Elizabeth- This past season there were many terrific opera performances, but two were very clear standouts, ones I will never forget.

            This was my first time seeing Falstaff at the Met and I loved, loved, loved almost every minute of it!  Not a second of the opera felt slow.  All the singers were terrific with the 6’5” Ambrogio Maestri leading the charge.  Robert Carsen’s sets were fun, placed in the 1950s and everyone in the opera seemed to be having a good time.  And the audience responded in kind—you could feel the excitement and energy from the audience and singers unite, one of the first times I have clearly experienced the synergy of the singers and performers.  And LEVINE!  Wow, were we lucky to see this one.  Conductor James Levine was finally back at the helm and it resonated with me how much of a difference he makes.  And at the end of the production, the very rare breaking of the fourth wall invited the audience in on the magic onstage.  It was truly an enchanted evening. 

Cenerentola

This production was fine, but to be honest it was nothing special.  I was excited to attend, however, because there were such effusive accolades about Joyce DiDonato.  This was my first time hearing her.  And when we arrived at the Met I discovered that Javier Camarena would be stepping in for Juan Diego Florez.  I had heard Camarena in Sonnambula and recalled thinking he was pretty great.  I obviously didn’t realize just how amazing he was, as he absolutely shone here.  Hearing Joyce DiDonato paired with the carefree sounding Javier was just gorgeous.  We did not attend the evening Camarena sang an encore aria—but I cannot imagine he sang any better than the night we heard him.  It was my first (and hopefully not my last) time getting goosebumps at the opera.  Why, oh why isn’t Camarena in any productions at the Met for the 2014-2015 season???

Enchanted Island

            I know few will agree with me here, but I have to give an honorable mention to the kitschy Enchanted Island.  Jeremy Sams’ pastiche opera hearkened back to the very old days of opera and I greatly enjoyed the Shakespearean stories he wove together.  Doubly impressive, to me, was how he intertwined music from Handel, Vivaldi and other Baroque composers to create one fluid opera story.  And the story was engaging and complicated and cute.  There was something much more relaxed about the opera that made it feel accessible in a way other operas don’t.  It was my first time hearing Susan Graham and David Daniels and they were terrific.  I also particularly liked that Placido Domingo forgot his words several times and simply sang open vowels and the audience still adored him for it.   

Die Fledermaus

I had never seen Die Fledermaus and so many of my friends adore this opera, I was greatly anticipating it.  Wow, was this boring.  The modern production was courtesy of Jeremy Sams and parts were great—I loved the dancers hanging from the chandelier.  But Douglas Carter Beane’s dialogue didn’t work right with the music, the beat structure was off and there was just too much dialogue.  From what I hear this opera is usually a quick and fun evening, but this one was bitterly painful despite some great singing by Paulo Szot, Michael Fabiano and Susanna Phillips.

Anna Nicole

I have to mention Anna Nicole because while I found the evening rather entertaining, I maintain that this was not an opera.  And the audio feedback from the singers’ mikes (!!!) detracted from the evening.  Otherwise, I found the songs about boobs and strippers great fun.

Sonnambula

This one pains me to mention as Diana Damrau and Javier Camarena were absolutely terrific, but this production of Sonnambula made no sense to me.  Certain theatrical tricks were neat, like having a platform extend over the orchestra and having Damrau sing from the audience, but that didn’t compare with the confusing plot within a plot the opera was trying to work from.  Quite simply the staging didn’t follow the rules this production set up for itself and so it was impossible to follow, infuriatingly so.  Sadly neither the singing nor Damrau’s cartwheels could save it.  

Nico Muhly’s opera in some ways was a real treat, a totally 21^st century opera and a murder mystery at that.  I especially liked that the story was ripped from the headlines…but the music felt so inaccessible it kept me and the singers at arms’ length.  It didn’t allow any singer a great emotional sing or leave the audience members with any memorable music.  There were definitely aspects of this Bartlett Sher production that were great—especially the depiction of the internet chat rooms, but the music really held back what the singers could do with the work.  I hope Muhly and Sher rework Two Boys and attempt to mount it again, with better music.

Die Fledermaus – 4 LONG hours.  Turning one of opera’s lightest and fastest evenings into a LONG 4 hour bore of a talk-fest is no small feat.  This Die Fledermaus made Les Troyens seem short.  I originally blamed the director and librettist Jeremy Sams but his Enchanted Island is very clever and well put together so I can only blame the wretched and unfunny, edgeless and endless dialogue by Douglas Carter Beane. 

Eugene Onegin and Werther – I liked neither of these.   Although both had some moments of lovely singing.  Especially Jonas Kaufman in Werther.   But I found them both fairly unengaging.  Not terrible.  Just blah.   I will admit my dislike of these two productions may be influenced by their similar titular character arcs or lack thereof.  Both Onegin and Werther start the opera as jerks AND end the opera as basically the same jerks with very little change anyway along the way.  And I’m kind of old school when it comes to character arcs actually arcing somewhere.   But that’s me.

By far the most surreal evening of the season was the NYCO premiere of Anna Nicole at BAM.  Being surrounded by the tacky opulence and excess of the Anna Nicole-ed BAM lobby (complete with pink car with customized AnnaNicole plates photo op station and beads and feather boas draped everywhere) was exhilaratingly bizarre not only in light of the sheer naked screaming tackiness of it all but in that NYCO had announced their near bankruptcy and desperate Hail Mary seven million dollar kickstarter campaign only eight days earlier.  Truly a weird evening.

Two Boys – Nico Muhly’s opera, though perhaps could benefit from another round of workshopping and refinement, was one of my favorites of the year.  The choral internet chatter was some of the best dramatic and theatrical use of chorus I have ever heard.  The near constant refrain of “Kill Yourself” hidden at various depths amongst the sex and banter and chatter in the choral audial tapestry chilled me to my core.  Alice Coote was superb and Keith Miller was terrifying as the imaginary gay assassin Peter.  Two Boys deals with the deception, isolation and identity issues inherent in online communication, twisted sexuality, sexual identity, bullying, online privacy and fantasy AND an actual modern detective story.   All themes critical and familiar to the new generation of opera goers opera so covets and needs and they were all at work here first.  Two Boys is the first new piece to give me absolute faith in the future of new opera works.  It stuck with me all year.  I’m excited even writing about it now.  I wish I had seen it again fool that I am.  I loved it. 

The Nose – Visually stunning production by South African artist William Kentridge.  And strong performance by Paulo Szot whom I look forward to seeing again next season in The Death of Klinghoffer at the Met. 

Die Frau ohne Schatten – The often breathtakingly beautiful Herbert Wernicke

 production and the spectacular Christine Goerke blew us all away.

Falstaff with the excellent Ambrogio Maestri was the only new production this year that really worked for me, though we did not see Prince Igor. 

By far the most thrilling evening of the year, and of my recent Met career, was Javier Camerena in Cenerentola.  We were at the opening so did not get the encore but it was not for lack of trying.  We RAGED as an audience and went absolutely nuts for him.   The audience went on longer than I have experienced an ovation in my adult life at the Met.   Perhaps the Bat Phone to Peter Gelb was not working that evening so they could not get permission for an encore.

Deserving of mention are the last second casting dramas of Wozzeck and the aforementioned Cenerentola AND Kristine Opolais although we did not see Opolais’ amazing double dip sadly.  Peter Gelb sure knows how to get drama going and column inches.   And with the reduction of arts coverage machinating stories may be the best (and only?) way to get wide press.

Honorable mention also goes to Sweeney Todd with Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson and Gyndebourne’s production of Billy Budd at BAM, both of which I loved.   And of course the return of James Levine.   I love seeing him rise slowly out of the darkness on his custom made platform like Darth Vader in his Vader Egg from Empire Strikes Back.  It’s fab.  As is the music he pulls from the orchestra.

Now let’s see if we get a Met season at all in the fall…