| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 19-May-2013 Carnegie Hall: Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage | The return of the maestro: James Levine and the MET Orchestra |
 With a gleaming, glistening chord of purest A major, the man New Yorkers love to call “the Maestro” returned to the concert stage. His last public performance was a Die Walküre in May 2011, one that took its searing emotional power by maintaining the constant impression that it was about to disintegrate musically, just as Wotan’s worlds fell apart on stage and the conductor’s body buckled. It was apt that it was Wagner with which the Maestro returned, in a shining evocation of the sacred land of the Holy Grail. With the prelude to Lohengrin, James Levine was back.
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| 2-Dec-2012 Carnegie Hall: Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage | The MET Orchestra showcases its diverse skills in Gubaidulina, Beethoven and Stravinsky |
 One can be forgiven for expecting that a Sunday afternoon concert should consist of light classics to which one doesn’t need to apply too much mental exertion. The works in yesterday afternoon’s performance by the MET Orchestra under music director Fabio Luisi were anything but light. In fact, I suspect that the electrifying energy of the concert would be enough to keep me going for a long time.
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| 28-Nov-2012 Lincoln Center: Metropolitan Opera House | Erwin Schrott stars in the Metropolitan Opera's Don Giovanni |
 Don Giovanni is perhaps the most difficult of the Mozart–Da Ponte opera trilogy to stage. Not only is there the problem of how exactly the Don is to be consumed in flames at the end of its three-hour span, or the issue of how to make the statue of the Commendatore come to life. There is also the question of how to square the deep sexual and class conflicts that are on display throughout the work with its constant humour. After all, Mozart designated this, his bleakest work, an opera buffa, or comic opera.
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| 14-Oct-2012 Carnegie Hall: Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage | Out of the pit and into the Alps with the MET Orchestra |
 The orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera House rarely gets out of its pit, but when it does, it plays at Carnegie Hall. Carnegie has a rather different acoustic to the Met – much more closely-held, much more intense – and its unforgiving glare occasionally presented one challenge too many for the MET Orchestra. Still, they acquitted themselves well in this matinée.
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