This season at the Metropolitan Opera will see many AVA alums, both on the stage, and almost on the stage.
It’s a wonderful honor to be asked to understudy in this great house, and several great alums are ready to go on at a moment’s notice. Our French songbird Manon Strauss Evrard has been singing on both continents, but she gets a turn at the Met this season, with one of the hardest sings possible. She will understudy the title character in Lulu by Alban Berg. We know that there is an unhappy ending to that opera, but don’t feel bad for Manon she’s starring as Marie in La Fille du Regiment for Virginia Opera. Can you say the perfect role for Ms. Evrard? Very good things are in her future in 2010 she will sing her first Semiramide with Maestro Alberto Zedda.
Angela Meade is no stranger to the Met. She is actually the poster child for understudies, having made her Met debut in Ernani, when she went on for an ailing soprano. She’s at the Met right now rehearsing for her debut as the Countess in the Met’s production of Le nozze di Figaro on December 4th. She also recently returned from San Francisco Opera where she understudied Constanze in The Abduction from the Sereglio. Before her stint at the Met in Armida, where she will understudy Renee Fleming for the second time, Angela will return to AVA to sing selections from Norma on the Operatic Masterpieces concert on January 30, 31 and February 2.
Not to out-do the sopranos, tenor Michele Angelini will be understuding two roles at the Met this season. His first assignment is that of Tonio, in La Fille du Régiment. From what I hear, Juan Diego Flores will be arriving late for the stage rehearsals, so Mr. Angelini will actually get stage time. He probably won’t need much time with the role since he will have sung it with San Antonio Opera before he arrives at the Met. He’ll be back later in the spring to understudy a role in Armida, along with Angela Meade. During that time he’ll make his Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist in Mozart’s Requiem and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms with the New York Choral Society on May 1, 2010.
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