While NYCO Runs Amok, the MET Performs in Central Park

"It has been four years since the Metropolitan Opera decided to stop presenting full operas in its summertime concerts in New York City’s parks, a decision that was difficult to understand, given the popularity of these free performances, and the likelihood that they were winning the company new listeners. Now, presumably, the Met’s high-definition opera screenings are expected to be its audience builders: It is presenting free screenings of 10 of them in its Met Summer HD Festival, at Lincoln Center from Aug. 27 to Sept. 5. But the Met also recognizes that it should maintain a presence in the parks with live music, and on Monday evening it opened this year’s installment of its Summer Recital Series with a program of arias and duets, with three young singers — Angela Meade, soprano; Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano; and Atalla Ayan, tenor — as part of Central Park SummerStage. The bass-baritone Eric Owens was on hand to introduce the program (and to sing Marcello’s offstage line in “O soave fanciulla,” from Puccini’s Bohème, from his seat in the audience)." [Source]

(Images left to right: Meade, Ayan, Cano. Photos by Hiroyuki Ito/New York Times)