{"id":42979,"date":"2017-02-16T16:20:59","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T21:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=42979"},"modified":"2017-02-17T08:28:55","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T13:28:55","slug":"the-scoop-met-opera-announces-201718-season-full-of-canadians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/02\/16\/the-scoop-met-opera-announces-201718-season-full-of-canadians\/","title":{"rendered":"THE SCOOP | MET Opera Announces 2017\/18 Season Full Of Canadians"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Yannick
Yannick N\u00e9zet-S\u00e9guin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

January and February are exciting months for opera lovers, as opera companies worldwide announce their upcoming seasons. And of course, none is more lavish than the Metropolitan Opera in New York, which stands in a tier of its own as far as operating budgets goes and the ability to create massive, bold new productions year after year.<\/p>\n

Next year\u2019s season at the Met includes a range of classics, like the much-loved Zeffirelli La Bohe\u0300me<\/em> and the fanciful Robert O\u2019Hearn and Nathaniel Merrill Hansel and Gretel. Surprises include The Exterminating Angel<\/em>, an intriguing new opera by Thomas Ade\u0300s, composer of The Tempes<\/em>t. The company will also bring two seldom heard operas to their stage, Rossini\u2019s Semiramide<\/em>, known for its overture and bel canto showstoppers including \u201cBel raggio lusinghier,\u201d starring Angela Meade and Javier Camarena, and Massenet\u2019s Cendrillon<\/em>, starring Joyce DiDonato.<\/p>\n

As usual, Canadians abound in the Met\u2019s upcoming season, both on stage and behind the scenes, and travelling Canucks can look forward to hearing Gerald Finley in Massenet\u2019s Thai\u0308s<\/em>. Toronto audiences can feel a sense of hometown pride as the Met\u2019s season opens with recently minted Canadian citizen Sondra Radvanovsky<\/a> singing Norma, which she sang to great acclaim at the Canadian Opera Company this season. Johannes Debus, COC music director, returns to the podium for Les contes d\u2019Hoffman<\/em> and the Met\u2019s music director designate, Yannick Ne\u0301zet-Se\u0301guin<\/a> will conduct Parsifal<\/em> and Elektra<\/em>, starring American soprano Christine Goerke, who Toronto audiences recently heard<\/a> as Bru\u0308nnhilde.<\/p>\n

The Met will premiere new productions of Cosi\u0300 Fan Tutte<\/em>, set in 195 0s Coney Island, and Tosca<\/em>, replacing the controversial Luc Bondy production, heavily criticized when it opened in 2009.<\/p>\n

Fans can look forward to the return of Jonas Kaufmann, who will sing Cavaradossi in Tosca<\/em>, opposite Anna Netrebko in a company debut of the title role.<\/p>\n

Music director James Levine returns for numerous operas, including a full, German-language Die Zauberflo\u0308te<\/em> (not just the reduced, kid-friendly English version the Met puts on for the holidays), four performances of the Verdi Requiem<\/em>, Luisa Miller and Il trovatore<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A few rising sopranos are being even more prominently featured next season, firmly establishing their star statuses in a Met season without Rene\u0301e Fleming or Angela Gheorghiu. South African soprano Pretty Yende returns to sing Lucia and Adina in L\u2019elisir d\u2019amore,<\/em>\u00a0the luminous Sonya Yoncheva sings Luisa Miller<\/em> and Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro,<\/em>\u00a0Nadine Sierra returns as Susanna in Figaro<\/em>, Ailyn Pe\u0301rez sings Thai\u0308s and Juliette and Kristine Opolais stars in Tosca<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Crossover artists take more prominence next season at the Met, with American crossover artist (though well-known on the opera stage) Blue Angel debuting as Mimi in La Bohe\u0300me<\/em> and Broadway star, Kelli O\u2019Hara, returning to sing Despina in Cosi\u0300 Fan Tutte<\/em>. This trend further speaks to the increasing demands for singers to be as appealing theatrically and visually as they are vocally.<\/p>\n

Baroque opera fans will be sad to note that the Met season contains no operas earlier than Mozart\u2019s Le nozze di Figaro<\/em>, despite 2017 being the 450th anniversary of the birth of Claudio Monteverdi, one of opera\u2019s founders. The Enchanted Island<\/em>, a pastiche of 17th-century opera that premiered in 2011 at the Met, may have been only a tease for big house opera fans also partial to Rameau and Lully.<\/p>\n

The Met provides a place where first-time (and old-time) opera lovers can reliably experience opera at its highest level. However, though this year\u2019s premiere of L\u2019amour de loin<\/em> by Kaija Saariaho, the Met\u2019s first opera by a woman since 1903, drew attention to the gender gap at the Met, 2017-2018\u2019s season will feature no female composers, directors (aside from reviving Julie Taymor\u2019s Magic Flute<\/em>) or conductors. Given the abundance of world-class female conductors, composers and directors working in opera today, hopefully the Met will set gender equality and the representation of diversity as a greater priority in the 2018-19 season. As far as the repertoire, and productions and singers go, opera lovers can go to bed happy.<\/p>\n

For more CLASSICAL MUSIC NEWS, visit\u00a0HERE<\/u><\/a><\/span>.<\/h3>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canadians abound in the Met\u2019s upcoming season, both on stage and behind the scenes, including Gerald Finley, Sondra Radvanovsky, and Yannick Ne\u0301zet-Se\u0301guin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":42984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,39,43],"tags":[5104],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/02\/YNS.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-bbd","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42979"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42993,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42979\/revisions\/42993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42979"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=42979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}