How like a turtle the sun looks
Our story this far:
17 October 2006: La Cieca reports (erroneously) that Andrea Gruber is about to be “bought out” of a Met revival of La fanciulla del West.
20 October 2006: La Cieca discovers that the Fanciulla isn’t happening; Gruber and Salvatore Licitra possibly to be cast in the replacement opera?
21 October 2006: Then again, eh, probably not, since those two don’t really have roles in the opera that (La Cieca hears) will be performed at the Met next season. Following in the footsteps of South Park Elementary, the Metropolitan will present a “happy, non-offensive, non-denominational” opera, “with music and lyrics by New York minimalist composer, Philip Glass” — the 1980 work Satyagraha.
This is a bad idea –
The opera is old, and has already been done several times by NYCO and other regional companies. It’s a step backward for the Met to produce it.
It will KILL the chorus, in terms of the roundness of their sound and vocal endurance. If they are going to do this, they should at least have this be an extra chorus production. It’s effects will be seen in the sound produced the rest of the season.
And sorry, I disagree – it’s not that great an opera.
I’m just sorry the Met’s not going to do Fanciulla. Is this for certain? I know it’s hard to cast, but NYCO did it a couple of years ago and did v. well and it was a fun production. Too bad if we can’t see what the Met could do with it. And it’s nice to see a Puccini opera where the female doesn’t die at the end.