gingerbread_housingLa Cieca hears that the Met has just freed up about 60 storage containers in their production storage facility in New Jersey, disposing of 14 old productions including such venerable classics as the Robert O’Hearn Hansel and Gretel, the Beni Montresor Gioconda and the Franco Zeffirelli Falstaff.  

Among newer, perhaps less-beloved sets headed for the dumpster are the Michael Scott Forza which was seen 20 times between 1996 and 2006 and the notorious Paul Brown “taco chip” Trovatore, which is generally agreed to have represented the nadir of the Joe Volpe regime.

According to a source close to the Met, the list of trashed productions includes:

  • Falstaff
  • La Gioconda
  • Hansel und Gretel
  • Werther
  • Boris Godunov
  • The Bartered Bride
  • Les Contes d’Hoffmann
  • Faust [the Hal Prince disaster; not the later Andrei Serban fiasco]
  • Giulio Cesare
  • La forza del destino
  • Bluebeard’s Castle
  • Erwartung
  • Il trovatore
  • Peter Grimes [purchased from Salzburg, unused]

This housecleaning frees up 60 containers.  To get an idea of how much room a production takes up, the Jack O’Brien Trittico (currently the house’s largest) fills 24 containers.

La Cieca’s tipster notes that the Met’s two previous Zauberflöte productions (Chagall and Hockney) are safely in storage, and the company has made a little money selling off old Zeffirelli productions, e.g., the Don Giovanni to Rome Opera, and the Carmen to Tel Aviv.

La Cieca

James Jorden (who wrote under the names "La Cieca" and "Our Own JJ") was the founder and editor of parterre box. During his 20 year career as an opera critic he wrote for the New York Times, Opera, Gay City News, Opera Now, Musical America and the New York Post. He also raised his voice in punditry on National Public Radio. From time to time he directed opera, including three unsuccessful productions of Don Giovanni. He also contributed a regular column on opera for the New York Observer. James died in October 2023.

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