parterre box

113 comments

• BillyBoy says:

  the Holland review is a typical disaster. Theories of comedy as a frame. And the priceless “The crowd, as they say, went wild.” because he couldn’t think of a way to describe it without the cliche.

  And I’m not sure about that “nicely tinted” rooster sending me home with a cock-a-doodle-doo.

  The rude reference to Marian Seldes is trumped online by the fact that Times’ website automatically hyperlinks her name to articles about her!

  on April 22, 2008 at 4:06 PM
• Bill says:

  On rare occasions applause in the middle of the music does not seem offensive. I just re-listened to the third act of Meistersinger from the 1955 reopening of the Vienna State Opera festival performance. It is available on Orfeo. As the Meistersingers enter toward the end of that sequence there is an immense roar of applause from the audience as the orchestra is churning away under Reiner. This continues until after the second “Silentiun” is voiced almost up to “Wach auf”. I asked some older Viennese why the outpouring of applause at that stage in this performance, and they said that at the Staatsoper the audience always vociferously applauded Schoeffler at his third act entrance among the Meistersingers. The applause is immensely exciting and moving. (and Schoeffler is magnificent throughout).

  In Operettas in Central Europe it is not unusual that say a “Dein ist mein ganzes Herz” be repeated even more than once if the tenor is a Gedda. As I stated earlier in this blog “Fille du Regiment” at times sounds much like an operetta. So why not an encore if the tenor wants to do it and the audience reaction is frenzied enough to warrant it?

  In opera I only heard an encore once before – Piero Capucilli in Vienna in Verdi’s “Attila” under Sinopoli. After a long aria followed by a stretta Capucilli held on forever to a magnificent high B flat which would cause difficulty even for some tenors. After prolonged frenzied applause he repeated the entire thing and held on the B flat even longer the second time. It was probably planned as well for after many bows he just gave a hand signal to Sinopoli that he was prepared to sing the aria again. Surely this will not happen under Muti’s Attila at the Met a few years hence.

  on April 22, 2008 at 4:40 PM
• jimupde says:

  At the next performance of Tristan und Isolde (if Gelb ever dares to mount it again) I expect Tristan’s delirium to be encored.

  Did Nilsson ever encore the Immolation Scene?

  on April 22, 2008 at 4:44 PM
• kashania says:

  LOL! Or perhpas Brangaene can repeat her warning. It is the arguably the most ravishing music in the opera so it bears repeating.

  on April 22, 2008 at 5:08 PM
• sugarmezzo says:

  Why not do an encore of Walkure’s entire third act????? Come on, that sh*t’s good!!

  on April 22, 2008 at 5:34 PM
• jimupde says:

  Kashania….The lovers don’t pay any attention to Brangaene when she sings her warning once. Maybe if she repeats it, they might heed her warning and avoid being discovered by King Marke.

  Also, the audience could make Lisa Gasteen keep repeating Brunnhilde’s Battle Cry until she gets it right, or at least decide which key she wants to sing it in.

  on April 22, 2008 at 6:48 PM
• armerjacquino says:

  quoth the maven- I love the idea of an encore of ‘Tu che le vanita’, purely for how much the singer concerned would HATE the idea…

  What would be the least welcomed encore arias, I wonder? I’m going to go with ‘Ach, ich liebte’.

  on April 22, 2008 at 7:35 PM
• mariod says:

  And this is why some of us think Peter Gelb is a genius. What is everyone talking about today?? the encore. Here’s a link to the SECOND article about the encore (the first was Bernie’s review) in the TIMES:

  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/arts/music/23aria.html?ref=arts

  Well, what’s the point. some may ask, since all the performances were already sold out. First of all, there are the HD transmissions on Saturday, which were already well-sold and now become an even hotter ticket. And, most importantly the matter of investing in JDF. Yes, he was already a star, of course, but this whole episode is really going to propel him into being THE male star at the MET in the coming seasons. He has vaulted over all others to become THE tenor to see and hear and GELB has him signed for a number of new productions in the next few years including SONNAMBULA, LE COMTE ORY and ROBERT LE DIABLE.

  on April 22, 2008 at 9:04 PM
• Lindoro Almaviva says:

  Didn’t Domingo encored an entire act of otello once? I seem to remember a story like that.

  on April 22, 2008 at 9:10 PM
• Graciella Scusi says:

  I once heard Ethel Merman encore the Bible reading
  scene in a WOZZECK with Bert Lahr; if memory
  serves, *she* killed *him*. The audience went wild..
  I can’t be sure, but I believe I was asleep at the
  time… Though there may be exceptions, most operas
  are not “realistic”; there’s no necessity for an
  iron-clad “fourth wall” rule in a performing art
  that is primarily presentational.
  Don’t get me wrong,for me, at it’s best, Opera creates a hyper reality of it’s own which is much
  more vivid and moving than some “true to life”
  naturalism.

  on April 22, 2008 at 9:40 PM