And the 2014-15 Met season is...finally announced

...... announced some time this evening on their website.

While you're waiting, check out the speculation.

 

*UPDATE* Details now published here

HD schedule here

Comments

[Alexander]

...people say Scala gave its standing ovations to Albina Shagimuratova for her Lucia...it's always pleasant to hear Renée is in the House...Macbeth with the Trebs will certainly be the hit of the season ... Donna del Lago with Joice for sure .... it's such a pity Peter Gelb doesn't like Ruth Ann Swenson .... what a loss for the Met ...alas ... ( judging from the rumors you gave some navigation hints , IM)....just my opinion of course

[essar]

Looks like they've invested in photoshoots for Abdrazakov as Figaro, Fleming in Merry Widow and someone (Alvarez?) in Pagliacci. So it would seem they are lined up to be broadcast.

[John]

Indeed. Off-topic: what has happened with Marcelo Alvarez's career in London? He used to be a very popular fixture but hasn't returned since Aida and he doesn't appear to have any engagements lined up in the future. I know he was supposed to do Otello and then pulled out, but are there no other engagements scheduled? It's a pity if so.

[Andres]

Looking at his schedule, he's one of those who doesn't keep secrets - engagements up to 2016! None in Covent Garden, but then again, who needs the rain when you can get a warmer weather (and more dosh presumably) in Kazakhstan.

http://marceloalvarez.com/schedule/

[Nikolaus Vogel]

Hasn't Swenson more or less retired?

[Ms_lizzy_bennet]

Macbeth would look much more interesting if not for utterly boring Luisi conducting. Trebs will get a better treatment in Iolanta opposite Bezcala and with her fav Gergiev at the podium

[Emil Archambault]

It appears Violeta Urmana is returning to her (high) mezzo days, as it seems she will be Amneris next season.

[SJT]

Is it me or does this season seem just a tad thin? Or lacking in anticipatory excitement? The HD series in particular has a very réchauffé look about it, neither the Hoffmann nor Carmen having much to offer stage-wise and worse casts than they fielded before.

[JohnVecchio]

no Richard Strauss and just one Wagner revival of the hoary old Meistersinger production with an uninspiring cast. Did no one tell them the Verdi centenary was over? Yawnsville.

[Alexander]

probably someone would like to have her be retired .... there is a reference on the Net http://seenandheard-international.com/2013/10/sumptuous-singing-from-ruth-ann-swenson/
I miss her singing greatly ...hopefully some other one will invite her to sing recitals every now and then ....

[Alexander]

The Trebs is a unique singer considering all the factors which makes a great soprano ( copyright BBC and Kiri - that famous documentary;) , so , whenever and whatever she sings will just be of a great success till she has those factors. I, personally, like her Verdi CD much, and she possesses her own magnetism of Maria Callas breed just a bit different "grade" , so all the stars meets above her head - what else would you like to have ?

[John]

If I were in New York, I'd be excited but I can imagine that some regulars might be disappointed by revivals with singers who've already been featured in those roles. The casting of Hibla Gerzmava in Hoffman is peculiar - Damrau should have been a shoo-in for this one with Yoncheva upgraded to Manon rather than Musetta. But then, scheduling is complicated. I'd love to see the two double-bills and Macbeth. Ernani is an obvious vanity project for Domingo since this production has been revived twice recently - there are other early Verdi operas that could be aired and which would stretch Angela Meade as a performer. Very little Kaufmann in New York so perhaps he really is committing to Munich more.

[inter mezzo]

I suspect cost constraints and the the need to fill the house more have been major considerations in both programming and casting.

In NY, regular folk (ie non-opera buffs) come out more for titles than names.

[Miriam]

I find this season very unexciting, and I am sure being in NY would not make me feel any more excited about it. At least one of my friends in that area finds it very disappointing. I am not very excited by most of the HD schedule.

This is not of course to say that I have always found ROH announcements any more exciting.

[John]

I'd anybody hear Ailyn Perez in Manon? Reports?

[manou]

If you are asking whether anyone saw Perez in Manon, I did, and found her better suited to the role than Jaho, whom I also saw earlier in the run. She was a more believable young girl fresh from the country, and later on a credible "véritable sirène", and she sang affectingly if not very idiomatically and was very warmly received.

[SJT]

I saw both as well, and pretty much agree. Perez CERTAINLY has a healthier high E-flat, liberally sprinkled throughout: but both sopranos have relatively weak and unformed lower mid-ranges in which their respective voices can barely even "speak", so that the big ensemble number for the assembled tarts in Act IV, say, - "Chanter, aimer, sont douces choses" - went for nothing (it was just one of Netrebko's triumphs in the role).

Perez also certainly has more reliable intonation - Jaho is prone to patches of DIY Sprechstimme suggestive to me either of chronic nervousness or sporadic musical inattentiveness - and is generally a more vivacious creature on stage: though she badly miscalculated the sotto voce stuff in Act V, being alternately inaudible and approximate.

To be truthful, I thought both were almost terminally hamstrung by Polenzani's Des Grieux, an absolute theatrical black hole into which all light and energy vanish never to escape. That, and Audun Iversen's beyond-stolid Lescaut, all the Machiavellian wit and dash of porridge. And the preposterously camp Guillot (if you're this gay, why all the women?), whom someone decades ago made the fatal mistake of telling he was very funny on stage, and who's been peddling his little camp routine, irrespective of role, ever since, including silly dances at the curtain call.

[manou]

A word about Polenzani - he sang very well (best French in the cast - apart of course from Monsieur Mortagne) achieved wonderful pianissimi in "En Fermant Les Yeux", but it is true that his acting is embarrassingly wooden. All the stage business devised for Grigolo* sat uncomfortably on his sturdy shoulders. Whoever thought that rapture could be suggested by the couple leaning on the back wall arms apart as if crucified is very much on the wrong track.
_________________
*a particular bête noire of mine - but at least he had the impetuosity and athleticism required for some of the moves.

[SJT]

Well I'm all in favour of blaming Laurent Pelly, whose whole conception of the opera amounts to little more than the world's first wheelchair accessible Hello Dolly! But: Richard Jones did exactly the same with Giorgetta and Luigi in Il tabarro, to similarly laughable effect.

[Rick]

SJT, I wonder about the E-flats that Ms Perez generously sprinkled throughout Manon. Can you be a bit more precise? I know Manon quite well and am not aware of any places in Manon where an E-flat would be in its place.

[John]

I think SJT means the top Ds - two in the Gavotte, two in Act 4.

[Carla Birarelli]

why would Kaufmann come to NY for just two Carmens? What is up with that???