Improbable, but true
As La Cieca mentioned last month, the 2007-2008 Met season will include a new production of Satyagraha, the Gandhi-themed opera by Philip Glass and Constance De Jong. And now La Cieca has been informed that there is actual basis in fact for her wild surmising. Darling Dawn Fatale drew La Cieca’s attention to an announcement on a blog called daytripper of a theater workshop to be conducted by the designer and director Julian Crouch.
Mr. Crouch’s CV includes the following fascinating detail: “Currently he is designer and associate director of a new staging of Phillip Glass’s opera about Gandhi, SATYAGRAHA, for the English National Opera and The New York Metropolitan Opera.” A glance at the English National Opera’s website reveals that, yes, Satyagraha is on the bill, with a production team consisting of Crouch and Phelim McDermott of the theater company “Improbable,” best known here in New York for their 2005 production of Shockheaded Peter.
The ENO production is scheduled for April 2007, which suggests that the opera would show up in New York earlier that year — perhaps for an opening night coinciding with Glass’s 70th birthday on January 31, 2007? (Remember, you heard it here first.)
Jan. 31, 2007?
Somehow I VERY MUCH doubt the Met would insert a house premiere of an as-yet-unbuilt new production in the middle of a season that is already in progress. For one thing, the other singers already signed for that night’s Boheme are not likely to fit into Satyagraha. If you said it might turn up NEXT YEAR, I might credit this.
I’m no fan of Glass (prefer Reich and Monk, who wisely do not compose for the operatic style even when they compose for operatic voices) but I’ve often been told Satyagraha is more interesting than most of the works of his that have bored me, and been sorry I missed its BAM run. I’d certainly rather hear it than anything by the perpetrators of Gatsby and American Tragedy.
Akhnaton was done by NYCO. Dreadful dreadful dreadful. But not as bad as Argento’s Casanova, which had its premiere there the same season.
I’m not opposed to new opera if anyone could write one. Since no one can, and there are literally thousands of splendid operas the Met has never performed (e.g.: Rossini’s Ermione and Zelmira, Donizetti’s Belisario and Parisina, Mercadante’s Il Bravo, Tchaikowsky’s Maid of Orleans, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Tsar’s Bride, Saint-Saens’ Henry VIII, Handel’s Tolomeo and Berenice, Gluck’s Iphigenie en Aulide, Pacini’s L’ultimo giorno di Pompeii, Dvorak’s Jakobin, Mozart’s Lucio Silla, Offenbach’s Les Brigands, Marschner’s Vampire and Hans Heiling, Tippett’s Midsummer Marriage, Pfitzner’s Palestrina, Bloch’s Macbeth … I could go on … you know I could), I can’t see the reason behind commissioning bad new works. It’s not a house to experiment in. It’s too big. It requires surefire score to draw the crowds and a style of singing no one writes (well) for any more.
does anyone know when the met is doing tosca again? i’d like to see the zefirelli production since i haven’t seen it, but i didn’t feel like trekking to manhattan tonight to catch struggling gruber in it…
and i would like to see gioconda, since i missed the recent run… can’t wait until 2008, but i wish it wasn’t with voigt…
Is Cristina Gallardo-Domas really as bad as NY’ers seem to suggest? I’ve got her on a very bad quality DVD doing Suor Angelica and apart from the odd sharp note she seemed othewise, above passable- perhaps I’ve got to hear it again. Certainly her Butterfly’s recieved such a slamming I half expected my phone to ring with someone begging me to step in!
No gollardo-domas is not as bad as everyone says. some of us actually like her. (I know we are in the minority in New York) however, in Europe she is in great demand and gets great reviews. There is a wonderful video of her Butterfly from CG that is wonderful. The same people who bitch about Fleming’s bizarre lack of interpretation or praise Millo’s great style and interpretive skill (and I like her too, but the voice is shot to hell, I have seen Tosca six times with her, and she blew the Vissi d’arte four times out of six) will bitch about GD. She is a wonderful artist, gifted interpreter of Puccini but does not really possess a beautiful instrument. The voice is not always beautiful but she has been one of the most expressive Violettas, Mimis or Butterflys we have seen in New York since Scotto and Soviero have left.
GD did a very beautiful recording of Suor Angelica a few years ago. It should still be available.
opera news just released their review of the NYC butterfly with GD. It is a very honest assessment.
Thank you paddy – I have been playing the DVD of her doing Suor Angelica and have to admit she’s certainly got something. Of course SA is such a prick of a thing to sing and I notice it seems to be one of her main roles. There’s a great site of hers on the Internet and her schedule reveals she’s being kept pretty busy with Puccini.
I just love a Diva who throws herself into the role and can actually act- even if its only a bit. She’s def got some style and there’s too little of that nowadays.
One true story which Mrs John Claggart might a ppreciate- the other day I dug out some videos and there was one opera Gala one which I put on while I worked at my desk. At one point there was a strange noise and was surprised to turn around and see it was emanating from Mara Zampieri doing Casta Diva.
Everything was fine until five seconds after she finished it and the screen of my tv went weird – and it seems the rest of the tape is stuffed. I’m still not sure whether it is “old and aging tapes” that has caused problems – but no matter what- the whole system was functioning perfectly until Mara opened her mouth!!
Suddenly, my video player isn’t working properly again, no matter which tape i put in!
I tell ya- that gal’s got power!
My sympathetic understanding goes out to those who long for Voigt as Isolde and Gioconda. I have been proven wrong about Miss V., I am pleased to say: I predicted she’d be voiceless by now. But she seems to be working on the instrument. However, I cannot long for her Isolde (having heard her Vienna recording), and hers is not and was never a Gioconda voice. Thus goes the glory of the world!
Ever downward.
So … how many more years of flat high notes does Miss V. have to share with us?
What do you think?
[No offense intended J/Jo; just
being honest.]