For a sure kind of New Yorker, yesterday night might have introduced a little bit of a scheduling conundrum: The twelfth of November was the date of two main Met moments, throughout the park from each other—a story of two Mets, if you’ll.
On the West Aspect, the Metropolitan Opera celebrated its wealthy historical past with the work of Giacomo Puccini with a gala dinner for the most recent manufacturing of Tosca. Over on the East Aspect, in the meantime, the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork opened “Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Historic Egypt, 1876–Now,” a sweeping exhibition surveying the various methods Egyptomania has been manifested by Black artists. On condition that the 6:30 p.m. curtain for Tosca waits for nobody (not even Angelina Jolie, who was within the viewers) and the museum reception additionally kicked off at 6:30 sharp, it was not possible for even essentially the most ardent Met fan to make each occasions. Thus, a recap for many who missed one (or each!), beneath:
Tosca Gala on the Met Opera
This season on the Met, the legacy of Giacomo Puccini and his contributions to the New York establishment are on superb show. On Tuesday, a pre-performance video screened onstage contained in the majestic, mid-century opera home set the scene: It was by means of the Met Opera that Puccini loved his entrée to the New World when Manon Lescaut premiered there in 1907 and shortly turned a sensation. Final evening, his Tosca drew a crowd wanting to see Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen within the titular character; the Met’s music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, carried out the piece, which additionally included tenor Freddie De Tommaso as Cavaradossi and baritone Quinn Kelsey as Scarpia.
Company arriving for the present or gala dinner might have noticed Angelina Jolie, elegant in all black and a Maria Callas-esque cateye. This was apropos, given Jolie’s flip because the legendary Greek soprano in Pablo Larraín’s forthcoming Maria (out within the US in choose cinemas on November 27)—and the truth that Callas’s efficiency of the “Vissi d’arte” aria in Tosca is one in every of her most celebrated. Different friends who loved the night, which culminated with a late-night post-show supper, included Christine Baranski and Barbara Tober.
