Metropolitan Opera

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You'll Soon Need Not Just a Vaccine but a Booster to Get In Here

Employees will be subject to the same requirement at Met Opera

(Newser) - The Metropolitan Opera is requiring audience and employees to receive COVID-19 booster shots for entry starting Jan. 17, the AP reports. “With the news of the rapid spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant,” the Met said in an email to the company on Wednesday, “it is clear...

Maestro Whose Career Ended After Allegations Dead at 77

James Levine ruled over the Met Opera for decades

(Newser) - Conductor James Levine, who ruled over the Metropolitan Opera for more than four decades before being eased aside when his health declined and then fired for sexual improprieties, has died. He was 77. Levine died March 9 in Palm Springs, Calif., of natural causes, his physician of 17 years, Dr....

No Way the Met Pulled This Off. No Way.

The Metropolitan Opera makes beautiful music as it battles a $60M shortfall

(Newser) - Javier Camarena was at his home in Zurich singing an aria from Bellini's Il Pirata when the screen for the video feed split, and he was joined by Metropolitan Opera music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin in Montreal and general manager Peter Gelb in New York, the AP reports....

Placido Domingo Will Never Again Appear at the Met

Opera singer withdraws from all future performances

(Newser) - On Friday, NPR published a story about employees at New York's Metropolitan Opera who are peeved they still have to work alongside Placido Domingo after he was accused by 20 women of sexual misconduct. On Monday evening, a new article from the outlet emerged, after it spoke to four...

Placido Domingo Concerts Canceled Amid Accusations

LA Opera is investigating sexual harassment allegations

(Newser) - Two music companies canceled appearances by Placido Domingo and the Los Angeles Opera said Tuesday it would launch an investigation in response to a report in which numerous women accused the opera legend of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior spanning decades, the AP reports. Domingo has been general director of...

Accuser of Met Opera Director: Abuse 'Really Messed Me Up'

James Levine has been suspended after 3 men come forward with allegations

(Newser) - New York's Metropolitan Opera says it has suspended longtime conductor James Levine amid accusations of sexual misconduct going back almost 50 years. Levine, 74, was suspended Sunday after two more men came forward with accusations following a report that he abused a teenager in the 1980s, the New York ...

Met Investigating Sex Abuse Claim Against Famed Conductor

Man says James Levine abused him for years beginning when he was a teenager

(Newser) - New York's Metropolitan Opera said Saturday it will open an investigation into allegations that its longtime conductor, James Levine, sexually abused a man three decades ago beginning when the man was a teenager. Levine's accuser, now middle-aged, contacted the police in Lake Forest, Ill., in October 2016 to...

The Metropolitan Opera Hears a Note It's Never Heard Before

Audrey Luna hits the A above high C—twice

(Newser) - "When I hear the conventional high C of a soprano, I want to say, 'Show us what else you've got,'" says a British composer whose new opera is currently being performed at the Metropolitan Opera. Soprano Audrey Luna did just that. The New York Times ...

Suspected Drop of Human Ashes Grinds Met to a Halt

'We appreciate opera lovers coming to the Met. We hope that they will not bring their ashes with them'

(Newser) - With very few exceptions , the addition of any kind of powder to a social situation is almost never positive, and Saturday afternoon at New York City's Metropolitan Opera proved the rule: As the New York Daily News reports, the matinee performance of "Guillaume Tell" was abruptly halted after...

Opera Stars Ditch Japan Tour Over Radiation Fears

Experts say there's nothing to worry about

(Newser) - A pair of New York’s top opera stars due to sing in Japan have canceled their performances following the earthquake, the AP reports. Now, the Metropolitan Opera has to “scour the world” to find replacement singers for soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Joseph Calleja, even though experts said...

Met Audience Boos Drab Tosca
 Met Audience Boos Drab Tosca 
OPERA REVIEW

Met Audience Boos Drab Tosca

Critics pan new production of Puccini opera

(Newser) - New York's Metropolitan Opera opened its season last night with a gala production of Puccini's Tosca, a crowd-pleasing war horse given an aggressive new staging by the Swiss director Luc Bondy. The black-tie crowd was not pleased with the stark, modern production, erupting in boos during the curtain call. Critics...

Opera Star's Son Nabbed in '91 Rape/Murder

(Newser) - Some 18 years after a Pennsylvania camp counselor was shot in the head and raped as she died, cops have charged the son of a famed Metropolitan Opera bass with the brutal murder, the New York Post reports. Jeffrey Plishka, 46, has long been suspected of the crime, and the...

High-Concept Sonnambula Misses at Met

 High-Concept 
 Sonnambula 
 Misses at Met 
opera review

High-Concept Sonnambula Misses at Met

(Newser) - Most operas weave pretty far-fetched tales, but that isn't license for directors to retell them in ironic or mocking ways, Alex Ross writes in the New Yorker. Reviewing two recent productions at the Met, Ross hails a faithful staging of Verdi's Il Trovatore—but dismisses a high-concept version of Bellini's...

Rebel Singer Out to Save 'Dusty' Operas

(Newser) - Natalie Dessay is still butting heads with opera purists after twenty-some years in the business. The zesty soprano, an actor at heart, upsets some critics by adding theatrical gestures and even screams to her roles. "At least it's alive," Dessay says of her style. Opera, on the other...

Troubled NYC Opera Names Dallas Conductor New GM

Company names Steel new GM after chaotic year

(Newser) - The New York City Opera, the deeply troubled company based at Lincoln Center, has named Dallas-based director and conductor George Steel as its new general manager. The announcement comes after last fall's departure of Gerard Mortier, the Belgian iconoclast who promised a shake-up of the opera but quit before he...

High-Profile Arts Patron Guilty of 12 Fraud Counts

Alberto Vilar cheated investors to pay debts, fund opera companies

(Newser) - Alberto Vilar, the investment banker and one of the world's most generous opera patrons, was convicted yesterday on 12 counts of fraud, Bloomberg reports. Vilar told investors that he was putting their money in safe, government-backed assets; in fact, he bought risky tech stocks on margin, which quickly tanked. Vilar...

Met Lifts Curtain on Opera You Don't Have to Dress Up for

Icon will stream shows, broadcasts online

(Newser) - New York's Metropolitan Opera will soon be offering a new viewing experience: online streaming of performances dating back to 1937. Next week, on the 125th anniversary of its first show, the Met will unveil its online, on-demand service, reports the New York Times. If you can get past the glitches,...

Live Feeds Hit High Note for Operas
 Live Feeds 
 Hit High Note 
 for Operas 
glossies

Live Feeds Hit High Note for Operas

(Newser) - The age of iPods has drawn opera from its stuffy confines into city streets, cinemas, and websites, Mike Ashman writes in Gramophone. After the BBC was inspired by flashmobbers to broadcast an opera from Paddington Station a few years ago, impresarios caught on: Now opera companies from the Met to...

Bravo! Met's First Encore in 14 Years Wins Huge Ovation

Tenor nails 18 high Cs in new production

(Newser) - Audiences at New York's Metropolitan Opera Monday night were treated to something they hadn't heard in 14 years: an encore. In the Met's new production of Donizetti's La fille du régiment, tenor Juan Diego Flórez nailed the nine high C's of the difficult aria "Ah! Mes Amis"...

High C is a Drink Best Served Bold
High C is a Drink Best Served Bold

High C is a Drink Best Served Bold

Pavarotti had blend of talent, self-confidence to hit hard note

(Newser) - Pavarotti’s obits called him “King of the High C’s,” a nickname he earned for hitting a note that many tenors have to fake in falsetto. “It’s the absolute summit of technique,” says a coach. “More than anywhere else in your voice, you...

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