Bring back Bondy
A source close to (though not necessarily at) the Metropolitan Opera tells La Cieca that the company’s production staff “late last week” pitched the idea of reviving the Franco Zeffirelli production of Tosca in the fall of 2010 in order to free up some backstage space for the “QEII-sized” sets for the new Rheingold. Peter’s Gelb‘s answer? A resounding “no!” So, La Cieca predicts, you can count on Luc Bondy‘s vision of the Puccini shocker to return the boards as scheduled.
Apparently the necessary elbow room will be obtained by cutting down on some of the clutter of Zack Brown‘s Rigoletto sets, substituting elements from a lighter version of the production created for a 2001 tour of Japan.
A representative of the Met’s press department says, “At this point we have not confirmed next season’s rep.”
that pic in the white suite is hawt…and yes, his Don Giovinetto is definitely hanging to the left, ain’t it.
I heard about this over a month ago from an “insider source” not necessarily at the Met. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Zeff is back on next year.
In tomorrow’s NY Times they suggest the Met will alternate Zeff’s Tosca with Bondy’s next season !
Is the suggestion a “We, the Times, suggest the met does this” or We, the Times, have heard unconfirmed rumors that this will be happening…?
The article by Daniel Wakin is online already.
After reading that NY TIMES article I’m convinced Peter Gelb absolutely loves this whole controversy. Mark my words, both productions will be scheduled next year. Lots of articles will be written. Franco will give lots of incoherent quotes.
Gelb is a fucking genius, indeed…
Once RHEINGOLD is introduced next season, it will probably only be revived when complete RING cycles are being given.
That would mean the opera house is more or less exclusively devoted to the RING sets, and tdhe problem of rotating different productions will become less relevant.
Once upon a time the MET used do remind producers that theirs was a repertory house, and that other productions had to be built, rehearsed, and performed. Which also meant assembled, disassemled and stored.
On another subject:
alterations to “controversial” stagings have happend rather frequently over the decades. In addition to the contrempts with Graham Vick over TROVATORE (which was only given in two seasons), back in the 1970s Elijah Moshinsky had his name removed from BALLO when it was revived, and at about the same time the BOCCANEGRA that came from Chicago came without the name of its original designer.
In the 1980′s, Peter Hall took his name off MACBETH, which the MET only revived twice I think, and also off of CARMEN when changes were made following the re-casting of the title part with Baltsa, rather than Ewing (Hall’s wife at the time).
The house does own the production, and feels it can modify things that don’t work. Even the Schenk RING was altered to tone down the Valkyrie antics after a few performances.
The THAIS production last season came into New York without a designer’s name attached. (Other than for the leading lady’s frocks, that is.)
Met is not loaning the Bondy “Tosca” set to anybody. Original scheme was to share it with Scala but, upon reflection, both Houses agreed an ABC piece like “Tosca” can’t successfully be scheduled by those two companies without a lot of grief. Solution: share design costs but build your own set. Scala may loan its out.
There is talk – no more than that – that the real “Rigoletto” production will be used when the opera is brought back in Jan 2011.
Peter Gelb has every intention of keeping the Zeffirelli Tosca, “come Palmieri”!
(I borrowed this joke from someone on another forum. Too good not to share).