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.)
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.)
POSTED at
10:34 PM
31 Comments:
Although I'd be very interested to see what the Shockhead Peter people could do with Satyagraha, I have no idea what they are thinking of - this piece has no business being at the Met. Nothing against the piece, as it's one of Phillip's that I actually like a lot, but it's been done now in many different companies, and across the plaza at CO at least twice. Plus, it will kill the chorus vocally, and I bet the strain will show in other shows that season. Don't know where this decision is coming from, but it's not a good one.
"Plus, it will kill the chorus vocally,"
Good. Then they can be replaced. Finally. And Mo Palumbo, who we in Chicago are heartbroken is leaving us, can finally do his good work on getting a reasonable choral sound at the Met.
I think La Cieca means "January 31, 2008." Right?
Balabanov is incorrect. The Glass opera that NYCO did twice was Akhnaten, not Satyagraha. I saw the latter at Lyric in Chicago and it was splendid. It will be perfect for the MET if the production is OK.
BB -- well, the '07 date is Glass's 70th birthday, but obviously we're not hearing Satyagraha then. Sometime in the spring of '08, then, presumably.
And did NYCO ever actually stage Satyagraha? The 1986 production of the opera was canceled due to the financial crunch during the Sills administration. (Presumably, the preparation and rehearsal for the stage production was rolled over into the recording made at that time by CBS.) The work was played at BAM, but I am pretty sure this will be its uptown debut.
La cieca -- I was just reacting to your comment that "perhaps we could expect an opening in New York to coincide with Glass' 70th birthday on January 31, 2007."
That, of course, would be impossible.
I've already forgotten. What opera is being cancelled and for which "Satyagraha" is being substituted?
Ah yes...Jan 31, 2007...The Met is performing...surprise-surprise..."La Boheme" that night. I only WISH they were substituting "Satyagraha" that night.
I am getting so tired of "Boheme" and would appreciate any kind of rarity in its place.
Yeah Rysanekfreak - it seems you have the same affliction as us downunder - we've been on Boheme overload for years. We also had the Baz Lurhmann overhyped production a few years ago plus its revival - suffice to say if I don't hear it again for another twenty years I won't mind at all. (Sorry Mr Puccini I still love ya I really do!!)
Speaking of Boheme, it opens this Friday with Angela Marambio debuting as everyone's favorite Parisian consumptive. The rest of the run, unfortunately, will be dominated by the dreadful Cristina Gallardo-Domâs, apparently not yet sufficiently humiliated by her recent Cio-Cio San. That said, we have Ana Netrebko, fresh from her triumph in the Vienna Sonnambula, for a one-nighter on next Tuesday. It will be broadcast on both Sirius and the Met site. Hooray!
I'm not a big Philip Glass admirer but "Satyagraha" is probably my favorite work by him. I saw a production of it at the San Francisco Opera with much of the "original cast" from the CBS album, and though I liked the music, the production basically sucked.
So maybe, just maybe, this piece will have the success it deserves at last in Glass' hometown. Let us wish for the best.
Sorry "Jussilives" but La Boheme does not "open this Friday" with Angela Marambio debuting as Mimi. It already opened on Saturday, November 18th with Villazon and Marambio. She was OK ... a bit nervous. A huge voice not quite right for Mimi but her Amelia in Boccanegra should be better.
I went over to Met Maniac...Met Futures. There are some interesting updates.
I found the answer to my own question. "Fanciulla" is the opera being replaced by "Satyagraha." How could I have forgotten?
I see that Guleghina is still listed as Norma and Turandot. Gruber is down for Lady Macbeth. I'm not sure I will want to listen to those performances.
I also see that "Boheme" is listed for each of the next three seasons.
I also see a lot of Renee Fleming in 2008-2009.
I don't think I can wait two seasons for the Voigt-Podles "Gioconda." I want it tonight.
The Met is getting a new "Trovatore." Let's hope this one is better received than the last two productions, both of which had their moments of unintentional hilarity.
Barbara Frittoli is still listed for a "Don Giovanni," so she isn't the one being dropped, as some of us speculated. Millo and Villarroel as nowhere to be seen, so they must be the two "Don Carlo" Elisbettas being bought out of their contracts (one of Cieca's most interesting recent blind items).
the new trovatore is for Fleming, Radanovsky got bought out of that one.
Opera Enthusiast - thanks for the correction - totally got these mixed up in my head - my bad. DOH!
I'm very disapointed that Patricia Racette will not be coming back for anything but a Revival of AMERICAN TRAGEDY and Peter Grimes.
The "new" Trovatore is the production that LOC opened on November 4th and Ms. Radvanovsky said at the time that she is still doing it at the MET so if she's been bought out they haven't told her yet.
At least if David MacVicar is producing Il Trovatore it wont be a dull show if his CG Rigoletto is anything to go by. All sorts of onstage sexual antics, some of which I dont even know the word for!
I find it a bit depressing to see the number of productions doing the rounds of the big houses (Salzburg,CG,Paris,Vienna,Chicago etc). It makes for a uniformity in style with the same singers,although I see the economics behind it. It seems geared towards the glossy DVD package.
Off topic, but you are not going to believe this.
The Producers, the hit broadway Musical, will have a new Mx Bialystock in january:
Tonza fucking Danza.
Thanks for the correction, Bill Bookbinder. Those of us in the provinces must rely on the Met's website, which, in the "Season and Tickets" section, erases each performance after it occurs (presumable to prevent people from accidentally trying to buy a ticket after the fact). As such, one cannot tell the opening night of a particular show ... I'm sure there is a list somewhere ... just not readily visible on the website.
rennnay is really singing trovatore? I'm guessing after leonora and norma are through with her she won't even be able to sing a zerlina or susanna! I am glad that she is slated to sing desdemona, she was truly moving in her performance on dvd with doming...though that was some 10/11 years ago.
Jussilives ... it's very easy to find on the MET website. For any performance prior to today just click on "archives" on the bottom of the MET's website. Enter any prior date or range of dates and you will find all past performances.
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.]
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