The Met in HD, Madama Butterfly, 2009

By Alan Coady, 01 December 2013

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Reviewed at Lincoln Center: Metropolitan Opera House, New York City on 7 March 2009

Puccini, Madama Butterfly

Metropolitan Opera

Patrick Summers, Conductor

Patricia Racette, Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly)

Maria Zifchak, Suzuki

Marcello Giordani, Pinkerton

Dwayne Croft, Sharpless

Greg Fedderly, Goro

David Won, Prince Yamadori

Dean Peterson, The Bonze

Anthony Minghella, Director

The Met’s Frida y Diego proves visually stunning, musically thrilling

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*****

Asmik Grigorian strengthens the Met’s revival of Eugene Onegin

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The Lithuanian soprano’s riveting performance as the central character in Tchaikovsky’s operatic masterpiece lights up Deborah Warner’s mostly bland production.

****1

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Kurt Gottschalk, 6th April

At the Metropolitan Opera, Innocence proves a gripping and perhaps divisive piece which feels real because it is a reflection of our reality, with no realistic hope of finding peace.

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No’a L. bat Miri, 9th March

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***11

Ailyn Pérez is the perfect Butterfly in the Met’s revival

Robert Levine, 13th January

Good Butterflys are not that difficult to come by but great ones are very very rare. Ailyn Pérez fits the bill in this revival of Anthony Minghella’s classic staging.

*****

Vocal thrills in Met’s traditional staging of Bellini’s I puritani

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Marco Armiliato conducts a finely balanced rendition of Bellini's final masterpiece with a stellar cast headed by Lisette Oropesa and Lawrence Brownlee.

*****

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Alan Coady

Alan has taught classical guitar in East Lothian schools since 1982. A graduate in Music of the then Huddersfield Polytechnic, he has a soft spot for the contemporary. He also writes a Musical Blog, where the special interest is the intersection of music/language/science.