parterre box

11 comments

• 1
  Alto says:

  December 7, 2009 at 11:38 PM

  Once more with the spin that the sets were the only thing people didn’t like about TOSCA.
  • 1.1
    Lindoro Almaviva says:

    December 8, 2009 at 12:37 AM

    I think the whole situation is more complicated than that. As I say in the Decade in review threat:

    The Met replaces its Zefirelli Tosca with another traditional production. Some people bitch because it is too traditional, some people bitch because it was not traditional enough, some bitch because it is not by zefirelli. So the Met has to make peace with the fact that the unifying theme of the new Tosca is the fact that people went looking for reasons to hate it, as opposed to love it.

    Unfortunately, the met was in a no win situation no matter what, so how is it spin?
  • 1.2
    squirrel says:

    December 8, 2009 at 1:03 AM

    Yeah, that Tosca, so unfulfilling because of those damn SETS! Right.
• 2
  justanothertenor says:

  December 8, 2009 at 12:10 AM

  Right before her interview for this segment, Renée definitely had a close encounter with a Bump-it!
• 3
  javier says:

  December 8, 2009 at 12:29 AM

  Renee looks good in the Rosenkavalier clips…guess I’ll go to the HD now.
  • 3.1
    Lindoro Almaviva says:

    December 8, 2009 at 12:52 AM

    I can’t wait, I took a couple classes with Robert O’Hearn and I love his designs.

    This is probably some of the last performances of his production. I will venture a guess that replacing this Rosenkavalier will be less traumatic to some than the Zefirelli Boheme.
• 4
  squirrel says:

  December 8, 2009 at 1:02 AM

  ouch! That was a very unflattering Mattila bit!
• 5
  pernille says:

  December 8, 2009 at 8:38 AM

  So the audience for opera has been declining – well, PBS, how about looking in the mirror and thinking about the “so-called” cultural programming you have been dishing up in the last decades? Talk about decline.

  The Times may be bad ( at least they have reviewers who attend performances) , but PBS is a disaster.
  • 5.1
    Alto says:

    December 8, 2009 at 10:17 AM

    You’re so right.
• 6
  iltenoredigrazia says:

  December 8, 2009 at 11:12 AM

  I don’t know where some people get their ideas about what opera was like in decades past. I’ve been attending opera performances since the early 1960’s and “standing up front and singing” was never acceptable. It happened, just like it still happens today, but it was criticized just like it is criticized today when it happens. Stage appearance and dramatic involvement was always something desired.

  More than fifty years ago Callas lost a lot of weight precisely because she wanted to be believable onstage. Nilsson, Sutherland, Tebaldi, Steber, Amara, Price, Horne, Rysanek, et al all worked at losing weight and looking their best. And they all worked to improve their dramatic abilities.

  Even earlier the likes of Pons, Sayao, Stevens, Moore and others were well known for their looks and stage presence. And for every Melchior, Milanov, or Caballe of the past, we now have Botha, Eaglen, or Brewer.

  Dramatically exciting productions were also known and appreciated in decades past. At the Met, Don Carlo, Cosi, Carmen, Wozzeck were as sensational in their time as FTHOD is nowadays. An early 1950’s Faust with Mefistofele in top hat was as controversial as Tosca was a couple of months ago.

  The world didn’t start with the arrival of Fleming, Gelb and others.
• 7
  scifisci says:

  December 9, 2009 at 11:49 PM

  Fleming really does understand the crux of the problem with our society today, even though I disagree with her assessment of theatricality in opera B.R. (Before Renee).

  Also…”Sher can’t read music and doesn’t speak Italian”
  Oh great. And he thinks it’s “weird and strange”. Even better. Opera truly is finished when those producing it don’t even have faith in it ala gelb’s disclaimer of sonnambula as “silly”.