Ranking the Simulcasts 2009-10

For this year's Metropolitan Opera simulcasts I'm giving first place to the stunning Carmen with Elina Garanča and Roberto Alagna for intense emotion throughout. It was the best Carmen of my lifetime.

Second place goes to Der Rosenkavalier with Renée Fleming and Susan Graham. I did see it twice.

I had never heard of Rossini's Armida before this but absolutely loved it. Kudos to Renée Fleming, Lawrence Brownlee and all the other tenors.

Turandot is next. I'm still a big Maria Guleghina fan.

I liked Hamlet starring Simon Keenlyside but missed seeing Natalie Dessay do yet another mad scene. Special mention goes to Jennifer Larmore.

Les Contes d’Hoffmann was reasonably fun but needed Rolando Villazon.

It's always nice to see Domingo, even as a baritone Simon Boccanegra, but that's about all I liked about it. Dmitri in San Francisco was far better.

Aida didn't rise above OK for me. I was surprised at Verona by how much I enjoyed a lighter soprano in this.

Tosca was dark and unmoving.

The stuff I liked I liked a lot, but 4 failures does seem like too many.