parterre box

48 comments

• dnitzer says:

  “… Gelb hates the Marthe Keller production which I have never found “handsome”. It is utilitarian and plain…”

  I haven’t seen this production, but is this the one where DG and Commendatore / statue can’t even shake hands, because there is a glass wall between them? And DG rides an elevator down below to a snowy Hell (fire and brimstone in Mozart’s music notwithstanding)? Or maybe that was in Orange County, CA. Memory is the first thing to go…

  on March 4, 2008 at 3:54 PM
• tenorofthetimes says:

  To expand on what jatm2063 points out above – despite the “language inflation” of the Met’s marketing department – there are only 2 new productions next season, one of which is a co-production with Chicago. The other 4 are merely “new to the Met”, and the Met does not in any sense “share” them with other companies – they are rented from the other companies.

  on March 4, 2008 at 3:54 PM
• tenorofthetimes says:

  David Utterback – the Rondine at the Met is the same production seen in SF last fall.

  on March 4, 2008 at 3:59 PM
• Henry Holland says:

  Sorry to be so blunt, but I have not found much to admire on XXth cetury operatic output. There’s Raque’s, Lulu, Wozek, Pelleas and very few after that

  Sorry to be so blunt, but I have not found much to admire in the 17th-19th century operatic output. Two Mozart, some Wagner, Berlioz, Puccini (though his favorites of mine were written in the 20th century), a few Verdi, that’s about it.

  So what if stuff like Peter Grimes or Moses und Aron don’t sell out? What about giving those of us who actually think opera progressed beyond Verdi a chance to hear that orchestra play something, with all the scenic resources available? That’s what “stars” like Nebtrebko are for, to sell tickets so that chances can be taken.

  The Met audience is notoriously conservative anyways, which is why I found it hilarious to read people on here whining about Gerard Mortier’s plans for his first full NYCO season, saying stuff like “Waaaah! Waaaah! Why aren’t they doing bel canto?” kinds of things. Well, welcome to *my* world, where I have to travel to Europe to hear anything remotely out-there or new.

  on March 4, 2008 at 4:01 PM
• Tristan_und says:

  I’m baffled by the Millo worship on here: I heard her in La Gioconda last year and she was better in the 2nd Act, but in the 1st Act her vibrato was so wide I couldn’t tell what note she was trying to sing and her duet w/ what’s-her-name (not brave enough to guess – La Cieca???) was pretty dicey. It’s a big voice (and they all say it’s Italianate – whatever the heck THAT means!), but out of control.

  on March 4, 2008 at 4:02 PM
• Evenhanded says:

  Well.

  I sure did need a good chuckle today, and I LOVE Gaultier for providing it with his Millo post. Tristan, I think Gaultier’s comments were sarcastic (which is refreshing, since Millo hasn’t been a realistically viable performer in at least a decade). Those who love her can’t seem to hear her as she IS compared to what she WAS. I adored her, probably as much as anyone, but the very very brief prime when she could hold it all together vocally ended around 1994. Everything since has been based on a hope and a dream. There are probably roles she could get through these days, but none she’d be likely to take on in public.

  on March 4, 2008 at 4:09 PM
• Gualtier Maldè says:

  Millo was glorious in the OONY “Adriana Lecouvreur” and “Adriana”. Other evenings have found her with great moments along with parts where she was “managing”. The problem is that she doesn’t have her voice in a shape where she can control it and be consistent. Hence the backstage and onstage drama and the “will she sing or won’t she?”. Millo’s blog shows that she spends a lot of time in a personal dreamworld of old divas and old photos and old movies and little time in the present.

  I am a nostalgia queen myself but sometimes things have to be done in and for the present. I am hard on her because I too can be a dreamer and sit on my ass with inertia. She hasn’t lost any weight due to back problems but if her voice was 100% and she wasn’t acting up backstage and was reliable, she would be working as Voigt did when obese and several others. Its her reputation for being erratic and unreliable that has gotten her into a career hole. Is Guleghina more on pitch or more vocally in control than Millo? Not really but she keeps herself and her career together and shows up.

  on March 4, 2008 at 4:21 PM
• Gualtier Maldè says:

  Sorry I meant “Fanciulla” with OONY was one of Millo’s great recent nights. She has also had some good Maddalenas at the Met too.

  Isn’t Damrau only taking over the Sept/Oct group of “Lucia”. Netrebko should be back for the winter group at which time the baby should be several months old. Netrebko is due in September 2008 and the winter group of Lucia is February? Isn’t it the later run that is being moviecasted? So the Netrebko/Villazon casting would hold.

  on March 4, 2008 at 4:27 PM
• Gualtier Maldè says:

  Here is the press release:

  http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/news/press/detail.aspx?id=3441

  on March 4, 2008 at 4:29 PM
• Hans Lick says:

  Stuff I’m genuinely eager to see/hear:

  Seiffert as Tristan.
  Brewer as Brunnhilde.
  Mattila as Tatiana.
  Lucic as Rigoletto.
  Mattei as Don G, Stoyanova as Donna Anna.
  Schrott as Don G.
  Villazon as Edgardo.
  Harteros as Violetta, Mariusz as Germont.

  I think that’s it….

  (P.S. I initially typed “Scrott” for “Schrott.” Even sans “um,” Dr. Freud would be SO amused.)

  on March 4, 2008 at 6:36 PM