Before his career ended in scandal and disgrace, James Levine would have been most remembered for his meticulous upgrade of the Metropolitan Opera’s orchestra. Eventually, those musicians became celebrated not only as one of the world’s outstanding opera orchestras but also as one of the best orchestras anywhere. Beginning in the early 1990s, Levine brought them out of the pit for concerts, many featuring opera’s biggest stars, on the stage of Carnegie Hall—creating one of New York City’s hottest tickets. Both Levine’s first Met Orchestra concert at Carnegie in 1991 and his final one there with the orchestra in 2016 ended appropriately with the apocalyptic Immolation Scene from Wagner’s Götterdammerung.
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Since taking over from Levine as the Met’s music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin has continued the Carnegie series. As is usually the case, two of this year’s concerts took place immediately following the close of the company’s Lincoln Center season. Last summer, they traveled to Europe; this year’s two June programs are being performed in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
The first concert, with Nézet-Séguin on the podium, featured sunny soprano Lisette Oropesa. Many orchestras begin with short contemporary pieces to assure patrons won’t flee, but Jessie Montgomery’s moving Hymn for Everyone from 2021 surely offended no one. Its pleasingly lush textures find the composer responding to a world reeling from both social upheaval and the Covid pandemic. Her meditative hymn begins and ends quietly, suggesting a hopeful outcome influenced by her late mother’s poem of the same name. The audience responded with long and enthusiastic applause for both the performers and the ebullient composer.
When Oropesa then appeared in a striking canary yellow and black gown, the audience greeted her with an exceptionally rousing ovation. It may be that her New York audience was especially pleased to see her as her local........