parterre box

51 comments

• Condanna O Screater says:

  Will 40, you might like to see the lady folk entering the Teatro Real in Madrid with their furs in Spring…Admittedly most do not do that but there are some who seem reluctant to pack the beasts back to storage. Floria might be one of that kind. On the other hand, the thick-walled Palazzo Farnese doesn’t exactly look like a warm place.

  on July 9, 2009 at 6:05 PM
• kashania says:

  Most 19th century opera require a 75-piece orchestra. I totally get that a smaller orchestra makes the piece much easier to stage (especially from a financial perspective) but a 70-piece orchestra is not “huge”. A 100-piece orchestra is “huge”.

  on July 9, 2009 at 6:34 PM
• Alto says:

  “I congratulate Gelb on abandoning the commission. The Met should not be commissioning new works in French.”

  It’s interesting in this connection that the latest commission and premiere by the main French opera company (reviewed in today’s NY TIMES) is in the German tongue.

  on July 9, 2009 at 6:59 PM
• Aida Lottapasta says:

  Alto – yes, it is interesting…. because the environment in Europe is so different than it is in the United States, both for opera in general, and for the way contemporary work is embraced. I similarly found it ridiculous when Detroit commissioned a new work in French – Cyrano. How many companies are lining up to do that piece in the US?

  on July 9, 2009 at 7:12 PM
• Hans Lick says:

  He’s a clever boy and knows his audience. It is NOT the audience that loves or knows opera, and they could care less how it sounds so long as it is the dernier cri, which it will be, however briefly. Wainwrong (love that pun) is not speaking to opera lovers in these puffs; we know too much and buy too little (of his product) and he could care less about us. It is all about leaving the pop world agog.

  He’s also too rich to find out that inexpensive seats are available at the Met nearly all the time, if you want to go, and the place is often close to full.

  As for knowing Verdi, he claims to have fallen in love with opera by listening to the Verdi Requiem (who can forget the Zeffirelli staging of that, with fourteen uncalled-for scene changes?). His remark about insufficient creativity means (I think) that performers of Traviata (e.g.) do tend to sing Traviata each time they perform it – even La Boheme is almost always Puccini’s and not Leoncavallo’s. As for Prima Donna – so much more creative, dear Rufus, if it’s Victor Herbert’s and not yours!

  (I find his voice excruciating, too. Rather listen to Jane Eaglen singing Debussy.)

  on July 9, 2009 at 7:46 PM
• browser says:

  Um, Cyrano has already been put on 4 times in the 18 months since it was premiered – which is better than Flight, The Tempest, Le Balcon, Tea, did in their first outings – and in fact better than Peter Grimes.

  There is nothing wrong in a company commissioning opera in a non-native language. It’s a big world out there that doesn’t stop at the eastern coastline.

  on July 10, 2009 at 4:58 AM
• Aida Lottapasta says:

  I’m only aware of three companies involved in the Cyrano coproduction – Detroit, Florida and Philadelphia, and if memory serves me correctly, didn’t Florida cancel the production? Regardless, if it has actually had 4 production, that is not bad at all – and the piece has some merits – but some facts deserve qualification: The opera was composed by the director of Michigan Opera Theater (di Chiera) and the libretto was by a VERY connected stage director (Uzan). Don’t think for a minute that Cyrano’s little burst of success out of the gate would have happened if it wasn’t for their connections – similarly, no one in their right mind would have taken Rufus’s opera seriously if he wasn’t such a well-known commodity in certain circles.

  on July 10, 2009 at 6:41 AM
• djedushka says:

  The fur in the picture is ermine, not sable.

  Actually the appropriate fur for the QUEEN of opera.

  on July 10, 2009 at 9:22 AM
• Hippolyte says:

  Wow, I’m trying to wrap my mind around what Aida said: new operas get commissioned and performed because their creators are either well connected or well known or both! Who’d have thought??!!

  on July 10, 2009 at 9:44 AM
• Le_Chiffre says:

  mrmyster, I’m not so sure that I would stand up to correct Rufus if I heard him live if for no other reason than the humor value of listening to him go on and on.

  It reminds me of a performance of arias in concert I heard about 10 years ago. All singers were instructed to provide a very brief verbal introduction for their arias. One soprano stated that her aria was from La Boheme, and that the opera is set in Spain. I think a bit more discipline and a less “creative” approach to role research may have helped.

  on July 10, 2009 at 11:53 AM