Century of progress?
New York City Opera has announced its 2010-2011 season, and it looks like La Cieca’s precognitions were about 90% correct. (Please, hold your applause.)
According to the company’s press release, the season (beginning October 28) features mostly 20th century works, including
New York premieres, in new productions, of Leonard Bernstein’s A Quiet Place and Stephen Schwartz’s Séance on a Wet Afternoon; a daring triple bill of Monodramas (including the US stage premiere of “Neither” by Morton Feldman and Samuel Beckett, and the world stage premiere of John Zorn’s “La Machine de l’être”, performed with Schoenberg’s “Erwartung”); and the return of Strauss’s Intermezzo and Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love
What apparently began life as a revival of the company’s venerable Turandot has evolved into “An Evening with Christine Brewer” season opening gala.
Gushes NYCO GM/AD George Steel, “Most of all, I love the incredible range of compositional styles this season: from the transparent simplicity of Donizetti to the opulent middle-period Richard Strauss to the blend of the popular and classical worlds in Bernstein and Stephen Schwartz—all this topped off by the delicious trio of Schoenberg, Feldman and Zorn. This is what City Opera was made to do, and what makes City Opera unique.”
I’m going to come out and congratulate the NYCO for a season of daring programming and not a single top ten opera. And I don’t think it’s terribly odd to open the season with a gala concert.
Looks like a lot of neat stuff. The only production I’m familiar with is the Intermezzo. I saw it when NYCO first did it about 10 years ago with Flanigan. It’s a stlyish, witty production, verging on Art Deco and, while it’s not the strongest of Strauss’ pieces, it’s a very effective vehicle for a charismatic soprano.
I enjoyed it a lot and would go again.
I could do without A Quiet Place but as for he rest, bring it on!
Does anybody know if the mentioned supporters/sponsors are long-standing NYCO benefactors or new to it:
“New York City Opera gratefully acknowledges the following institutions for their leadership support of our 2010-2011 Season: The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Estate of Ruth Klotz, Lincoln Center Corporate Fund, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation.
Production support for A Quiet Place generously provided by Susan Baker and Michael Lynch, The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Production support for The Elixir of Love generously provided by Emilie Roy Corey. Original production support generously provided by The Reed Foundation.
Production support for Monodramas: “La Machine de l’être”, “Erwartung” and “Neither” generously provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
American Airlines is the Official Airline of New York City Opera.
The 2010-2011 Season is made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. “
To me these all look like longstanding supporters. I think it’s pretty safe to assume that if George had found a new angel that person would be the honoree at the Gala and not Ms. Baker.
But hey, what do I know? For instance I never even knew that Schoenberg, Feldman and Zorn constituted a “delicious trio.” Poor George, that public speaking course can’t stop him from sounding like a twit.
did you guys see this argentine soprano, monica ferracani, in the other thread? here she sings odabella the way it should be sung:
some might not like her heavy vibrato, but i think she uses it to exciting and good effect. the top is astounding.
here’s her wagner:
why isn’t she better known? what a fantabulous talent.
i think a brewer concert sounds terribly exciting! i can’t wait.
Yeah, maybe Brewer can entertain us with exerpts from the Ring, which she has managed to remember!
What is the big deal with Ms. Brewer. Saw her in San Francisco in Tristan and she sucked. Fat cow.
oh rest, you must be such a beauteous whore. now shut up, if you have nothing to say besides how ignorant you are.
The underlying theme of he new season at City Opera can be summed up in one word: DYSFUNCTIONAL. I don’t have time to explain, but if one considers the plots and messages of these works (new pieces aside, for we don’t know them yet), dysfunctionality prevails. Other suggestions for rubrics for the season are encouraged.
oh no, we wouldn’t want you use up any of the time you spend on Youtube finding off-topic videos to post.
a catchall buzzword like ‘dysfunctional’ is a pretty meaningless tag in a context like this. You can grab a handful of operas from the current Met roster and slap the same label on them if you’re so inclined:
Lulu
Carmen
House of the Dead
Ariadne
Traviata
Dysfunctional all. There — so how easy it is when there’s no thinking involved?
Quanto-Painy-Fakor : Add all the happy people of Salome, Pelleas, Kata , Jenufa , Makropoulos Case,Tosca, Manon , Electra,Macbeth,Otello,Turandot, Trovatore, Flying Dutchman, the Ring, Lucia, Norma, Don Giovanni etc etc and what a lot of functioning people there realy are, that inhabit opera. They ‘all lived happy ever after’ of course too!!!??
Now go back to some nice light Gilbert & Sullivan or Lehar and a nice romance book….. the rest of us will not disturb you.
Could opera plots exist without dysfunction? I think not.
Please, continue clogging up the page with videos with no commentary, because you don’t have the “time” to explain yourself in comments intended for discussion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwmQOLNtnrU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CThlbtcXLag
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhKaTsQ0Fds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YH0ogd5bJg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuvsEVk6RyY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlSrHFLCPME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFg6adOhxRo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERujbf4Pd3w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXjfQa9Bka8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeKWN0CZ21k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrFRI1yvglY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvRsHtjIAN0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P80jCfSB6P4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3oc9jbXFS8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P08CejDjyF0
[La Cieca appreciates Quanto's enthusiasm, but, as some other commenters have pointed out, a huge number of embedded videos does make for a slow-loading page.]
Thanks for causing this page to take forever to load, asshole.
I think this is genius. It’s a whole spectrum of modern composers from bluehair-pleasin’ crossover to the freakiest avant-garde. Get the Schwartz crowd AND the Zorn crowd, and the good ol’ NYCO crowd, what’s left of ‘em, and then get loads of free publicity from every critic in town falling over themselves to praise daring George Steel. I might actually have to go to a lot of these performances.
This season is a deathwish for City Opera. They are teetering on the edge thanks to that incompetent Board and this season won’t draw flies.