gelb gives up “ghosts”
Official word from the Met concerning rumored cutbacks in next season is that Ghosts of Versailles is to be replaced with a revival of Traviata, rolling over Angela Gheorghiu and Thomas Hampson. No word on what happens to Kristen Chenoweth, but Peter Gelb promises that the new productions are going ahead as scheduled. [via NYT]
Mi lagnerò tacendo
No need for that kind of language applied to another commenter. Keep it, if not clean, at least on-topic, okay?
“And on another front, NYCO still hasn’t updated the pressroom page on its website …”
When an opera company can’t afford to put on operas, isn’t it a little de trop to expect them to invest in online media personnel?
How truly disappointing! I remember the old broadcast with Teresa Stratas singing Marie Antoinette; the “There was a golden bird” section was divine – one of the highlights of any contemporary opera that I’ve seen.
Like Justice Kennedy, I’m going to concur in part and dissent in part. The Zeffirelli Carmen and Traviata are trash and need to be added to the heap in Fresh Kills or wherever Manhattan is sending its garbage post-haste. However, the Tosca….well, that is a classic, a masterpiece in its own right. I’d like to see it mothballed for a few years and then brought back in restored fashion, because it really is quite wonderful.
And maybe I’m just a philistine, but I truly thought Ghosts was excruciating. Honestly, Gatsby and View from the Bridge were far worthier of revivals. I’d rather see The Voyage than Ghosts.
And what’s with all the dumping on Fleming and Gheorghiu? Sure, they both have their vocal idiosyncracies, but…has the Met fielded a better Violetta than either of them in the past decade?
Maybe Chenoweth can take the top E flat on Ange’s behalf at the end of ‘Sempre libera’. Or sing in unison with her throughout to pump Mrs Alagna’s sound up a bit. Everyone keeps complaining that can’t hear her.
Hampson is a waste of money in this role. You can clearly hear that in the Salzburg Traviata which was allready four yeas ago!
Traviata is def. not an opera to travel for. It’s been played everywhere…. Is the Frosch still on the schedule…?
Hopefully, the old Ghosts will be released on Dvd instead. Who can convince Gelb on that?
Leonardo
A smart opera impresario should choose Verdi over Corigliano any day, especially in a depression.
Gheorghiu’s a great Violetta, as she proved a couple of seasons ago when she sang it at the MET. Well placed and centered high notes, technically exemplary and dramatically touching. She moved Solti to tears when she first sang the role for him.
As for Millo having having a high C, my next door neighbor has one too. It doesn’t meant I’d pay money to see either. Millo was big in the 80s, today she’s just big. Just let her go.
Well.
Caliber’s Ex: Your post speaks for itself (and tells many things about you), and so I feel no need whatsoever to defend myself. But I do have a question concerning your fourth paragraph:
“Because you do not agree with even handed and her crystal ball, assumptions of failure for other singers of course not their precious soon to be Bev Sills host and only that Fleming
.”
Also, too, are you by any chance Sarah Palin? I’m afraid your “musical” references show that the similarities do not stop with issues of syntax…
I would so love to have that Ghosts on DVD, if only for Stratas. Isn’t Rene (before all the hype and the manierisms) in it? I can’t remember. And if the Met released the Dialogues of the Carmelites with Norman and Crespin and the Tales of Hoffman with Shicoff and Troyanos. I thought she was so sexy, and that’s saying a lot coming from me. Can Gheorghiu do a valid Traviata in that huge theater? At least she has lived with the music a long time, so she can work her way around it. But I feel it must be getting a little late in the game for her to keep that part in her active repertoire.
I love the Carsen Hoffman (which uses the correct order of the acts) but that won’t happen since Bart Sher is the director. Recent Hoffman productions in St. Louis and Boston used excerpts from Michael Kaye’s soon to be published edition. I hope Levine will do the same but I doubt it.