Received from the Met, a change of conductor for the upcoming
Carmen performances:
Asher Fisch will conduct performances of Bizet’s Carmen this season, replacing the originally announced Dan Ettinger, who has withdrawn due to illness. Fisch will conduct performances on January 19, 23, and 31; February 3, 7, and 11matinee. Derrick Inouye will conduct the performance on January 27. Louis Langrée will still conduct the final two performances of Carmen on February 15 and 18.
Fisch has conducted six productions at the Met, making his company debut leading Lehár’s The Merry Widow in 2000, followed by Verdi’s Rigoletto, Puccini’s La Bohème, Mozart's The Magic Flute, Wagner’s Parsifal, and earlier this season, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. Maestro Fisch has conducted at the Los Angeles Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, La Scala, Paris Opera, and Royal Opera, Covent Garden. He is currently the Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and previously, he was the Principal Guest Conductor at the Seattle Opera and Music Director of the Israel Opera and Vienna Volksoper.
Carmen will star Maria Agresta and Janai Brugger as Micaëla, Sophie Koch and Clémentine Margaine as Carmen, Marcelo Álvarez as Don José, and Kyle Ketelsen and Michael Todd Simpson as Escamillo.
I did not see Sophie Koch in
Les Troyens (she withdrew from the production), but I did catch the excellent Clémentine Margaine in
Don Quichotte. A fine singer with an interesting and very French voice.
2 comments:
The Met can be famous for ignoring artists with an international reputation (Podles, anyone?), but I find Koch's lack of presence very curious. There's certainly plenty of roles in the Met's active rep she's appropriate for. Yet we've only had her once as a late-stage replacement, and now for four Carmens (not even doing the broadcast). And her original 2008 debut, which was cancelled, was seemingly never rescheduled, as she was absent until the Werther. That said, she really doesn't seem to have much of an American career beyond Chicago and New York, so I don't know how much of it comes down to personal choice. I find her voice and stage comportment rather striking; I wish I had the chance to hear her live more often.
I was looking forward to seeing her as Didon in Chicago; a friend who has seen her in Europe has spoken highly of her. I have no idea why she ultimately didn't appear.
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