About next season

I'm very angry. It looks list it's true: No Ruth Ann Swenson at the Met.



But the world goes on.That time has come when every opera fan must begin to consider their plans for this fall; what to see and where to go.

A few things stick as points of interest for the coming season and I’m sure that the entire blog community will take time to get to the opera houses and hear a few productions. Today the OPERA in AMERICA blog is proud to name the most important productions in America in the Autumn Season.

Manon – Chicago Lyric Oprea
September 27 – October 31, 2008
The world’s most famous coloratura Natalie Dessay will team up with my favorite young tenor Jonas Kauffman for Massenet’s masterpiece.


Don Giovanni: Metropolitan Opera
September 27, 2008 – April 24, 2009
Erwin Schrott leads a glorious cast which includes the likes of Barbra Frittoli, Susan Graham, Matthew Polenzani and Samuel Ramey. A special treat will be Peter Mattei who will round out the performances as the Don.

Porgy and Bess – Chicago Lyric Opera
November 18 – December 19
The lyric opera seems to draw me into operas which I normally hate by providing stellar casts and this Porgy is no exception. A lineup of today’s finest African-American singers will be led by Gordon Hawkins – who I believe to be the finest working dramatic baritone of our age – as Porgy together with names such as the stunning Lisa Daltirus, future star Laquita Mitchell and established goddess Marietta Simpson.

As much as I hate Progy and Bess, the Lyric can expect a visit from me in December.

La Gioconda – Metropolitan Opera
September 24, 2008 - October 9, 2008
Two words: "Suicidio!” and Voigt…

Add Olga Borodina, and Ewa Podles and you have me there.

Alagna brings me back

I took something of a sabbatical (after I forgot that I had a blog to write) and I wasn’t sure of how to return…so I, John Valois waited for a bang. Thank you President Sarkozy! My feelings about Algana have been well documented here on the Opera in America Blog…so I won’t revisit old ideas; much.

The naming of Roberto Algana (a.k.a. the greatest thing to happen to Opera since Andrea Bocelli) to the Légion d'honneur was the perfect event to bring me back. The event was documented by Opera Chic.

I’m a descendent of the post-revolutionary Valois émigrés. I’ve always harbored family ills towards the French Republic. It seems the people of France are determined to make fools of themselves by giving the world a reason to think they are stupid.

Let’s be honest: The French have a long history of debacles. The Republic has been a mess since the revolution – where tens of thousands lost their lives and thousands were executed as enemies of the state – as well as being kicked out of Paris multiple times. It goes back beyond the botched revolution to the several times when the English, the Spanish and the Germans pushed the French out of Paris.

Algana as a knight of the Légion is no exception to the pattern long established by the French. I admit it, I enjoyed his Romeo. True to his French blood he doesn’t stick to the things he does best. A lyric voice should stick to Faust, Romeo and the Bel Canto cannon. But Alagna’s constant expeditions into the Dramatic repertoire leave his voice tired and ugly. When he was young and talented the French government paid little attention to him…but now that he is old, fat and dried up he is being honored.

I call on the Crowned heads of Europe including Elizabeth II of England and Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden to return their Grand crosses as members of the Légion in the name of good taste.