We left at the interval...

Metropolitan Opera, New York, Monday January 21 2013 Conductor: Maurizio Benini. Production: Bartlett Sher. Sets: Michael Yeargan. Costumes: Catherine Zuber. Lighting : Brian MacDevitt. Adèle: Pretty Yende. Isolier: Karine Deshayes. Ragonde: Susanne Resmark. Count Ory: Juan Diego Flórez. Raimbaud: Nathan Gunn. The Tutor: Nicola Ulivieri. “Her voice has a luminous sheen combined with steely resolve that powers both her clarion top notes and her outstandingly rich low register. She delivered some of the most difficult coloratura passages with scintillating precision… She took her curtain call amid a storm of bravos, whistles and whoops.” That was the New York Times , quoted on the Met’s website, on the subject of Pretty Yende, a South African singer who has made her Met début standing in at the last minute as Adèle. She certainly is remarkably promising. If she isn’t pounced on and pushed into too many rôles that are too taxing, too soon, in five years or so she’s going to be a t...

Metropolitan Opera, New York, Wednesday April 26 2006 Conductor: Carlo Rizzi. Production: Franco Zeffirelli. Tosca: Deborah Voigt. Mario Cavaradossi: Franco Farina. Baron Scarpia: James Morris. Sacristan: Paul Plishka. I saw Tosca at the Met last week. I won't write up a full review. This extract, however, from nymetro.com, is close to my experience: “A change has also come over Voigt’s voice lately, though it’s hard to tell if it’s from weight loss or normal aging […] Not that Voigt as yet exhibits any of Callas’s technical problems: Her voice continues to be reliably supported and under control. What is noticeable, however—earlier this season in Verdi’s La Forza del Destino and now in Tosca —is a marked thinning of quality at the very center of the instrument, together with a slight acidity and tightening of the tone that has definitely taken the youthful bloom off, especially at the top. This is not necessarily bad, since her basic sound continues to appeal as well as sug...