The Met's last new staging before 2020's pandemic shutdown--François Girard's Der fliegende Holländer--disappointingly staged and cast and poorly conducted by Valery Gergiev--returned to port more enjoyably for four end-of-season shows. Girard ameliorated some staging aspects. In Wagner's brilliant Overture--the best orchestral playing the debuting Thomas Guggeis achieved all night—Senta’s double no longer[...]

Susan Brodie
May 2023

Lohengrin returned to the Met on February 26 for the first time since 2006 in a new production by François Girard. After Robert Wilson’s starkly abstract 1998 production, the Canadian […]

Despite the Covid-19 crisis, which caused the cancellation of the last two months of the Met’s 2019-2020 season, the company did manage to pull off three of eight scheduled performances […]