# Which performance? Met 2022-2023 season



## m1964 (7 mo ago)

Hello,
I am a new member of talkclassical.
Thank you in advance for reading my long post 

My wife and I recently attended Turandot, in which Netrebko was replaced with Lyudmila Monastyrska (I bought the tickets well in advance, well before Russia started the war with Ukraine).
Up until the start of the pandemic, we have been going to the Lincoln Center for classical music concerts, 5-6 times per season.
However, we have not gone to Met in years, mostly due to the high ticket prices.

After attending the Turandot we re-discovered the Met.

I would like to get tickets for one of the performances next year, but cannot decide what to see/listen to.

We can afford one performance. I have to say that I want/need to seat in the orchestra.
I understand that if I opted to seat in family circle, I could buy tickets for two performances instead of one.

We never heard Angela Gheorghiu who will perform in Tosca, (Monastyrska will perform on different dates). 
Gheorghiu certainly seems to have beautiful voice. However, all the YT videos with Gheorghiu are not recent, so I do not know how she would sound live.

Also, I am not sure if I should be considering the singers first, or the conductors?
In symphony, conductor's performance definitely affects the orchestral performance.

So, can anyone suggest _one performance _in the Met next year?
thanks


----------



## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Too many components and too subjective...BUT!!!! I personally would base my choice on the opera over the performer, with just a few caveats. I'll choose a performer first when its one I've been curious about for a long time but never heard, ie...I've missed out on Jonas Kaufman repeatedly and would go see him in anything. But if the cast seems reasonable, I say choose the opera. I WILL see Grimes and Lohengrin next year! 

Whatever you do, best of Luck!!!!


----------



## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Definitely choose the opera first. Even the best conductors and singers can't make a silk purse out of something that sounds like a sow's ear to you


----------



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Easy Peasy for me. Not even a thought in my head. I pray I am in good health so that I can travel to the Big Apple for the Saturday afternoon performance live of Angela Gheorghiu doing "Tosca".
That is my definitive choice.


----------



## m1964 (7 mo ago)

nina foresti said:


> Easy Peasy for me. Not even a thought in my head. I pray I am in good health so that I can travel to the Big Apple for the Saturday afternoon performance live of Angela Gheorghiu doing "Tosca".
> That is my definitive choice.


Thanks to all who replied- will talk to my wife and decide.


----------



## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Becca said:


> Definitely choose the opera first. Even the best conductors and singers can't make a silk purse out of something that sounds like a sow's ear to you


In addition, you never know when that performer you wanted to hear will cancel.


----------



## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

ScottK said:


> I WILL see Grimes and Lohengrin next year!


Is the Met still using the Wilson production of Lohengrin? I hope not....


----------



## m1964 (7 mo ago)

wkasimer said:


> In addition, you never know when that performer you wanted to hear will cancel.


Right. But one can always try...


----------



## DeGustibus (Aug 7, 2020)

Hard for me to choose against Tosca, although Gheorghiu is getting up there and also has some reputation for cancelling (and in a different cast in the run, James Morris as Scarpia?! Now that's "getting up there." I like him, but don't think he has that in him anymore.)
But I would probably choose the new production of Magic Flute with Erin Morley (who is crushing it in Rigoletto right now) and Brownlee, et. al.
Also interested in Spyres in Norma, Moore in Aida. Radvanovsky and Polenzani in Medea, an opera I don't really know.
And fascinated by The Hours although will certainly want to see some reviews. A concert staging a month or so was well received.


----------



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Have you heard Gheorghiu lately? I heard her 2 years ago doing a delicious "Song to the Moon."
Medea is an absolute must with Radvanovsky and Poenzani.
And unlike everyone else who has posted their preference of Opera first" "Singers second" -- not me. No way. I've seen many of those operas. I don't need the story. I long for great voices. That, to me, is what opera is all about -- the music and voices. Stories come last.


----------



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

wkasimer said:


> In addition, you never know when that performer you wanted to hear will cancel.


Could happen. Can you ssay Kaufmann, Gheorghiu, Alagna, Caballe, and on and on...
Ya buys yer ticket and ya takes yer chances!


----------



## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

wkasimer said:


> Is the Met still using the Wilson production of Lohengrin? I hope not....


They were set to do a new production with someone....maybe Russia???, not sure....and cancelled that collaboration. But the last I heard, and thats a bit ago, they were planning to do the opera, I believe with the scheduled cast, but mount their own...NEW....staging. IF that's all correct....no more Wilson!


----------



## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

nina foresti said:


> Could happen. Can you ssay Kaufmann, Gheorghiu, Alagna, Caballe, and on and on...
> Ya buys yer ticket and ya takes yer chances!


As happened to me last time down, going for Stemme and Davidsen in Elektra and got NEITHER!!!


----------



## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

nina foresti said:


> And unlike everyone else who has posted their preference of Opera first" "Singers second" -- not me. No way. I long for great voices.


Yeah....uh, m1964???....don't listen to Nina! She's got that all wrong!!!! 😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆 That's a funny joke Nina.....hahahaha!!!..........funny!!!


----------



## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

DeGustibus said:


> James Morris as Scarpia?! Now that's "getting up there." I like him, but don't think he has that in him anymore.


There's an understatement!!! He didn't have Oroveso in him when Radvanovsky sang her break-out Normas.....awhile ago!!!


----------

