Endless loop
Chicago’s William Mason will ankle Lyric Opera at the end of the 2011-2012 season. John von Rhein‘s list of dreary white male possible successors is as good evidence as La Cieca has seen recently of the value of thinking outside the box. [Chicago Tribune]
Personally, I say bring back Ardis or Carol. Or Sarah Caldwell.
Oh.
But Gianna ROlandi is there already.
And neither George Steele or Gerard Mortier has abandoned a fresh post in a while, so perhaps they’re available.
And I thought you’d all like to know.. I’m listening to my very firstest ever Walkure.
Where’s my emoticon for “jaw dropped on floor”? Details, Sanford. Who’s singing? Who’s conducting? And most important: what do you think of it?
Moffo was a marvelous Siegrune, wasn’t she?
(Seriously, I, too, would be interested to know which recording and how you’re enjoying it).
I think she was the Loge. No wait, I was doing someone in the loge.
It was from LA this season. I got about 15 minutes into it, and I confess I was tagging downloaded operas in iTunes (The Walkure being one of them) so I started skipping around (tracks, not my apartment). I also listened to parts of Aidanamar, Little Women (zzzzzzz), and I Masnadieri
Man for the job : Kayzer Soze.
“dreary white male?” Does LaCieca suggest LOC should *not* consider such?
What’s going on here? Quite a puzzlement, I would say.
Von Rhein’s list is merely ‘the usual suspects.’ Chicago is a very conservative
audience, and they like ‘names.’ What Chicago likes, actually, is in very short
supply in the opera world at that level, and that includes dreary white males, who perhaps are not so dreary. Look around your secondary American companies (hint: Pittsburgh), and you may find some relatively fresh talent that in future will
become more prominent. A very ‘out’ intendant (hint: Houston), is not likely to suit Chicago. The board is a financial and business board and ‘proper.’ Mr MacKay at Santa Fe is the right age (and not at all dreary), but he just said in print the other day he is where he “wants to be,” and in fact Santa Fe is his home town and I cannot imagine anything would draw him away, surely not that dreary, over sized shoe-box of an opera house in Chicago. I suspect Gockley, eminently qualified, feels the same; in fact, he was considered once before – circumstances I forget – for Chicago and said no. Come on, folks, who would chose Chicago over San Francisco for any reason at all? One might properly look into the managerial personnel of major symphony orchestras for names for LOC. Let’s see now, who is at CSO…..? Tim, the new guy at St. Louis, looks very promising for
the longer range, but it’s a bit soon for him. I hear he is very well liked. What good timing he showed leaving NYCO for St. Louis when he did! Just in time!
The job of an opera general manager is financial and administrative – when such gets involved in also being artistic head you wind up with — Gelb. Is that
what Chicago wants and needs? Doubtful. So look for Davis to continue on the
artistic side and a fresh face (who knows Chicago social climate and banking
and industry), to take the general manager role. When it comes to opera
management, money conquers all; and someone has to know where it is and
how to get it. The artistic side is a lot easier to ‘cast’ I would think.
yes… a white male who runs this site discourages other white males by virtue of their being white males….
I don’t see any discouragement. All I see is an observation that the shortlist is a bit dully homogeneous.
Interesting what people choose to project.
Privilege is certainly hard to let go of isn’t it.
I agree. People are reading far too much into La Cieca’s “dreary white male” comment.
mymyster, I usually agree with you but – excuse me – “Chicago likes, actually, is in very short supply in the opera world at that level, and that includes dreary white males” – how does that explain the fact that, for the greater part of LCO’s existence, it was headed by two women??? I find your statement a tad misogynistic. Yeah, Zambello’s name has been mentioned here, but she hasn’t exactly built a profile here. I’d argue, though, that Chicago isnt’ all that conservative. Yes, they nixed the Alcina nudity that Carsen first produced in Paris, but LCO was had a huge success with Le Grand Macabre, long before it was produced at the NY Phil. Last season’s Damnation of Faust wasn’t exactly conservative.
Need I add that LCO was also the one company to bring McVicar’s Giulio Cesare across the pond. Also had a fab production of Partenope. Next season brings a Sellars Hercules. Compared to the Met, cutting edge….
And let’s not forget championing Bolcom, not necessarily mainstream also. They commissioned McTeague
Le grand macabre in Chicago? When was that? I thought the San Francisco production was the US premiere and so far the only staged performance.
Argh!!! I misspoke… I was thinking of Berio’s Un Re in Ascolto. Still, not exactly mainstream. It was very well-received.
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/12/arts/heeding-perceptions-of-the-past-while-listening-for-the-future.html
No problem. Actually, doing a Berio opera is probably less mainstream than Le grand macabre, which has gotten around a lot more. So good for them.
Berio’s opera at the Lyric was well-received? That’s a matter of opinion, sorry.
Personally thought it was a piece of . . .
Mrs Silvestri: I quite take your points, but please note that I write
“includes” DWM (the initials may become a new code for PTB!),
but does not limit the matter to them. As I may have posted
before, I was acquainted with the well-respected and successful
Carol Fox (who gave me a tongue lashing one Gioconda evening
I’ll never forget because I ignorantly called Cossotto the “prima donna” with Suliotis standing near-by *oops*), and I think Carol, one very tough nut, did a good job and so did A. K., a somewhat more genial personality. When I say Chicago is ‘proper’ – well, I think that board IS; largely local businessmen and society ladies, and is of very different social make-up from, say, the Met. Each board reflects its community quite well, it
seems to me.
In the 1920s the person who really ran the business and admin.
side of the company was John McCormack a major industrialist —
he kept bailing out Mme Garden, who herself was always a scandal;
and Georgio Polacco, the conductor and chorus master was married
to the famous Butterfly Edith Mason, what was it, three maybe five
times, I think? Such press! The Chicago company never lacked for spice.
But that was long ago when opera was less costly and more fun. Chicago scheduled in 1921 “Zaza” with Ganna Walska, but the day before the scheduled opening the production was declared “not ready,” and indefinitely postponed. It turned out Mme Walska had fled her suite
at the Blackstone Hotel and left no forwarding address. That kind of
colorful stuff does not much happen any more, which is fortunate,
but if I may be a tad flip, less fun (the Met had done Zaza the year
before with Farrar who turned up for all performances). For those interested in such rambles as these, I can recommend “Forty Years of Opera in Chicago,” by Edward C. Moore, 1930 – copies are still floating around on www used book sources. It’s a fascinating and entertain
bit of history. The Chicago company was still playing in the old
Auditorium Theatre in those days and the cast lists will blow you away,
with a company of major vocalists most of whom remained to make an
operatic community for the whole season, singing a variety
of roles. And Chicago did an amazing number of what were then
new operas by living composers or composers of the recent
past. Ah, them wuz the days.
Incidentally, while Handel might have gone well enough
in the Auditorium, do you Mrs S. really think H. works in that
great barn of the Wacker drive opera? I have not found it does, and Chicago seems to me high on the list of big rich cities that need to
build an opera facility of 1800 to 2000 seats for the performance of a great deal of repertory whether Baroque or Britten; keep Insull for Ring Cycles and big Verdi and Ponchielli (and Grand Macabre).
Handel at Lyric works well enough for me. Sure, it’s not ideal, but the three Handel works I’ve seen there – Alcina, Partenope, Giulio Cesare – were all tremendous productions. (For me, Partenope was the best of all.)
In fact, Chicago has built that theater – the Harris in Millennium. The caveat is that it’s built for multi-use, not specifically opera, but both Chicago Opera Theater and Music of the Baroque (with arguably the best chorus in town) both have made it their home. My problem with COT is that I feel Dickie tries too hard to be “modern.”
The Auditorium Theatre seats more people than Wacker drive, but has incredible accoustics. One of the most beautiful halls I have ever been in. I heard Marilyn Horne in recital there. Was not sure she picked the right place, but every note came through clearly. Why did they ever leave that building?
How about Ian Campbell of San Diego Opera? Campbell seems to have mastered catering to a conservative audience, knows voices, balances his budget (I think), and knows how to cast for a overly-big, acoustically imperfect theater.
Campbell is much too low-class for Chicago. Mason was even stretching it.
Splendid thought! Perhaps Patrick Power could open his first season!
Other obvious candidates to liven up this artistically dead organisation would be Wafsi Kani and Jonathan Reekie.
“Why would anyone choose Chicago over San Francisco for any reason”
WTF!
I started to type a defense of Chicago but decided the statement was too stupid to respond to
Now, now Sanford. We must not forget you live
in Brooklyn, nor should you forget it.
There now, your blood pressure is on the way up!
I live in Da Bronx, I’ll have you know! Chicago is a fabulous city, and the waterfront is spectacular. I went to school on Michigan Ave (Chicago Musical College). And I saw the met Regionals the year Harolyn Blackwell won, and saw Anna Russell on one of her many farewell tours.
I have been living in Chicago for a little over five years and absolutely love it!
Yes, the winters are shitty, but it’s a great city.
I am originally from NY (left in 1971), but have lived in Portland, OR, Boston, DC and Santa Fe.
I am glad I ended up in Chicago.
I know that people like to put down Chicago.