At-Home Gala

picture: metopera.org

Greetings and congratulations from a big Met’s fan in Bulgaria to all the artists; singers and musicians; to managers and staff of Metropolitan opera for this 4 hours Gala, such an extraordinary event!

At-Home Gala was an unprecedented undertaking, which featured more than 40 leading artists performing in a live stream from their homes all around the world. General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin were hosting from their homes in New York City and Montreal, respectively.

We heard artists from their homes in Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Georgia, Switzerland, Sweden, Latvia, Malta, Spain, Poland and of course Met’s home USA. A sweet couple (Diana Damrau and Nicolas teste) sung from their kitchen in France and we were welcomed by their kids, another couple (Ailyn Perez and Soloman Howard) sung and acted from Chicago, we heard a greetings to Mexico by Javier Camarena etc.

The first pre-recorded live performance of Met’s Orchestra, I saw, of Cavalleria rusticana’s intermezzo (one of my favorite operas) was exciting and made me weep not only because of the beautiful music but because of the picture made of tiny little pictures of people playing at their homes; Vagner performance was touching. All pre-recorded performances of Met’s orchestra –Oh, they were amazing. Met’s Viola section also paid tribute to one of their colleagues. The pre-recorded performance of Met Orchestra and Chorus of Verdi’s Nabuco aria was astonishing, a prickly feeling, beautiful – a big Bravo. It was extraordinary: so many persons playing and singing at same time from their homes thousands of miles away one from another with such a synchrony. Bravo also to their Music Director and to technicians who made this possible by the tools of the technology!

Elena Garancia’s performance of L’amour est un oiseau rebelle (Bizet‘s Carmen is also one of my favorite operas) was also very exciting and made me cry. My favorite soprano, beautiful Roussalka, Sonya Yoncheva wished all of us a new beginning starting from tomorrow.

The At-Home Gala was part of the Met’s urgent “The Voice Must Be Heard” fundraising campaign to support the company and protect its future.

Everyone can donate at the site of the opera: metopera.org/ProtectTheMet.

Already 6 weeks, each day, a different encore presentation from the Met’s Live in HD series is being made available for the fans worldwide for free streaming on the Met website, with each performance available for a period of 23 hours, from 7:30 p.m. EDT until 6:30 p.m. the following day. The schedule includes outstanding complete performances from the past 14 years of cinema transmissions, starring all of opera’s greatest singers.

I’m very happy that I had the time to watch already several of these performances as:

Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia; Starring Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Flórez, and Peter Mattei, conducted by Maurizio Benini, From March 24, 2007

Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca (Librettist Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica) Starring Sonya Yoncheva, Vittorio Grigolo, and Željko Lučić, conducted by Emmanuel Villaume. From January 27, 2018.

Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow operetta, (Librettist Viktor Léon and Leo Stein). Starring Renée Fleming, Kelli O’Hara, and Nathan Gunn, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. From January 17, 2015.

And, maybe one of the best operas ever - Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata; (Librettist Francesco Maria Piave) Starring Natalie Dessay, Matthew Polenzani, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, conducted by Fabio Luisi. From April 14, 2012.

Met’s performances are amazing because of their spread/scope, because of the spectacular scenery, the beautiful costumes and big names singing there. I admire the art there and would like very much to see some performance in live/on site very soon.

Let's God help all of us and stop this pandemic very soon! Meanwhile we need music as music is healing and unifying; we need art, beauty and love. Don’t lose your hope, laugh and joy, friendship, solidarity, good humor and inner peace!