A Siberian Doge for the first time at the MET
Saturday, 5 February 2011 , 20.00

Did you know that Giuseppe Verdi himself was a baritone? Believe it or not, Verdi also performed vocally... This explains why he is the one who wrote the most impressive scores for baritone in the history of opera: Rigoletto and Simon Boccanegra (followed by Count di Luna, Germont père, Igo, etc.): two parts, incredibly beautiful and vocally comfortable, but at the same time emotionally complicated and challenging ; two parts we watched and talked about - one of them in a live broadcast a couple of weeks ago, and the other, the Doge Boccanegra part, scheduled for this Saturday. You will watch it with great interest, I am sure. First of all, because the Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky will perform for the first time at the MET and, then, because we all have a vivid recollection of the last season's performance, when Placido Domingo played the part of Boccanegra.

(And if you don't, than you can refresh your memory by watching this: link)

But how will Dmitri Hvorostovsky's first appearance on the MET stage be this season?

He will look like a Doge - a tall, slim, still young (although he has already gone gray) Doge, who has a highly expressive and harmonic voice and masters the technique of long phrases. At the same time, a Siberian Doge, or at least so we hope; during the breaks in the live broadcast, the literary critic Costin Popa, an all-time commentator of our New York broadcast, and I will be discussing about what a Verdi baritone part entails and what qualities a singer must have to play one.

Another live broadcast from the MET and a new Boccanegra performance for your opera night, this Saturday!