Met Opera 2016-2017 Season

[abatt]

http://www.metopera.org/About/Press-Releases/The-Metropolitan-Opera-2016-17-Season/

10 Live in HD broadcasts

The 2016-17 season of The Met: Live in HD will kick off October 8 with the 100th presentation in series history, Tristan und Isolde. The series will continue with Don Giovanni (October 22), L’Amour de Loin (December 10), Nabucco (January 7), Roméo et Juliette (January 21), Rusalka (February 25), La Traviata (March 11), Idomeneo (March 25), Eugene Onegin (April 22), and Der Rosenkavalier (May 13).

[sandik]

A Mary Zimmerman Rusalka? And Renee Fleming back in Rosenkavalier!

[Birdsall]

The previous Rusalka was so gorgeous. I saw Fleming in it in 1997 when she had major buzz right before superstardom. Have hated Zimmerman's productions. Hope she doesn't ruin one of the most underrated operas in the canon.

The Stemme Tristan und Isolde is the only thing I find exciting. Might have to fly up for that.

[sandik]

We will have to agree to disagree about Zimmerman, but we can enjoy Fleming together.

[Birdsall]

We will have to agree to disagree about Zimmerman, but we can enjoy Fleming together.

I tried to be open minded when Zimmerman did La Sonnambula. I was okay and feeling like I could like the production up until the chorus found Amina in the Count's bed (which made no sense in a rehearsal room but I even accepted that), and started trashing the rehearsal room and tearing up Bellini's score that they were rehearsing. It just became like a slapstick comedy moment that did not seem like the way human beings actually act, so she totally lost me at that moment and I hated that production at that moment. It was truly a "WTF?" moment while every other moment in the production attempted to be realistic. Nobody in the 21st century would come upon a woman in some man's bed and start trashing the place and acting shocked. To me this is why most updates of opera rarely work. You have things like people fighting with swords in Wagner in the 21st century in some productions, when you know they would use guns in the 21st century, and that is just too much suspension of disbelief for me. Most updatings are an attempt to show works of art in today's light and expose the issues of today (xenophobia, anti-female, etc) and how they were right there in the 19th century but no one saw it. Well, as an audience member I can interpret all that into the story even when it is done very traditionally. For example, I always thought there was an issue of raping the environment (taking gold from the Rhine) in Wagner's Ring. I did not need the SF Ring to show me that it could be interpreted as a trashing of the environment due to lust for gold. I already saw that in the story. That time I did not actually mind it being emphasized but it did not need to be. It is already in the story if people are thinking. So I am a bit anti-postmodern productions, although not totally 100% against them. Some are good. Some are bad. I thought Zimmerman's Sonnambula was a big flop. It sounded good on paper......Sonnambula staged as a rehearsal of Sonnambula and the same events are transpiring as they rehearse the opera......but for me it was a 100% big flop.