Paul Plishka
Also Known As: not available
Biography: Biography not available
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Old Forge, Pennsylvania, USA
Adult: No
Birthday: August 28, 1941
Age: 83 years old
Gender: Male
Popularity:
Known For:
La Cenerentola
Overview: The Prince, Don Ramiro (who has changed places with his valet, Dandini), meets Cenerentola and they are instantly attracted to each other. When the Philosopher, Alidoro, later takes Cenerentola (dressed in magnificent clothing) to the palace, Dandini (still posing as the prince) tries to talk of love to her, but Cenerentola rejects him, saying that she is in love with his 'valet'. Ramiro, who has overheard this comment, is overjoyed, and immediately proposes to her, but Cenerentola says that he must first seek her out and then, if he still felt the same way, she would marry him. She gives him one of a matching pairs of bracelets, telling him to look for its companion on her right arm (she then leaves the palace). Ramiro ends the masquerade, and he and Dandini resume their true identities. The Prince then sets out on his quest - little realising that destiny, in the form of a violent thunderstorm, is about to take a hand in the affair.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1981-01-01
Popularity:
Billy Budd
Overview: John Dexter’s brilliant production of Britten’s searing opera stars Dwayne Croft in the title role of the handsome young sailor whose kindness and innocence cause his downfall. The great James Morris is Claggart, master-at-arms on the 18th-century warship Indomitable, who falsely accuses Billy of inciting a mutiny. Philip Langridge sings Captain Vere, the honest commander who knows that Billy is innocent but finds himself unable to save him. Steuart Bedford, Britten’s close collaborator during the last years of the composer’s life, is on the podium.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1997-03-11
Popularity:
Lucia di Lammermoor
Overview: This telecast offers a rare opportunity to see the legendary Joan Sutherland in the role that first catapulted her to international stardom. She drove audiences wild by the way her opulent voice caressed the music’s long phrases and sprinted effortlessly through the fiendish runs, trills, embellishments and stratospheric high notes. One of the glories of the operatic world, her portrayal of Donizetti’s hapless heroine is a multifaceted and moving characterization. The incomparable tenor Alfredo Kraus is Edgardo, the man Lucia loves but cannot have. (Performance taped November 13, 1982. Broadcasted September 28, 1983.)
Genres: Music Drama
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1983-09-28
Popularity:
Berlioz: Les Troyens
Overview: Berlioz’s colossal masterpiece requires stupendous forces—dozens of soloists, enormous chorus, orchestra and ballet, a superb conductor who understands the uniqueness of the score—plus a production that does visual justice to the work. “A stupendous achievement” was one critic’s assessment of Peter Wexler’s inventive production. And with James Levine’s wizardry galvanizing the marvelous all-star cast, this is truly a gem. Plácido Domingo is the legendary hero Aeneas, Jessye Norman the obsessed prophetess Cassandra, and Tatiana Troyanos is Queen Dido, who commits suicide when Aeneas leaves her.
Genres: Drama Music History
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1983-10-07
Popularity:
Salzburg Marionette Theatre: The Tales of Hoffmann
Overview: In Luther's beer-cellar, lusty singing extols the virtues of beer and wine. For this evening, the Muse decides to deflect the poet Hoffmann's attention from amorous escapades, so that he will devote himself entirely to his art. Hoffmann tells of the three unhappy loves of his life: Olympia, Antonia and Giulietta.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 2019-04-13
Popularity:
Don Carlo
Overview: Don Carlo (1980) Metropolitan Opera. Verdi / italian. King Philip's court is plagued by rebels, family squabbles and intrigue. The Spanish Inquisition tries to exert its influence. The tension finally ignites at the King's coronation, where heretics are to be burned at the stake
Genres: Music
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1980-02-21
Popularity:
Puccini: La Bohème
Overview: Puccini’s evergreen paean to young love and the bohemian life has captivated generations of Met-goers through Franco Zeffirelli’s iconic production. Movie theater audiences for the high-definition transmission of this staging got to see it with fresh eyes in a touching performance starring Angela Gheorghiu and Ramón Vargas as the frail seamstress and her poetic lover.
Genres: Drama Music
Original Language: it
Release Date: 2008-06-01
Popularity:
Boris Godounov
Overview: A possible impostor torments a newly crowned medieval czar who may have ordered the real successor's death.
Genres: Music Drama History
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1989-12-20
Popularity:
Turandot
Overview: The Franco Zeffirelli production of Puccini's "Turandot", recorded live at the Metropolitan Opera in April, 1987. Éva Marton stars as Turandot, with Plácido Domingo as Calaf, Leona Mitchell as Liù, Paul Plishka as Timur, and Hugues Cuenod as L'Imperatore Altoum. James Levine conducts.
Genres: Music
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1987-04-01
Popularity:
Giordano: Andrea Chénier
Overview: This live from the Met telecast from October 1996 of Giordano’s infrequently performed verismo gem is an absolute pleasure to watch and listen to and I highly recommend it. Nicholas Joel’s production is extremely elegant while at the same time being simple and uncluttered. Act I, for example, is dominated by an enormous gilt-framed mirror precariously tilted. I assume that it is a metaphor for the imminent downfall of the decadent aristocracy at the party given by the Contessa di Coigny. The costumes designs by Hubert Monloup are terrific. The prerevolutionary costumes in Act I are simply stunning each one individually tailored for the choristers and major performers.
Genres: Music
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1996-11-09
Popularity:
Metropolitan Opera Gala James Levine's 25th Anniversary
Overview: This tribute to James Levine, first shown on PBS, was only part of that glorious evening. Here we have the whole performance, up to three hours. I could not stop watching these discs. Let me say this much; Levine has done for the Met, making it the premier opera house in the world, what Karajan did with the Berlin, making it one of the finest orchestras ever. So sit back and enjoy.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1996-04-27
Popularity:
Simon Boccanegra
Overview: Live from the Metropolitan Opera: Simon Boccanegra
Genres: Music
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1984-12-29
Popularity:
From the Arena di Verona Requiem Mass
Overview:
Genres: Music
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1990-01-01
Popularity:
The Met — Tosca
Overview: Puccini’s musical thriller of lust, murder, and politics is one of the most dramatically riveting operas in the repertoire. Luc Bondy’s production, with sets by Richard Peduzzi and costumes by Academy Award-winning designer Milena Canonero, opened the Met’s 2009–10 season. Karita Mattila stars as the beautiful and dangerously impulsive singer Floria Tosca. Marcelo Álvarez is her lover, the painter Cavaradossi, a political enemy of the powerful chief of police, Scarpia (George Gagnidze), who wants Tosca for himself.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: it
Release Date: 2009-10-10
Popularity:
Falstaff
Overview: It is to composer and librettist Arrigo Boito and his constant pestering of the octogenarian Verdi that there remained within him one last great comedy fighting to get out that we owe this absolute miracle of an opera. Produced in 1893 as Verdi turned 80 there is much in this masterpiece that can be identified as a modernist neoclassical work. The use of short motifs instead of long arioso melodic lines, the spry and reduced orchestral textures and the lack of a single 'stand and deliver' dramatic declamatory aria all serve to make this more of a 20th century work than an example of 19th century late-Romanticism.
Genres: Music
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1993-01-01
Popularity:
Stiffelio - The Met
Overview: Giuseppe Verdi's opera of religion, revenge and redemption gets the star treatment in this 1993 Metropolitan Opera production conducted by James Levine and starring Plácido Domingo as the cuckolded man of God at the center of the tale. Sharon Sweet sings the role of Domingo's adulteress wife and Vladimir Chernov plays the vengeful father in this rarely staged gem directed by Giancarlo del Monaco and filmed by Brian Large.
Genres: Music
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1993-11-13
Popularity:
Verdi: Simon Boccanegra
Overview: The ambiguities of Verdi’s theatre are particularly clear in his baritone roles, among which is that of Boccanegra, corsair turned doge of Genoa and the troubled observer of the conflicts that tore apart 14th century landowners and peasants. An eminently political opera in which power struggles are interwoven with family conflicts, Simon Boccanegra echoes the life of its composer – the man who championed the cause of Italian unification and overcame the loss of his wife and children.
Genres: Music Drama History
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1985-07-13
Popularity:
La Bohème
Overview: Puccini’s heartbreaking story of young love in the garrets of Belle Epoque Paris has attracted many famous singers through the years. But with James Levine at the helm and the starry duo of Luciano Pavarotti and Renata Scotto as Rodolfo and Mimi, every bit of emotion in the score pours across the footlights and seduces the audience. In this case, the audience was in the millions since this was the very first in the “Live from the Met” series of telecasts. The evocative production is by Fabrizio Melano, designed by Pier Luigi Pizzi.
Genres: Music
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1977-03-14
Popularity:
The Metropolitan Opera: La Bohème
Overview: Puccini’s timeless love story, which includes some of its composer’s most beloved music, has moved generations of opera lovers since its 1896 world premiere. It has also proved incredibly popular with the Met’s global HD audiences and has been featured in three live high-definition transmissions since 2008. The most recent, presented during the 2017–18 season, includes a cast of celebrated young artists. Soprano Sonya Yoncheva is the fragile seamstress Mimì, who instantly falls in love with the passionate poet Rodolfo, sung by tenor Michael Fabiano. Soprano Susanna Phillips and baritone Lucas Meachem trade both spars and kisses as the on-again-off-again lovers Musetta and Marcello, with bass Matthew Rose and baritone Alexey Lavrov rounding out the rambunctious gang of bohemian friends. Maestro Marco Armiliato takes the podium to lead Franco Zeffirelli’s picturesque staging.
Genres: Music
Original Language: it
Release Date: 2018-02-24
Popularity:
Manon Lescaut – The Met
Overview: One of today’s most compelling singing actresses, Karita Mattila takes on the irresistible role of Manon Lescaut, the headstrong young woman torn between a life of luxury and the call of her true love: the Chevalier des Grieux, played by Marcello Giordani. The young Puccini lavished some of his most sensual music on this early hit, conducted here by James Levine.
Genres: Music
Original Language: it
Release Date: 2008-02-16
Popularity:
Puccini's Il trittico
Overview:
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2007-04-28
Popularity:
Opening Night Gala Starring Renée Fleming
Overview: Keeping with a long-standing tradition, Renee Fleming kicks off the new season at the Met with scenes from Verdi's Traviata, Massenet's Manon, and Strauss' Capriccio. She is joined by Ramon Vargas and Thomas Hampson.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2008-09-22
Popularity: