Yes, that is unusual for a Met audience; usually they applaud everything indiscriminately. This morning I read a few reviews, and most of them said the orchestra and the singers were out of sync. One reviewer said Maazel needed a metronome.

Note my comment on the LENGTH of the opera. Don Carlo(s) is one of my favorite Verdi works...after Otello and Falstaff and maybe Forza, but it seemed unusually long and unexciting this time around.

A treat tomorrow...Francesca di Rimini...one you don't get to hear or see very often.

Ok...I just saw Francesca....I got in my car to drive home and the intermission was still going on and I am now at home listening to the last act of an opera of which I saw what I thought was a LIVE telecast...??????

Was the radio broadcast delayed or something?

It was tape delayed but no reason given: Today’s METROPOLITAN OPERA is “Francesca da Rimini” by Riccardo Zandonai. Eva-Maria Westbroek and Marcello Giordani star in the melodic gem inspired by Dante's Inferno. Francesca da Rimini will be sung in Italian and is expected to run just under 4 hours. Our (delayed) broadcast on WVTF will begin at 1 o’clock.

The live telecast started at noon Eastern Time...

Weird.

Aha...they had Car Talk scheduled in the noon slot...reminds me that when I first moved to Roanoke I got enlisted in a protest that eventually got the PD fired. Over something very similar, except that he refused to air the Met broadcasts at all...what actually got him fired was when he called the protesters "Opera Nazis" in an interview.

Car Talk is a staple of public radio, even after the brothers Magliozzi have retired. It may outlast them, just as My Word! has outlasted Frank Muir by nearly two decades (Denis Norden, however, is still alive, in his 90s).

Four hour operas are somewhat excessive. They ought to break them up into two hour segments and present them on successive evenings--unless they are Wagner operas, in which case they ought to just stop presenting them at all, especially when they do something silly with them, as at the Met this year.

Re Francesca da Rimini -- I don't think I've ever said this before, but I LOVED the production but didn't care much for the opera. (Usually it's the other way around.) It's a Glyndebourne design, first used by the Met in the 80s and revived for the current production. Stunning, imposing sets and gorgeous costumes -- just what you want to see in grand opera. Unfortunately, this particular opera isn't grand at all; it must be difficult for singers to memorize such forgettable music. It seemed to me the opera didn't really come alive until the last act. Beginning in the scene in which Malatestino tells Giovanni that Francesca has been cheating on him with Paolo, there was an energy and a forward momentum that was well sustained right up to the abrupt ending (stab, stab, they're dead, close the curtain).

Eva-Maria Westbroek had to screech a couple of her high notes early in the opera, but later on she was hitting them with no trouble at all. Marcello Giordani has added even more poundage to his ever-expanding girth (which somewhat detracted from everyone's description of Paolo as a dreamboat), but it didn't interfere with his voice, fortunately. I loved Mark Delavan as Giovanni; his rich, colorful voice was the best sound coming from that stage.

But in spite of the good things, I was still left wondering why such care was lavished on this opera.

It is rarely performed, so it was a treat to see it...it's not Boheme or Carmen, but then what is?

I tried listening to it on the radio, but I fell asleep.