And Another List

Below is a chronological listing of the opera performances Andrew and I attended in the last twelve months.

I last updated this list on June 30, 2012.

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The Shaw Festival
Court House Theatre
Niagara-On-The-Lake

Leonard Bernstein: Trouble In Tahiti

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Minnesota Opera
Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Giuseppe Verdi: Nabucco

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Lyric Opera Of Chicago
Civic Opera House
Chicago

Giuseppe Verdi: Simon Boccanegra

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Lyric Opera Of Chicago
Civic Opera House
Chicago

Jules Massenet: Werther

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L’Opera Comique
Salle Favart
Paris

Marc-Antoine Charpentier: David Et Jonathas

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L’Opera National De Paris
L’Opera Bastille
Paris

Modest Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina

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Lyric Opera Of Chicago
Civic Opera House
Chicago

Giacomo Puccini: La Boheme

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Lyric Opera Of Chicago
Civic Opera House
Chicago

Giuseppe Verdi: Rigoletto

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Minnesota Opera
Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Giacomo Puccini: Turandot

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Nine opera performances in one season: that is the highest number Andrew and I have ever attended.

A frightening prospect: we might have attended more. We skipped three Minnesota Opera productions (“Anna Bolena”, “Doubt” and “Hamlet”), we skipped two University Of Minnesota Opera Theatre productions (“Falstaff” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”), we skipped two Minnesota Concert Opera productions (“I Puritani” and “Il Trovatore”), we skipped an opera offered by VocalEssence (“Paul Bunyan”)—and we might have caught another three operas while we were in Paris (“The Birthday Of The Infanta”, “L’Enfant et les sortileges” and “Street Scene”).

In addition, we had tickets for an October performance of “Otello” at the Metropolitan Opera, but we had to cancel our New York trip because of Andrew’s influenza.

The best thing we saw and heard last season: “Khovanshchina” at the Paris Opera. Everything else, more or less, was pretty feeble.

The quality of the four performances we attended at Lyric Opera Of Chicago was not high, and we shall not return. Despite its pretensions (and high prices), Lyric Opera Of Chicago is not an international-level house—and Lyric Opera Of Chicago certainly does not have anything approaching an international-level audience. (At a “Rigoletto” intermission, Andrew turned and asked his father, “Was this audience bussed in from the Ozarks?”)

No one knows whether Minnesota Concert Opera remains a going concern. Minnesota Concert Opera cancelled its final scheduled presentation of the 2012-2013 season, and has yet to announce a 2013-2014 season—although it has announced, at least on its website, two performances of an abridged, four-hour “Ring” for September (with Jane Eaglen and a chamber orchestra). I doubt whether anyone believes the potted “Ring” performances will actually occur—but, at least on paper, the whole notion sounds totally hilarious.

The 2013-2014 season for Minnesota Opera: “Manon Lescaut”; “Arabella”; “Macbeth”; “The Dream Of Valentino”; and “The Magic Flute”.

Wisely or no, Andrew and I bought a subscription . . .

And, depending upon our schedules, we may try to catch the new production of “Prince Igor” at the Metropolitan Opera next season. We have been listening to the Tchakarov and Gergiev recordings of “Prince Igor” for the last month or more (each recording uses a vastly different edition of the score), and I love the opera—despite the fact that all available editions of the work are problematic if not corrupt.