It would be harsh indeed to criticize Deutsche Grammophon for issuing in September what is in fact only a selection from the New York Metropolitan Opera’s 1983 Centennial Gala. The original event, starting in the early afternoon, lasted more than eight hours, and these two new DVDs are around half that length at 240 minutes. But the singers featured are so celebrated that it would be insanity to lament that this isn’t quite the whole original, massive undertaking.
The Met — as it’s called, even by itself — opened on Oct. 22, 1883. Exactly 100 years later, to the day, this extravaganza was staged, and telecast for anyone wanting to watch across North America. It’s hard to think of a top-rank opera soloist who didn’t take part — Birgit Nilsson, Montserrat Caballe, Joan Sutherland, Mirella Freni, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eva Marton, Leontyne Price, Marilyn Horne, Grace Bumbry, plus Pavarotti, Bruson, Carreras, Domingo, Kraus, Gedda, Raimondi, McCracken and very many others, all appeared. James Levine took the lion’s share of the conducting, but Leonard Bernstein also made a rare Met appearance to conduct a Beethoven overture.
So, what are the highlights, and what criticisms might be made? The only criticism really possible is that film of some of the famous older names, such as Caruso, might have been included, but no doubt this was considered and rejected on grounds of the time available. As for the highlights, there are almost too many to list.
Seeing Pavarotti billed as the last to appear, singing the love duet from Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera with Leontyne Price, I assumed this placing was on his insistence. It did feel like a climax, nonetheless, with both artists in resplendent voice. But there had been greatness before them — James McCracken returning to the Met to sing a devastating aria from Otello, Eva Marton with Turandot’s In Questa Reggia, but most of all Birgit Nilsson, by then aged 65, in a passage from Tristan und Isolde, followed by an unaccompanied Swedish folk song as a prepared encore.
Many of the singers were similarly close
to the end of illustrious careers, but who could possibly complain? What comparable talent would we have to show today? Very little. Those were the days, my friend, we thought they’d never end. But Pavarotti,
Nilsson, McCracken and Alfredo Kraus — all are now gone.
A collection of honorees appear sitting at the back of the stage halfway through the evening session. They’re American singers no longer able to participate, for the most part, and it might be instructive to note which of them applauds what, because some of them sit sternly with their hands in their laps at the conclusion of some of the items. Levine demonstrates his extraordinary involvement, visibly moved by Verdi, Puccini and Wagner.
This footage has been previously issued by Pioneer Classics, in a version castigated by at least one critic on Amazon.com. The content seems to be identical, but no one could now complain at the sound and visual quality of DGM’s magnificent offering.
It’s extraordinary what you can come across when casually browsing in a DVD store. I recently stumbled on a version of Mozart’s Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) from 1971, reissued by ArtHaus Musik in 2006. It was directed by the British author and TV personality of those days Peter Ustinov, and starred some exceptional soloists — Nicolai Gedda as Tamino, Hans Sotin as Sarastro, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the small part of The Speaker, and Kurt Moll similarly hidden away as one of the Two Men in Armor.
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