Variations of Levine: From Mozart to Carter via Verdi with the MET Orchestra

By David Allen, 15 October 2013

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Reviewed at Carnegie Hall: Stern Auditorium, New York City on 13 October 2013

Verdi, Les Vêpres siciliennes (I vespri siciliani): Overture

Carter, Variations for Orchestra

Rossini, Giovanna D'Arco (orch. Salvatore Sciarrino)

Mozart, La clemenza di Tito, K621: Deh per questo istante solo

Mozart, La clemenza di Tito, K621: Non più di fiori

Beethoven, Symphony no. 7 in A major, Op.92

The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

James Levine, Conductor

Joyce DiDonato, Mezzo-soprano

Innocence: Saariaho's final opera receives New York premiere

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.

*****

Tristan und Isolde at the Met: staging gets in the way of the music

No’a L. bat Miri, 9th March

Michael Spyres shines in his debut as Tristan alongside powerhouse soprano Lise Davidsen as Isolde in Yuval Sharon's new, beguiling production at the Metropolitan Opera.

***11

Met Orchestra brings a long neglected symphony back to life

Susan Stempleski, 4th February

William Levi Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, overlooked for decades, heads an all-American program of 20th-century works in New York.

****1

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

Susan Stempleski, 31st December

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

*****

Porgy and Bess returns stronger than ever at the Met

Robert Levine, 7th December

Back to Catfish Row for another revival of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess and James Robinson’s show continue to wow our writer.

*****

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David Allen

David is a PhD student at Columbia University, where he studies international history. A lapsed pianist and organist, he writes on concerts on both sides of the Atlantic, and blogs at Unpredictable Inevitability.