parterre box

47 comments

• squirrel says:

  Yes, I would say!

  on October 9, 2009 at 12:26 AM
• rommie says:

  well my bad then.

  i guess i wont be working at the met anytime soon. HA

  on October 9, 2009 at 12:27 AM
• rommie says:

  but seriously…

  what will happen to La Boheme at the Met? the Met Futures site has nothing on a new production.

  on October 9, 2009 at 12:47 AM
• squirrel says:

  it’s going to be there for another 15 years, and then it’s going to be redone by Otto Schenk.

  on October 9, 2009 at 12:49 AM
• CruzSF says:

  Rommie & squirrel, you guys kill me! (I mean that nicely.) It’s almost like being there while you have the dialogue. Thanks to both of you for your reports.

  on October 9, 2009 at 2:10 AM
• matto per la lirica says:

  What is he difference between an opera house and an insane asylum?

  In the asylum the director is sane…..

  on October 9, 2009 at 4:55 AM
• qualorribilepeccato says:

  #6, I think that the first marschallin was margarete siems, a zerbinetta etc. If strauss wanted a heavier voice, he had plenty of dramatics to choose from.

  on October 9, 2009 at 5:02 AM
• Byrnham Woode says:

  The Met BOHEME dates from 1982 and is far from being the company’s oldest production.

  The would be the Zeffirelli (!) FALSTAFF, which dates from 1964 in the old house. It was recently refurbished.

  The third production seen at Lincoln Center was used just last season; LA GIOCONDA. Though the costumes were redone in the 1970s or 80s because of a warehouse fire.

  DER ROSENKAVALIER dates from 1968, also rebuilt, and is arguably a more succesful production than the BOHEME.

  Gelb is right: nothing should last forever. But there is no set-rule about when something is to be replaced. There are too many factors involved, including occasion, singers, designer, director, etc.

  Bayreuth retained the original production of PARSIFAL for 50 years! And Wieland Wagner’s famous 1951 staging lasted til 1973, 7 years after he had died. Wisely, even these “hallowed” productions were eventually replaced.

  on October 9, 2009 at 10:46 AM
• Graciella Scusi says:

  @37 qualorribilepeccato : “I think the first marschallin was margarete siems, a zerbinetta, etc….”

  And it’s at that “etc.” where the confusion may start; she was also the first Chrysothemis, and sang Aida, Sieglinde, and Isolde as well as coloratura roles.

  on October 9, 2009 at 12:35 PM
• Will says:

  Right, Graciella–they had TECHNIQUES then! Lili Lehmann sang high coloratura parts, Norma, Isolde and the Ring. Lillian Nordica was a Queen of the Night and an Isolde and the soprano in the MET’s first Verdi Requiem. Several others had that dazzling ability to run the gamut of fachs. Part of that, I suspect, was that the massive, relatively inflexible dramatic soprano voice (the Nilsson/Varnay type) didn’t exist then and wasn’t expected. People know how to listen then and wanted good singing, not brute volume.

  As to the oldest productions in the MET’s current stock, I would propose Adriana Lecouvreur. It was tarted up, as the Victorians would say, quite a bit last season, but the core remains from its January 1, 1963 premiere, 46-1/2 years ago.

  In his sneering, dismissive review of the opera itself, Irving Kolodin opined the money spent on the orchestral parts to be a complete waste as surely very few MET musicians would ever play the vapid, superficial music again. Wrong! Does anyone want to predict with certainty that we won’t ever see this production again?

  on October 9, 2009 at 2:08 PM