{"id":8532,"date":"2025-06-05T12:02:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T12:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/06\/05\/met-opera-leans-on-classics-with-fresh-faces-for-2025-spring-season\/"},"modified":"2025-06-05T12:02:26","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T12:02:26","slug":"met-opera-leans-on-classics-with-fresh-faces-for-2025-spring-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/06\/05\/met-opera-leans-on-classics-with-fresh-faces-for-2025-spring-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Met Opera Leans on Classics With Fresh Faces for 2025 Spring Season"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Peter K\u00e1lm\u00e1n, Alexey Zhilikhovsky and Aigul Akhmetshina as Bartolo, Figaro and Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia<\/em>. Photo: Jonathan Tichler\/Met Opera<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The closure of opera houses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic created an alarming decrease in audience attendance that many companies are still struggling with, especially those in the U.S. In response, the Metropolitan Opera\u2019s general director Peter Gelb<\/a> has embarked on a plan to expand the company\u2019s repertoire by producing new works, but public response to the operas presented has so far been mixed. The most common strategy at the Met and elsewhere to address sagging attendance has been to dramatically increase the number of performances of the traditionally most popular operas, particularly those by Mozart, Verdi and Puccini.<\/p>\n

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The current Met season has been dominated by familiar titles, including seventeen performances of the company\u2019s new Aida<\/i>, plus nineteen of La Boh\u00e8me<\/i> and seventeen of Rigoletto<\/i>. Both Tosca<\/i> and Le Nozze di Figaro<\/i> were done thirteen times, with Il Barbiere di Siviglia<\/i> just behind with twelve. Many faithful operagoers have been distressed by this sweeping retreat to classics, but perhaps in response, the Met has shown particular care in presenting them with unusually interesting singers and conductors, as demonstrated by late-season iterations of Aida<\/i>, Nozze<\/i>, Barbiere<\/i> and Boh\u00e8me<\/i>, which featured some fine debuts and returns.<\/p>\n

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Elina Garan\u010da as Amneris in Aida<\/em>. Photo: Ken Howard\/Met Opera<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Michael Mayer\u2019s arid new Aida<\/i><\/a> made a fraught debut on New Year\u2019s Eve, but made a much happier reappearance in late April and found Angel Blue<\/a> in increasingly confident form. This time she was surrounded by the familiar clarion Radam\u00e8s of Brian Jadge<\/a> and especially gratifying reappearances by Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat<\/a> as a commanding Amonasro and, most potently, by superstar Elina Garan\u010da as the glamorously aggrieved Amneris. The Latvian mezzo, usually perceived as a coolly accomplished artist, gave such a fiercely committed performance that long and loud cheers greeted her passionate Judgment Scene.<\/p>\n