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?
That’s awful.
Well, obviously we who don’t have to worry about the money bags would prefer if they’d scrap new productions of things they don’t already have productions of, but let’s face it: Janacek and Shostakovich don’t pull in a crowd.
How is it there’s still plenty of money for having wars, I always wonder?
I heard five productions, two new ones, THE NOSE and THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD. Among the revivals have not heard which ones (other than LADY MACBETH OF MTSENK) but would hazard a guess and say
BENVENUTA CELLINI, LULU and perhaps THE GHOSTS OF VERSAILLE, none of which are going to play to sold out houses. supposedly the board wants to cut productions that do not sell ala DR ATOMIC.
That sentence reads exactly the opposite of how I meant it to. It’d be nice, I’m trying to say, if they went ahead, e.g., with House of the Dead, and didn’t fork over for a new Tosca when they have a serviceable, if not terribly challenging one.
Scuttlebutt says Frau is being replaced by Elektra…
I know stuff that’s on the chopping block.
And the info regarding Baltimore isn’t accurate.
let’s put OC on the chopping block!
All right, Youdontlikeme, La Cieca will ask nicely. What is the stuff that’s on the chopping block?
I’m looking forward to Ghosts and Lulu, so I hope it won’t be them. Personally I don’t see why the Met needs a new Tosca, at least not now, if things are tight. I’d scrap Benvenuto Cellini a) because it sucked; b) too many supernumeraries (which is partly why it sucked). And I agree that the Janacek and Shostakovich are likely to go. And, as old as the current Hoffmann is, it’s perfectly serviceable, so why replace it? There, my two cents, thanks for askin’.
I have a funny feeling that youdontlikeme might be related to smartone.
dcrazmo: La Cieca is hoping that youdontlikeme will turn out to be smarter than smartone and therefore better liked as well.