Major leak: Jaap, Honeck and Duncan Ward to conduct Met’s next season
NewsA usually reliable fan channel has obtained a full rundown of the Metropolitan Opera’s next season, well ahead of official release.
Among the highlights are some unexpected conductors, among them the very young British conductor Duncan Ward (pictured), the well-connected Keri-Lynn Wilson doing Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Jaap Van Zweden most fittingly taking on The Flying-out Dutchman and Nathalie Stutzmann conducting The Magic Flute.
Among other novelties, Joyce DiDonato will sing Virginia Woolf in Kevin Puts’s The Hours.
Full listing here.
photo: Alan Kerr
Of course, this is the same fan channel that still thinks Joe Volpe is the GM so I’m not sure how much stock to put in its “leaks.”
Everybody can post on this channel. It’s not because somebody typed “Volpe” instead “Gelb” that it’s unreliable. And now it’s not guesses anymore but a leak, all productions, conductors, practically full casts… – a week before official announcement.
At least I can confirm that the engagement of Van Zweden at the MET is true.
not to mention the departed Lois
Thinking Volpe remains GM is probably wishful and nostalgia. FIRE the present Administration and go back to staging OPERA not social commentary.
Just wishful thinking on someone’s part.
As usual, sub par Asian representation among the conductor choices.
There is also subpar representation of Yannick N-S: only two new production and two shows from the repertory.
More than subpar…a little MIA for a Music Director. I trust his annual salary will reflect his absence.
Agreed, truly disappointing not to see Mei-Ann Chen on this list.
Keri-Lynn Wilson “well-connected”? She is Peter Gelb’s wife.
But to avoid even the perception of nepotism or favoritism, they are not sleeping together.
Sounds like she is quite well-connected then, doesn’t it?
She’s also an excellent conductor. I believe this is her (much overdue) debut.
“Well-connected” as in synonym for “nepotism” but that is how HE got where he is and maintains his incompetence reign. The poor, poor MET….
In addition to being PG’s “well-connected” wife, Keri-Lynn Wilson happens to be a fine conductor. With JvZ walking across LC’s plaza to the Met, will YNS walk the other way to the Phil as a guest?
YNS needn’t guest with the NY Phil since he appears 4x a year in Carnegie Hall with the Philadelpians… a better hall and a better orchestra.
Say what?
Lise Davidsen as Marschallin ? Not really a voice for quiet resignation.
Kevin Puts’s opera is called “The Hours”.
It’s an adaptation of Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about Virginia Woolf and the novel “Mrs. Dalloway”. (Yes, the same Cunningham novel was the source for the film “The Hours” that starred Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Julianne Moore.)
Not “The House”, but “The Hours”, based on the same novel that was adapted for the 2002 film about Virginia Woolf and two fictional characters of later generations who are influenced by her. Yannick and Philly are doing a concert version next month.
Yikes. Wilson is dreadful. How did Gelb get his wife in?
Same way Peter did.
Great! Potentially new blood, new opportunities for the younger ones, and a new culture to attract a new audience for the future, but they have to make it affordable. Catching up with ENO at last, who have good £10 seats for everything on.
Some bold choices for conductors, e.g. Stutzmann, who has no so much experience of conducting opera, in two new productions of Mozart operas.
Not much new blood for singers, though. Netrebko, the leading Met diva of the last years, only appears in 6 representations of Don Carlos.
After Beczala’s horrible performance this season in Rigoletto, it is surprising that the Met is giving him so much work next season. The same thing happened with Antonenko and Giordani after they had lost their voices( and is happening with Polenzani in the upcoming Don Carlo.) Why does the Met continue to engage singers way past their sell-by date?
I was there (twice), and Mr. Beczala was not “horrible” in Rigoletto. Perhaps too seasoned for the Duke at this point, it was far from an embarrassment.
Nice that you can predict the quality of Polenzani’s performance two weeks prior to the first performance.
The TOSCA performance scheduled for October 31 has James Morris in the role of Scarpia. Mr. Morris is 75 years old, and made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1971, as the King in AIDA.
Oh Lord, I see the December performances of “The magic flute” are that mutilated and deformed version by McClatchy.
Pretty decent lineup. And two Terence Blanchard premieres in two seasons?
Gerard Mortier kept Sylvain Cambreling on the podium for years, so Gelb giving his wife a slot (after 15 years on the job?) doesn’t seem so out of line.
Readin these comments makes me wish I lived in NY instead of California. Real opera. Andreas Woolf anybody?
The headline mentions Honeck but not the story. He is conducting Mozart’s Idomeneo in September/October. Lots of excellent conductors. I’m impressed.