Opera Impressions

Turandot: Dying For Love

Murder, revenge, the pursuit of power in society and relationships, a culture of violence - all intertwined with love and family life. Added drama results when these play out in the context of the rituals and mores of an oriental society. To those who are fans of Quentin Tarantino, I am obviously talking about the Kill Bill movies. To those fans of Puccini, I am speaking about Turandot.

La Boheme

Writing about an opera performance several months after the fact is not the easiest thing to do. However, since the Met season started several months before I started my blogging career, I have no choice. I will do my best to capture at least some aspect of the fall performances as this page goes on. I attended the performance of La Boheme in December. The most significant thing about the performance was that the role of Mimi was scheduled to be sung by Anna Netrebko. This was my motivation in getting tickets for an opera that I love but have also seen numerous times. In fact, I saw it at the Met within the last year or two. Alas, as I found out about a month prior to the performance, Netrebko was out having a baby. I Googled her replacement, Maija Kovalevska, and found a little information and no recordings. In the end, I could not resist another visit with La Boheme and the adventure of seeing a recent arrival on the opera stage with the hope that it might prove to be one of those surprise revelatory moments.

My recollection is that Kovalevska did a decent job. I can't recall being disappointed and it was a generally pleasant evening. An opera critic who I met while having coffee at Zabars said he thinks very highly of Kovalevska and that he even prefers her to Netrebko. I certainly don't share that perspective. The performance also left me with this major sense of deja vu. The set was the same as last time. Paul Plishka was again called in to sing Benoit and Alcindoro. In this performance Ramon Vargas sang Rodolfo and Susanna Phillips sang Musetta. I ask myself, can I see this opera every year and not get bored or tired of it. I guess I am looking for something new and different - a new staging or an exciting combination of performers. So, while I continue to enjoy listening to the music, I think I should give it a rest for a while at least at the Met. I like the Pavarotti-Freni recording. In fact, my very first opera was La Boheme at the old Met sung by Freni. So, there is a big of nostalgia there as well.