La Cieca’s take on the Met’s new productions for 09-10: unless the Mary Zimmerman Armida turns into something very elaborate indeed, it looks like a return to the dreaded “empty box” syndrome of the 1990s. All the new productions are stripped down unit sets, even the Hoffmann.

Not that there is anything fundamentally wrong with a good empty box (see Eugene Onegin) but too many of them the same season tend to make the audience restless, like they’re not getting their money’s worth in geegaws.

It’s scary to think there will be an HD telecast of Turandot with Maria Guleghina.