parterre box

A member of the cher public who attended last night’s premiere of Verdi’s Macbeth at the Opéra national de Paris filed this report:

It was Paris Opera GM Gerard Mortier’s penultimate opportunity – his term ends in July –  to moon opening night Parisian audiences and he did just that. He flew in bad-boy director Dmitri Tchernlakov from an opera house in Novosibirsk, Russia, to wreak havoc on Verdi’s Macbeth.

Before the overture, we see a ugly town square where someone shows up in a backpack, drawing people from the surrounding buildings who shout a welcome. During the overture, we see projected images of Google Earth circling a town; ironically,  it was Google Earth I was using earlier in an unsuccessful attempt to locate Novosibirsk. We float down to a lifeless house and look through window at a plain room with a happily flaming gas fireplace.

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Gerard “La Môme” Mortier told Le Monde yesterday that he has “no regrets” walking away from the New York City Opera. The wily Belgian impresario added, “But through it all, when there was doubt, I ate it up and spit it out. I faced it all and I stood tall; and did it my way.” [via NYT]

The people have spoken, and so from henceforth George Steel will be known by his, whatchamacallit, you know, his sobriquet, which (per your decree) is “The Man of Steel.”

La Cieca thought she should review at least a couple of the biggest challenges facing The Man of Steel as he and the NYCO begin a restoration project that, as the saying goes, makes Hoover Dam look like an egg cup.

First and foremost, of course, is giving the heave-ho to Susan L. Baker, preferably after guilting her into flinging a couple million bucks to the company strings-free. Since (as La Cieca hears) Steel was not Baker’s choice to ascend the throne, she should reasonably be readying her exit even as we speak. Prediction: an announced resignation at the same time Steel offcially starts the job in February.  Read more »

“Belgian Gerard Mortier said Thursday he hopes to turn Madrid’s Teatro Real into one of Europe’s top opera houses when he takes over as artistic director, adding that many of his productions would be from the 20th century.” [via AFP]

Just announced: Gerard Mortier has accepted the job of artistic director Madrid’s Teatro Real, beginning in 2010. [via AP]

Kennedy Center head Michael Kaiser will assist the New York City Opera in finding a new leader and scheduling a 2009-10 season following the departure of Gerard Mortier. [via AP]

La Cieca has just been informed that Boston Lyric Opera “is mere hours away” from announcing their new Director of Artistic Operations, Nicholas Russell (formerly of Glimmerglass Opera before the regime coup there). It should be noted that although Russell is “dall’ immondo sangue degl’inglesi dei scozie,” he is a naturalized U.S. citizen, so it’s debatable whether he should be called a “fucking Brit.” (La Cieca leaves it to her cher public to raise that debate.)

Meanwhile, here in New York, the NYCO board is meeting to discuss possible candidates to fill the gap left by the defection of Gerard Mortier. City Opera honchess Susan Baker told Bloomberg News she hopes a new general manager may be hired by the end of the year. Reportedly Michael Kaiser is assisting in the search process.

Baker, speaking at a fundraiser for the NYCO, lamented the “punishing economic environment that has so affected philanthropy.” Bloomberg neglects to mention whether the black-tie crowd pelted her with garbage.

Sadly, La Cieca, who foresaw the beginning, foresaw the end as well.