Cieca plays Criswell
This is the biggest limb La Cieca has ever gone out on:
Expect James Levine to make his official Met farewell at the end of the 2011-2012 season. (First hedge on this prediction: Levine will make occasional “guest” appearances with the Met after 2012.)
Remember, you heard it here first.
Maestro:
I never mentioned Conlon, even once. I believe you may be thinking of a different poster.
My lone reference to Maazel was in response to a gentleman who suggested that Munich’s dislike for Levine may have been based upon anti-Semitism. I merely pointed out to him that Lorin Maazel was working, successfully, in Munich at the very same time that Levine was working, unsuccessfully, in Munich.
Not everyone in Cleveland dislikes Welser-Most, although I realize that your local critic detests him. Your orchestra is playing very well for Welser-Most, at the very least. I realize that Welser-Most is a “cool” musician, and that some people prefer “hot” musicians.
I have heard Welser-Most eleven or twelve times, and not once was I ever in doubt that I was hearing a major musician. However, I never suffered under the misapprehension that I was hearing another Wilhelm Furtwangler.
I have only seen Andrew Davis conduct twice – Rusalka and Walkure. They were both UNBELIEVABLE. Musical, touching, engaging. Really great. I am curious to hear what others have experienced. Anyone?
Honestly, I don’t read the Plain Dealer, so I have no idea what the local critic thinks of him. Rarely have I heard Cleveland play badly for anyone (Tilson Thomas, whom I like, being a glaring exception). However, they do play far better for many guest conductors than they do for Welser-Most (Jahja Ling, for example). With Welser-Most it’s a mere reading of the notes (together, in tune, tasteful, but little else). I cannot imagine this man doing anything other than boring a Met audience. He would be good for a Fledermaus or two, and that’s about it.
As for Conlon, I apologize, that was someone else. I still shake my head at the idea of him being the Met savior.
Then again, my personal pick for many operas would be someone of the musical mindset of Mehta, whom I adore in the romantic rep. I cannot imagine much in the way of Mozart from him, however.
Replacing Levine could prove to be a horrible task, as I haven’t really seen a conductor mentioned so far who is diverse enough to fit the bill. Perhaps we need to employ conductors to do what they do exceptionally and stop looking for someone whom is merely serviceable over the entire rep (Levine).
A “searing” Pelleas? That’s an oxymoron if I ever heard one
Not so. It barely raises its voice above a whisper a lot of the time, but so much of it is really tense scenes and music. The whole Golaud interrogating Melisande scene is very powerful, so is when he has Yniold spy on Pelleas and Melisande, plus Pelleas’ and hers duet, including the famous whispered “J’taimes”, the anti-Tristan “I love you”‘s. The tension in the score that Salonen got was amazing. The crescendo to those whispered “J’taime”‘s that he got out of that pickup orchestra literally took my breath away.
It also helped that the OJ trial was in full swing and you had a tall black man (Willard White) verbally and sometimes physically abusing a small white woman (Monica Groop). Nobody in the audience in Los Angeles when I went to the two performances of it missed the parallels, that’s for sure.
I can’t stand conductors who treat Pelleas as just a pretty wash of sound, as a lot of them do.
Pelleas is the biggest waste of blank music paper that was ever composed. I hope to never see the piece of crap ever again as long as I live even if they cast if with Netrebko and Villazon and have Muti conduct it.
It’s the Emperor’s New Clothes and it doesn’t look good naked.
Would a “Pelleas” with Ethel Merman and Mickey Rooney, in a Busbee Berkley staging, with Arthur Fiedler conducting the Boston Pops, change your mind?
Although I don’t think much of him as a conductor, Conlon is a viable candidate for one reason- he would be a correct age to take over the position. Discussions of Mehta, Maazel, Colin Davis, Haitink and many of the others are simply nostalgia (but it does show there have been quite a few fine opera conductors beyond Jimmie, doesn’t it?). By 2012, most of them will be in their 80′s, if still around, not exactly an age to revitalise a theater. Any suggestions as to who in the under 60 crowd who could contribute on this level besides Pappano?
Btw, I strongly agree with the comments on Muti- it’s a shame there’s so much baggage that comes with him, as he is uniquely talented. What a shame that most of his readings of repertoire where made when he was so young, because he is a far greater conductor now.
This is the best parterre box thread ever!
I can’t figure out how Muti decides what is “scritto” in “come scritto.” He doesn’t want the basso to sing the cabaletta in “Ernani” because it was added later. But he allows Aida to sing “O patria mia” even though it was added later.
I do not want Muti conducting “Attila” at the Met. To me, “Attila” needs interpolated high notes and some embellishments in the cabaletta repeats. I was weaned on the Sutherland version of Odabella’s cabaletta. I saw Ramey and Guleghina and Servile do the opera in Houston with lots of interpolated high notes and embellishments, and I think Verdi would have approved, especially with the prolonged roaring ovations after many of the numbers.
I can understand Muti doing the later post bel canto operas where this isn’t an issue, but I don’t see him doing early Verdi.
I’d love to see Colin Davis return to the Met, even once if that’s all we could ask–for Billy Budd or some other Britten, or Mozart, or Cenerentola (which he’s never conducted but to which he could apply his Apollonian and humane qualities he uses in Mozart). But he’s 80 next fall and may decide that “quick jaunts” to Boston and the NY Phil (where Maazel had him removed from the roster as principal guest conductor) are all he wants or can do. His concert performances of Peter Grimes and Beatrice et Benedict are among the best concerts I’ve ever heard in NYC. Mackerras has said that he can’t take the jetlag anymore involved in US travel. I also think that Mehta has Puccini and Verdi in his blood and could be asked back once in a while. But with a “strong” manager such as Gelb, I’m not convinced that one conductor can be all things to all repertory the way Levine has been asked to be (with wavering results). I was unmoved by the dullness of Levine in Tristan and Cenerentola and think that his best days are probably behind him. But I think he should be given credit for raising the standard of playing in the pit, which could get pretty ragged in the Bing years. However, like Ozawa and the BSO, he’s probably outstayed his welcome. Gergiev should not be his replacement. I think he’s a well-publicized flash in the pan, and he’s too busy to shave much less take on something as demanding and august as the MET. Also recall that the dollar exchange rate is so miserable that many atists don’t want to spend that much time in the US and pay the taxes on attenuated earnings. I think the days are gone that all up-and-coming conductors had to visit the MET once to get good appointments and recording contracts elsewhere. Look at the number of people who came once or twice in the 60s and 70s and then settled in elsewhere.
They used to say (perhaps still do) that “Pelleas” was the only opera guaranteed to empty the house. I can confirm that on the two occasions I have seen it at Covent Garden, the house, which was quite full at the start, was indeed nearly empty by the end! I only stayed to see how many (or few) others did !
However, I recently heard the 1941 Paris recording which made me reconsider. And Covent Garden has a fine cast announced for a May 2007 run conducted by Simon Rattle – Simon Keenlyside (who says it will be his last Pelleas), Gerald Finley, Angelika Kirchschlager, Robert Lloyd and Catherine Wyn-Rogers. (Though even then it is going over the top for them to say: “A dream-like setting, intoxicating sound and dream casting – but a very real indulgence and pleasure” — and why “but”??)
The idea of Netrebko and Villazon did make me giggle. Who else? Renee Fleming as Yniold?
On maestros for the Met… I saw an excellent young man called Edward Gardner conduct a superb Glyndebourne touring “Turn of the Screw”, and am looking forwards to seeing him in Feb 2007 conduct “Don Giovanni” in Paris (where he’s also doing “L’Elisir d’amore” and “The Rake’s Progress”). He ranges from Rossini, Mozart and early Verdi, to “Elektra”, Weill and John Adams, via “Fidelio” and “La Boheme”. He’s conducted. He’s conducted many symphony orchestras in Europe and the US and in the next couple of seasons has debut appearances coming up with many smaller bands, including the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Currently head of Glyndebourne Touring, he takes up the position of Music Director of English National Opera in May 2007 – at the age of 30.