Tonight's The Night

[NOTE: This entry has been updated (2) as of 2:34 AM Eastern on 31 Jan. See below.]

Tonight's the night we all find out whether we're in for a splendid future of Wagner performances at the Met or its very opposite, for tonight is when we find out whether the Met's new Principal Conductor and presumptive Music Director Designate, Fabio Luisi, knows his Wagner or not. We praised Maestro Luisi's reading of Siegfried this past October by saying it was "a luminously spirited and beautifully nuanced reading of the score" and declared it "the finest reading of this score of our experience" because it realized near-perfectly the unique scherzo-like quality of this music-drama within the context of the tetralogy. Tonight's Götterdämmerung is when we find out whether Maestro Luisi conducted Siegfried the way he did because he understood its unique character, or whether it's the case that he simply hears Wagner that way generally. If the former, it's a fairly safe bet Maestro Luisi does indeed know his Wagner and, assuming he does Götterdämmerung the same justice in understanding, we're accordingly pretty much home-free Wagner-wise at the Met for the foreseeable future. If the latter, the future prospect at the Met Wagner-wise couldn't be more dismal as, Siegfried excepted, there are few things more distressing or more perverse than Italianate mature-period Wagner.

We anxiously await the Met's Live Stream audio of Götterdämmerung this evening beginning at 6:00 PM Eastern. We're hopeful, but just a bit fearful nevertheless.

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Update (11:42 PM Eastern on 27 Jan): Rest easy, Wagnerians. In Fabio Luisi's hands we're home-free Wagner-wise at the Met for the foreseeable future. An absolutely first-rate reading of the score tonight. Pure Wagner, musically and rhetorically, with not a trace of the Italianate anywhere within earshot.

We're going to sleep like a baby tonight.

Update 2 (2:34 AM Eastern on 31 Jan): Our eMail (some five at last count) tells us that our above comment concerning Maestro Luisi's conducting of Götterdämmerung has been somewhat misunderstood and we take full blame for that misunderstanding which seems due our comment's too-exuberant language. We meant merely to say (and did say, as a matter of fact) that Maestro Luisi did a fine job in his reading of the score vis-à-vis that reading being "pure Wagner musically and rhetorically" sans any trace of the Italianate. We did NOT mean to suggest that Maestro Luisi's reading was superlative Wagner. It was not. A reading that's superlative Wagner is a very rare thing indeed and not to be had today in the opera house on a consistent basis except in those cases where Christian Thielemann happens to be on the podium.

The above, just for the record.