New broom

Another one of those talkative “Met insiders” has spilled a whole canful of beans regarding the upcoming Peter Gelb regime at the Met. The new GM, we are told, plans to import “alternative” productions of the warhorse operas (e.g., Boheme, Tosca, Traviata) to serve as a kind of artistic counterpoint to the ultra-traditional Zeffirelli & Co. stagings currently in the repertoire. According to La Cieca’s source, the old stagings will not be junked, just shelved for a season or two and then dusted off again. One point of the exercise seems to be to tempt megastars to sing standard rep at the Met. For example, Gelb is reportedly shopping around for an innovative production of Tosca for the Karita Mattila‘s first Met performances of the Roman diva in the 2010-2011 season. La Mattila, we are told, is now turning up her nose at revivals of productions that were not “built around her.” (One can almost hear the Finnish soprano sniffing, “Like here in little Dallas, my God!”) The problem, our confidant continues, is that Mattila has been less than pleased with “her” productions thus far at the Met, to the point that she refuses to reprise her smash-hit Salome here in New York.