Preview: Grand innovation at the Metropolitan Opera
The decorations are stashed. The last of the turkey has just crawled into the bin. No resolutions survive. And here’s the Met telling me 2020 is round the corner?
Tigger-like, the email announcing the new season bounced into my inbox this morning. There is lots to like. But, there is not a single new production in sight. Yes, there are new stagings – of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer, Berg’s Wozzeck, Handel’s Agrippina and Glass’ Aknahten.
But what’s this? The language reporting the new “stagings” on the web site quickly slips towards “productions”. Is the cash strapped Met trying to kid us on it’s producing more new work than it can?
These first-time Met stagings are co-productions with a kaleidoscope of international houses including Dutch National Opera; Theatre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels; Salzburg Festival, English National Opera …. The list goes on, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But, as the Sir David McVicar Agrippina dates back to 2000 and comes via the Monnaie in Brussels and the ENO in 2007, it’s really a bit rich to describe it as “new”.
Focus on the fresh stuff. My season stand out is Philip Glass’ Aknahten, a production created by English National Opera and Los Angeles Opera, produced by Phelim McDermott’s “Improbable” company. He – an English actor turned producer – brought us the Met’s Enchanted Island extravaganza based on Shakespeare’s Tempest in 2011, which was unforgettably beautiful.
Aknahten is in the same league. The 2016 English National Opera production, on which this staging will be based, is visually stunning, full of rhythmic action – even jugglers for goodness sake, who shake and shimmy to the repetitive strains of Glass’s driving rhythms.
Glass’ music is more accessible than usual. Phew! There are actually a few notes. There is wonderful use of colour – including a breathtaking, orange sun that dominates the stage during some of the action. Costumes are what I presume Egyptians wore – ish. Anyway, it looks as if it’s actually set in period, a blessing these days.
Agrippina was written by Handel in three weeks while he was in Venice between 1706 – 1710. I’m amazed it’s not performed more often as the music is wonderful and it had no fewer than 27 successive performances on its debut. Remember, Venetian audiences could be an intolerant lot. That cemented Handel’s reputation. And the libretto was written by a cardinal, no less – Vincenzo Grimani. Who says multi tasking is a 21st century phenomenon?
McVicar does not set Agrippina in period. The easy read across is that this scathing, comedic opera about the shenanigans surrounding the elevation of Nero as emperor, who then out of gratitude murders Agrippina, who had secured his position, so could fit well in today’s Trumpland. Not so much Brexitland. Theresa May as Agrippina …….???
Joyce DiDinato, the American lyric-coloratura mezzo-soprano, takes the lead role. She has a wicked sense of humour and will have a ball.
Porgy and Bess has not been staged at the Met for 30 years. This James Robinson production premiered to acclaim in London in 2018 and faithfully evokes the atmosphere of old Charleston’s Catfish Row – which I can vouch for, having sought it out on my last visit.
Twenty repertory works complete the season. La Bohème is being given three runs, clearly a much needed seat filler.
Unable to pitch up at the Lincoln Center? Don’t despair. Go to the cinema. Diaries out! The Met’s 2019-20 Live in HD transmissions begin on October 12 with a broadcast of Turandot. Additional presentations include Manon (October 26), Madama Butterfly (November 9), Akhnaten (November 21), Wozzeck (January 11), Porgy and Bess (February 1), Agripinna (February 29), Der Fliegende Holländer (March 14, Tosca (April 11) and rounding off with Maria Stuarda (May 9).
And it’s still early 2019, with plenty to go, Verdi’s Falstaff next week and the complete Wagner Ring Cycle in May, at least.