Joyce DiDonato, Dead Man Walking, Metropolitan Opera, 10/22/23

Last Saturday, I went to the Metropolitan Opera for the first time this year to see the final performance of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, which over the past 23 years has become the most widely performed opera of the new century. The performance, which was broadcast to movie theaters around the globe, was simultaneously brilliant, moving, and deeply disturbing. Led by the Met's music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the cast was anchored by mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato as Sister Helen Prejean, the Louisiana nun who ministers to a man on death row and finds herself caught between the parents of victims demanding justice and a murderer seeking forgiveness. DiDonato gave a commanding, viscerally emotional performance, as one might expect given that she's owned the role of Sister Helen for more than two decades. (If you missed Dead Man Walking, watch this.)

With no rest for the weary, the following morning DiDonato began her annual master class at Carnegie Hall's Resnick Education Wing. Carnegie has invested heavily in education through its Weill Music Institute, which offers numerous opportunities for young musicians to learn from some of today's greatest artists, including master classes, youth orchestras, and outreach initiatives. In addition to DiDonato's master class - which she's been teaching since 2015 - soprano Renée Fleming oversees the week-long SongStudio (January 22-27) alongside soprano Angel Blue and tenor Nicholas Phan, ending with a recital in Zankel Hall.

Over the next three days - with two sessions per day - four up and coming opera singers would be mentored by DiDonato on everything from breathing technique and diction, to movement and stagecraft. While the morning sessions were private, the afternoon sessions were open to the public and live streamed on YouTube and Medici.TV. After watching the first two sessions online, I went to the final (10/24) session in person, and can testify that as amazing as DiDonato is as a performer, she is an even better teacher, with a charismatic zeal that borders on evangelical. Beyond just teaching the next generation of singers, DiDonato is on a quest to save music - or at the very least remind us of its transformative power.

(all photos by Pete Matthews)
In addition to all of the summer music happenings in NYC, things are finally getting back to normal at the festivals and amphitheaters out of town, many of which have been dormant - or half-baked - for the past two years. Here are some of the things worth a trip:

Tanglewood (July 1-Aug. 28) Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Director Andris Nelsons spends four full weeks in the Berkshires this summer, performing everything from Brahms' German Requiem to a concert performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Other highlights include Garrick Ohlsson performing Brahms' complete piano music (Aug. 16-25), a John Williams 90th birthday celebration (Aug. 20), and a new opera by George Benjamin (Aug. 8) performed by the TMC fellows - who also gave the U.S. premiere of his Written on Skin in 2013.

Caramoor (June 30-Aug. 19) The elegant Westchester estate offers one of the most diverse festivals in the northeast - and only an hour's drive north of NYC. Spanning classical, jazz, opera, and new music, highlights include the world premiere of Michael Gordon's “Field of Vision” (July 24), a day-long jazz festival (July 30), Handel's rarely performed opera Theodora (July 31), and appearances by Brian Stokes Mitchell (July 9), Shemekia Copeland (July 29) and Angelique Kidjo (Aug 6).

Bard SummerScape (June 24-Aug. 14) Among this year's offerings at Bard's Fisher Center is Richard Strauss' rarely performed comic opera The Silent Woman (July 22-31) and the 32nd annual Bard Music Festival (Aug. 5-14), dedicated to the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff. In the Spiegeltent, which is back open for the first time since 2019, offerings include Nona Hendryx (July 1), the George Gee Swing Orchestra (July 10) and roots rocker Martha Redbone (July 30).

Glimmerglass Festival (July 8-Aug. 21) The northeast's leading summer opera festival presents both the tried and true (Carmen, The Sound of Music) and the new (The Jungle Book, Taking Up Serpents/Holy Ground, The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson) on the shores of Lake Otsego, just down the road from the Baseball Hall of Fame.

by Pete Matthews

(All photos by Pete Matthews)

Life has never been easy being a member of the MET Orchestra, the concert stage orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera. For 33 weeks a year, these 120 musicians - widely considered to be the finest opera orchestra in the world - toil anonymously in the opera pit, playing eight performances each week of everything from Donizetti to Brett Dean. But, much like the Vienna Philharmonic, which draws its members from the Vienna State Opera, the MET Orchestra emerges for a precious few evenings each season to appear onstage, demonstrating how their virtuosity extends to the symphonic repertoire. To my ears, they are hands down the best orchestra in the Western Hemisphere (sorry, NY Phil.)

But, as difficult as life is normally in the MET Orchestra, things got a whole lot harder after COVID-19 shut down the opera house in March 2020. After cancelling the remainder of the season, and then the entire 2020-21 season, General Manager Peter Gelb essentially locked out the orchestra, refusing to pay them in a bitter dispute that lasted for more than a year. The musicians were left to fend for themselves, playing chamber concerts in parks and churches streamed on demand for a fee, and depending on donations and other contributions to keep them afloat.

Aside from a pair of benefit concerts in May 2021, when 50 orchestra musicians traveled to Texas to perform with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the full orchestra didn't play together as one until their triumphant performances of Mahler's 2nd "Resurrection" Symphony at Damrosch Park last September - a layoff of some 18 months. They followed that up the following week with a performance of Verdi's Requiem on the 20th anniversary of 9/11; the only other time the MET Orchestra would appear onstage this season was the special Benefit for Ukraine in March that included Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Strauss’ Four Last Songs, and the choral finale to Beethoven’s 9th.

Finally, after a very full season of some 22 operas at the Met, the MET Orchestra returned to the limelight of Carnegie Hall last night for the first time in three years. They were led by Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who's been just about everywhere this season, including stints conducting the Vienna Phil and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra on tour, not to mention his full time jobs at the Met and Philadelphia Orchestra. The crowd roared its appreciation when the orchestra rose at Yannick's request.

Richard Strauss' Don Juan was the ideal showcase for this remarkable orchestra. The strings were taut and crisp, the percussion explosive, the horns perfect. Clearly, this is an orchestra that can play anything - and play the shit out of it.