parterre box

37 comments

• bluecabochon says:

  There’s only three of us there!

  on May 12, 2010 at 9:10 PM
  • BETSY_ANN_BOBOLINK says:

    Oh boy, everybody sitting around saying things like, “This is sure some masterpiece, isn’t it?” “Yup, a real masterpiece.”

    on May 12, 2010 at 9:17 PM
    • bluecabochon says:

      Hardly! It took awhile but it has been fun, for me anyway.

      on May 12, 2010 at 11:09 PM
• Amnerees says:

  I was a huge Stratas fan, but this cancellation was a turning point for me. I went out the day before the broadcast and bought a new, hi-fi VCR (with a simulcast switch to tape the audio from WQXR simultaneously–remember those?) and set it up to record this important evening. When I played the tape later that night, I couldn’t believe my eyes. THIS was the face that numerous men and one dike couldn’t resist? I’ve wondered ever since why Stratas decided on a no-show, and I would like to know if there was a really good excuse for it. Perhaps she wanted to demonstrate how important she really was. I never saw her in the role, alas, and I never counted on seeing her again in any of her announced appearances. I subsequently recorded the two Pizza Boy porn flicks and some old Victory at Sea segments over the Lulu.

  on May 12, 2010 at 9:25 PM
• A. Poggia Turra says:

  The rights to the 1979 Paris telecast were held for a time by a Tokyo-based company called Dreamlife. They also had rights to the 1975 Orange Norma with Cab and Vick, and also the 1980 Bastile Day Nozze de Figaro with Janowitz, Popp, van Dam et al under Solti (the production is by Strehler, who makes a very old-fashioned physical production vibrant with “real” people on the stage).

  It was a torturous ordering process with many faxes, etc, but I finally did get all three DVDs. I wonder if those eBay copies came from those Dreamlife originals?

  on May 12, 2010 at 11:46 PM
• Lucky Pierre says:

  boys & girls, i was at the big barn tonight for lulu. wow… i didn’t think i’d like it and i didn’t at first, but the end was shattering. marlis petersen is a true star, what a wonderful singer and actress, and she doesn’t look bad either. her voice is prettier than dessay’s or damrau’s or any of a number of “prima donnas” out there. i can even see a tosca in her future, maybe in smaller house. gary lehman’s voice live sounds less dark than on the radio last time (siegmund). james morris can still sing, which is a relief from what i had heard before. it was quite an evening, and surprising to me, much better attended than armida or flying dutchman (who’d thunk?).

  spotted outside afterwards, bjoerk and her hubby.

  on May 13, 2010 at 1:51 AM
• Jay says:

  As the last scene of “Lulu” unfolded, I started to dread the walk back to my hotel (51st & Fifth) at 12:15 a.m. What an intense performance, more than making up for the previous night’s “Armida” travesty. From mieda to magnificent in just 24 hours.

  James Morris and most of the rest of the cast and Fabio’s conducting and the Met orchestra were stunning. Fortunately no Jack the Rippers were lurking about midtown last night. But then I’m not a pisces, so why worry?

  on May 13, 2010 at 3:29 PM
• Lucky Pierre says:

  jay, it was quite a performance, wasn’t it? i however did not enjoy the dim lighting, i could not make out the performers’ faces too well, in the back of the orchestra section. but the conclusion of the opera is shattering — marlis petersen was wonderful.

  i don’t know how the previous night’s armida went, but i wrote here before that i attended the armida of 2 or 3 weeks ago, and i enjoyed it very much, renee was having a good night. however, i do not understand audiences sometimes. who’d thunk that lulu would be a hit? there were very few defections last night even though the show went on past midnight. i think all the standees expecting empty seats were sorely disappointed. the cast got a deserved standing ovation and several curtain calls.

  the armida i attended, in contrast, barely got one curtain call since so many people had decamped before the end. very sad. i was talking with the security guards at the rush line, and they didn’t understand it either. they didn’t expect the crowds they got for lulu; on the other hand, they couldn’t give away tickets for flying dutchman. not all rush tickets were sold, if you can believe it! FD and armida were not well attended, but lulu and the nose were. who’d imagined it?

  on May 13, 2010 at 7:19 PM
  • Jay says:

    Lucky Pierre, I still can’t get Wednesday’s Lulu out of my system. And yes, it’s pretty amazing Lulu and The Nose sold and some other shows didn’t. (Lulu had only three performances, though and Levine has built an audience for the two Berg operas.)

    I was in row E for Lulu, so I had a good view of the stage, but the lighting was indeed too dim in the last act. After all, there is supposed to be mondschein. There were also very small number of defections where I was sitting, compared to the mass exodus after Act II of Armida the previous night.

    I’m already planning a Wozzeck/Capriccio April 2011 trip (and wondering if Andrew Davis would conduct Wozzeck if Levine decides not to do so; admittedly very premature spectulation).

    on May 14, 2010 at 2:41 PM
• operaman50 says:

  Just received my LULU DVD ….and ‘wanted to report that the video quality is excellent … the audio even offeres DTS 5.1…..it is spread over 2 DVD’s (#1 is Acts I and II…#2 is Act III)…..but there are absolutely no EXTRA FEATURES …. no interviews….or intermissions from the original telecast.

  on May 14, 2010 at 11:28 AM