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?
re 118 – I think most people agree that the music of ‘Cellini’ is not the problem – I personally think it’s rather fabulous, but as an opera experience it is hugely problematic. There’s almost too much in it – there’s something exhausting and hyper about it. Colin Davis loves the piece and has done it several times in concert, and there’s a good recording on the LSO’s own label. I enjoyed it so much more in concert (where I’ve heard it twice – so something impelled me to go back) – onstage at the Met it was a drag – the director obviously didn’t trust the piece, hence all the distractions, but I’m not sure it would work in a more sympathetically attuned production.
And don’t give it a bloody Nose – it’s no masterpiece but it can be fun. Just not in a huge house – it’s one of those events that should be like Hellzapoppin, cast invading the audience and all that….
Never liked Ghosts of Versailles personally – a big cop out, idioms in search of an author, pastiches of Mozart and bad Rossini most of it written in acceptable musical styles so as not to frighten the horses, or middle-of-the-road audiences. Bourgeois crapola. Good riddance.
“But her money is already paid, right? Good! Take the money and run!”
I devoutly pray, for the future of opera, that no company makes you Development Director.
now that (some) word is out wrt programming changes at the met next season, what of opera chic’s scoop on our friends down in the charm city?
i’ve seen some lovely little productions — including a riveting lady mtsensk a few years back –at the lyric opera house (just a few minutes’ walk from penn station baltimore, making day trips a breeze).
it would be ashame to see them go under.
The new productions I want to see are Armida, The Nose, Attila, House of the Dead, and Hamlet, so I presume the four deep-sixed will all be chosen from this group. Whichever ones already exist, in the reps of other houses co-producing, are the likeliest ones to show up.
Hans: Gelb’s first statement to the NYT stressed that the new productions would go on as scheduled and that the cutbacks would be from within the revivals. Of course, that’s the decision for now and obviously a lot of things can happen between now and 2010.
There’s some talk already of Elektra replacing Frau which presumably leaves two to be bumped from the following list:
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, Der Fliegende Hollander, Benvenuto Cellini, Lulu.
I’m going to go with the two titles I underlined, with Celllini maybe rolling over into Carmen and the Lady M… well, who knows?
at the risk of being lambasted for a possibly naive observation (especially after totally stuffing up the cheno/ghost’s predcition yesterday): wouldn’t having AP attribution that the 8 new productions are safe make it more problematic for gelb to step back from that, er, commitment?
if the other three are coming out of rep, it’s lulu amd mtensk fershur, and then either frau or cellini.
whatever: Well, the Lulu is scheduled for only 3 performances but surely would require quite a bit of rehearsal after being out of the rep for 8 years. But on the other hand the opera is one of Levine’s favorites and this may be his last chance at conducting it. My intuition is that Gelb would pitch it to Levine that he could lose the Lulu but take over the Elektra which is more or less the same time. Hard to say which is tougher on the box office, 3 Lulus or 5 Cellinis.
la cieca, that raises an interesting point — at this point, which takes higher priority: trimming production cost, or minimizing box office risk? in the profit sector, one usually would look to the bottom line to see the net impact of a proposed change on an existing P&L. but it is always easier accuarately to project cost savings than revenues.
i dunno … probably three lulus would sell. but as you suggest there are two moving parts here: revenues and costs.
whatever: It seems to me that by now the Met should be able to make pretty accurate projections of ticket sales for next season, at least comparing production to production. I know that the audiences for Lulu were pretty skimpy last time around but maybe tastes have changed some in the past decade.
Lulu is also less expensive to put on than some other operas; while the orchestra is triple wind and the cast fairly big, there is no chorus, and the production is relatively inexpensive (no special effects).