Ho jo to ho!
Last week, I posted about The Metropolitan Opera’s free “Live in HD” broadcasts, which the Met has pledged to offer for the duration of the house’s closure due to the Coronavirus pandemic. True to its word, the Met is ladeling out a full week of Wagner, starting tonight, including a complete Ring cycle. Of course, it’s the current, ridiculous seesaw production, and not the classic Otto Schenck. But hey, Wagner is Wagner.
Here are this week’s offerings:
Monday: Tristan und Isolde
Conducted by Simon Rattle, starring Nina Stemme, Ekaterina Gubanova, Stuart Skelton, Evgeny Nikitin, and René Pape. Transmitted live on October 8, 2016.
Tuesday: Das Rheingold
Conducted by James Levine, starring Wendy Bryn Harmer, Stephanie Blythe, Richard Croft, Gerhard Siegel, Dwayne Croft, Bryn Terfel, Eric Owens, and Hans-Peter König. Transmitted live on October 9, 2010.
Wednesday: Die Walküre
Conducted by James Levine, starring Deborah Voigt, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Stephanie Blythe, Jonas Kaufmann, Bryn Terfel, and Hans-Peter König. Transmitted live on May 14, 2011.
Thursday: Siegfried
Conducted by Fabio Luisi, starring Deborah Voigt, Hunter Morris, Gerhard Siegel, Bryn Terfel, and Eric Owens. Transmitted live on November 5, 2011.
Friday: Götterdämmerung
Conducted by Fabio Luisi, starring Deborah Voigt, Wendy Bryn Harmer, Waltraud Meier, Jay Hunter Morris, Iain Paterson, Eric Owens, and Hans-Peter König. Transmitted live on February 11, 2012.
Saturday: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Conducted by James Levine, starring Annette Dasch, Johan Botha, Paul Appleby, and Michael Volle. Transmitted live on December 13, 2014.
Sunday: Tannhäuser
Conducted by James Levine, starring Eva-Marie Westbroek, Michelle DeYoung, Johan Botha, Peter Mattei, and Gunther Groissböck. Transmitted live on October 31, 2015.
The operas will stream free from 7:30 in the evening to 6:30 the following afternoon. (Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin,” with Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Renée Fleming, is still available through 6:30 today.)
You’ll find more information and a complete schedule at metopera.org.