OPERA
Catán: Florencia en el Amazonas
MONDAY & SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27 & DECEMBER 2, 2023 (continuing through DECEMBER 14)
8:00 PM MONDAY
1:00 PM SATURDAY
Metropolitan Opera
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$37-$400
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Zachary Woolfe complains in the The Times that Florencia en el Amazonas has Puccini’s melodies and harmonies without Puccini’s dramatic/emotional thrust. Well, the reason I can enjoy Florencia and can’t abide Puccini is precisely that lack of infantilizing emotional manipulation and constant overwrought melodramaticization. For once, you can enjoy those melodies and harmonies (advanced when Puccinni employed them, retrogressive when Catán did, sure) without feeling overborne and without feeling that the whole enterprise is basically stupid. Hear for yourself.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Spend a lot of money on very good fancy Italian food at The Leopard at des Artistes.