Pages

▼

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Met Season, 2019-20: More of the Same




Gosh, not long ago a prominent opera commentator was calling SF's season boring. Here's what has dropped at the Met:
  • All-male-composer season
  • Twenty-four operas
  • One opera written after 1950 (Ahknaten)
  • Eight written after 1900 (Turandot, Tosca, Butterfly, Ahknaten, Katya Kabanova, Porgy & Bess, Rosenkavalier, Wozzeck)
  • Three Mozart (Flute, Nozze, Cosi)
  • Five Puccini (Turandot, Tosca, Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, Boheme)
  • Three Verdi (Traviata, Macbeth, Simon Boccanegra)
  • Two Massenet (Manon, Werther)
  • One each: Handel (Agrippina), Glass (Ahknaten), Rossini (Cenerentola), Berlioz (Damnation), Wagner (Hollander), Janacek (Katya Kabanova), Donizetti (Maria Stuarda), Gluck (Orfeo), Gershwin (Porgy), Tchaikowsky (Queen of Spades), R. Strauss (Rosenkavalier), Berg (Wozzeck)
  • In Italian: 14
  • In French: 3
  • In German: 4
  • In English: 2
  • In Czech: 1
  • In Russian: 1
I could certainly put together a season of ten operas I'm willing to see out of the 25 above, but it's  otherwise a pretty boring season: Simon Boccanegra, Agrippina, Ahknaten, Damnation, Katya, Orfeo, Porgy, Queen of Spades, Rosenkavalier, and Wozzeck.

UPDATED, since I managed to overlook La Boheme in my original counts and since I was off by one in my count of post-1900; Tosca just makes it.
at

6 comments:

  1. Roy BergstromFebruary 20, 2019 at 3:32:00 PM PST

    One more Puccini (La Bohème).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lisa HirschFebruary 20, 2019 at 3:33:00 PM PST

    OMG.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lisa HirschFebruary 20, 2019 at 3:37:00 PM PST

    I have fixed that, thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  4. CruzSFFebruary 20, 2019 at 4:38:00 PM PST

    I wonder when the Met last had a season without Boheme.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lisa HirschFebruary 20, 2019 at 5:10:00 PM PST

    JUST FOR YOU, I have eyeballed the entire Met archive with a search on La Boheme.

    The opera was first performed in 1900, so it was not performed from 1883 to 1900.

    It was then performed in every season until 1978-79. That's right; it was performed in 79 consecutive years.

    It was NOT performed in the following seasons, if I didn't miss something:

    78-79
    79-80
    80-81
    85-86
    97-98
    2012-13

    The answer to your question is 2012-13, but the above accounting provides a very full picture of how the Met managed to perform the opera 1320 times to date. (It's part of the 2018-19 season, also.)

    ReplyDelete
  6. CruzSFFebruary 20, 2019 at 6:25:00 PM PST

    Thank YOU so much for your diligent research! I didn't expect the last Boheme-less season to be so recent.

    ReplyDelete

This blog is moderated, so don't worry if your comment doesn't appear immediately. If I'm asleep, working, or at a concert, it'll take a while.