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By Ben Mattison
21 Apr 2006
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| Erika Sunnegårdh |
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| photo by Johan Ljungström/Sveriges Radio |
With music director James Levine sidelined with a shoulder injury, the MET Orchestra has turned its May 14 concert at Carnegie Hall into a showcase for newly minted star Erika Sunnegårdh.
Conductor James Conlon, the incoming music director of the Los Angeles Opera, will replace Levine, the Met announced yesterday. Instead of performing the world premiere of a symphonic work by Charles Wuorinen (a Levine favorite), the orchestra will back Sunnegårdh, tenor Ben Heppner, and bass René Pape in a program of opera arias.
Sunnegårdh, the former waitress who made headlines when she substituted for Karita Mattila in Beethoven's Fidelio on April 1, will sing "D'Oreste, d'Ajace" from Mozart's Idomeneo, "In questa reggia" from Puccini's Turandot, and, with Heppner, "Siegmund heiss' ich" from Wagner's Die Walküre.
Pape will sing "Madamina from Mozart's Don Giovanni and "O tu Palermo" from Verdi's I vespri siciliani. Heppner will sing "Niun mi tema" from Otello.
Tchaikovsky's symphonic poem Francesca da Rimini has also been added to the program. Mozart's Symphony No. 36 ("Linz") remains on the program as originally scheduled.
The original program also included Brahms' Symphony No. 1 and Wuorinen's Theologoumenon, a tone poem commissioned by the Met. There was no immediate word on when the premiere of the latter work will take place.
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