Met Season opens with Mariusz Kwiecien as Onegin

Mariusz Kwiecien & Anna Netrebko

Tonight the Metropolitan Opera opened its 2013-14 season with Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin," starring barihunk Maurisz Kwiecien, soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Piotr Beczala. Valery Gergiev will conduct Deborah Warner's new production directed by Fiona Shaw. The opera was last performed at the Met in 2009 in Robert Carsen's minimalist production.

Performances of "Eugene Onegin" will run through October 19, with the October 5 performance being transmitted in Live in HD in movie theaters around the world. On Nov. 23, the opera will be revived with barihunk Peter Mattei, soprano Marina Poplavskaya and tenor Rolando Villazon in the lead roles.

Mariusz Kwiecien as Onegin at the Bolshoi in 2008:

Anna Netrebko will be teaming up with her barihunk husband Erwin Schrott at The Met, opening in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore on January 9, 2014. 

On September 28, another popular barihunk will take the stage, as Paulo Szot opens as Kovalyov in Shostakovich's The Nose.

Christopher Job's traveling preacher off to save Idaho

Christopher Job

American barihunk Christopher Job has some exciting performances coming up this year. On May 25th, he will make his Carnegie Hall debut in Mozart’s Requiem with conductor Joseph Modica. He then returns to the Metropolitan Opera  from September 28 – October 26 in Shostakovich’s The Nose under the baton of Valery Gergiev. He'll be joined in the cast by fellow barihunk Paulo Szot, who is reprising his performance of the bureaucrat, whose satirical misadventures in search of his missing nose are based on Gogol’s comic story.

Samuel Ramey sings "Hear Me, O Lord, I beseech Thee" from Susannah:

In the meantime, Christopher Job will take on the role of the traveling preacher Olin Blitch in Carlisle Floyd's Susannah with Opera Idaho directed by Elise Sandell. Susannah is one of the most performed American operas, second to Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. A number of prominent baritones have taken on the role of Olin Blitch, including Samuel Ramey, Norman Treigle, James Morris, Mack Harrell and Daniel Okulitch. Performances are on May 17th and 19th at the Egyptian Theatre in Boise. Tickets are available online.

Associated Press Feature on Paulo Szot

[Photo: Kathy Willens / AP]


On May 14, 1948, Ezio Pinza sang his last "Don Giovanni" with the Metropolitan Opera on tour in Cleveland and retired from the company. The next year, the Italian basso crossed over to Broadway, creating the role of Emile de Becque in the musical "South Pacific" and becoming forever identified with the song "Some Enchanted Evening."

Nearly 62 years later, Paulo Szot is retracing Pinza's steps — backward. After two years of playing de Becque to great acclaim (and, like Pinza, a Tony award) in a revival of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, Szot is making his Met debut on March 5.

Talk about a role reversal.

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