Scroll down to see recent reports and schedules:

December 2024

Our January Met opera in theaters will be the live matinee performance of Aida at 9:30am local time on Saturday, January 25, followed by “encore recordings” on Wednesday at 1:00pm and 6:30pm.  Note that Aida is a very long opera, so the matinee starts early.

Reviews of “Aida” at the Metropolitan Opera generally praise the grand scale of the production, with its large sets, elaborate costumes, and powerful chorus, but often criticize the staging as feeling somewhat static and outdated, particularly when paired with casts that lack dynamic acting ability; some reviewers have noted that while the music and chorus shine, the overall production can feel routine and tired.

October 2024

We will receive Tosca, one of Giacomo Puccini’s finest operas, on Saturday, November 23, at 10:00am.  I shall send reviews after the opera opens in New York.

September 2024

Our 2024-2025 season will start on October 5 with an old favorite, Offenbach’s sad/comic opera Tales of Hoffman, first performed in 1881.   I look forward to seeing it, as I have never had the opportunity.  It will have opened in New York by the time you get this issue and you can google a review or two.

The second October opera Grounded, coming to us on October 19 is a new one, a Met premiere.  See the Met’s description of it below.  It hasn’t opened yet so I don’t have any Met reviews.  Elsewhere, reviews have been mixed.  But that may be only because the subject is contemporary drone warfare and opera reviewers prefer classical romance operas.

“Two-time Tony Award–winning composer Jeanine Tesori’s powerful new opera Grounded, commissioned by the Met and based on librettist George Brant’s acclaimed play, wrestles with the ethical quandaries and psychological toll of 21st-century warfare. Mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, one of opera’s most compelling young stars, portrays Jess, a hot-shot fighter pilot whose unplanned pregnancy takes her out of the cockpit and lands her in Las Vegas, operating a Reaper drone halfway around the world. As she struggles to adjust to this new way of doing battle, she fights to maintain her sanity, and her soul, as she is called to rain down death by remote control. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin oversees the Met premiere of Tesori’s kaleidoscopic score and a cast that also features tenor Ben Bliss as the Wyoming rancher who becomes Jess’s husband. Michael Mayer’s high-tech staging, using a vast array of LED screens, presents a variety of perspectives on the action, including the drone’s predatory view from high above. This live cinema transmission is part of the Met’s award-winning Live in HD series, bringing opera to movie theaters across the globe.”

Altogether, we will get eight operas this season, including some really great ones.

August 2024

We will have eight operas transmitted to local Century theaters this season.  The first one, on Saturday, October 5 will be Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffman.  A blurb below from the Metopera website:

“On October 5, an ensemble of leading lights take the stage for Offenbach’s fantastical final work, headlined by tenor Benjamin Bernheim in the title role of the tormented poet. Hoffmann’s trio of lovers are sung by soprano Erin Morley as the mechanical doll Olympia, soprano Pretty Yende as the plagued diva Antonia, and mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine as the Venetian seductress Giulietta. Marco Armiliato conducts Bartlett Sher’s evocative production, which also features bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as the Four Villains and mezzo-soprano Vasilisa Berzhanskaya in an important company debut as Hoffmann’s friend Nicklausse. This live cinema transmission is part of the Met’s award-winning Live in HD series, bringing opera to movie theaters across the globe.”

last updated on 12/17/24 by MLF.