four weedings and a funeral
This afternoon, after breaking the tragic news that Baltimore Opera seems to be on its last legs, Opera Chic added the startling tidbit that even the mighty Met is planning major cutbacks for next year. The blog says (with no source offered) that the company “is about to excise four [productions?] from their 2009-10 season.”
Per Brad Wilber c/o Sieglinde, the Met’s ambitous 100% Peter Gelb-planned season is projected as follows:
New productions: Tosca, From the House of the Dead, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Carmen, Attila, The Nose, Hamlet, Armida.
Repertory: Le nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, Aida, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Der Rosenkavalier, Turandot, La Damnation de Faust, Il trittico, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Hansel and Gretel, Stiffelio, Simon Boccanegra, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, La Fille du Regiment, La boheme, The Ghosts of Versailles, Der Fliegende Hollander, Benvenuto Cellini, Lulu.
So if four of these productions are fated to fall by the wayside, which do you think most likely to be axed? And, while we’re discussing, which four do you think should be axed?
#139 – not so sure, Mme Cieca about projecting ticket sales. Of subscriptions already ordered and paid, yes. But that’s a minor % of box office, I expect. Does it not depend where the economy goes? THAT is truly unknowable; right now it’s pretty scary.The Dow Jones looks like it is having a bad case of of the willies — up and down like Bill Clinton’s dick! It’s a bad symptom and bodes ill for the Met – Remember in 1929 – 33 or so, it took the depression economy a few years, two or three, to take hold; Krugman says today we are already in “depression economy.” Elective opera tickets would be the first to go. Think what it costs a NYC couple with kids to go to the opera: Seats for the show, $500; dinner first (Grand Tier), $200/$300; baby sitter, $100; taxis and tips, $50. Maybe drinks at an intermission or two, or a bottle of Veuve Cliquot at your Grand Tier Restr. table — up to $125. Tot that up – could very easily reach to $800 or $1000.
There are cheaper ways to the opera, as we know, but one of the best is to NOT go, and listen on your Sirius radio. Bottom line: Versailles is probably only the first to be cut. Highly likely, more to come. Not a good time for the opera profession.
i would agree that, in general, an organization of the met’s sophistication should be pretty buttoned-down about sales projections … but in an environment where the stock market spasms in 900 point daily swings, who knows what to do?
Finally, its announced : the ghosts of versaille, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Die Frau Ohne Shatten and Benvenuto Cellini.
But three operas will be added : Elektra, La Traviata and Ariadne auf Naxos