{"id":3976,"date":"2026-05-26T21:59:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T01:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=3976"},"modified":"2026-05-26T21:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T01:59:08","slug":"the-worlds-greatest-orchestra-take-two-todays-metropolitan-opera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2026\/05\/the-worlds-greatest-orchestra-take-two-todays-metropolitan-opera.html","title":{"rendered":"“The World’s Greatest Orchestra” — Take Two: Today’s Metropolitan Opera"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Yevgeny Mravinsky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I find myself still gorging on live recorded performances by the greatest orchestra I ever encountered \u2013 Yevgeny Mravinsky\u2019s Leningrad Philharmonic. Last night, it was Bartok\u2019s Music for<\/em> Strings, Percussion, and Celesta<\/em> \u2013 a 1965<\/strong> reading<\/a> more intensely engaged than what you\u2019ll hear today from any American orchestra known to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My previous blog<\/a> has attracted many thousands of readers, and the response remains ongoing. Who these readers are I have no idea. Perhaps they are Russians who know and remember. Perhaps they are lovers of symphonic music who realize something has gone wrong. The public comments raise a question I have been pondering for some time in this space: is today\u2019s disappointment the conductors or the players?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recently attended a listless La traviata<\/em> at the Metropolitan Opera, weakly cast (I went expecting more from the baritone). Nothing much was happening in the pit. The Prelude in the high strings was sung with perfect intonation, yet conveyed no tenderness. The eruptions in act two were dispatched with precise rhythm and ensemble, yet conveyed no fury. I was left wondering if the players (mainly young) had ever heard a great opera orchestra in Verdi. They need look no further than the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra broadcasts of the 1930s and \u201840s, when the Italian repertoire was superintended by a conductor of genius: Ettore Panizza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I last wrote about Panizza\u2019s Verdi, in some detail, in the New York Review of Books<\/a><\/em><\/strong>. My point of reference was the Aida<\/em> broadcast of February 6, 1937.  In the case of Traviata<\/em>, we have readily at hand an even more extraordinary broadcast, a famous broadcas<\/strong><\/a>t<\/strong>, from January 5, 1935. The Violetta is Rosa Ponselle. The Germont \u2013 a benchmark reading \u2013 is Lawrence Tibbett. The Alfredo is Frederick Jagel. Remarkably (as Milton Cross notes, in his broadcast introduction), all three were Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have never encountered a more eloquent impersonation of Germont\u2019s enlightenment \u2013 he is the character in the drama who most changes \u2013 than Tibbett\u2019s on this occasion. To begin with, his signature aria \u2013 \u201cDi provenza\u201d \u2013 is itself a classic performance<\/a><\/strong>. But his dramatic engagement, gradually absorbing Violetta\u2019s strength of character, is equally notable. In this gripping personal saga, the orchestra is a full partner. When in act two, just before Alfredo\u2019s father suddenly appears, the urgency of the orchestra\u2019s prefatory chords (go to 36:02) galvanizes both Violetta and ourselves. Germont\u2019s self-introduction (\u201cI am Alfredo\u2019s father!\u201d) is supported by long, vigorous bow strokes (36:45): we know in an instant who he is and what he is feeling. The interaction quickly gathers heat: he is asking that Violetta give up his son. Her pleas are partnered by whipped, furiously accelerating rhythms (not in Verdi\u2019s score) calibrating her desperation (41:52). Never mind that the orchestra is now not perfectly together \u2013 it’s not programed; rather, it is listening, <\/em>instantaneously responding, <\/em>moment to moment. \u201cMorr\u00f2!” Violetta exclaims. \u201cI will die!\u201d The accompanying march tread (53:50) is taut yet flexible, building toward a climax ever more foreseeable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So who is most responsible for this scorching rendition? It\u2019s not just the singers and the conductor; it\u2019s equally the players in the pit. Who are they? Not so many years ago, it was possible to visit the Met archives and find out. I am now told that orchestra rosters are in storage and \u201cirretrievable\u201d (what\u2019s an archive for?). But I do recall that ca. 1930 most of the names were Italian. Plainly, audibly, these musicians knew La traviata<\/em>. They loved La<\/em> traviata<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I am no longer a regular opera-goer, I cannot report with any authority when the collapse occurred. The last time I heard a world-class opera orchestra in the Metropolitan Opera pit was 2013. The opera was Parsifal<\/em> and the conductor was Daniele Gatti. The orchestra\u2019s response \u2013 its fullness of texture and sureness of purpose \u2013 was beyond praise. I regret that I did not hear any of Carlos Kleiber\u2019s Met performances, or Leonard Bernstein\u2019s. I did hear Herbert von Karajan conduct Das Rheingold<\/em> and Die Walkure<\/em> \u2013 and achieve the same sheen that distinguishes his Berlin Philharmonic recordings of these operas. In Die Walkure<\/em>, Karajan had a better cast at the Met than on DG, with Regine Crespin\u2019s Sieglinde opposite Jon Vickers\u2019 Siegmund, and Birgit Nilsson as Brunnhilde; the first act erupted. I also remember the vivid aroma of the Bolshoi Opera Orchestra emanating from the Met pit in 1975, and the dark majesty of Valery Gergiev\u2019s Mariinski Orchestra when it visited the Met. Both attained a high standard of purposeful engagement.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ended my Mravinsky blog with a prediction and a conundrum: \u201cThere will be no rebirth of the Leningrad Philharmonic or of other singular ensembles from another era. . . . As for Viktor Liberman\u2019s Leningrad violins \u2013 they weren\u2019t just a product of Mravinsky\u2019s tyranny. The music was in their blood, in centuries of culture building upon itself. Today we have social media and artificial intelligence. It is a challenge we are summoned to ponder and confront.\u201d   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To read about Daniele Gatti\u2019s \u201cParsifal\u201d at the Met, and its subsequent fate, click here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To read about Artur Bodanzky \u2013 who magnificently presided over the Met\u2019s German wing during Panizza\u2019s New York seasons \u2013 click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To read about Lawrence Tibbett, the supreme homegrown American opera singer, click here.<\/a><\/em> For my pertinent NPR show, click here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To read further ponderings about the fate of classical music in performance as we lose touch with the past, click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I find myself still gorging on live recorded performances by the greatest orchestra I ever encountered \u2013 Yevgeny Mravinsky\u2019s Leningrad Philharmonic. Last night, it was Bartok\u2019s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta \u2013 a 1965 reading more intensely engaged than what you\u2019ll hear today from any American orchestra known to me. My previous blog has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-128","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3976"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3986,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3976\/revisions\/3986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}