# Met 2019/20 season



## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

The Met announced its 2019/20 season.

HANDEL
Agrippina (HD)

GLUCK
Orfeo ed Euridice

MOZART
Marriage of Figaro
Così fan tutte
Magic Flute

ROSSINI
La Cenerentola

DONIZETTI
Maria Stuarda (HD)

VERDI
Macbeth
Simon Boccanegra
Traviata

WAGNER
Flying Dutchman (HD)

BERLIOZ
La damnation de Faust

MASSENET
Manon (HD)
Werther

TCHAIKOVSKY
Queen of Spades

PUCCINI
La Bohème
Madama Butterfly (HD)
Manon Lescaut
Tosca (HD)
Turandot (HD)

STRAUSS
Der Rosenkavalier

BERG
Wozzeck (HD)

JANACEK
Kát'a Kabanová

GERSHWIN
Porgy and Bess (HD)

GLASS
Akhnaten (HD)

Thoughts?


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Something for everyone, looking forward to it.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Dr. Shatterhand said:


> The Met announced its 2019/20 season.
> 
> Thoughts?


Depends who the singers are.

N.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

The Conte said:


> Depends who the singers are.
> 
> N.


https://www.metopera.org/season/in-cinemas/

Browse away .


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

If we get only one DVD out of all this, I vote for _Akhnaten_.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

amfortas said:


> If we get only one DVD out of all this, I vote for _Akhnaten_.


Yes, why isn't Satyagraha available on DVD?


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## Ianinmaschera (Feb 12, 2019)

My hat what a fine selection, hope we get a good range of those for the radio matinees.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

_Agrippina_ and _Akhnaten_ are the most interesting on offer, maybe _Kat'a Kabanova_ and _Porgy & Bess_ too. And Michael Spyres (probably the world's best tenor) makes his Met debut.

I was listening to Agrippina this week before I saw the announcement; it's pretty damn good. Imperial Roman power politics played as sex farce - Carry On Clavdivs. Has a show-stopping mezzo aria ("Pensieri, voi mi tormentate").

_Akhnaten_ is also magnificent, an imaginative, powerful score (from ethereally beautiful pieces like the Window of Appearances to the tumultuous Attack and Fall). OPEN NOW ARE THE DOUBLE DOORS OF THE HORIZON; UNLOCKED ARE ITS BOLTS!

_Porgy & Bess_: American classic, not done for three decades. _Kat'a Kabanova_ was last done in 2004, but won't be broadcast in HD.

It's a fairly unadventurous lineup otherwise, heavy on warhorses and repeats - and new productions of works staged recently. Isn't there a better way to spend money?

Good to get some Gluck - but _Orfeo_ tends to be the work most put on. (Met last staged it in 2011.) It has "Che faro senza Euridice", but isn't as musically or dramatically strong as either of the _Iphigenies_, _Alceste_, or _Armide_. The Met produced _Tauride_ (although with an ageing, miscast Domingo); give the world more Gluck!

The usual suspects:
Three Mozarts.
Three Verdis. At least put on _Foscari_ rather than _Boccanegra_.
FIVE Puccinis, THREE of which will be broadcast in HD out of ten - so nearly a third. Ugh. And no _Kat'a Kabanova_. Go figure.
_Boheme, Tosca, Traviata, Magic Flute_ all done in 2018/19 season.
There should be a moratorium.

Rossini: _La Cenerentola _is a fun, popular piece - but the Met did it in 2014. They could do _Mosè_, _Maometto II_, _Ermione_, _Matilde di Shabran_, or _Zelmira_ for starters.

Donizetti: _Maria Stuarda_ was done in 2012/13 and 2016. Let's have _Lucrezia Borgia_, _Poliuto_, or _La favorite_ - or, if they want to be ambitious, _Imelda de' Lambertazzi_, _L'assedio di Calais_, or, if they want Maria, _Padilla_ or _di Rohan_.

Wagner: _Flying Dutchman_ is one of the early, fun operas. Last done in 2017. Gets a new production.

Berlioz: _Faust_ is a great whateveritis (opera? oratorio? dramatic legend?). Last done 2008; but the Met hasn't done _Cellini_ since 2003, and apparently never _Beatrice & Benedict_.

Two of the most over-represented Massenets. _Manon_ was done in 2012 and 2014/15; _Werther_ in 2017. M wrote at least a dozen operas better than either. (And, no, I don't include _Heroiade_, _Le roi de Lahore_, or _Le Cid_.)

Tchaikovsky's _Queen of Spades_. One of the two boring, popular ones, last done in 2011; this is an over-expanded short story with ersatz Mozart and bits of Grétry stuck in. Give us _The Maid of Orleans_ - or, better still, Rimsky.

Strauss's _Rosenkavalier_. The Presentation of the Rose and the final trio are wonderful, and all decomposing sopranos want to play the Marschallin. But the Met did it two years ago. There's a lot of great Strauss that's rarely performed outside Germany, like_ Die schweigsame Frau_, _Daphne_, _Intermezzo_, or _Friedenstag_. Apparently _Die Frau ohne Schatten_ next year.

_Wozzeck_ - new production of a work last done in 2014.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

^^^ I completely agree with . . . most of what you say.


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## sharkeysnight (Oct 19, 2017)

Excited for Porgy and Akhnaten to be broadcast and, hopefully, released, but I'd gladly trade a Butterfly screening for Kabanova. Hoping to make my first trip to New York for Akhnaten, though! Wouldn't mind seeing them round out the portrait trilogy.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

amfortas said:


> ^^^ I completely agree with . . . most of what you say.


Mozart's wonderful, of course - but rather than simply doing the same four (six?) Mozart operas every other year, the Met could produce obscure Mozart (_La finta giardiniera_, _Lucio Silla_, _Ascanio in Alba_, &c), or Mozart's contemporaries like Salieri, Haydn, and Soler.

There were other good mid-century Italian opera composers besides Verdi; why not stage Mercadante or Pacini? Or Mascagni's _Iris_ instead of _Madama Butterfly_, Franchetti's _Germania_ rather than _Tosca_, Leoncavallo's _Bohème_, or Leoni's _Oracolo_ instead of _Turandot_? Maybe Montemezzi or Wolf-Ferrari, too!

This is wishful thinking, of course, but widening the repertory would be exciting - and more challenging than yet another Regie production!


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

> This is wishful thinking, of course, but widening the repertory would be exciting - and more challenging than yet another Regie production!


And less visitors / audience, commercially suicide.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Rogerx said:


> And less visitors / audience, commercially suicide.


A lot of people I know won't go to see Carmen, Traviata, Tosca, etc; they've seen it a couple of times, it's on every year, and they're sick of it. Offer them Arabella, The Makropulos Case, Die tote Stadt, Don Quichotte, Il viaggio a Reims, or Artaserse, and they'll snap up tickets.


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## Argopo (Dec 26, 2014)

Dr. Shatterhand said:


> Berlioz: _Faust_ is a great whateveritis (opera? oratorio? dramatic legend?). Last done 2008; but the Met hasn't done _Cellini_ since 2003, and apparently never _Beatrice & Benedict_.
> 
> _Wozzeck_ - new production of a work last done in 2014.


Got word today that the Met will convert the performance of Faust into a concert presentation for the upcoming season. And they cancelled some of the performances.

From the email:

"The decision to present La Damnation de Faust in its more usual concert version is driven by the unanticipated technical demands of reviving the Met's staged production, impossible to accommodate within the company's production schedule. The cast, including mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča, bass Ildar Abdrazakov, and tenors Bryan Hymel (January 25, 29) and Michael Spyres (February 1, 8) sharing the title role, remains unchanged. Edward Gardner is the conductor."

Was looking forward to seeing this revived production. Too bad.

Decided to switch tickets for Berg's Wozzeck which looks interesting based on William Kentridge's Salzburg production.

Been a very long time since I last visited the Met. Probably more than a decade.

Booked tickets for: Akhnaten, The Queen of Spades, Der Rosenkavalier, Wozzeck, Der Fliegende Hollander, Simon Boccanegra, Maria Stuarda and Manon Lescaut

Should be a good season, I think.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Rogerx said:


> And less visitors / audience, commercially suicide.


Yes, whether we like it or not, Boheme, Traviata, Tosca and Carmen put bums on seats (both in the auditorium and in the cinema). Whilst committed opera fans may not often go to the revivals, there are always enough of the general public who either don't go regularly to see performances or may wish to try out opera as they have never seen one.

N.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Too long away, Simon Boccanegra should have been an HD choice so that more people round the world could enjoy it live.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Dr. Shatterhand said:


> There were other good mid-century Italian opera composers besides Verdi; why not stage Mercadante or Pacini? Or Mascagni's _Iris_ instead of _Madama Butterfly_,


I think they can stage both operas. They premiered at the Metropolitan Opera the same year.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

It will interesting to hear the cast and chorus of Akhenaten singing in ancient Egyptian ! It's a language which has sort of been preserved but about which linguists know little . They're not even sure how it was pronounced ! 
The Coptic language, still used by Egyptian Christians as a liturgical language, is a late form of ancient Egyptian, so it's undoubtedly quite different from the language of the Pharaohs . 
I say this as an amateur linguist .


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