Mystery? Science?
This is post number 3,000 on parterre.com.
To read what La Cieca should have posted for this milestone, you might want to take a look at this comment (you can skip over the scolding first paragraph).
Among other milestones: we’re currently at 116,478 comments (an average of about 40 comments per post) and, though it may be premature to boast, all indications are that April 2010 will the highest number of monthly pageviews on parterre.com ever, a cool half million.
Brava, cara Cieca, you go on like this.
Supposedly one of Gelb’s initiatives with new productions is that the directors must make themselves available for staging the revivals
To which I say bravo! this comes much too late in the Met’s history, but better late than never.
I’m pretty sure John Dexter touched up his productions regularly. But then they got rid of him, so who knows when the practice stopped.
Cyril Ritchard was around for a number of years, and I woud’nt be surprised to learn he and people like Herbert Graf or Nat Merrill conducted the rehearsals of revivals of their shows.
Bravo to Gelb for trying to bring back the practice.
A heartfelt “Brava!” to our brilliant La Cieca! Not only are the numbers impressive, but we must also remember that no less than the the NYT QUOTED Parterre Box as its source for breaking news! And, of course, Senor Alvarez launched into his bitter tirade against the horrible opera blogs. I don’t know if he was referring to this site…but I hope he was! So SOMEBODY must be reading this, right?
What makes this site so special? More than anything, it is La Cieca herself…who for a blind old woman certainly manages to SEE and HEAR everything! Her knowledge of the Met,past and present, the history of opera, performance practices, and pop culture astound.
But there is something else…the sense of community that unites all of us together, despite our diverse likes, dislikes, and prejudices.
AND the generous dash of “gay sensibility”! (Not that those of a different persuasion aren’t warmly welcomed.)
I’ve gone on too long, as I am a neophyte (I said NEOPHYTE, Betsy…not Hermaphrodite) to this haven. I only began reading it about 3 months ago, and replying a month ago.
Quite a neophype for a neophyte…
Brava La Cieca! Parterre is my newest addiction along with Sirius MetOpera radio. The depth and breadth of experience available on Parterre adds context to my listening experience. Thank you one and all.
MMM !
A major – and I mean major for me – problem with the Bondy Tosca is the sets. Act 2 is hideous and makes no dramatic sense. It looks like the worn lobby of some tenement or hotel for the homeless. Not a place at all for Baron Scarpia to do business or have dinner. Not a place you would expect anywhere near where the Queen attends a Te Deum. Not a place Tosca would go to, and even less stay in. And that window! Scarpia has to step on the old sofa to close it!
Act 3 goes against the music. No stars anywhere; no indication whatsoever that it’s dawn. Not even an indication that this place is high enough to kill someone jumping from it. Actually, no reason for anyone to think that Tosca intends to jump. When Tosca says “O Scarpia, avanti a Dio” she’s nowhere she could jump from or for that matter even know that there’s a place to jump from.
Humph! Number 14. Of course I know the difference. Neophytes have knees and hermaphrodites have hermas.
dites, ya know