Yesterday Deirdre kindly emailed me some links to some First Emperor clips on YouTube. Thank you very much Deirdre!
Because I received them in between post-Christmas-lunch drinking session and pre-opera-nap bath I did a hurried copy and paste into my comments. Monitoring my blog management information I see that significantly fewer people are clicking over than would have done if I hadn't buried them in the comments.
Clip 1 and Clip 2 are from the Met Opera's Press Conference. That's about an hour in total, but as Julia notes, Plácido arrives at 15:15 of Clip 2, in costume and looking splendid and spectacular.
Clip 3 is from a Dress Rehearsal. Includes the Yin-Yang Master, some drumming, with sound a lot less impressive than on the webcast - it must sound damned impressive in the house.
Clip 4 is from Act 1 Scene 1and emphasises the really static nature of the production,which is a shame - if you're going to write an opera for a singer who loves to hurl himself round stage, you might as well let him do so...
Clip 5 has more of the percussion I really liked (although the bassoonist appears not to have...) and then has a scene...I'm not sure whether it's after the seduction in Act 1 or after the singing lesson in Act 2, in either case, it's when the Emperor interrupts the Princess and the composer.
