Vittorio Grigolo Sang Three 2017-2018 Met Opera Season Lead Roles

Summary: Italian operatic tenor Vittorio Grigolo sang three 2017-2018 Met Opera season lead roles, adding Lucia di Lammermoor and Tosca to his Met repertoire.

Vittorio Grigolo sang his third 2017-2018 lead role as earnest yet tragic Edgardo, doomed by his and Lucia’s feuding Scottish families: The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Facebook April 3, 2018

Italian operatic tenor Vittorio Grigolo sang three 2017-2018 Met Opera season lead roles, adding Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Puccini’s Tosca to his Met repertoire and revisiting Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann.

Grigolo’s first lead role in the 2017-2018 Met Opera season occurred in Les Contes d’Hoffmann by German-born French composer Jacques Offenbach (June 20, 1819-Oct. 5, 1880). He reprised the Met Opera career role that he had debuted during the 2014-2015 Met Opera season.

Grigolo sang the title role for eight of the 2017-2018 Met Opera season’s nine performances. His appearances included September’s opening night and closing night Sunday, Oct. 28.

Yosep Kang appeared in the title role for the Thursday, Oct. 18, 2017, performance. The South Korean tenor’s appearance marked his Metropolitan Opera debut.

Les Contes d’Hoffmann opened Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017, as the second of three operas presented during the first week of the 2017-2018 Met Opera season. Opening night marked the Metropolitan Opera’s 270th performance of Offenbach’s opera about a love-seeking, tortured poet.

Les Contes d’Hoffmann shared opening week honors with the season’s opener, Norma by 19th century opera composer Vincenzo Bellini (Nov. 3, 1801-Sept. 23, 1835). Les Contes d’Hoffmann’s illustrious, opening week successor was Die Zauberflöte by Classical Era composer Wolfgang Mozart (Jan. 27, 1756-Dec. 5, 1791).

Vittorio Grigolo’s reprised role of Hoffmann happened amid the familiar scenery of the Metropolitan Opera’s revival of the 2014-2015 season’s production. Bartlett Sher’s staging predated Grigolo’s 2014-2015 season role debut. The American theater director’s new production debuted Dec. 3, 2009, in the Metropolitan Opera’s 241st performance of Les Contes d’Hoffmann.

Grigolo sang his second lead role in the 2017-2018 Met Opera season’s presentation of Tosca by Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini (Dec. 22, 1858-Nov. 29, 1924). Opening night Sunday, Dec. 31, 2017, marked the Metropolitan Opera’s 951st performance of Puccini’s opera about a jealous diva and her devoted artistic lover.

Grigolo appeared as Cavaradossi, Tosca’s idealistic love, for nine of the 2017-2018 Met Opera season’s 15 performances. He sang in the 2017-2018 Met Opera season’s winter performances, including opening night.

Grigolo shared the role with Marcelo Álvarez. The Argentine lyric tenor appeared as Cavaradossi in the 2017-2018 Met Opera season’s spring performances, including closing night Saturday, May 12, 2018.

Grigolo’s Met Opera career role debut coincided with a new production debut for Tosca in the 2017-2018 Met Opera season. Scottish opera and theatre director Sir David McVicar’s new staging focused on translating the music’s grandeur to the architectural majesty of the opera’s real-life environments in Rome.

Vittorio Grigolo appeared in his third 2017-2018 Met Opera season lead role in Lucia di Lammermoor by 19th century bel canto opera composer Gaetano Donizetti (Nov. 29, 1797-April 8, 1848). Opening night Thursday, March 22, 2018, marked the Metropolitan Opera’s 600th performance of Donizetti’s darkly atmospheric opera inspired by Sir Walter Scott’s Scottish historical novel (1819).

Grigolo appeared as Sir Edgardo of Ravenswood, Romeo to Lucia’s Juliette, for the first seven of the 2017-2018 Met Opera season’s 12 performances. He split first and last night honors with his counterpart, Michael Fabiano. The American operatic tenor sang as Sir Edgardo for the last five performances, including closing night Thursday, May 10.

Grigolo sang his Met Opera career debut role as Edgardo in the 2017-2018 Met Opera season’s revival of Mary Zimmerman’s atmospheric staging. The American theater and opera director’s staging debuted Sept. 24, 2007, in the Metropolitan Opera’s 558th performance.

Vittorio Grigolo has continued to expand his repertoire at Manhattan’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts since his Metropolitan Opera debut Oct. 16, 2010, as Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Bohème. His two roles, in Charles-François Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and Jules Massenet’s Werther, during the 2016-2017 Met Opera season were both title roles.

Vittorio Grigolo returns to Lincoln Center for two lead roles in the 2018-2019 Met Opera season. He reprises his Met Opera debut role as Puccini’s Rodolfo. Also, he revisits Verdi’s Duke of Mantua, which was his Met Opera career debut role during the 2012-2013 Met Opera season.

The takeaways for Vittorio Grigolo’s appearances in three 2017-2018 Met Opera season lead roles are that the Italian operatic tenor expanded his Met Opera repertoire with his roles in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Puccini’s Tosca and that he revisited his 2014-2015 Met Opera career role debut in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann.

Young Vittorio Grigolo sang as a shepherd in Tosca performances with Luciano Pavarotti as Cavaradossi: Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Twitter Jan. 26, 2018

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Vittorio Grigolo sang his third 2017-2018 lead role as earnest yet tragic Edgardo, doomed by his and Lucia’s feuding Scottish families: The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Facebook April 3, 2018, @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/photos/a.134969600532.229232.20807115532/10160373469240533/

Young Vittorio Grigolo sang as a shepherd in Tosca performances with Luciano Pavarotti as Cavaradossi: Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Twitter Jan. 26, 2018, @ https://twitter.com/MetOpera/status/956980068240289792

For further information:

“Debuts: . . . Vittorio Grigolo . . .” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 353598 La Bohème {1218} Metropolitan Opera House: 10/16/2010.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=353598

Marriner, Derdriu. “Lucia di Lammermoor Is April 7, 2018, Met Opera Saturday Matinee Broadcast.” Earth and Space News. Monday, April 2, 2018.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/04/lucia-di-lammermoor-is-april-7-2018-met.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Metropolitan Opera’s Gallery Met Short for The Tales of Hoffmann.” Earth and Space News. Monday, Sept. 11, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/09/metropolitan-operas-gallery-met-short.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Roméo et Juliette Is the Jan. 21, 2017, Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Broadcast.” Earth and Space News. Monday, Jan. 16, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/01/romeo-et-juliette-is-jan-21-2017.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Tosca Is Jan. 27, 2018, Met Opera Saturday Matinee Broadcast.” Earth and Space News. Monday, Jan. 22, 2018.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/01/tosca-is-jan-27-2018-met-opera-saturday.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Werther Is March 4, 2017, Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Broadcast.” Earth and Space News. Monday, Feb. 27, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/02/werther-is-march-4-2017-metropolitan.html

Metropolitan Opera ‏@MetOpera. “#FlashbackFriday "Now, I am playing Cavaradossi myself for the first time ... I know that Luciano Pavarotti will be there, helping me from upstairs." Twitter. Jan. 26, 2018.
Available @ https://twitter.com/MetOpera/status/956980068240289792

The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera. "Vittorio Grigolo is the reason to see the Met’s ‘Lucia’ (The New York Times) Grigolo sings the role of Edgardo through April 14. On stage tonight, April 3. Photo by Richard Termine/Met Opera.” Facebook. April 3, 2018.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/photos/a.134969600532.229232.20807115532/10160373469240533/