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A new year, and the ongoing experimental engagement between Irish cinemas and opera takes a new twist, as a new film distributor adds to the mix while different screens shift allegiance or come new to the fray. Saturday October 10 sees the start of the new season of The Met Opera: Live in HD, and it opens – just as the real season did there a few days ago – with Luc Bondy’s controversial new production of Puccini’s Tosca. (If you want an entertaining account of its reception, plus a review, go read Opera Chic here and here.) Unlike last year, though, this isn’t being screened in Ireland by the Movies@ franchise in Dundrum or Swords any more, but will instead be carried by the Screen (D’Olier St) and IMC (Dún Laoghaire) in Dublin, plus Wexford and Cork Opera Houses, UCH Limerick, Gaiety Cinema Sligo, The Eye in Galway, Omniplex in Derry and Newry, and the Storm Cinema in Belfast. Contact details for all these venues are given on Opera Ireland’s Met Screenings page.
In addition, a selection of the operas and ballets distributed by Emerging Pictures (full listing here) seem to have been appearing at all the IMC cinemas (Athlone, Ballymena, Dundalk, Dún Laoghaire, Mullingar and Thurles) as well as Movies@Dundrum and maybe more besides – please correct me if I’m wrong. In IMC Dún Laoghaire, at least, the intended programme (playing Sundays and Mondays) is as follows:
I PURITANI: Sunday 4 & Monday 5 October
COSÌ FAN TUTTE (Mozart): 22 & 23 November
NUTCRACKER (Tchaikovsky): 13 & 14 December
OTELLO (Verdi): 31 January & 1 February
ROMÉO ET JULIETTE (Gounod): 14 & 15 February
LA RONDINE (Puccini): 7 & 8 March
SWAN LAKE (Tchaikovsky): 11 & 12 April
These are given as ‘club screenings’ so that the films don’t have to go through the IFCO certification process, so officially you need to be an ‘opera club member’ – as far as I am aware membership is a nominal €1, though you if you’re going for the first time and want check this out with IMC the contact details are as follows: (tel: (01) 230 1367 or 230 1399, email: dunlaoghaire@imccinemagroup.com).
Comparing this selection with the full list on offer from the distributors (as here) is a bit depressing, seeing as we’re missing out on La Fura dels Baus’ spectacular productions of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre from Valencia, the L’Orfeo from La Scala, Eugene Onegin from Opèra de Paris, or Daniela Dessì as Bellini’s Norma from the Teatro Communale Bologna, but the quality of what we are getting is very good, and it will be intriguing to see Claus Guth’s new production of Così fan tutte from this year’s Salzburg Festival – expect it to be every bit as challenging as the new Tosca from New York, if not more so. One odd thing though – I wonder what Opera Ireland think of them screening the Salzburg Festival production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette just a fortnight or so before their own staging of the same work?
For those interested, and indeed well reported elsewhere, the NY Metropolitan Opera has released the listing of next year’s season of Live in HD simulcast productions, as follows:
Tosca [Puccini], October 10 – Levine (c); Mattila, M. Álvarez, Uusitalo, Plishka
Aida [Verdi], October 24 – Gatti (c); Urmana, Zajick, Botha, Guelfi, Scandiuzzi, Kocán
Turandot [Puccini], November 7 – Nelsons (c); Guleghina, Poplavskaya, Giordani, Ramey
Les Contes d’Hoffmann [Offenbach], December 19 – Levine (c); Kim, Netrebko, Gubanova, Garanča, Villazón, Pape
Der Rosenkavalier [R. Strauss], January 9 – Levine (c); Fleming, Graham, Schäfer, Cutler, Allen, Sigmundsson
Carmen [Bizet], January 16 – Nézet-Séguin (c); Frittoli, Gheorghiu, Alagna, Kwiecien
Simon Boccanegra [Verdi], February 6 – Levine (c); Pieczonka, Giordani, Domingo, Morris
Hamlet [Thomas], March 27 – Langrée (c); Dessay, Larmore, Spence, Keenlyside, Morris
Armida [Rossini], May 1 – Frizza (c); Fleming, Brownlee, Ford, Zapata, Banks, van Rensburg
Even by the Met’s standards, there’s some real luxury casting here, and if anything it seems a stronger season than this year’s, so there’d be no hesitation in recommending any of these. It’s particularly nice to see the rarely-performed Armida of Rossini included, in what will also be the work’s Met premiere – with Renée Fleming as the eponymous sorceress, up against no less than six tenors…
Opera Ireland have just announced a link-up with RTE Lyric FM and Movies@ to bring this year’s season of High-Definition simulcasts from the NY Met to a few (OK, three – Dundrum, Swords & Dungarvan) screens in Ireland, so now we can see what all the fuss is about. While I admit I was hoping we’d get to see Covent Garden’s broadcasts, this is a case where beggars certainly can’t be choosers, and I can see myself swallowing my pride and parking myself in Dundrum to catch what the New Yorkers have to offer.
The ten shows listed certainly cover a lot of ground, though inevitably one can’t help wondering at what’s been left out. After all, the Met is famous for its Wagner, and they’re doing about five of his operas this year, but we won’t be seeing any of them… what’s that about? Admittedly, they’re still recycling the old Otto Schenk/Günther Schneider-Siemssen productions for the Ring operas (albeit for the final outing, apparently), but it would have been nice to have seen their new Tristan, if only for Rene Pape’s King Marke.
The productions that are on the list all the same offer a substantial complement to our normally lean Dublin fare, notable highlights including the chance to see the Minghella Madama Butterfly (originally seen at ENO), Karita Mattila as Salome, Natalie Dessay & Juan Diego Florez in La sonnambula, Robert Lepage’s new production of Berlioz’ Damnation de Faust and John Adams’ new piece about Robert Oppenheiner & the Manhattan Project, Doctor Atomic, so it should all be really interesting. I hope it gets the following it deserves.
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