Opening night at the Met

[chickenfeet]

Last night was the Opening Night Gala at the Met. It was being broadcast as paty of the "Live in HD" series for the first time, though due to time zone issues, only to the Americas. It was pretty good, if very long (the broadcast started at 6pm and finished at 10.50pm). The format was new. Renee Fleming starred in excerpts from three roles; an act from Traviata, an act from Massenet's Manon and the final scene of Capriccio. The main male roles were sung by Ramon Vargas and Tom Hampson. There were three different conductors.

Renee was in great form and did marvellously well switching character and language with no apparent difficulty. The men were also excellent. I hadn't seen Hampson before and was very impressed. Somebody should write an opera about Dracula. He would be perfect. Vargas was Vargas, perpetual goofy grin and all.

The intervals were filled with backstage and celebrity interviews as well as Debbie Voigt vamping it up with the crowd in Time Square, where the show was being broadcast on giant screens. There was also a feature on the upcoming season. The highlight looks to be Robert LePage's new production of Berlioz' La Damnation de Faust. He is incorporating a lot of the multi-media techniques he developed with Cirque du Soleil and it looks like we are going to see a state of the art integration of multi media and live performance. I'm quite excited about that one.

The technical quality wasn't up to the very high standards of previous shows I've seen. The subtitles failed to appear until well into Traviata and the colour was a bit lifeless. This may have been a local calibration issue. The sound was as good as ever. Our local theatre proved incapable of doing something as simple as dimming the house lights when the performances started and bringing them back up during intermissions. Doh!

All in all, a very good show though I didn't really need a late night given I am flying to Halifax this morning.

Comments

[linzq.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I think Renee was only in great form by the Manon. I thought she was out of sorts for the whole Verdi... but yes, she did a great job considering the variety of roles she had to do.

I however, loved the grey dress - it was perfect for her, but perhaps out of style for the rest of the production.

Funny how everyone who sees it gets different opinions. My mum and Krish thought the Verdi was the best part, and I thought she was lifeless until the Manon.

The Capriccio was one of my favourite opera moments yet, I think. I would love to see the whole thing.

And Hampson as Dracula?!?! PERFECT!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you know for whom Vargas was substituting? They mentioned they got him at the last minute...

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Do you know for whom Vargas was substituting?

I don't

Where did you see the show?

[linzq.livejournal.com]

at the Yonge/Eglinton Silver City - somehow I ended up 2 rows from the front, which was actually perfect for watching everyone's tongue-/jaw-technique!

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I've got a bit leery of being too near the front since I got the mother of all migraines after watching the first LOTR film on IMAX. Live performances I want to be as far forward as possible but film I need a bit of distance.