Future Seasons at the Met

It’s always fun to visit Brad Wilber’s Met Futures Page   ( http://bradwilber.com/metfuture/ ) to see what the Met has up its sleeve all the way through to 2015. Wilber has an uncanny ability to get the scoop long before the Met announces what they are doing and who is singing.  He updates it regularly and is generally right on.

Here’s my outstanding picks of operas and singers from the his List:

2011-12 Season

Anna Bolena (Donizetti) with Netrebko, Garanca and Stephen Costello

Faust (Gounod) with Kaufmann and Gheorghiu

Manon (Massenet) with Netrebko, Paulo Szot

2012-13 Season

Maria Stuarda (Donizetti) with Joyce diDonato, Elza Van den Heever

Parsifal (Wagner) with Kaufmann

Otello (Verdi) with Jose Cura, Fleming

2013-14 Season

Werther (Massenet) with Kaufmann and Elina Garanca

Norma (Bellini) with Sondra Radvanovsky

Lohengrin (Wagner) my wish is for Kaufmann of course…Brad doesn’t yet report

2014-15 Season

La donna del Lago (Rossini) with  Juan Diego Florez.

Next Villazon?

A few years ago,  the subject of my  Passion for Opera class was:   The World’s Greatest Singers, and I included those current greats and those up and coming.  One of those up and coming tenors I featured was young Stephen Costello, and the selection I shared with the class was Stephen as the Duke in Rigoletto in a student production at Academy of Vocal Arts.

The reaction of the class to Costello was electric, and most were seized by the beauty of his voice as well as his passionate singing;  a few were concerned with his vocal health. Stephen made his Met debut several years ago and is scheduled to open the 2011-12 Met season as Percy in Donizetti’s Anna Bolena opposite Anna Netrebko and Elina Garanca (that’s a starry line-up).

He sings regularly in San Diego and will be featured in Faust there this spring.  So how’s he doing?  Is he still as ardent as he was a few years back…is his performance still electrifying? Voice still beautiful? Is his voice still healthy?

I happened upon this YOU TUBE of a performance Stephen gave just 2 months ago in New York.  He’s in a church, so the acoustics are echoey,  but I just wonder…. Why isn’t he singing at San Francisco Opera?  What do you think?

Move over Gustavo Dudamel…

Complete Joy!!!