La Cieca’s newest and nicest trickster god Fartnose McGoo (pictured) attended a lecture at the Met tonight introducing the new production of Das Rheingold. After the jump, some of his observations.

It turns out Bryn Terfel‘s Meistersinger earlier this year is in fact a warmup for the Met. While Peter Gelb did not say that this was definite, he and Terfel were saying that they’re “discussing it.”

Terfel has said that he has given up Don Giovanni and that he probably will never sing Figaro again. Also, he said that he’s definitely going to sing Falstaff in the future to “try to set a Guiness World Record” for most performances sung. He also seemed to be staring at Gelb the entire time while saying it. If I had to guess, they are planning a new production soon.

Contrary to popular myth, someone who’s involved in the production told me that at least some of the understudies are, in fact, rehearsed enough so that they could perform on the machine that is the new Rheingold setting.

Robert LePage was very engaging about the production. He also mentioned a very interesting concept of his production: the set designs of the Rheingold are primitive signifying nature. Yet as the cycle is performed and the humans are featured more, the sets become more elaborateld and structured. There were some more press photos. All of them look terrific. Gelb was very funny: he joked at the beginning about how, contrary to rumor, no Rhinemaiden has been crushed yet.