Rêve! Extase! Bonheur!

The Met has announced its 2010-11 season! The press release is excitingly long, but not organized in such a way as to give a convenient overview of what's on. Ah well; for that I'll just have to wait for the glossy brochure advertising subscriptions to turn up on my doorstep. A number of productions from this season and last season are being revived... hard times even for the magnificent Met, I suppose. Looking on the bright side, though, it gives me a chance to explore these operas and productions more fully. In no particular order, a list of Things I Am Most Excited About in the coming season.


"Rossini’s rarely heard comic opera Le Comte Ory will have its Met premiere on March 24, featuring Juan Diego Flórez in the title role, Diana Damrau as Countess Adèle, and Joyce DiDonato as Isolier, in Bartlett Sher’s new production." I haven't yet heard the opera (this will change a.s.a.p.) but Rossini with JDF, JDD, and Damrau sounds like musical and comic gold. Plus, the plot is based on a medieval ballad, so that should be fun.

Alban Berg's Wozzeck, with Matthias Goerne and Waltraud Meier. Two words: yes please! I don't know why I love this dark little story so much, but I do.

I had imagined I would have to wait years to see something as massive as Verdi's Don Carlo, but apparently not! A Nicholas Hytner production which opened at Covent Garden in '08 comes to the Met, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. (Picture of auto da fe scene thanks to www.classicalsource.com) My favorite relationship in the opera (and arguably its most functional!) is that between Carlo and Rodrigo, so I am very happy to see that Roberto Alagna and Simon Keenlyside are lined up. The press release unfortunately doesn't say who will be the Inquisitor. More Verdi love: a version of Willy Decker's Traviata production, a Rigoletto with Zeljko Lucic (and Damrau's Gilda!), and Boccanegra with Hvorostovsky! Yes please!

And Puccini love: Tosca, round two (the real question is, what "revisions" have they made to Bondy's production?), and of all things, Fanciulla del West! I actually have a giant soft spot for this opera, although I confess to being surprised by seeing Deborah Voigt lined up as Minnie. She does that?! Well, good... I think. And we get a foretaste of 2012's complete Ring: Rheingold and Walkuere. After seeing Robert Lepage's Damnation de Faust, I can't wait to see what he does with the Ring (all right, I'm a bit nervous, too, but mostly excited.)

This could go on. The undignified analogy of a kid in a candy store comes to mind. But in short: lots of opera, lots of great singers, lots of excitement.