Archives
Fall 2013
September 17 | Tchiakovsky’s Anti-Opera
Most operas are driven by a passionate, reciprocal love interest; in Eugene Onegin,which opens the MET season in a new production on October 23, Tchaikovsky wrote about everything but. Pushkin’s tale of missed connections and misplaced affections demanded a special musical voice.
September 24 | Mozart’s Ambiguity
Così fan tutte (which marks James Levine’s return to the MET on September 24) remains a mystery. The whole 19th century rejected it; the first half of the 20th considered it trivial fluff. But then the time capsule miraculously opened, and Così mutated into Mozart’s most modern and psychologically rich opera.
October 1 | What’s in a Bass?
A survey of history’s great basses, combined with a working session to illustrate the special issues involved in discovering training the deepest of voices. **
October 8 | The Last Castrato
Giovanni Battista Velluti (1780-1861) was the last male soprano to become an operatic superstar. No one today can know how his voice sounded – but more than any other singer, he left a written record of his musical style, which turns out to have been surprisingly influential for the Romantic era of Bellini, Verdi and Chopin. **
October 15 | Two Boys
Nico Muhly’s hit opera about Internet crime comes to the MET on October 21. Among the responses to its London premiere: “Serious and radiant” (NY Times); “a bland mid-Atlantic compromise” (The Guardian); “A compelling opera for our time” (The Daily Mail); “A bit of a bore” (The Daily Telegraph). How will it play here?
October 29 | Strauss Unhinged
Richard Strauss modeled Der Rosenkavalier on Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, and it became an instant classic. Then he channeled the symbolism and imagery of The Magic Flute in Die Frau ohne Schatten (returning to the MET on November 7) – and went off the deep end. It’s an opera that takes getting used to – but it can be as rich as it is bewildering.
November 12 | Mussorgksy’s Nursery
The author of Boris Godunov had a lifelong fascination with the world of childhood, which he illuminated more vividly than any other composer in a long series of piano pieces and songs – comic, pathetic, subtle, and startlingly life-like. **
November 19 | Verdi in Rehearsal
Verdi’s last opera, Falstaff, opens in a new MET production on December 6. Newly published correspondence allows us to follow the lively story of Verdi’s own rehearsals of the opera in Milan and Paris, while rare early recordings – some still unpublished in modern times – allow us to fill in the picture by listening to the actual singers he was writing about and working with.
December 3 | Everyone’s a Critic A lecture postponed from our 2012 series (to make room for a special guest) reappears here: The history and art of music criticism, with selections from the best and wittiest, from Schumann and Berlioz to the latest bloggers.
** Lectures marked with asterisks are illustrated by guest soloists drawn from the training program of Bel Canto at Caramoor
Most operas are driven by a passionate, reciprocal love interest; in Eugene Onegin,which opens the MET season in a new production on October 23, Tchaikovsky wrote about everything but. Pushkin’s tale of missed connections and misplaced affections demanded a special musical voice.
September 24 | Mozart’s Ambiguity
Così fan tutte (which marks James Levine’s return to the MET on September 24) remains a mystery. The whole 19th century rejected it; the first half of the 20th considered it trivial fluff. But then the time capsule miraculously opened, and Così mutated into Mozart’s most modern and psychologically rich opera.
October 1 | What’s in a Bass?
A survey of history’s great basses, combined with a working session to illustrate the special issues involved in discovering training the deepest of voices. **
October 8 | The Last Castrato
Giovanni Battista Velluti (1780-1861) was the last male soprano to become an operatic superstar. No one today can know how his voice sounded – but more than any other singer, he left a written record of his musical style, which turns out to have been surprisingly influential for the Romantic era of Bellini, Verdi and Chopin. **
October 15 | Two Boys
Nico Muhly’s hit opera about Internet crime comes to the MET on October 21. Among the responses to its London premiere: “Serious and radiant” (NY Times); “a bland mid-Atlantic compromise” (The Guardian); “A compelling opera for our time” (The Daily Mail); “A bit of a bore” (The Daily Telegraph). How will it play here?
October 29 | Strauss Unhinged
Richard Strauss modeled Der Rosenkavalier on Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, and it became an instant classic. Then he channeled the symbolism and imagery of The Magic Flute in Die Frau ohne Schatten (returning to the MET on November 7) – and went off the deep end. It’s an opera that takes getting used to – but it can be as rich as it is bewildering.
November 12 | Mussorgksy’s Nursery
The author of Boris Godunov had a lifelong fascination with the world of childhood, which he illuminated more vividly than any other composer in a long series of piano pieces and songs – comic, pathetic, subtle, and startlingly life-like. **
November 19 | Verdi in Rehearsal
Verdi’s last opera, Falstaff, opens in a new MET production on December 6. Newly published correspondence allows us to follow the lively story of Verdi’s own rehearsals of the opera in Milan and Paris, while rare early recordings – some still unpublished in modern times – allow us to fill in the picture by listening to the actual singers he was writing about and working with.
December 3 | Everyone’s a Critic A lecture postponed from our 2012 series (to make room for a special guest) reappears here: The history and art of music criticism, with selections from the best and wittiest, from Schumann and Berlioz to the latest bloggers.
** Lectures marked with asterisks are illustrated by guest soloists drawn from the training program of Bel Canto at Caramoor