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?
1. I really want to see Marlis Peterson’s Lulu which as others have mentioned, is supposed to be great, born to play the role, Mozartean—and coupled with Levine would just be great. She has no recordings, no website, nothing Lulu on youtube, so live is the only way to go to get any Marlis Lulu. I also heard her on the Lyric podcast, very intelligent and charming.
2. I also really want to hear Frau.
3. I do not need another Tosca. Especially another germanic dramatic singing it (maybe Voigt killed it for me). I love Mattila but I would love to see her in more Strauss! I want a real spinto for Tosca. And I also don’t need another Carmen.
I think Carmen and Tosca are a good example of how much the star casting has not worked for me. I want to hear the music and voices that envelop the parts, not just approximate. This year’s Giovanni I did not like (I think Elvira does need top, no more mezzos, please), but I was surprised when I loved this year’s not so starry Lucia so much better than last year’s. The voices actually fit the part. It’s frustrating, and I think disrespects the audience.
Scifi and Not telling: I was relying on my memory re: Dalayman as Lady M. I think I was mistaking it with her scheduled Marie.
Petersen does have a website and you can hear bits and pieces of her but alas not Lulu. I also have her in something from the Salzburg 2006 series. She was quite good in that too. I recently heard her live as Zdenka and she was great. Actually the best in the cast.
#83 – Diva. Sorry this is ‘late’ – my attention has been elsewhere. Of course keep Susan Baker’s money (was it all that much? $5-mil?), but I think she’s now shown her incompetence — and her board seems surprisingly quiet about it all.
I much want NYCO to reorganize and get back on track, and Mortier’s flip is really no surprise. Kaiser as advisor is fine. But it is time for a new leader at NYCO who has more public faith than Mrs B.
But her money is already paid, right? Good! Take the money and run!
I could see Szot as the Barbiere Figaro. It would be a good fit for an opera neophyte audience he may draw, as well. But whatever he’s in, I hope its an HD transmission!
I am very excited about a possible Elektra. It’s been too long.
Canning Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk will upset me. It’s been too long.
here is the Petersen website:
http://www.marlis-petersen.de/pages/startseite/startseite.php
Dear La Cieca,
My comment pertained only to Willy Decker’s La Traviata. In recent Met productions other sopranos exhibited dramatic singing and acting of notice. For the Salzubrg production, Netrebko owns Violetta.
netrebko owns short skirted modern porn version of Traviata
so far vocally, she does not.
“… the HD broadcast and DVD sales that have done so much to bring in new audiences and reinvigorate “old†ones has created a situation in which stars only want to do new productions, as those are the ones most likely to be broadcast and/or sold to distributors.”
That point would be far more plausible if Maria Callas had not been just as insistent on new productions long before the motives you mention were ever thought of.
Just a wild guess: when Gheorghiu sings Carmen, she’ll probably perform the original version of the Habanera, which she also did on her recording, and then give her adoring public the more famous second one as an encore immediately after that.
Less likely, but it could happen: a production of Armida in which the lead character is green and then Chenoweth comes on as an extra character and interpolates ‘Popular’, right after Fleming has sung D’amore al dolce impero.