Have you always wanted to venture to New York to catch the Metropolitan Opera, but you never had the chance?
In the next few weeks, the Met is coming to you – or at least to your local movie theater.
There’s a distinct summertime feel to the Met’s encore presentations. The operas, to be screened in high definition at about 400 cinemas across the U.S., include a zesty melodrama (Tosca), a romantic tearjerker (La Boheme) and two comedies (L’Elisir d’Amore and Cosi fan tutte).
As operas go, they’re relatively short, too -- with the first three clocking in at a little more than two hours each.
If they were novels, they’d be perfect for the beach.
Think of Puccini’s Tosca, coming to movie screens Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET, as the operatic equivalent of a literary thriller.
As host Renee Fleming points out, Tosca is sensational even by opera’s notably flamboyant standards with its “lurid depiction of torture, attempted rape, murder and suicide.”
Puccini’s lush, soaring score includes at least three or four of opera’s “greatest hits.”
Luc Bondy’s stark production of Tosca, originally transmitted live to theaters in 2013, is beautifully sung by two Met favorites, soprano Patricia Racette and tenor Roberto Alagna.
The story is set in war-torn Rome in the early 1800s. The singer Floria Tosca (Racette) is in love with the painter and revolutionary Mario Cavaradossi (Alagna). The chief of the secret police, Scarpia (George Gagnidze), meanwhile, lusts madly for Tosca and vows to destroy his rival Cavaradossi.
Tosca herself is one of opera’s ultimate divas — fiery and jealous, and murderous when crossed. Racette brings a radiant soprano to the role — and a powerful high C. Her big, tear-drenched aria, Vissi d’Arte (I Have Lived for Art), is lusciously, sensitively delivered.
Alagna sings Cavaradossi with a ringing tenor.
Gagnidze is a suavely sinister Scarpia, with a dark baritone and occasional expressions that remind one of a silent-movie villain. And nothing wrong with that — it’s opera.
The Met Opera Chorus produces a glorious sound in its brief appearance onstage.
Riccardo Frizza’s conducting is a mixed bag. His plodding tempos often are frustratingly slow, undercutting some of the opera’s dramatic urgency. Frizza picks up the pace as the story progresses, and the opera really catches fire in Act 2.
The Met Opera Orchestra sounds magnificent as always. All in all, this Tosca makes for a thoroughly satisfying summer evening of opera.
The Met’s other Summer Encore operas include the June 29 screening of Bartlett Sher’s busy, sparkling production of Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore, featuring the entrancing Anna Netrebko and the honeyed vocals of tenor Matthew Polenzani.
Romance and romantic shenanigans take the spotlight in July. A glowing, buoyant staging of Puccini’s La Boheme (for musical theater fans, the source material for Rent) comes to movie screens on July 13. Arriving in theaters on July 20 is a dream production of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, conducted by the Met’s music director emeritus James Levine.
All of the operas are sung in Italian with English subtitles.
To find local movie theaters and check times and prices, see metopera.org and click on “Summer HD Encores.”
