The Beethoven Foundation does it again! They are bringing the simultaneous live screenings of filmed Met performances into a local theatre.

This time, the venue is not the somehow remote Teatro 25 de Mayo, near the labyrinthine Parque Chas, but the much more accessible El Nacional (Av. Corrientes 968), half a block away from the Obelisk.

The season opened with director Luc Bondy’s controversial new staging of Puccini’s Tosca, which replaced Franco Zefirelli’s previous, 25-year-old lush, traditional production. The equally tradition-bent Met patrons loudly booed Ponti’s effort, which is the exact opposite to Zefirelli’s.

To begin with, in the first act the church is grim, grey and bare. It looked like a more like a catacomb than the baroque temple in which the action is supposed to take place.

Instead of entering by the door, Angelotti climbs down a very long rope from a high, narrow window. In the act’s magnificent closing Te Deum, the more lecherous than usual Scarpia kisses the statue of the Virgin brought in the procession.

The also austere sets of the following acts are more appropriate but, considering the evil Baron’s ample girth, Tosca should have wielded a longer knife and stabbed him in the heart rather than his stomach. It makes one think that the fellow really died of a heart attack. And the seductive pose Tosca strikes before the murder is completely at odds with what happened before and the revulsion she feels for him. Not placing the candles at the corpse’s sides is not a sacrilege, but why does she again lean on the couch and fan herself instead of running to save her lover? Act three has the best staging of the lot, and the heroin’s suicide is striking.

Blonde Karita Mattila, appropriately donning a black wig and brown contact lenses, was a memorably acted and sung heroine. Although several Argentine tenors have often sung at the Met, Córdoba-born Marcelo Álvarez (a nephew of comedian “Negro” Álvarez) is the first to have sung in a season opening. His physique is on the portly side but his is a passionate, wonderfully sung and acted Cevaraddossi.

Georgian baritone George Gagnidze could not have been more convincingly obnoxious and the rest of the cast (the programme did not include their names) excelled, as did the chorus.

Milena Canonero’s elegant costumes were well into the spirit of the staging and Joseph Colaneri gave a red-blooded, passionate  reading which did not eschew delicacy when called for, as in the beginning of act three.

Aida. The next installment will be today, also at 2 pm.

This time it will be another favorite, Verdi’s Aida. It will surely be one of the most  lavish productions this opera has ever had. Indeed, the press photograph gives the impression that Abu Simbel was rebuilt in New York. So, for this once,  I will mention first those responsible with the work’s visual aspects: producer Sonia Frisell and designers Gianni Quaranta (stage) and Dada Saligeri (costumes) and choreographer Alexei Ratmansky. The cast is headed by Lithuanian soprano (and former mezzo) Violeta Urmana as Aida, Dolora Zajick (Amneris), Johann Botha (Radames), Carlo Guelfi (Amonasro), Roberto Candiuzzi (Ramfis) and Stefan Kicán (King), Sorry, I don’t have the names of the Messenger nor the Priestess. James Levine will conduct.

Next titles: Turandot (Nov.7), The Tales of Hofmann (Dec. 19). You can learn about the Met season in www.metopera.org