forza del Destino – Met Opera Live in HD

It has been some thirty years since there was a new production of this opera at the Met and twenty years since that’s last production with a more recent attempt in 2017 faltering due to financial reasons. Well, the financial challenges remain, as they do for all of us, so it was a treat to take in Director Mariusz Treliński’s dark contemporary re-telling which coming in at almost four and a half hours, including two intervals, is a big production in every sense. Leonora (Lise Davidsen) plans to elope with Alvaro (Brian Jagde) but when her father, the Marquis of Calatrava (Soloman Howard), storms in, Alvaro’s attempts to make peace accidentally results in her father’s death. Leonora flees from her revengeful brother, Carlo (Igor Golovatenko), and whilst Preziosilla (Judit Kutasi) sings a...

Florencia en el Amazonas – Met Opera Live in HD

With Marcela Fuentes-Berain’s libretto inspired by the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez, Mexican composer Daniel Catán’s 1996 opera is an enchanting story about love with Mary Zimmerman’s new production establishing the story through a series of vignettes where we meet some of the passengers embarking on a trip to Manaus along the Amazon River, all with the goal of seeing the famed diva Florencia Grimaldi (Ailyn Pérez) perform at the legendary opera house. Unbeknown to them, she is actually travelling incognito among them on her own personal quest into the past to seek out her lover, Cristóbal, a butterfly catcher, who has gone missing in the jungle. Love as the recurring central theme is explored further through the other passengers: Paula (Nancy Fabiola Herrera) and Alvaro (M...