A bird in the hand
Whenever La Cieca (center) feels afraid, she doesn’t just hold her head erect or whistle a happy tune (though she’s been known to do both on occasion), she reminds herself, “You know, things could be a lot worse than what they are!” For example, during the late unpleasantness of the George W. Bush regime, while it was true that our country was plunged into a quagmire of a war, civil liberties were being flouted left and right, such important causes as health care reform and marriage equality were being systematically swept under the rug, and, well, a lot of other unpleasant stuff was going on, La Cieca never took her eye off the bluebird. And what did that little birdie always chirp to her? “Cheer up! Cheer up! The housing market is booming and real estate prices never go down! Never go down!”
Soon enough, La Cieca found out that, in fact, things could and did get a lot worse, the way things always seem to have a way of doing. And so, it is no surprise for her to hear that no matter how slipshod a way you may have thought New York City Opera may have been run over the last couple of years, it could have been quite disastrously worse.
According to a piece by Zachary Woolfe in this week’s New York Observer, some members of the NYCO board last spring sought to oust Susan Baker (La Cieca can hear you right now saying, “is there a down side to this?” — but, wait for it) and replace general manager George Steel with Joe Volpe. And you know that to La Cieca that idea sounds about as palatable as “President Giuliani.”
So, the next time you’re down and out, or if you’re sitting in the middle of a performance of Esther thinking to yourself, “There surely must be something on HBO right now,” just recall these magic words that will snap you right out of your funk:
“It could be Joe Volpe.”
yikes, it’s like Bay Of Pigs, poor us, we never knew how close we came!
The only thing scarier then the thought of Volpe at the helm at NYCO..(and, as smarmy and officious as he became at the MET, I didn’t find him as dispicable as some might..).
would have been another name that I heard rumors of..”Mayor” Rudy, …himself..now THAT would have been truely either homicide and/or suicide inducing..!
Joe Volpe? And not Francesca Zambello?
I wonder what Bloomberg News will have to say about this …
Well, if we go by recent happenings in NYC, this would have been a fantastic idea.
Volpe would bring NYC’s favorite stage director/designer and then NYCO will be the talk of the town with new productions of:
Tosca, this time with the real Palazzo Farnese on stage, courtesy of Berlusconi himself
Aida, with sand from the Nile a real mummy on stage and Camels
Boheme, with the entire theater chilled to 29 degrees for the 2nd and 3rd act.
Traviata, this time the coup de teatre will be casting a real consumptive soprano to vive the opera more realism. She will actually die on stage, so it will be a one and only gala performance
Otello, with a real storm on the stage. Rain jackets will be distributed to the 1st 7 rows
Anna Bolenna, with Nebby and a real execution at the end.
Sounds like a winner to me.
[/sarcasm]
Are we even sure that Volpe seriously wanted the job? Initially the talk was that he was just being consulted on union matters. I think that after the Met, he’s done with opera and that kind of mishegas.
Oh La Cieca, you do have a way with words. Very funny.
Why Volpe would even want the job, however, is a whole different question.
Why does La Cieca’s little bird immediately put me in mind of Betsy Norden?
Things are starting to get too political around here for my taste. Guess I’ll have to switch to the other queer operazine. (Oh wait! There’s not one…) Why can’t Giuliani have his own operazine? “Where Opera is King and all of The Readers are Queens and Should Never be Allowed to Marry.” He is an opera fan. Guess that would be too political as well.
Geez Louis,
Who wrote this article? It’s full of ridiculous suggestions and ignorant assertions. Only some of which are Mr. Steel’s.
For instance, Bartoli at NYCO? Re-establishing ties with Glimmerglass? Do I need to elaborate?
You can criticize Bloomberg’s reporting of the NYCO meltdown but at least they know opera.
Indeed as I understand it the breaking-news about Volpe is old news.
The real shudders came to me when George was quoted though. I really don’t see how NYCO can exist for the whole of this season, much less next.
1. “‘The top-selling opera of the year is Esther,’ Mr. Steel said with pride…” Need I go on?
2. “Mr. Steel wants to present operas that aren’t just the ones you haven’t seen in a while, but are ones you’ve never heard of. ” Has he looked at the sales figures for the last years at NYCO. Why does he think he can pack the house when they could only manage 3 performances of “Vanessa” and two concerts (highly papered we were told here) of “Antony and Cleopatra?”
He (Steel) pointed to the City Opera standard, Mark Lamos’ elegent, minimalist Madama Butterfly, a production that Mr. Steel characterized as having an “anti-Zeffirelli approach,” and so lobbing a stone through the window of the Metropolitan Opera’s famous director.
Semele, Margaret Garner, Cappricio, these productions were generated in-house. But of course George never SAW them so he can’t POINT to them.
And as far as lobbing a stone through the Met by criticizing Zefferelli, Gelb has been throwing that same stone through those same windows, from the INSIDE, for quite a long time now. The stone is years too late, and, given Mr. Steel’s track record in producing operas (3 one acts to date) more like a pebble, or a grain of sand. You think Peter Gelb is worried about what George Steel has to say? George Steel is the least of Peter’s problems right now. When is Mary Zimmerman up to bat next?
3. “There’s no confusion in anyone’s mind what one stands for or the other stands for,” Mr. Steel said, about the distinction between the two companies.
Really George, because I don’t think anyone can tell you what the Met stands for right now considering the hottest ticket there is a star driven highly traditional production of “Rosenkavelier” but was supposed to be “Tosca.”
In the end I think NYCO is doomed. This writer seems to think NYCO’s future is entirely dependant on people sharing, or even caring about, Steel’s taste in opera.
Wether he even has any taste in opera remains to be seen. And even if he does, he still has to raise tens of millions of dollars when even the Met is struggling. Good luck George, you are going to need it.