“The Metropolitan Opera Season That Vanished” – NYTimes feature

Those operas and others vanished with the final eight weeks of the Met’s season. So we asked some of the singers who had been waiting years to perform them to give us some musical phrases that they — and we — lost. Here are their voices, and edited excerpts from the conversation

“When the coronavirus shut the Metropolitan Opera’s doors on March 12, the company was hours away from bringing up the curtain on a revival of Rossini’s bubbly Cinderella adaptation, “La Cenerentola.” Massenet’s brooding “Werther” was to open a few days later.

Those operas and others vanished with the final eight weeks of the Met’s season. So we asked some of the singers who had been waiting years to perform them to give us some musical phrases that they — and we — lost. Here are their voices, and edited excerpts from the conversations …

Brian Jagde had his first leading role.

“This “Tosca” was the biggest disappointment of everything I’ve had canceled. Especially as someone who is from here. The first opera I ever saw was at the Met.

I did a small part here in “Arabella” in 2014. Since then I’ve performed all over the world, and I knew that at some point, the Met and I would meet each other. So I was just patient about it. But it’s that big house everybody wants to sing at.

The fact I named my dog Cavaradossi is a sign I like the role. It’s been a really lucky part for me. I’ve made many house debuts in “Tosca.” I appreciate his stand-up-guy kind of nature.

I was going to be up there with a great couple of casts. I was going to be doing the HD broadcast. Everything was coming together at the right time. But luckily I do have many future plans at the Met, so I will make that debut.”

Watch the video & read the complete feature via the New York Times

Article by Zachary Woolfe / The New York Times