parterre box

14 comments

• Indiana Loiterer III says:

  I don’t know for sure whether it’s NYCO or not, but I’m sure that Leon Botstein was involved somehow (as if he didn’t have enough on his plate, being president of Bard College and all)

  on April 25, 2011 at 11:20 AM
  • messa di voce says:

    I’m sure you’re correct.

    barred= Bard

    lion=Leon

    on April 25, 2011 at 11:43 AM
    • Dan Johnson says:

      Mettle = metal = Steel?

      on April 25, 2011 at 11:48 AM
• Quanto Painy Fakor says:

  Freud – Houston? Bottstein tried to take over the NYCO???? Do tell.

  on April 25, 2011 at 11:55 AM
• Will says:

  Speaking of NYCO — if NYCO it be — has anyone heard how the negotiations between the company and the unions are going? My ticket for Seance on a Wet Afternoon is for next Sunday and the performance would be scrubbed if there’s a strike. I know it got mediocre to poor reviews, but I do prefer to see these things myself and make up my own mind.

  on April 25, 2011 at 2:06 PM
  • whatever says:

    not sure what one might read into this, but NYCO has every remaining Seance date *except* sunday listed on TDF.

    on April 25, 2011 at 8:09 PM
• jim says:

  NYCO-ASO merger? It’s certainly something to threaten the NYCO orchestra with.

  on April 25, 2011 at 2:27 PM
• jim says:

  If it is a NYCO-ASO merger, then the summer festival is a feature, not a bug. In these troubled times, more weeks’ work being guaranteed by the contract is worth much more than a small raise paid on the weeks you actually do work. The survivors of the merged orchestras would get the Opera dates, the Carnegie Hall concerts and the Bard festival, which is a lot more work than the NYCO orchestra got this last year. There could have been festival guarantees for the chorus, too.

  Artistically, the more an orchestra plays together, the better it can get. The last couple of years have to have been very bad for the NYCO orchestra. Keep them together year round, under a single principal conductor and they’ll improve.

  Botstein couldn’t be worse than Steel.

  on April 25, 2011 at 3:07 PM
  • Quanto Painy Fakor says:

    The thought of Botstein at the helm of an opera company is revolting.

    on April 25, 2011 at 4:50 PM
    • Often admonished says:

      And there would be some revolts for sure.

      on April 28, 2011 at 7:34 AM
• Sempre liberal says:

  Botstein is a fascinating programmer and a mediocre (at best) conductor. I’d love to see him run an opera house and conduct less. I do think having NYCO go to Bard in the summer would be awesome.

  I’d go to more ASO concerts if Botstein weren’t at the podium. Give ASO to a promising young orchestral conductor.

  on April 25, 2011 at 8:32 PM
  • Henry Holland says:

    Botstein is a fascinating programmer and a mediocre (at best) conductor

    Totally agree. I traveled 3,000 miles to hear the King Roger at Bard, and way cute cab driver in Annendale-on-Hudson, a plentiful supply of Magic Hat #9 (not available on the west coast) and the natural beauty of the place aside, it wasn’t worth the trip. And I chose Bard over hearing Saariaho’s fab Adriana Mater in Santa Fe. *sigh* This year Bard is doing Die Liebe der Danae and a Sibelius festival.

    on April 25, 2011 at 9:13 PM
• il Rogo says:

  Several weeks ago a usually tight-lipped board member let it slip that there was some effort afoot to replace Steel but that it would not happen because it was “too embarrassing.”

  on April 26, 2011 at 4:46 PM
• Porpora says:

  Too embarrassing, huh? What’s more embarrassing- I’d like to ask the tight-lipped board member- more bad productions or no opera company? The best thing to do when you make bad decisions is to admit them and make better ones, not cover your ass.

  on April 28, 2011 at 12:01 AM