parterre box

24 comments

• pernille says:

  I know “we” are not New York Times fans here, but isn’t it a bit strange that the paper hasn’t reported his death? I haven’t seen it reported anywhere else either.

  on January 19, 2010 at 10:03 AM
• Tamerlano says:

  As a little queer boy stuck in the Adirondack Mountains, The Vocal Scene was my link to great singing. He will be missed.

  on January 19, 2010 at 11:23 AM
  • mrmyster says:

    Tamerlano, i know what you mean – but, did you not also
    get the Met saturday broadcasts? They were my weekly
    salvation — and the way they were conducted in the
    intermission programs, it was all very much an educational
    experience. Boris Goldovsky’s analysis of the day’s opera,
    his demos at the piano, the opera round tables and even
    the quiz were all giving good information, and repeating
    it year to year, so one really could learn. Nowadays, what
    are we learning from the Met intermissions?
    Don’t answer that question!!!
    The decline in quality, virtually at ever level, of the Met
    is a grim outcome. Shame on them!
    We mountain country boys gotta stick together.

    on January 19, 2010 at 12:09 PM
    • Tamerlano says:

      I definitely had the broadcasts — the MET and Chicago Lyric. Goldovsky was well before my time, but there was always Peter Allen. His a voice I miss rather a lot — his grandfatherly presence was wonderful. I miss that heart, now.

      on January 19, 2010 at 4:12 PM
    • Will says:

      It was the MET broadcast of the 1953 RING cycle that hooked this then-eight year old on opera.

      Now this may be heresy, but I was never a great fan of Milton Cross. The intermission features then were fascinating, informative, treasurable. But I found Cross tiresome–too heavily scripted and formal and virtually every singer who took a curtain call was described as wearing “robes.” Everybody from remote antiquity to the 19th century somehow wore robes–I half expected him to have Alfredo in the Flora scene of Traviata dressed in a black formal three piece evening robe.

      I did like Peter Allen a great deal, and he managed quite well indeed improvising when things like the great Parsifal turntable breakdown left him with a great of air time to fill unexpectedly.

      I wanted to give Margaret Juntwait a fair shake. In truth I don’t think she’s the originator of the bland triviality that’s drained the lengthy intermissions of any relevance or legitimate entertainment value. There was such a sea change when she began her tenure that I suspect the intermission producer, in concert with the MET’s marketing people, of ultimate responsibility. She certainly isn’t helping the situation, but things for which she isn’t responsible are dumbed down beyond toleration and suggest that she’s simply a cog in the wheel. Sad.

      on January 19, 2010 at 6:31 PM
      • pernille says:

        True, MJ can’t be the reason the Quiz has ben dumbed down.

        Returning to Georege Jellinek, the NYTimes finally printed an obit. Too bad he wasn’t with us to weigh-in on a tenor-Boccanegra.

        on January 20, 2010 at 9:05 AM
      • rapt says:

        I shared Will’s dislike of Milton Cross–stiff and pompous–and I too don’t see Juntwait as responsible for her inane material. Isn’t a major part of the problem the “dialogue” set-up? The only way to make a conversation out of the passing on of simple facts–the cast list, plot summary, description of costumes or whatever–is to supply meaningless filler, a la sports commentators. “He seems to be down on the field, Bob”–”You said it, Biff, he’s down”… I actually feel some sympathy for those placed in that embarrassing situation (though that sympathy doesn’t extend to keeping the sound on if I can help it during those dreadful intermissions).

        on January 20, 2010 at 9:18 AM
      • Mrs Rance says:

        I thought Milton Cross was great, and always loved how he would roll the “r”s even in names such as “Roberrrrrrta Peterrrrrs”, and words such as “arrrrtist”
        I always thought Peter Allen was much too sing-songy.

        on January 21, 2010 at 6:34 AM
• MontyNostry says:

  And now we just have Juntwait, who generally falls flat on her r’s.

  on January 21, 2010 at 7:11 AM