Live-filmed opera: "Tosca," by Puccini. Performed 1985.

Crash

Sydney Opera House. Written by Giacomo Puccini. Libretto by Luigi Illica. (1900.)
This is the first opera I've watched which I could not enjoy. The story itself is not the problem. John Shaw's lead-baritone (as Scarpia) seemed to be vibrato-ing its way to a note which he never was able to find. Or was Puccini's own score written deliberately by Illica with so much of it in a monotone, to be sung? We used to call that "talk-singing." Uncle Kris Kristofferson did it well. But THAT is not opera.
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/eva-marton-and-john-shaw-in-tosca/TgHYMWLpGpIOqw
Tosca was played by Eva Marton. Maybe I can find Anna Netrebko's "Tosca" on film, one of these days. The Met wants at least $240 + tax for a ticket. That's incredibly nuts.
https://www.metopera.org/Season/2017-18-Season/tosca-puccini-tickets/

msf

I'm a dolt when it comes to opera, though I've acceded to seeing a performance every now and then for the past several years. So I'm not clear on what you're getting at - it must be something more than a preference for arias over recitative. To me, the "best" example of a talk-singer was Rex Harrison, who talk-sang to the animals and to Eliza.

The Met has much less expensive tickets; the prices you're seeing are for the few remaining tickets for performances just a month from now. You don't have to buy the nosebleed Family Circle seats (priced as low as $25) to get in for under $100 (unobstructed). Also, I think that what you're calling tax is a $2.50 facility fee and a $7.50 service charge. Add-on fees for sure, but not funding the common weal.

Instead of going to the Met, you could go to the NYC Opera, aka the people's opera, with a much more varied program. They just concluded a performance of two different Pygmalions - by Donizetti (amazingly, the US premiere) and by Rameau. Which brings us full circle, back to Rex Harrison and My Fair Lady.

Crash

Hey, @msf. I'm glad for the reply! Yes, I understand that you cannot constantly have one aria after another, and those are people's favorites, of course. Recitative? Yes, but it can be more than a monotone. I hate to speak ill of the dead. (John Shaw.) I just thought his baritone recitative, as Leonard Pinth-Garnell (Aykroyd, SNL) would say, "was very bad indeed, wasn't it?" Vibrato for the sake of vibrato. That was my impression. I'm 130 miles from NYC, so my opera outings are at the live-filmed performances at a local theater. We pay $25 for tix there, too.

davidrmoran

You do know that you (anyone) can listen online to QXR and a dozen other Met feeds (identical) every single Saturday almost --- v good sound. Hook laptop up to stereo, etc.

Crash

!!!