Opera on BTPM Classical

Conductor Joana Mallwitz makes her Met debut leading two extraordinary casts in Mozart’s comic masterpiece. Bass-baritones Michael Sumuel and Luca Pisaroni star as the clever valet Figaro, opposite sopranos Olga Kulchynska and Rosa Feola as his betrothed, the wily maid Susanna. Baritone Joshua Hopkins and bass-baritone Adam Plachetka alternate as the philandering Count, sopranos Federica Lombardi and Jacquelyn Stucker (in her Met debut) trade off as his anguished wife, and mezzo-sopranos Sun-Ly Pierce and Emily D’Angelo share the role of the adolescent page Cherubino.

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MUSIC
Le Nozze di Figaro’s amazing score mirrors the complex world it depicts. The first impression is one of tremendous beauty and elegance. Dig a little deeper, and you’ll find all the underlying pain and deception, with a constant tension between the social classes and the sexes, where each character has something to gain and something to hide. Standout solo numbers include the Countess’s two arias, Cherubino’s “Voi, che sapete,” Susanna’s “Deh, vieni, non tardar,” and Figaro’s arias, the angry Act IV diatribe against womankind, “Aprite un po’ quegli occhi,” and Act I’s “Non più andrai,” in which not even the most buoyant and memorable melody in the world can quite hide the character’s sarcasm.

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Conductor: Joana Mallwitz
Venue: The Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts NYC

CAST:
Figaro: Michael Sumuel
Susanna: Olga Kulchynska
Countess: Federica Lombardi
Count: Joshua Hopkins
Cherubino: Sun-Ly Pierce
Marcellina: Elizabeth Bishop
Dr. Bartolo: Maurizio Muraro

Verdi’s charged drama of family strife and forbidden love stars tenor Michael Fabiano as Manrico, the bold troubadour unwittingly at war with his own brother, with Gwyn Hughes Jones singing the final two performances. Sopranos Rachel Willis-Sørensen and Angela Meade share the role of the noble Leonora, with mezzo-sopranos Jamie Barton and Olesya Petrova trading off as Manrico’s tormented mother, Azucena. Baritone Igor Golovatenko is the unbending Count di Luna, with bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as the soldier Ferrando. Italian conductor Daniele Callegari leads David McVicar’s Goya-inspired staging.

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MUSIC
Verdi’s score for Il Trovatore perfectly expresses the extreme nature of the drama at hand. Throughout the opera, the use of melody is as uninhibited as the emotions of the protagonists. But that melody often appears to be as disturbed as the situations it portrays: Much of the score is written in uneven meters (such as 3/4 or 6/8), and even those segments that are set in common 4/4 time have vigorous counter-rhythms fighting against any sense of symmetry. Beyond the rhythmic irregularities, another feature of the score is the heavy use of minor keys in almost all of the main arias.

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Conductor: Daniele Callegari
Venue: The Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts NYC

CAST:
Manrico: Michael Fabiano
Leonora: Rachel Willis-Sørensen
Azucena: Jamie Barton
Count di Luna: Igor Golovatenko
Ferrando: Ryan Speedo Green

Performance from December 3, 1966
Still new to the Met when she first tackled the challenging title role of Puccini’s Turandot, Swedish soprano Birgit Nilsson brought not only the fierce power and glory that distinguished her singing of Wagner and Strauss’s great heroines, but also her love and affinity for the Italian repertoire. She had the perfect consort in Franco Corelli as Calàf—tall and handsome, with a viscerally exciting tenor voice to match, Corelli’s singing seemed to blaze its way heroically through the music, finishing with thrilling high notes. In this December 3, 1966, performance conducted by Zubin Mehta, the first Saturday afternoon radio broadcast from the new Met, recent debutante Mirella Freni ravishes as Liù.

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MUSIC
The large Turandot orchestra calls for a wide variety of instruments, including alto saxophones, celesta, bass xylophone, harps, and an organ. There are several genuine Chinese themes that are integrated into the score in a suave and brilliantly original manner, including the big imperial anthem in Act II. The opera also contains moments of sheer melodic beauty in Puccini’s most lyrical vein, most notably in the tenor’s unforgettable song of triumph, “Nessun dorma,” which opens Act III.

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Conductor: Zubin Mehta
Venue: The Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts NYC

CAST:
Turandot: Birgit Nilsson
Calàf: Franco Corelli
Liù: Mirella Freni
Timur: Bonaldo Giaiotti

The most recent opera by preeminent American composer John Adams—a glorious adaptation of Shakespeare’s immortal drama—has its Met premiere. Following her debut in the company premiere of Adams’s El Niño in 2024, soprano Julia Bullock stars as the irresistible Cleopatra, one of theater’s most complex and captivating characters, opposite bass-baritone Gerald Finley as the conflicted Antony. Adams himself takes the podium to conduct his lyrical and richly orchestrated score, leading a new staging by groundbreaking director Elkhanah Pulitzer that transports the story of troubled romance and political strife from ancient Rome to the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930s. Tenor Paul Appleby is Caesar, who goes to war with Antony, and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong is Caesar’s sister and Antony’s forsaken wife Octavia.

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Composer: John Adams
Conductor: John Adams
Venue: The Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts NYC

CAST:
Cleopatra: Julia Bullock
Antony: Gerald Finley
Caesar: Paul Appleby
Octavia: Elizabeth DeShong