The Best (And Worst) of 2018

[canbelto]

Since everyone's making these lists:

https://humbledandoverwhelmed.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-best-and-worst-of-2018-with-video.html

[sappho]

So happy to see Parsifal at the top of someone else's list! It's been almost a year and I'm still basking in the afterglow of that production. I didn't catch the 2013 staging, but I watched the Met On Demand recording and agree that the boyishness/clarity/brightness of Vogt's voice makes him a better fit for the role than the unavoidably tragi-glamorous Kaufmann. Pape and Mattei were divine.

[canbelto]

I preferred the sound of Jonas Kaufmann's voice as Parsifal. But Klaus Florian Vogt's odd, disembodied sound was very unique and worked well for the character. 

Vogt is anither artist I first got to know through livestreams as his career is heavily based in Europe. This year was my first time hearing him live.

[canbelto]

By the way the new Met Traviata is definitely worth seeing:

https://humbledandoverwhelmed.blogspot.com/2018/12/met-traviata-something-old-something.html

It was already on HD but I believe there's still an encore performance?

[Helene]

For me, in opera, 

From the Met, all over Sirius and/or Live in HD:

• Mattei in "Parsifal"
• Damrau, Florez, and Kelsey in "La Traviata".  If I had to pick the brightest of those stars, it would be Kelsey, that rare specimen of a true, stellar, Verdi baritone
• Westbroek and Lucic in "La Fanciulla del West."  I know Kaufmann's return to the Met was much lauded, and he is the bigger star, but I liked the contrast in tone between Kaufmann and Eyvazov, who sang Dick Johnson in the earlier performances
• DiDonato and Blythe in last season's "Cendrillon"
• Leonard in "Marnie": what a knockout performance in every way
• Neget-Seguin becoming the Met's Music Director!

On livestream, the Munich "Otello" with Kaufmann, Harteros, and Finley.  There was a 24-hour period where it was available on demand, as will be the Bayerisches Staatsballett's "Jewels", live on  11 April 2019 at  7:30pm CEST, then on demand from noon on 12 April 2019-11:59am on 13 April 2019, all CEST.  According to one google search, the EU postponed the abolition of DST, so this should mean 9 hours ahead of PDT and 6 hours ahead of EDT.

Live,

• The Zambello "Ring" in San Francisco.   There were directorial choices I thought were better in 2012, like making Alberich a piker, and the ending less weak, but the cast was fabulous:  Grimsley, Thoerin -- as fine here as in the 2006 Copenhagen Ring -- Mattila, Jovanovich, Struckmann, Aceto, Miller, Margita, and Cangelosi especially.
• In Seattle,
• The best non-Ring production I've ever seen from the Company: the Kazaras "Turn of the Screw" with Caballero, Bliss, Zifchak, and Stonikas as the adults in one of the few truly perfectly balanced casts I've seen in opera.
• Haroutunian's Cio-Cio-San
• The Costa-Jackson sisters playing the "Cosi fan tutte" sisters in one cast, Bliss's Ferrando in the other, and Tatulescu (Dorabella) and Burdette (Don Alfonso) in both casts.

 

In film, it was ARCS (American Romanian Cultural Society) 5th Romanian Film Festival.  Each year, the mix of films is fascinating to see.  This year, while her film, a remake of the Romanian literary classic "Dominsoara Christina," wasn't the best of the lot, although the production values were awesome, Maia Morgenstern flew to Seattle for two days before returning to Romania to fulfill a commitment, and she was a gracious Q&A guest, and she later went to a party, where filmgoers and passholders were invited.

 

[canbelto]

I am so jealous of anyone who gets to see Mattila sing anything, anywhere. 

[Helene]

It was the first time I'd heard her live.  Her voice isn't huge -- and War Memorial's acoustic's aren't close to the Met's -- but it is so, so beautiful, and she's in her late 50's.

[sappho]

3 hours ago, Helene said:

On livestream, the Munich "Otello" with Kaufmann, Harteros, and Finley. 

Second this. Finley and Harteros were glorious, and Niermeyer's decision to stage Otello as a domestic drama centered on Desdemona was smart & well-executed.

[Mashinka]

We don't get Hareros in London.  I also heard Klaus Florian Vogt sing live for the first time this year, but in Lohengrin, and I was overwhelmed. 

[canbelto]

Harteros never sings in the U.S. I heard her years ago as Countess Almaviva. She was glorious. 

I last heard Mattila as Kostelnicka in Jenufa. Unforgettable.

 

[Helene]

Harteros sings a lot in Munich: she's sung with Kaufmann before on the Staatsoper TV streams.

[canbelto]

59 minutes ago, Helene said:

Harteros sings a lot in Munich: she's sung with Kaufmann before on the Staatsoper TV streams.

I know. I love her on livestream. The Bayreuth Lohengrin which she sang this year was wonderful. I also enjoyed the Otello livestream from Munich.