parterre box

94 comments

• scifisci says:

  #46: More recently, the MET Barbiere featured JDF running up the right aisle. I’ll never forget it…I was sitting on the aisle and when i realized who had whisked by me my heart skipped a beat (or three!)

  on March 4, 2009 at 1:38 AM
• Alto says:

  I don’t get all the hatin’ on Dessay. With all the awful singing and acting that goes on night after night from others, the vicious attacks on this highly skilled and conscientious artist seem at least exaggerated.

  But then it’s noticeable that her detractors almost always include a reference to her nationality — always a dead giveaway for an American of the more savage sort.

  on March 4, 2009 at 1:38 AM
• Boyrico says:

  RE #46: “This has been done in opera before. Is this truly the first time it has ever been done at the MET…”

  JDF made his entrance in the current Barbiere at the Met from the rear of the orchestra, walked down the aisle and climbed onto the stage

  on March 4, 2009 at 1:52 AM
• 33blueberries says:

  #52. I know, with all the awful singing going on, it’s a wonder Dessay hasn’t ascended to heaven yet..

  ..tumbleweed rolls past..

  ..French, Romanian, Russian, who cares! She’s a screeching banshee, for crying out loud! All you need to see is her beady little eyes screwing up for anything higher than an A!

  on March 4, 2009 at 2:09 AM
• Alessandro Visconti says:

  Can someone please retell the story of the Zambello Lucia?

  on March 4, 2009 at 7:12 AM
• Fidelio101 says:

  Lucia made her entrance for the mad scene from a seven story mountain of caskets.
  What’s wrong with that LOL

  on March 4, 2009 at 7:40 AM
• Jay says:

  @52, Dessay’s French nationality has nothing to do with the criticisms of her here. Netrebko (Russian) and Villazon (Mexican), Fleming and numerous other American singers are excoriated on Parterre Box, sometimes too much so, but often with good reason.
  The real issue re: singers is the general decline in singing, partly the result of inadequate training and often because unprepared artists jet from engagement to engagement. Not so long ago, singers, e.g., Crespin, Nilsson, Rysanek, would come to NYC and stay for an extended period, often singing several roles they had thoroughly studied. PD’s perigrinations helped change this, not for the better. Conductors likewise. I once heard Karl Boehm conduct four performances of three operas (Frau, Fidelio, Elektra) at the Met in a six-day period. Except for Levine, I don’t recall a conductor attempting something similar at the Met in the last couple of decades. (PD of course is apt to be anywhere in the world on a given day.)
  Meanwhile, Anne Midgette’s Washington Post Sonnambula review is at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/03/AR2009030303255.html

  on March 4, 2009 at 8:04 AM
• Will says:

  I believe it was having to enter climbing down a pile of caskets that sidelined Pavarotti from the Zambello Lucia–his knee and hip problems wouldn’t allow it and she, apparently, wasn’t willing to be flexible in the staging.

  I’m not sure who the Will is at whom all the criticism is being lobbed over the Butterfly puppet–I wasn’t commenting on this forum at that time, so I believe I’m a different Will

  on March 4, 2009 at 8:22 AM
• jenufa'ssister says:

  I have to admit I never thought to pin the trend of jetting singers on PD… (I have thought of pinning other unfortunate practices on him, though!) That may be valid, or else for various reasons he has been able to be three places at once more than most in this newer era. I completely concur that this has been detrimental when it comes to good singing, and perhaps conducting. In order to do one’s best, one has to keep the schedule calm. Being self-disciplined in this regard means turning down money and living a somewhat boring life . For great art, it’s worth it.

  on March 4, 2009 at 8:34 AM
• Brooklynpunk says:

  Will (58)

  No–you’re off the hook…UNLESS your last name is BERGER, AND YOU WERE THE CO-HOST ON THE SIRIUS B’CAST, LAST NITE…LOL!

  Il G.–I apologize, if I didn’t get the whole quote correct—it just sounded so stupid, I couldn’t believe Domas or Racette would have said anything THAT lame…..

  on March 4, 2009 at 9:59 AM