parterre box

50 comments

• Krunoslav says:

  Strephon crowed:
  “Look at the cast of the Colon in the 70s (no jokes, pleasssse). Krunoslav would have hysterics. Carlyle, Harper, Shuard, Craig etc”

  Actually I find what to enjoy in all of these singers’ performances on recordings and tapes. Wish we in the US had heard Harper more in her prime– by the time she did Ellen Orford at the Met (1977) it was no longer what it had been, and she made a very curious choice for a City Opera Alceste in 1982- though musical, she had only high notes to offer in a part needing columnar strength in the lower and middle registers.

  Not for the last time, I am sure: it’s not British singers per se, it’s *mediocre* British singers that I object to. I don’t think Craig and Shuard were particularly interesting as interpreters but they were both very qualified exponents of difficult repertory. Harper and Carlyle were both very high quality artists: I would have been curious to see Carlyle onstage.

  on February 23, 2008 at 9:57 PM
• Famous Quickly says:

  I recorded Carmen for Decca and sang her at the Garden and all over Europe– including during the Festwochen alongside Eboli and all my RING parts– before coming home to face Marcellina.

  I could sing Frasquita *tomorrow*- it’s a question of color and tessitura.

  on February 23, 2008 at 10:21 PM
• Sanford says:

  Well, I found a great program to record streaming radio, so I taped today’s broadcast. However, the station I recorded it from in California was having PLEDGEWEEK, so I was time shifting the broadcast and they time shifted the intermission features to broadcast at a later date!

  Is there really no one in NYC on this site who wants to go to The Met Finals tomorrow? I still have an extra tkt.

  on February 23, 2008 at 11:26 PM
• scifisci says:

  sanford, what program do u use?

  on February 24, 2008 at 12:26 AM
• Sanford says:

  Replay A/V. http://www.applian.com/

  It comes with a mini player and a converter so that you can covert their files to AAC, mp3, etc. And it works just like a DVR so you can listen at your leisure.

  I CAN”T BELIEVE I”M GOING TO THE MET ALONE!!!!! I still have the extra tkt. I will be leaving here at noon. sschimel@hotmail.com. The tkt is free, lunch is on me, dessert depends on how friendly barihunks and hunkentenors are (hehehe).

  on February 24, 2008 at 10:41 AM
• Sara says:

  Attended the Met matinee yesterday, and I am stunned at Met’s lack of professionalism, as well as indignant at the brute vulgarians that made part of the audience. To begin with, Herrera is internationally known in this Carmen and a true professional. Of course, she doesn’t have Borodina’s exposure and fame, fine, but is this what going to the Met is all about? The program simply included a crappy piece of paper informing us of Borodina’s illness but said nothing about Herrera’s career!! Compare this with Covent Garden’s detailed leaflet, printed on high quality paper, which informed the audience of who Ermonela Jaho is when she recently replaced Netrebko as Violetta! I can forgive the crappy Met program which is a scandal in and of itself. They could have said something about the singer who worked her butt off to entertain the brutes!

  What totally disgusted me, however, was the great number of people who were not seated when the lights were already off, not to mention people who began to leave before the finale ended and before the first curtain call! Met should really consider shutting the doors and allowing people to leave only for emergencies. There was absolutely no excuse for this shame. The opera ended well before six pm, and everyone had enough time to pick up their car from the underground parking. I was out before 6 pm (you get charged extra if you stay longer).

  Oh, to be fair, I also hated it when a couple of Germans, undoubtedly some uncultured Herr Direktor and his bejeweled Direktorin, left Covent Garden ostentatiously when they realized Netrebko was going to be replaced by Jaho.

  on February 24, 2008 at 2:54 PM
• Lescaut says:

  Saw the Manon Lescaut last night w/ Gavrilova instead of Mattila… She started out rough but warmed up as the night went on. Having no expectations, I was pleasantly surprised. She can’t act worth a damn, but her top notes were full and exciting, and cut through the orchestra and chorus–actually sounded like Freni’s in the part. The rest of her voice wasn’t as great, but far from terrible.

  on February 24, 2008 at 7:08 PM
• paddypig says:

  to Sara, at CG you pay a pretty price for your program, the MET’s are free

  on February 25, 2008 at 8:37 AM
• Strephon says:

  At least at CG the cast list is free and if there a substitution you usually get a slip with a biography. Personally I prefer the MET’s free program even if the content and print quality is not up to much. Paying $14 for the glossy CG version adds a lot to the expense.

  on February 25, 2008 at 8:49 AM
• Sara says:

  Fine, you pay for the CG program. But you don’t pay for the Staatsoper Berlin or the Komische Oper, or any of the Viennese opera houses. Not to mention the magnificent, absolutely free, super original program of the Frankfurt opera. I still read my copy from the best Entführung aus dem Serail I have ever watched in my life starring Damrau, available on DVD in Germany. Admittedly, the Germans in Frankfurt don’t understand one thing about marketing because it comes without subtitles, but still. Great modern production.

  As for the Met, OK, let the paper be bad. However, they could have written something about who Herrera is. Besides, they have all those students next door at Julliard, all those music majors at other music schools in NYC. They could give them a chance to publish something which will count a lot in their resume. I’m not necessarily talking about super scholarly research, but something deeper than what we get.

  on February 25, 2008 at 3:43 PM