Classical Music

2008-09 at the Met

The 125th season at the Met will open on Sept.22, 2008 with a gala performance from Renée Fleming (extracts from Massenet's Manon, La Traviata and Strauss' Capriccio) and will feature 6 new productions (including the Met premiere of John Adams' Doctor Atomic).

Amongst the new productions, Berlioz's La damnation de Faust is an interesting attempt to make this opera available to everyone. The choice of Robert Lepage as director, though, is less than ideal, as is the choice of Marcello Giordani as Faust.


Massenet's Thaïs should be a great opportunity for Renée Fleming to shine.

Another new production will be Puccini's La Rondine, by future Paris Opera director Nicolas Joël, with Duane Schuler as lightning designer (a very recurrent artist here in Lyon). Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna are supposed to share the stage. I hope Peter Gelb has already thought of alternative names for when they cancel (say, three days before the premiere).

David McVicar's new production of Il Trovatore should have New Yorkers all excited, although the cast seems a little weak (except for Dmitri Hvorostovsky of course).

Finally, last but not least, a new production of Bellini's La Sonnambula will feature the well-known couple Natalie Dessay/Evelino Pidó (who performed this piece in Lyon in Nov.2006, my reviews in French here...

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