Tír Na HiFi

OK folks, as suggested, the Live in HD schedule has been announced, and I have to say, it has whet my appetite rather. The Courtyard do a great deal of 12 shows for £150... and I think I'm going to book the whole lot! Not that fussed about the Shostakovich, but I'm happy with all the other 11, so I'll give it a whirl for a bit of an education.

Anyone else enticed at the prospect of one or two? As Fergus knows, the Cinema in Dublin will be showing the full list...

Pepe, do you have any personal highlights here?

http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/liveinhd/1314

When I went to see Parsifal they previewed all of those productions Jared and the only one that stood out for me as a probable must see was Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. The rest I will ponder.

I think most of them will be worth seeing.
The Eugene Onegin is actually well cast. Anna Netrebko who has no business singing Lucia or I Puritani is a natural for Tatyana, and young baritone Marius Kwiecien, whom I saw 2 years ago as Don Giovanni, is tailored made for the title role.
The Nose can also be entertaining if the producer understands Shostakovich´s malice.
Tosca needs a larger than life prima donna and Patricia Racette is not one of them. This is probably the least interesting offering, but at least there´s Roberto Alagna to give some vocal glamour.
The Falstaff, one of the greatest operas ever written gets a new production by Robert Carsen, who is often an admirable singer´s director. Ambrogio Maestri was good in the title role in a dvd I have with Muti. This will almost certainly be a highlight of the season.
The Rusalka is a known quantity. Now Fleming is a little past her prime but this is a role that suits her well.
The Prince Igor, an opera I absolutely adore, should be another highlight. In fact I´m toying with the idea of going to NY in february or March to see this and the Werther because of Jonas Kaufmann and Elina Garanca, 2 of the finest voices of our time. The Prince Igor just bursts with great tunes, even if the story is a little bit hard to follow for Westerners, still...I want to see it so much that I may go all the way to NY!!!
The cast of La Bohéme is hardly worth the cost of the tickets, but you know, La Bohéme is one of those foolproof operas, no matter how bad the performance it´s impossible to ruin it.
If Falstaff is one of the greatest operas ever written, then Cosi fan Tutte is THE greatest opera ever written... if it not were for the other Mozart mature operas. This marks the eagerly awaited return of Levine to the podium, but I wouldn´t count on it. Frankly I don´t know the singers, but I guess they must be good if Levine chose them.
La Cenerentola is a guaranteed vocal feast with Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Florez. This should also be one of the hot tickets of the season.

So...what´s not to like?