undone deal?
Cher public, you may recall that it was La Cieca who was the first to break the story that Gérard Mortier was under consideration to be the next General Manager of the New York City Opera, not quite a week before confirmation appeared in the moribund print media. Since then the irreverent intendant has made a lot of headlines here and elsewhere.
Well, now you should be prepared for a shock, cher public, or at least for what may be the biggest story of the year. La Cieca hears a whisper that the Mortier/NYCO deal has gone sour, leaving the company rudderless beginning in 2009. Of course, your doyenne is probably wrong (she so often is!) but, on the chance that she’s not, well, remember you heard it here first!
UPDATE: A member of the cher public has forwarded La Cieca a thought-provoking clip from Daily Yomiuri Online. Sylvain Cambreling (Mortier’s “longtime collaborator,” per the New York TImes) has been named principal conductor of The Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, effective April 1, 2010. The tipster notes “…Tokyo Opera City would be thrilled to get their hands on a star like Mortier if he were so inclined. And I bet they’re fully funded there…”
Mortier is a boob. I hope you are right about the news. I am surprised there was not an intifada at the news of his appointment to the New York City Opera.
Of course I have to add that I have only been to the New York City Opera once to see the dazzlingly effervescent Elizabeth Futral as Semele. In an interview in Opera News Futral actually equated herself with Renee Fleming. Is that not cute? La speranza che delude sepmre.
Good! They can install someone solidly English and be done with it.
Call me crazy…but there is the Met and then there is the NYCO. Which one would you choose?
Don’t lie.
Josephine: In fact Futral is very like Fleming, only without the dowager’s hump.
La Cieca, please, please, please tell us more.
Well, whatever happens, I just hope NYCO doesn’t go kaput. We need another opera company that’s NOT the Met in this town. Even if recent seasons have been spotty, it still has done some good work. (Vanessa, Semele, etc.) SOMEbody has to do Britten and Handel in NYC since the Met seems to be able only to one at a time in alternate years (WHEN is that great production of Billy Budd coming back????).
When I was a voice student at the University of Illinois, one of my professors was John Wustman whom I am sure some of you know. He used to say about singers: that is world class voice. While I do not know exactly what that means I kind of know what he meant. Renee Fleming is a world class voice and Elizabeth Futral is not. So I beg do differ dear Cieca.
Renee Fleming is a star and Elizabeth Futral is a rrrrrrreally good grad student doing her best.
Me thinks Mortier had no idea of the mess he was getting into plus the added “imposition” of having to suck up to donors. But these are all just rumors….
I too pray it’s true!
Doesn’t anybody remember those awful productions at Salzburg? Yucky poo poo. I love updating but some of that shit was awful.
Well the tumbrill calls
Back to the Bastille!
Unfortunately with this mega recession on the way. It is not impossible that NYCO could go belly up. The board of directors needs to seriously be shaken up. Funding dollars will be hard to come by over the next few years. NYC may only be able to support one major opera house. Forget finding a new GM. They need to steal Gelb’s entire P.R. department. They would be able to “spin” any new G.M. that would be coming in.
I agree with Vicar – just hire some Brit and let it be done with. I hope this rumor is not true. I was soooooo looking forward to Mortier’s tenure at NYCO.
Somebody pour Josephine a drink already.
Andy—
I am so sorry to speak out of turn. Please forgive me and I will assure you that I will only post comments that are completely non-controversial. I live to agree. I am a peace maker.
Not a huge surprise, but still disappointing. I was looking forward to the Mortier v Gelb aspect of duelling companies. If he is indeed packing his bags, I hope NYCO doesn’t retreat and appoint someone safe.
I believe that Domingo can probably squeeze in a third company to direct?
Hmmm, not totally surprised, since what he does is NOT what the NYCO audience is used to, but rather disappointed if it’s true since he would have done repertoire that was quite different from that of the MET, and that would have made the opera world of NYC (with all companies therein considered) the most diverse, overall, on the planet.
Even if he doesn’t actually do the job, the season he planned would probably remain as is, wouldn’t it? Cieca, what do you think?
Famous Quickly?—couldn’t you start running a Manhattan opera company tomorrow, since it’s just a matter of ________ and ________?
Josephine, you are the serrano chilies in my salsa verde, and I love really HOT salsa verde. Keep it up, mami.
As for Mortier, I’d hate to be in his shoes after losing that bid to run the Bayreuth festival with whatsherface, and now this.
The issue, Josephine, is that your opinion is both completely unsolicited and unsupported. I think what Futral has done is far more impressive because she has worked harder to get where she is. Fleming has taken a naturally glorious voice and imposed poor artistic choices, but remains on top because of the fantastic instrument. Nevertheless, you are the only person who finds it necessary to bash Ms. Futral, who by the way, is unquestionably one of the most gracious and kindest artists in the business.
I agree with everyone here.
“Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard law professor, tells a parable that seems to apply. A rabbi is asked to settle a marital dispute. He hears the husband’s view. “You’re right,” he tells him. He hears the wife’s view. “You’re right,” he tells her. One of his students protests: “Rabbi, they both can’t be right.” The rabbi nods. “You’re right,” he says.” Roger Ebert
It seems that, like abortion, when it comes to singing, everyone is right.
Winston
I agree with you.
After all this, I think a rabbi, a law professor and a blogger are going to walk into a bar…
OH SHUT UP…la cieca.
I want to know what you are going to do with my most recent “contibution”.
contribution
Well, Josephine, your most recent work is not in my opinion particularly entertaining, but since it is not personal sniping against a commenter, it will stand.
Winston-
I thought I recognized that Rabbi Joke. It’s quoted in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF.
La Cieca
Your comment is unkind. I have resisted perosnal attacks with a vigor. I upset a handful of people here but others seem to like me. I do understand that I have a big personality and that may threaten people…including YOU. But you are going on a lot of assumptions that are insulting to me. You have managed to insult me publicly here a lot and really for NO REASON. I have tried to explain to some of your posters that it is wrong to attack personally and for no reason. You have taqken issue with me in a way that is not right.
Baritenor: it’s a little known piece of movie trivia that Fiddler on the Roof is based the Roger Ebert script Beyond the Valley of the Dorf.
Josephine: that particular line of discussion really doesn’t have any place any more on this forum. We can discuss this privately offline.
Josephine: YOu know I like you and your humour so please take this comment in that context. It does get tiresome if every discussion thread turns into “All about Josephine”, no?
Kashania
Is that what it is? I don;t know any more. Tell me more.
Tokyo – this is fascinating and a good place for Mortier. The farther from these shores for him the better.
This discussion makes me glad I went to the last performance of “Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire” at the Fringe Festival instead.
But I have to say, o giraffe gynecologist to the stars qui j’adore, that I’ve been dubious about Mortier ever showing up and facing the Board of NYCO and explaining how he was going to raise the money to put on all those productions that no one wanted to attend. I was SO looking forward to Dawn’s dish on the board infight. I mean, the only thing I was panting for was Francois d”Asisse. All that craziness requires money.
And yes we need an experimental opera company in town because (more notes when I’ve got back from Oresteia tomorrow night) it seems to me that the modern audience, young and sophisticated not to say blase, is finally into Weird Sounds, as Schonberg always said they’d be, he was just 80 years off, not having realized they’d have to dance themselves into dark vacancy on many a techno dance floor before the APPEAL of non-tonal works was to be sussed.
But I’ll miss NYCO’s Handel and Rossini experiments, myself.
Let’s hope that your report is right, dear Cieca.
And Brava for posting it in advance of the traditional press!
“he was just 80 years off, not having realized they’d have to dance themselves into dark vacancy on many a techno dance floor before the APPEAL of non-tonal works was to be sussed.”
I think that comment is wonderful. I don’t why, it just is. Where else could I read a comment like that?
Actually I believe it’s from the sequel: Fiddler on the Roof II: Who Knew?. (In point of fact I understand there was a Fiddler sequel and…am I making this up? Stratas was somehow involved. This seems to come from hazy recollection of the inter-song banter at Voigt’s Allen Hall do.)
Why is it when people say “I have a big personality” you can so often safely tack “disorder” onto the end of the statement…
Muori dannato. Muori. Muori. MUORI.
Well, you got the joke.
Maury–the show was “Rags,” and it wasn’t exactly a sequel but a Jewish-immigrants-in-America story, with a book by Joseph Stein, who wrote Fiddler. It showed roughly what the denizens of Anatevka might have experienced when they came over. The score was NOT by Bock and Harnick, but Chas. Strouse wrote the music, a lot of which was good, especially the title song (sung by Judy Kuhn) and a romantic number about the moon or something sung by Stratas. But the sum was less than the ingredients–the show fell flat.
The song to which you are referring, I believe, is called “Blame It on the Summer Night”. It’s become somewhat of a cabaret standard.
Rags actually started out as a more faithful sequel to Fiddler–it was going to follow the main characters of that show upon their arrival in New York–but Schwartz/Strouse/Stein decided to take it in a new direction.
I don’t hate to say this.
I told you so.
He never signed a contract, and this is not really a surprise.
What will be interesting to see is if NYCO survives this.
I’m not sure that they will.
45:
CIeca! HAH!
futral’s lucia sounds like a stuck pig
SOMEbody has to do Britten and Handel in NYC since the Met seems to be able only to one at a time in alternate years (WHEN is that great production of Billy Budd coming back????)
It’s due back in 2011-12, per Brad Wilber’s new place at Sieglinde’s Diaries. No barihunk casting noted, so our favorite barihunk loving critic will have to wait.
Call me crazy…but there is the Met and then there is the NYCO. Which one would you choose?
Don’t lie.
I live 3,000 miles away from both, but I’d pick NYCO in a heartbeat, since they at least have done far more interesting rep than the Met ever has.
if it’s true since he would have done repertoire that was quite different from that of the MET, and that would have made the opera world of NYC (with all companies therein considered) the most diverse, overall, on the planet.
Um, NO. Just because a Xennakis piece is being done in NYC soon doesn’t mean that the Met, NYCO and all those little companies are collectively very adventurous. Berlin beats NYC by light years: they have three major companies (Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper, Komische) that are waaaaay more adventurous than the Met and City Opera plus their smaller companies there are doing stuff like Birtwistle, Reimann and Kagel, which I *think* still have never had one of their operas done in allegedly world-class opera center New York. Add in seven orchestras that often do opera-in-concert and New York can’t even begin to compete.
explaining how he was going to raise the money to put on all those productions that no one wanted to attend. [snip] All that craziness requires money.
There is not one piece in the announced 2009-10 season that is “craziness”, it only looked a little out there because the Met is such a mausoleum. As for stuff that “no one wanted to attend”, maybe people that think opera is only about which soprano can sing trills correctly felt that way, but those of us that care about the actual music were quite looking forward to Einstein on the Beach, Saint Francois d’Assise and, until Gelb’s underhanded tactics, Nixon in China.
So, City Opera will likely remain Die Tote Stadt, a place where third-rate Bohemes and shitty musicals are done in a house not built for opera. Let’s see if the Met’s plans can come to fruition when all those Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch people can’t afford to donate any more.
The regal couple of Mortier and Cambreling could become rice queens…
In other news:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/arts/music/17lawson.html?ref=obituaries
Josephine = mlop?
Well, we don’t have confirmation yet that this is happening. Given the fact that the press office at the New York City Opera is so behind the ball (how long did it take them to announce there would be no 2008-09 season?), maybe they will tell us sometime late next year???
Mortier is very wrong for NYCO on so many levels. I wish NYCOQ was posting here because he and I both said “Where is the money for all this?”. I mean it looks good on paper and many of these things would do well at the Lincoln Center Festival for short runs but a whole season? Mortier wants to run NYCO as an international house in direct competition to the Met with European singers and directors and an emphasis on 20th century repertory. So many aspects of the company that were part of its historical artistic identity would be lost if Mortier runs NYCO. His ideas would work but for how long??? How much would we gain and how much would we lose?
I wonder how the NY Times would react if and when this story comes out, if true. Anthony Tommasini is already planted so deep in Mortier’s anus that he is almost his personal publicist at this point.
I think that the unraveling of the company can be laid at the door of the board and started years ago when Paul Kellogg announced his departure. They had years to get another administration in place and plan a contingency season when the State Theater would be under renovation. They failed to do so.
Susan Baker has to go.
“Soeur d’Hector, va mourir sous les débris de Troie!!!”
Well, much of the demise of City Opera as a place anyone takes seriously should be laid at the door of Paul Kellogg as well. His constant denegration of the house he was performing in, his character assasination of Sills in the compliant press, as well as his determination to turn an extant company into “Glimmerglass South”, using forgettable young singers in bad minimalist productions – all of that and more led to a company that almost no one cared about.
Not that Paul, in his usual drunken stupor, even remembers any of this….
I agree with Gualitier & Mr. Holland completely. I think that all of this needs to be laid at the feet of Dr. Baker. The Board needs a serious overhaul. I for one was looking forward to Mortier’s reign. Dr. Baker and the rest of the Board should be shot for allowing Kellogg to run NYCO into ground over the last 5 years.
La Cieca has always had the skinny on what’s happening there. But they probably won’t make a decision until it is entirely too late too even salvage the 2009-2010 season. If this is true and I hope it’s not – this really could be the end of NYCO. The economy is in the crapper and money is going to be tight. And you know the nouveau riche – they want to see their money work on their behalf – meaning big splashy productions at The Met.
Does anybody know how the 100 million from Koch is being allocated at NYCO?
Josephine:
I gotta say, quite honestly that I’d pick NYCO ,anyday over The MET–I’ve never walked away from a performance at The State Theater without finding SOME redeeming value–an unknown work,production values, involvement in what was happening on the stage…etc, MUCH more than the number of times I’ve just walked OUT from some disaster at The MET.
NYC NEEDS both houses…and it pains and frightens me that CityOpera is in so much turmoil..and possibly in danger for its continued existence.
Mortier might not have been the smartest choice–but there are/were many intriguing glimmers of a refreshed and renewed company , under his plans–and I can only wish NYCO all the best in weathering these rumors…and possibilties of being rudderless
MEOW Balabanov11 – add Rice Queen and you said it all. And before anyone gets offended at the RQ reference. My last b-friend was Asian.
With the way the market is these days, NYCO should have that money for the renovations in hand, and I don’t believe that is the case. I know from personal experience that they are living hand to mouth these days. It is kind of like when Beverly took the company over and had to go on jaunts to raise the payroll every week. However, NYCO no longer has a Beverly and Susan Baker does not seem to be the answer to their prayers. I think this is going to be a very interesting time to observe here in NY. For the life of me I canno come up with someone who could grab the helm and either save the sinking ship or guide it into port for repairs.
What can you say about the professional level of a company that has the following elements:
1. A lousy orchestra
2. A lousy hack music director
3. A board prez who knows nothing about opera or much else.
4. A board prez who hires the new general director over dinner without consulting with the rest of the board or conducting a proper search.
5. A search process that saw all of its top choices for the job turn them down without even interviewing (I know of at least three who wouldn’t even be interviewed for the job).
6. A company that thinks it can shut down for a year and survive.
7. Holds meetings with donors and subscribers, gets a torrent of questions, and looks at their audience like deer stuck in the headlights of a moving car.
8. Does no research about their subscribers or audiences before embarking on a season of solely 20th century works.
About the only interesting thing that ever happens at NYCO is rep. But when it is performed by hacks, with hack musicians and hack conductors I don’t care how interesting it is. You get one bad evening after another.
Anyone who would take all of the above in place of the MET really needs their head examined. Or their anus.
Tu che di gel sei cinta
The 20th century avenue is a “cool” way of distancing oneself from the bombast at the other end of the Plaza. It would work for the first season or two
The trouble is that they needed to maintain a more public profile during the closure period. Could Vivian Beaumont not have been pressed into service? Can think of loads of Weill, Blitzstein, Britten, Adams, Sondheim, etc which could have filled the gap year. The move could build a positive company feel. And develop some new in-house stars, which is the lack at present.
And overhaul marketing in a big way.
In addition to their repertoire I think NYCO also traditionally tried to do more intereting productions. That is something that the Met has only recently made a priority. That is not to say that the Met has not done interesting productions in the past but perhaps they have been more conservative until recently.
Interesting productions at NYCO?
You mean like that Hal Prince Don Giovanni performed in the dark? Or the “I Love Lucy” Cendrillon” Or the mess that was Margaret Garner? Or the inert Vanessa? Or the endless Handel productions that seemed to have no relation to either the music or the libretto?
Yep, those were far more “interesting” — code for shit — productions.
I certainly did not use the word ‘interesting’ as code for shit. But I am impressed because for someone who does not have a high opinion of the NYCO you certainly have seen more than your share of productions there. What this implies is that you are a fair and balanced person backing up your claims with actual data. Who among us can show such ethical backbone?
Anyone who would take all of the above in place of the MET really needs their head examined. Or their anus.
Charming, I’m sure. I cast my vote on this vital issue on the basis of the Christopher Keene years, where, from 3000 miles away, there was far more excitement than at the mausoleum across the plaza. I traveled for the rarer pieces and was quite happy with the standard of the perforamnce.
The 20th century avenue is a “cool†way of distancing oneself from the bombast at the other end of the Plaza. It would work for the first season or two
Uh, you do know that that was just the first season, right? It was going to be standard rep spiced with the 20th century stuff after that, like he does in Paris. He loathes Puccini, but he still programmes it at the Paris Opera.
I used to like the idea that the NYCO was NY’s Handelian venue. I found Olando really nice (very good cast and charming production), the Semele worth the visit (interesting production but flawed casting) and the Agrippina, just ok (ugly production, some good ideas and a lacklustre cast). In any case, I believe that NYCO’s records as an opera house with a commitment to Handel should not be lost.
I attend about 75 opera performances in New York annually. I like to see something and judge it for myself. I realize that is a rare way of doing things since most around here prefer to stay home behind their computers, ordering pizza by phone, peeing in a styrofoam cup while listening to old 78s rather than actually venturing out into the world, interacting with live human beings, and attending performances.
NYCO is a joke. Has been for years. The only reason to go is for rep you don’t see other places. But you don’t go there to see it done especially well. You just go there to see it. New York can certainly do better.
About the only thing that makes NYCO look good is Eve Queler!
I’ll be sorry if Mortier doesn’t come.
That is absolutely uncanny. I do have a tendency to stay home behind my computer, and order pizza although not by phone. I usaually use two dixie cups and a string. That way I can just use the cups to pee in. I lip synch to my old recordings of Jarmila Novotna. I really need to get out and see some live opera.
Just gotta say that Elizabeth Futral is one of my favorite singers. Her Semele at Santa Fe will always be a high point of my opera going, and I’ve loved her in DC, NYC, and NO, too. She and her voice are just beautiful to me.
Ladies, Ladies! Can’t we all just get along and LOVE EACH OTHER?!
Some of you are acting like sorority girls fighting over the last hot pink g string at a Frederick’s of Hollywood clearance sale.
Crack that whip Cieca!
re: futral.
I’m not sure if my ears will ever be the same after experiencing her lucia three years ago.
Futral sang the greatest performance of her career at NYCO РLakm̩ over a decade ago. She was wonderful Рlyrical, brilliant, silky and sensuous. Nothing that came after that quite measured up to the level of those Lakm̩s. Either vocally or dramatically she has done solid but not really distinguished work.
I loved the way Futral’s Nedda scared off Tonio with a whip last season in San Diego. She has the makings of a great dominatrix. For me, she was at her best vocally when she was an apprentice in Chicago.
I know nobody on the NYCO board can read French but I recommend they ask some kid to translate the French music magazine Classica. They have a long article this month on Mortier’s time in Paris and it is a record of ego, scandal and artistic failure. The only good news they found was that the new director will have a clean slate and low bar. Among the news to me was that Cambreling was paid the same as Gergiev and Salonen – the top fee – and the orchestra revolted at his “non-declared” music directorship and had to be brought off.
Nedda has used a whip on Tonio in virtually every production of this opera I have ever seen. Big deal.
Miss Futral was indeed at her best in LAKME, but I though t she also did very creditably in SEMELE.
Meanwhile, “Tony’s at his exercise!”
“Naturally, fans of the young Daniel Radcliffe will be enticed by the chance to see him, our adorable Harry Potter, in the buff.”
Is this about Equus? Nice physique, shame about the acting. I was standing behind two Australians in the half-price ticket booth who were having to decide between Mary Poppins and Equus ‘because it’s got that nice Harry Potter in it’. I was tempted to mutter ‘horses’ and ’sex’ but I let them get on with it.
Re: RAGS
There is some wonderful music in the show. As a previous poster said, Judy Kuhn is amazing in the title song, which I vividly recall from the Tony Awards that year. The show ran extremely long out of town, and so by the time it came to B’Way, it had been cut somewhat, which may have played a role in its unsuccessful run. However, there is a stupendous cast album with the estimable Julia Migenes replacing Stratas.
The biggest problem I had with the score is that it tries to have it both ways. There are wonderful showtunes along side rather mediocre semi-operatic numbers, like Children Of The Wind.
NYCO must survive and I couldn’t care less about what the people say here about the quality of their productions ect…
It employs young singers and gives them chances where so few other places will. If NYCO fails you will see even less American talent developed.
It’s odd how an article about Mortier morphed into diatribes pro and con little Miss Futral! This is surely a remarkable domain!
Miss Futral always struck me as having two voices – a low one and a high one; they did not seem connected. Later on, and I know she worked very hard, better integration of registers was achieved and she did some decent work. As to #21 Walter’s posting about “most gracious and kindest,” umm…interesting observation. I would more likely say: hard-working, purposeful in the extreme, and
stay out of her way. But how can we not wish her well?
The world of opera has forever required a strong cadre of utility singers. I find EF about at the same level of artistic value as that other Southern Girl, Laura Claycomb. Isn’t that a fair comparison?
Mortier? He’s impossible on a personal basis — for all the reasons given here, and more, but at this juncture isn’t that exactly what NYCO needs? They had better get rid of the dreary and unqualified Susan Baker and replace her with a resourceful, tough, smart man who can “handle” (maybe) Mortier. Did anyone say Volpe?
At the professional level, Richard Gaddes, formerly of Santa Fe will be knocking about with nothing to do after next week, but I doubt he would take it – though qualified if the NY meanies would give him the space and support. What a working environment is New York. But, wait!!! It’s very likely Sarah Palin will become available; she is hugely the right person for that position!
That’s that for today
###
Tsk, tsk, Mrmyster, Richard Gaddes is English. As some here would argue, that makes him immediately unqualified for any job remotely connected with opera, even taking tickets, though I love the idea of Mortier + an Englishman running NYCO, heads would explode all over Parterre Box.
Palin isn’t qualified to run a company… nor are any of the other candidates…. that chick from Hewlett Packard said so.
and — really — who knows more about *not* being qualified to run hewlitt packard than carly fiorina???
yes, yes — hewlEtt.
sorry, i spilled my drink.
Caro Cieca, I have to ask a question.
Is Futral’s voice really as mediocre as everyone says? I have not ever heard her live.
IMHO – Ms. Futral was a wonderful Semele and a very good Princess Eudoxie in the Met’s La Juive. I too agree with Scifi – considering that Lucia was her calling card a while back – the Lucia’s were rather painful to listen to. That being said – she is a lovely person and always very professional from what my friends who have worked with her say. I have have seen her in several other roles as well and have always walked away very disappointed.
“The only thing that makes NYCO look good is Eve Quelar”
Turandot hit the nail right on the head. Everything he said about NYCO is true. It has been on steep decline over the last decade. One only goes to NYCO because you will see rep that you won’t see at the Met. There were always at least 4 or 5 productions a year that were must sees – just because they were rarities. NYCO has done a lot of interesting things in the 12 years that I have lived in NYC, but 80 percent of the time you would walk away happy to have just seen a work performed – not happy with what you saw (or sometimes heard). Manahan IS a HACK!!! Glover (who figured prominently in their Handel cycle) is one of the most ANNOYING conductors of Baroque music out there. I have yet to see a Bel Canto production from them that wasn’t marred by ugly sets and stupid directoral conceits.
Good luck to whomever is taking over on turning that company around.
Wasn’t she also the Teresa in Sir Colin’s Benvenuto Cellini-before-last? Infinitely better than Laura Claycomb, who did the most recent one. Sadly, too, Giuseppe Sabbatini had misunderstood the principle of the ‘LSO Live’ recording set-up and didn’t allow it to be done, which was his loss as he was sensational. Second time around he was indisposed and we got Gregory Kunde instead, serviceable but hardly as electrifying.
What a lively piece it is – surely ripe for an extravagant staging at the Met. Only one I’ve seen on stage was Pountney’s in Zurich – what a riot. The God of all basses Ghiaurov sang the Pope, shortly before he died. I’m grateful to my dear friend in the chorus for getting his autograph for me.
Think I’ll change my nom de plume to Princess Eudoxie! Or is she taken?
I saw Futral in a concert performance of a Rossini thing in Edinburgh a few years ago, and I thought she was really marvellous. I think the voice itself lacks a bit of individuality and depth, but there was nothing wrong with how she was using it the night I heard her. Totally reliable, secure coloratura and top notes, despatched with more than a little style.
I saw the NYCO Semele and loved everything about it. Futral was fabulous. The following week in Siege of Corinth I didn’t like her quite as much. Oh well.
Scaramuccio:
“What a lively piece it is – surely ripe for an extravagant staging at the Met”
…we DID get it (”Benvenuto C”)., at the MET–in the ‘03-04 season; and it’s scheduled to return in the next couple of seasons
Ref #83, Henry Holland: “Heads explode” all over Parterre? Horrors! You know Opera Folk dont like messes.
Gaddes is English? Who would have known? How can you tell? Listen, hon, as long as the opera companies don’t do Italian or French, and everything is in English, well Englishmen are just fine to run opera companies. And casting – well, isn’t the Met a shining beacon of what Anglos can do when turned loose upon casts? And somebody said Geo. Manahan is a hack?
I wont argue, but have you heard him conduct contemporary music? He’s a whiz! Nobody can tell when it gets fucked up! And have you heard Mo. S. Lord conduct? How would you describe that?
Happy Thoughts to Henry Paulson
mrmyster/santa faux
I’m very curious…What , in the opinions of those who refer to him as such, makes George Manahan “a hack”?
I’ve never winced all that much at a NYCO performance, under Manahan’s baton, as I have across the Plaza, when Carlo Rizzi is on the podium…(among others…)
Just asking…..
Hack as in bland, uninspired, when in doubt just let everbody know how loud the orchestra can play. Part of the problem may be the acoustics of the theatre but I have never come away from anything he has conducted at NYCO ravished – which has happened more than once at the Met, Carnegie Hall & NY Phil under different conductors. He has conducted a wide variety of things there and it was all just rather perfunctory IMHO.
Well at least he’s not Quelar.
Gaddes is English? Who would have known? How can you tell?
Google is your friend.
Having met the Mortier, I can report that he is charming. But of course, this means nothing. Can he charm his way into the pockets of wealthy donors? That remains to be seen. After all, he has been credited with leaving 2 former companies in the red- and these institutions were financed by the state. One wonders if Mortier understands what he is getting into.
To paraphrase Mae West: the bad boy of opera will need to do better.