Great Performances » Karita Mattila

GP at the Met: Tosca: Preview of the Opera

colin fitzpatrick — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:52:55 +0000

A new production of Puccini’s Tosca starring Karita Mattila opens THIRTEEN’s Great Performances at the Met’s fourth season on PBS. Mattila sings the title role of Tosca for the first time outside her native Finland, opposite Marcelo Álvarez as Cavaradossi. George Gagnidze is Scarpia and Paul Plishka is the Sacristan. Joseph Colaneri conducts, and acclaimed director Luc Bondy makes his Met debut with the production, which attracted extraordinary attention when it opened the Met’s current season. Bondy, among the world’s most renowned directors of opera and theater, has kept his Tosca in the Napoleonic era. “Directing singers in a realistic and precise way is more important than translating this kind of story to today,” he says. “What I’d like to bring out in my production is that difference between blind passion and cold strategy.” Mattila, who has collaborated with Bondy in the past, says, “Tosca uses her beauty as an asset in a man’s world. But no matter how strong she is, her power has limits because she’s a woman. This fragile side is what makes it interesting – and this is where the real work with the director begins.”

The production is rated TV-PG and will air during primetime on THIRTEEN’S Great Performances at the Met in HD on Wednesday, December 16 at 9 p.m. EST on PBS (check local listings).

Watch a preview:

(View full post to see video)

Great Performances at the Met: Tosca is the first of 10 productions airing this season during the 2009-2010 series. The performance is sung in Italian with English surtitles. Sets are designed by Richard Peduzzi, also in his company debut, costumes designed by Milena Canonero, and lighting designed by Max Keller.

Great Performances is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, Vivian Milstein, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers and PBS. Corporate support for Great Performances at the Met is provided by Toll Brothers, America’s luxury home-builder®.

For the Met, Mia Bongiovanni and Elena Park are Supervising Producers, and Louisa Briccetti and Victoria Warivonchik are Producers. Peter Gelb is Executive Producer. For Great Performances, Bill O’Donnell is Series Producer; David Horn is Executive Producer.

GP at The Met: Salome: Introduction

daniel ross — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:37:04 +0000

Finnish soprano Karita Mattila caused a sensation when she sang Salome at the Met for the first time in 2004, stunning the opera world with her interpretation of Richard Strauss’ fabled biblical princess. Wonderful news for fans – musical and TV – is her return to the role Saturday, January 17 at noon (ET) on Great Performances at the Met (check local listings). Patrick Summers leads the orchestra and strong supporting cast in Jürgen Flimm’s provocative modern-dress production.

Watch a preview:

Presented by THIRTEEN in 5.1 digital surround sound on PBS HD, Mattila’s portrayal proves both shattering and thrilling. “She is mesmerizing in her seductive Dance of the Seven Veils,” wrote The New York Times. “And her singing of the final scene is a tour de force of depraved eroticism and rapturous lyricism. A landmark for the Met.”

Based on Oscar Wilde’s notorious play about the wild-child royal who danced for Herod in return for the beheading of John the Baptist, Salome (1905) is the work that put its German composer on the operatic map. Strauss’ daring harmonic innovations, psychologically complex characters and shimmering orchestration set the tone for the stage masterworks to follow, including Elektra (1909), Der Rosenkavalier (1911), Die Frau Ohne Schatten (1919), and, to a degree, even his autumnal Capriccio (1942).

Joining Mattila in the telecast are fellow Finn, bass-baritone Juha Uusitalo, in the role of Jochanaan (John the Baptist), Hungarian mezzo-soprano Ildikó Komlósi as Salome’s treacherous mother, Herodias, and British tenor Kim Bagley as Herod, Salome’s step-father.

Great Performances at the Met: Salome, the second of 11 productions set for airing this season on the series, is sung in German with English surtitles. Hedwig Lachmann wrote the libretto, adapted from Wilde’s 1891 play. Barbara Willis Sweete directs for television; Jay Saks is audio producer.

Sets and costumes are by Santo Loquasto, with lighting by James F. Ingalls and choreography by Doug Varone. Salome was transmitted onstage as part of The Met: Live in HD series on October 11, 2008 and recorded for this telecast.

Great Performances is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers, and PBS. Corporate support for Great Performances at the Met is provided by Toll Brothers.

GP at The Met: Manon Lescaut: Introduction

daniel ross — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:43:29 +0000

Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

Composer: Giacomo Puccini

Librettists: Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Domenico Oliva, Marco Praga, Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica, Giulio Riccordi

Production: Gina Lapinski

Conductor: James Levine

Performers: Karita Mattila (Manon Lescaut), Dwayne Croft (Lescaut), Dale Travis (Geronte di Ravoir)

Synopsis:
On the heels of her triumph in Jenufa, Finnish soprano Karita Mattila adds another landmark role to her Met repertory, the free-spirited beauty Manon Lescaut. Puccini’s early success tells the story of the magnetic attraction between two young lovers. Joined by acclaimed tenor Marcello Giordani and conducted by James Levine, Mattila finds the perfect vehicle for her exhilarating charisma in Puccini’s title heroine.

Opera synopsis courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera

Funding for GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET: “Manon Lescaut” has been provided by Toll Brothers, the Irene Diamond Fund, the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation, Donald G. Sisler, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and PBS.

Related Web Sites

GP at The Met: Manon Lescaut: Production Credits

daniel ross — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:43:29 +0000

Web Credits

Producer: Anu Krishnan
Designer: Lenny Drozner
Graphic Art: Ying Zhou-Hudson, Emily Nonouchi
Technical Director: Brian Lee
Production Assistant: Diana Cofresí-Terrero
Copy Editor: Leslie Kriesel
HTML Implementation: Brian Santalone

Thirteen Online is a production of Thirteen/WNET New York’s Kravis Multimedia Education Center in New York City. Anthony Chapman, Director of Interactive & Broadband. Bob Adleman, Business Manager. Carmen DiRienzo, Vice President and Managing Director, Corporate Affairs.

Television Credits

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET: “Manon Lescaut”

Coming Soon…

The contents of these GREAT PERFORMANCES Web pages are copyrighted under United States and other copyright laws. You may not download, reproduce, transmit, display, distribute or make derivative works from the contents of the GREAT PERFORMANCES Web pages other than for personal use without the advance written permission of the copyright owner. Any unauthorized use of any of the contents of the GREAT PERFORMANCES Online Web pages may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution.