If you believe the adage that no publicity is bad publicity, then perhaps the Met’s opening-night Tosca Monday night was a success. By now, you’ve probably read about the prolonged booing that greeted Luc Bondy’s new production, which starred Karita Mattila as Tosca, Marcelo Alvarez as Cavaradossi, and George Gagnidze as Scarpia. Yes, in operaworld people get more than a little upset when you change the plot—the directorial equivalent of spitting on tradition. (You can read more about the brouhaha in HuffPo and the New York Times.)
I, however, was not in the house, surrounded by other lovers of opera and opera tradition, when this all transpired. Instead, when the evening began at 6:30, I was 20 blocks away in Times Square. I was curious to see what sort of reception Puccini might get in the noisy crossroads of the world. read more
Last week, the Metropolitan Opera announced that it was facing a budget crunch. Wow, like, that’s a surprise? Some staff members have already taken pay cuts, salaries will be discussed with unions. And of course the crisis will impact programming: Costly revivals of Ghosts of Versailles, Benvenuto Cellini, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and Die Frau Ohne Schatten have been scrapped; some won’t be replaced, others will be switched for less pricey productions. But the Met is not really representative because there’s no such thing as a really cheap show there: Your choices are expensive and very expensive. What I fear is that we’re really going to start missing out on very large, very outlandish, very ambitious productions all over town, not just at the Met. read more
It’s October, the presidential campaigns have been going on what seems like forever, the stock market’s still in some sort of atrial fibrillation, and the banks are possibly in worse shape than we had thought even two weeks ago.
I’ve had enough. So as a public service, I would like to nominate David Daniels for president. Okay, not for president of the UNITED STATES. But I’d certainly call him the presumptive nominee in the countertenor category of vocal excellence. I’ve been listening to his latest CD of Bach cantatas and arias, with the English Concert led by Harry Bicket, and I’m happy to say it ranks right up there with Bach recordings of the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, high praise indeed. read more
subscribe to RSS feed
find SundayArts on Facebook
