Fleming Gala Opens the Met’s Season

The Metropolitan Opera opened its 125th-anniversary season on Monday evening with a gala Renée Fleming showcase. Everything about the three-part evening was fashioned, quite literally, for Ms. Fleming.
She was featured in three favorite roles: Violetta in Act II 0f Verdi’s “Traviata”; Manon in Act III of Massenet’s “Manon”; and the Countess in the final scene of Strauss’s “Capriccio.” To lend an extra touch of diva dazzle to the evening, the Met commissioned three renowned fashion designers to create Ms. Fleming’s costumes: Christian Lacroix for “Traviata,” Karl Lagerfeld for “Manon” and John Galliano for “Capriccio.”
For weeks waggish opera bloggers had dubbed the evening “The Renée Fleming Fashion Show,” “The Renéesance” and such. And in a way the gala was, as the Met’s general manager Peter Gelb said recently on “Charlie Rose,” a “kind of retro affair.”

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