Live from the Met

In an Opening Night performance for the history books, the great Plácido Domingo sings the title role of Verdi’s Otello for the first time at the Met. This supremely demanding part was to become his signature role, an accomplishment against which other interpreters are still measured to this day. Domingo stars opposite Sherrill Milnes’s conniving Iago and Gilda Cruz-Romo’s touching Desdemona, all brilliantly conducted by Music Director James Levine. Performance date: September 24, 1979.

John Dexter’s brilliant production, James Levine’s masterful conducting of the eclectic score, and a sensational cast come together to make this Kurt Weill–Bertolt Brecht masterpiece a riveting evening of music theater. At the center of the action is Jimmy Mahoney (Richard Cassilly), a logger who stumbles onto the city of Mahagonny, where (almost) anything is allowed. Teresa Stratas gives a mesmerizing performance as Jenny, the prostitute who takes up with Jimmy, until he is executed for the greatest of all crimes in Mahagonny—to not have any money. The legendary Astrid Varnay, in her final Met appearances, is Leocadia Begbick, and Cornell MacNeil sings Trinity Moses. Performance date: November 27, 1979.

Director Elijah Moshinsky’s production sets Verdi’s poignant opera in colonial Boston, where Riccardo (Luciano Pavarotti) is the British governor, in love with his best friend’s wife. “Perhaps the most complete role for a tenor…a severe test, both vocally and dramatically,” is how Pavarotti described his role. Of course, he’s brilliant—with his distinctive plangent and ringing voice going straight to the heart of the role and to the hearts of the audience. A gorgeous Katia Ricciarelli is the woman he loves and Louis Quilico is her unforgiving husband. Performance date: February 16, 1980.

James Levine leads an all-star ensemble in this memorable telecast of Verdi’s most ambitious opera, seen in John Dexter’s classic production. Renata Scotto is Elizabeth of Valois, the French princess who becomes the wife of Philip II, King of Spain (Paul Plishka)—although she loves his son, Don Carlo (Vasile Moldoveanu). Sherill Milnes sings Posa, Carlo’s friend and the king’s advisor who is secretly aiding a rebellion, and Tatiana Troyanos is Princess Eboli, the King’s scheming mistress who nevertheless wants Don Carlo for herself. Jerome Hines rounds out the cast in the small but crucial role of the sinister Grand Inquisitor. Performance date: February 21, 1980.

This John Dexter production, designed by Desmond Heeley, was a parting gift to the great American soprano Beverly Sills, who bid farewell to the Met as Norina, the smart young widow at the center of Donizetti’s comedy. The sensational Alfredo Kraus sings her beloved Ernesto. Håkan Hagegård, in his Met debut role and season, is Dr. Malatesta, the man who helps the young couple trick the crusty old bachelor of the title (Gabriel Bacquier at his comical best) into a fake marriage. This being a Donizetti comedy, it all turns out perfectly well at the end—and getting there is pure operatic fun. Performance date: January 11, 1979.