Each year, when the Metropolitan Opera announces its new season, I like to analyze the announcement and find as many positive things as possible in what is on offer. The Met famously has had some rough times, but I think it is important to emphasize that it also famously has an abundance of virtues. Those of us who sometimes find fault with what goes on there — and I have been one of those people — express our concern because we love the institution and care about what it means to New York and to opera.
A couple of readers of my analyses of the 2012-2013, 2013-2014, 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 seasons have naively thought that my comments in these articles were so positive because I would personally benefit from increased ticket sales at the Met! Nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, it has been a source of sadness for me in the current season to attend many excellent performances in which it appears to me that only one-third to one-half of the seats were filled. I hear opera in many of the most important venues in the world each year and, when comparing them all, I find the musical standards at the Met consistently higher than almost anywhere else. There is no better opera orchestra and the chorus is in excellent shape. Many, though not all, of the world’s top singers appear at the Met and the quality of the conducting is, on most nights, very fine.
One problem in the years since Peter Gelb became general manager in 2006 is that the company has put its promotional emphasis on the theatrical elements of productions and these have been hit-and-miss in quality. In my view, about one-third of new productions at the Met have been good to outstanding, which is about the average for most major world opera companies.
With their attention focused on the stagings, potential ticket-buyers (especially subscribers considering renewing) now think more about what they see than who they hear. They say, “I have seen Rigoletto and La Traviata and I did not care for the productions, so I don’t need to see them again” when they should be saying, “Rigoletto and La Traviata are masterpieces. I wonder who is singing in them next season?”
I, for one, am not a fan of the current La Traviata production but, when it returns next season with Sonya Yoncheva, Michael Fabiano and Thomas Hampson in the leading roles and Nicola Luisotti conducting, you can be certain I will attend. The 2016-2017 Met season has a lot that is irresistible in purely musical terms and nothing beats hearing an opera live in the acoustically congenial Metropolitan Opera House. “Virtual” opera in electronic transmissions simply does not compare.
While the current season has 18 of its 25 operas in Italian, next season will be much more varied and diverse. Of the 26 operas to be presented in 2016-2017, eleven are in Italian (Aïda, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Bohéme, Don Giovanni, Idomeneo, L’Italiana in Algeri, Manon Lescaut, Nabucco, I Puritani, Rigoletto, La Traviata); six are in French (L’Amour de Loin, Carmen, Cyrano De Bergerac, Guillaume Tell, Roméo et Juliette, Werther); five in German (Fidelio, Der Fliegende Holländer, Der Rosenkavalier, Salome, Tristan und Isolde); two are in Czech (Jenufa, Rusalka); one in Russian (Eugene Onegin) and one in English translation (a holiday Magic Flute).
The Met has projected titles in English, German, Spanish and, when the opera is in that language, Italian. Given the high number of French operas next season, it might be time for the Met to seek a donation from a luxury brand such as LVMH or a foundation interested in French culture to fund the creation of French-language titles.
There will be six new productions, starting with Tristan und Isolde on September 26, the first night of the season. It will star Nina Stemme, Stuart Skelton and René Pape, with Simon Rattle conducting. That is world-class. Next comes Rossini’s Guillaume Tell for the first time at the Met since 1931, when it was given in Italian. The wonderful Gerald Finley is in the title role, Marina Rebeka will be Mathilde and Bryan Hymel and John Osborn share the daunting role of Arnold. Fabio Luisi, who has been performing splendidly this season at the Met, will conduct. It will be interesting to hear how his interpretation compares to the stupendous one by Gianandrea Noseda that rocked Carnegie Hall in 2014.
L’Amour de Loin, by Kaija Saariaho is a very welcome new work that has been a critical success since its Salzburg premiere in 2000. It will see the Met debut of the excellent Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki and the cast includes Susanna Phillips, Tamara Mumford and the always riveting Eric Owens.
Diana Damrau and Gianandrea Noseda teamed up memorably this season on Les Pêcheurs de Perles and return on New Year’s Eve with Vittorio Grigolo in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. Later in the season Damrau will star in I Puritani with Javier Camarena and Luca Pisaroni, which promises to be a great night of singing.
A new Rusalka, by Dvorak, has an especially strong cast: Kristine Opolais, Katarina Dalayman, Jamie Barton, Brandon Jovanovich and Eric Owens. All are excellent, distinctive singers and the conductor is Mark Elder.
The final new production opens on April 13, 2017 and promises to be memorable for many reasons. Der Rosenkavalier has Elina Garanca in the title role and Renée Fleming, the defining American opera singer of her generation, as the Marschallin. James Levine is scheduled to conduct.
Fleming said in a recent interview that this will be her “last mainstream opera appearance” although she added that she “might be tempted by something newly written.” I have circled May 13, 2017, the last performance of the run, on my calendar to see how Fleming plays those moments of the Marschallin’s character “with one eye wet and one eye dry.”
The drama of 72-year-old James Levine’s future at the Met has been in the news of late. He made his debut in 1971 and has been in charge of musical affairs since 1973. Historians, in the future, will refer to the past 45 years as the Levine Era at the Met. The peerless orchestra is his achievement. He has a phenomenal legacy of superb, unforgettable performances. He adores singers (not every conductor does!), and they love working with him. I hope that he will have an ongoing role in musical affairs at the Met for as long as he wants to and is able to. If that includes conducting, better still. Next season he is scheduled for Idomeneo, L’Italiana in Algeri, Nabucco and Der Rosenkavalier.
There is an excellent roster of conductors next season. Any list that includes Louis Langrée, Levine, Luisi, Luisotti, Noseda, Simon Rattle, David Robertson and Yannick Nézet-Séguin is very strong, and these are only some of the fine names. A special mention belongs to Marco Armiliato, who has become such a valuable presence with the Met Orchestra that sometimes his contributions are not acknowledged. Next season he will lead Aïda, La Bohéme, Cyrano De Bergerac and Manon Lescaut.
Two conductors I admire are making important debuts: Johannes Debus (music director of the Canadian Opera Company) helms Salome and Daniele Rustioni, a fine young Italian maestro, will conduct some of the performances of Aïda.
There are, of course, other conductors whom I would like to see with the Met Orchestra, including James Conlon, Antonio Pappano and Zubin Mehta. All three are doing great work elsewhere. I believe that Philippe Jordan of the Paris Opera has future Met plans and I hope that Emmanuel Villaume will come back soon.
While one could quibble with some casting choices next season, for the most part they are quite solid and often quite interesting. There are many singers with distinctive artistic personalities and talents on the roster next season. When we see and hear them, we are reminded that this is what opera is all about. The most welcome return is of the incomparable Karita Mattila, not heard at the Met since 2012. I have seen her elsewhere in roles such as Marie in Wozzeck and Ariadne and there is no other opera singer now before the public so able to electrify audiences with lightning bolts of music and drama. She will be the Kostelnicka to the Jenufa of Oksana Dyka, with Hanna Schwarz as Grandmother Buryja, all under the baton of David Robertson.
There are several casts, in addition to Rusalka and Jenufa, that are strong throughout thanks to the presence of vivid performers. These include Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Pretty Yende, Javier Camarena, Peter Mattei, Maurizio Muraro); Cyrano De Bergerac (Patricia Racette, Roberto Alagna); Eugene Onegin (Anna Netrebko, Dmitri Hvorostovsky); Fidelio (Adrianne Pieczonka, Klaus Florian Vogt, Falk Struckmann, Greer Grimsley, Günther Groissböck, James Morris); Der Fliegende Holländer (Amber Wagner, Dolora Zajick, Jay Hunter Morris, Michael Volle, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin); Idomeneo (Elza van den Heever, Nadine Sierra, Alice Coote, Matthew Polenzani) and Nabucco (Liudmyla Monastyrska, Jamie Barton, Russell Thomas, Plácido Domingo).
Don Giovanni will have many compelling artists cycling through its sixteen performances and, though I find the production very wanting, I will be very interested in hearing the likes of Simon Keenlyside, Hibla Gerzmava, Malin Byström, Angela Meade, Nadine Sierra and Štefan Kocán. Four very distinct tenors are slated to play Don Ottavio: Paul Appleby, Matthew Polenzani, Ramón Vargas and Rolando Villazón.
Some individual casting choices are also quite appealing. These include Latonia Moore and Krassimira Stoyanova as Aïda; Anna Netrebko as Manon Lescaut; and Piotr Beczala and Michael Fabiano as Rodolfo in La Bohéme. Elizabeth DeShong, a talented mezzo waiting for a breakout role, will get it as Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri.
As always, there are superb singers who are not appearing in opera at the Met next season. These include Sondra Radvanovsky (whose performances in Donizetti’s “Three Queens” trilogy is the highlight of the current season), Eva-Maria Westbroek, Barbara Frittoli, Marlis Petersen, Christine Goerke (who does have big future plans at the Met), Stephanie Blythe, Susan Graham, Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Flórez, Johan Botha, Ambrogio Maestri, Bryn Terfel and Ferruccio Furlanetto (whose magnificent Don Quichotte will be heard in Chicago in November).
On May 7, 2017 the Met will present a gala celebrating the company’s 50 years at Lincoln Center. The direction and scenic design will be by Julian Crouch and projection design by 59 Productions. These artists combined to produce the memorable and original gala in 2009 celebrating the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Metropolitan Opera. About 30 singers have already been announced for the upcoming gala, most of them appearing at the opera house during the season but also DiDonato, Graham, Flórez and Furlanetto. I was surprised not to see Stephanie Blythe and Deborah Voigt on that list. They deserve to be there.
Ten HD transmissions are scheduled for the 2016-2017 season: Tristan und Isolde (Oct. 8); Don Giovanni (Oct. 22); L’Amour de Loin (Dec. 10); Nabucco (Jan. 7); Roméo et Juliette (Jan. 21); Rusalka (Feb. 25); La Traviata (Mar. 11); Idomeneo (Mar. 25); Eugene Onegin (Apr. 22); and Der Rosenkavalier (May 13). Given that the Don Giovanni production has already been documented, I would have chosen Jenufa instead. And I would have preferred the May 7 gala rather than another La Traviata.
What appeals to you most in coming season at the Met?