To infinity, and beyond!
The delectable details of the 2007-2008 season at the Metropolitan (discussed this morning in a press conference with Peter Gelb, James Levine and representatives of the new season’s production teams) may be found on the Met’s web site. Our publisher JJ was there in the flesh, and he forwards his impressions:
The biggest news this morning was something unspoken. Instead, it was Levine’s body language, which (in contrast to previous years) suggested he is both comfortable and secure working with Gelb. Levine stayed for the entire press conference and was particularly attentive when Phillip Glass was speaking.
Mr. Gelb reflected on the successes of the current season, which include:
- An increased audience for the HD simulcasts, now up to 250 screens for Eugene Onegin
- The box office (though “not necessarily a thermometer”) is running nine percentage points higher than this point last season
- This season so far 61 performances have sold out, in contrast to 20 sellouts for the entire 2006-2006 season
- Eight HD presentations are booked for next year
- Opening night 2007 (new production of Lucia di Lammermoor) will be simulcast in the plaza, and the Met is in negotiations with NYC to show it in Times Square as well.
James Levine chimed in that what he finds “even more exciting” than the many innovations this year is that he sees a strong sense of follow-through. It is one thing to get new audiences into the theater the first time, but to sustain that audience you must offer them quality. He adds that he is pleased with how Gelb works with him on a day-to-day basis on solving problems. Levine will conduct the new productions of Lucia and Macbeth next season, plus revivals of Manon Lescaut and Tristan und Isolde, as well as the Met Orchestra’s Carnegie Hall series.
Tweaks to next season include revival of the Anthony Minghella Butterfly with Patricia Racette and Roberto Alagna, Barbiere and (as reported by La Cieca a while ago) The First Emperor.
Mary Zimmerman (funny, unpretentious and smart) talked about her production of Lucia. Scene changes in this staging will be done “a vista.”
Glass and associate director and designer Julian Crouch introduced Satyagraha. The composer stressed the political and social content of the work, and Crouch talked about how the set materials of corrugated iron and newspaper were suggested by the themes of the opera.
Stephen Wadsworth waxed un peu teachy-teachy on the subject of Iphigénie en Tauride (“Gluck was an ethnic Czech, did you know that?”), but, as Dawn Fatale pointed out, at least the set does not include a built-in shower. The edition of the score will be based on Gluck’s Vienna revision, in which Oreste is a tenor, presumably in order to facilitate the participation of Placido Domingo.
The other producers appeared on video. The most buzzworthy statement from this segment was from Adrian Noble, who says the design of his Macbeth is suggested by photographs by Diane Arbus.
The cutest stage director of the whole group was Laurent Pelly (La Fille du Régiment), with Crouch and Richard Jones (Hansel and Gretel) tied for second.
Zoe Caldwell will the the Duchesse de Krakenthorp.
In response to reporters’ questions, Gelb said that the Met has negotiated rights to release all its archival performances on CD, DVD, download on demand and “media not yet invented.” Anne Midgette asked if there were updates on new commissions by the Met, but Gelb declined to comment, saying that the Met would have a statement later this season.
And then, finger sandwiches and coffee on the Bass Grand Tier, where yet another of parterre.com’s web of reliable sources noted that the Gérard Mortier/NYCO deal is all but signed on the dotted line.
It drives me nuts that they’re using the Vienna edition. Not only is it reworked with Oreste as a tenor, losing the vocal contrast, there are a number of subtle differences in vocal lines and scansion that they’ll have to cheerfully mow through to get it back into French. It’s just an unhappy solution, although I’m so thrilled to see any kind of resurgence in interest in Gluck’s works that I’ll just fume quietly and musicologically.
“media not yet invented.”
Cool! When direct streaming to my cerebral cortex is up and running, the Met will there. Robert Moog was actually working on that kind of thing when he died.
Memo to opera companies and symphonies:
When you announce a new season, please have the dates of performances ready to look at. You know these things years in advance, it makes no sense to do the Big! Splashy! Annoucement! and then not be able to see if going to New York for Tristan and the Prokofiev operas is viable, date-wise (vacations at work, other stuff going on in NYC that justify the expense and so on).
Thank you.
I think the same! We need to know the specific dates and casts in order to make plans!
Very interesting on NYCO. So Mortier was responsible for getting Michael Haneke to do his contemporary (=violent, witless, humourless, coarse, facile, and above all anti-Mozartean) “Don Giovanni” in Paris last month. Well, if that is what New York gets, you can write off one of the houses. But that could be an aceptable price (New Yorkers will say) for the fantastic march forwards at the Met.
Robertson for Entfuehrung??? He’s a fantastic conductor –I wish I thought we could keep him here in St. Louis beyond 2010— but he really shines in contemporary music; they should let him do the Glass!
On the whole, the best season news from the Met in years.
BTW, Nora, I agree with you about having both Oreste and Pylade as tenors. Bad idea. If Domingo thinks he’s baritone enough for Simone Boccanegra…oh well; that’s star power.
i went to boccanegra tonight but to my chagrin those nice brochures aren’t out yet (wishful thinking i know) Angela was a revelation as usual but i was saddened to find out that there are no rush tickets for onegin tomorrow!!! regarding the new season….i just worry about those HD broadcasts. I know someone brought this up before, but can peter grimes really sell as a broadcast? I’m sure romeo and juliette will sell cuz of N&V but that still doesn’t make up for the fact that its just a 2nd if not 3rd rate opera. And why oh why is gruber doing macbeth instead of um…URMANA?! I also cringe at the thought of that god awful T&I production being broadcast. On a positive note, the rest of the season sounds very nice, especially racette as butterfly! I’m a bit disappointed damrau is just doing magic flute….i thought she was going to do constanze? i’m also about to have an orgasm just thinking about mattila’s manon and dessay’s lucia! I also love that the rush tix are back again next season!
The press release said “some of the world’s leading conductors” not “all” so I think it is a fair statement. The names mentioned there are among the leading conductors of opera on the scene today. I do think Gelb gets it and lets not forget that the majority of next season was planned by Volpe.
I do think the conducting roster is a vast improvement over some of the hacks that have paraded on by this season …. Paul Nadler, Scott Bergeson, etc.
By the way, I adore Karita Mattila but the one thing she has done the past couple of seasons that I thought was truly awful was her Manon Lescaut both in Chicago and San Francisco. It may have been the gaudy productions or the inadequate tenors but …. she seemed to really play it so way over the top and it was not vocally “Pucciniesque” and left me cold. Here’s hoping she’s settled into the role more for next season.
And I may have missed it but was there really not a single Strauss opera on the MET roster for next season?
I notice the Ruth Ann Swenson is listed – I wonder if this means that the buyout rumors was unfounded?
So many exciting things on offer. The Fille is just amazing (though Zoe Caldwell as the Duchess? Covent Garden got Dawn French … what a hoot! I wonder if Shirley Maclaine speaks French ….)
And Debbie and Ben in T&I. The production may be “godawful” (as scifisci calls it), but we LOVE Debbie! And we hope that Heppner has recovered sufficiently from the Lohengrin fiasco last season. (Elllllllsssssaaaaa … there’s a frog in my throat!)
And the of course Anna Netrebko and Rolando V. in R&J. Not Jussi and Bidu (but then who could be?)
Thank you La Cieca!
Sterlinkay: “New York City Opera has made a reactive, panic move that will blow up in their faces. I think they saw NYCO becoming more & more irrelevant given Gelb’s re-energized MET and decided they needed to do something bold. However, there is bold and then there is INSANE.”
Very well said. Any director who thinks that opera is irrelevant unless it’s changed to address the issues of today is sign of trouble (not that I want all my productions to be traditional — not at all).
Jussilives: I believe that Heppner got over that “crisis” the next day. He was suffering from allergies. I saw him in concert several weeks later and he was in stellar form. And from what I heard, he was in great form for the entire run of Lohengrin except for the broadcast which was a matinee and apparently irritated his allergies. The evening performances were all fine. Heppner’s bad luck is that his one bad performance of the run was broadcast for all to hear.