Carnegie Hall 2012-2013 Season Preview

Carnegie Hall's ambitious 2012-2013 slate.

The Dude abides: Gustavo Dudamel returns to Carnegie Hall with an ambitious
program of Latin American music. Photo © 2011 Rolex.

The Carnegie Hall season opens Oct 3. This year's intiatives include a Latin American music festival featuring conductor Gustavo Dudamel, composer Osvaldo Golijov, and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela in a rare New York appearance.

Mr. Golijov is also the Hall's new composer-in-residence. And opera singer Renée Fleming takes the post of artist-in-residence with a four-concert Perspectives series featuring the New York stage premiere of André Previn's opera A Streetcar Named Desire.

Here are 12 quick highlights of the 2012-2013 season:

The Superconductor 2012-2013 Season Preview: Great Performers at Lincoln Center

The annual series announces its lineup for 2012-2013.

Piano man: Jean-Yves Thibaudet plays Debussy at Lincoln Center this Fall.
Photo © IMG Artists.

Of the major series mounted annually at Lincoln Center, Great Performers is the hardest to define. It is essentially a traditional concert cycle, encompassing symphones, piano recitals and liederabend at the myriad venues of Lincoln Center. Here's what's on tap for next season.

The Superconductor 2012-2013 Season Preview: New York Philharmonic

Starting and ending with Stravinsky, an exciting year at the Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Music director Alan Gilbert. Photo by Chris Lee © 2010 The New York Philharmonic

The 2012-2013 season promises some big changes at the Philharmonic. Emanuel Ax, the pianist who has played 100 concerts with the ensemble over the years, joins the orchestra as Artist-in-Residence. Also, Christopher Rouse is the new Composer-in-Residence, replacing Magnus Lindberg. With a new orchestra contract in place and music director Alan Gilbert at the helm, this should be an exciting year for New York's hometown orchestra.

Here's twelve things that we're excited about seeing next season.

• In an egalitarian gesture, the 2012 season opens on Sept. 19 with an "ordinary" subscription concert conducted by Alan Gilbert. György Kurtág's ...quasi una fantasia... starts the year off, followed by Leif Ove Andsnes playing Beethoven's third Piano Concerto. The concert ends with Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring conducted by Mr. Gilbert. (There will be a gala opening too on Sept. 27, but that's probably not as exciting.)
• On Oct. 4, new Artist-in-Residence Emanuel Ax pairs Bach's D minor Keyboard Concerto with the Schoenberg Piano Concerto, followed by Mozart's Linz Symphony. Alan Gilbert conducts.
• The Nielsen Project continues Oct. 10, as Alan Gilbert conducts four concerts featuring the Danish composer's concertos for flute, violin and clarinet, paired with Tchaikovsky's Little Russian Symphony.

• The Philharmonic is working with Lincoln Center's White Light Festival this year. On Nov. 4 at the Rose Theater, Emanuel Ax will lead a chamber-sized performance of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde in a reduced orchestration by Arnold Schoenberg.
• Kurt Masur and Lorin Maazel return to the Philharmonic this season. Mr. Masur offers two weeks of Brahms starting on Nov. 8. Mr. Maazel will lead works by Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Lutoslawski and Shostakovich, starting Jan. 16, 2013.
• The first concerts of 2013 (starting Jan. 3)  feature French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, playing the Grieg Piano Concerto. Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra maestro Manfred Honeck conducts the program, which also includes Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.
• The Philharmonic continues its tradition of performing great Broadway musicals with Carousel. Rodgers and Hammerstein's operatic show will be staged at Avery Fisher Hall and directed by James Brennan. Carousel runs for five performances and will open Feb. 27.
• March has become the time of the season when the Philharmonic focuses on a single composer in a spring festival. This year, they offer The Bach Variations. The month-long festival, mounted in collaboration with the 92nd St. Y kicks off with a March 3 symposium. March 6 marks the first concert. The series will feature choral works (the Magnificat, the Mass in B minor) orchestral works and a collaboration with Hungarian pianist András Schiff. Mr Schiff will also make his debut as a conductor on April 3.
• Christopher Rouse's presence as the orchestra's new Composer in Residence will be felt (and heard) throughout the season, especially at a series of four concerts featuring soloist Joshua Bell and Charles Ives' daunting Symphony No. 4, a massive work that requires two conductors.
• This year's free Memorial Day Concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (May 27) features Bruckner's Third Symphony, as Alan Gilbert continues his survey of the major works by this heavyweight Austrian composer. For those wishing for better acoustics, the Bruckner Third will also be played in subscription concerts starting April 24, 2013.
• June 6 is D-Day, as in Luigi Dallapiccola. The Philharmonic presents his one-act opera Il Prigionero, a 1948 work that offers a powerful statement about political oppression. This concert is presented as part of June Journey: Gilbert's Playlist, a season-ending series of concerts highlighting the many influences and personal musical taste of the New York Philharmonic's music director. 
• The season ends with the welcome return of visionary designer Doug Fitch (Le Grand Macabre, The Cunning Little Vixen.) This time, the Brooklyn-based artist will mount Stravinsky's Petrushka, a ballet score about a love-struck puppet that meets a violent end.

City Opera: Vagabonds No More

The New York City Opera announces its 2012-2013 season.

"He'll flip ya. Flip ya fo' real."
At today's presser, General Manager George Steel
demonstrates his kung fu approach to opera management.
Photo by the author.

by Paul Pelkonen
After a bizarre 2011 that saw the New York City Opera leave its long-time home at Lincoln Center, next year sees the opera company settling down.

Well, sort of. 

At today's press conference, the company announced its 2012-13 season: four new productions built entirely in-house. Board Chairman Chuck Wall announced deals with Brooklyn Academy of Music, City Center, agreeing to split the bulk of its performances between those two venues for the next three years. They will perform two operas in each venue, keeping to the model of just four shows in each run.

Following Mr. Wall's announcement, George Steel took the podium to present the next season, which will take place in the late winter/early spring of 2013.

Next season consists of four new productions of venerable operas by known composers. It should be noted that these are not "partner" or "import" shows, but productions that will be entirely created by New York City Opera personnel. In the maverick style that has characterized Mr. Steel's administration, the operas are all works that exist, at best, on the outer fringe of the standard repertory.

Powder Her Face (Feb. 15-23 at Brooklyn Academy of Music)

The season opens at BAM in February, with Thomas Ádes' first opera Powder Her Face, in a new production by director Jay Schelb, who has had nice things written about him in Time Out New York. Powder is a merry scandal-driven drama focusing on British bad girl Margaret Campbell, whom the press dubbed "The Dirty Duchess" (not to be confused with La Cieca.)

Analysis: Mr. Ádes' work is currently in vogue, with the rival Metropolitan Opera staging the New York premiere of The Tempest next season. Powder was first staged in New York at BAM's Majestic Theater in 1997.

The Turn of the Screw (Feb. 24-March 2 at BAM)
Despite its title, this is not a re-telling of last year's City Opera labor negotiations with the orchestra and chorus, but an adaptation of Henry James' short novel of a governor, two very weird children and two ghosts. The wrenching story of innocent children corrupted by not-so-innocent forces, Screw will be directed by Sam Buntrock.

Analysis: This is an interesting choice, particularly considering the company's last foray into the supernatural: a disastrous 2011 production of Stephen Schwarz' Séance on a Wet Afternoon. It should be noted that while City Opera last Turned the Screw in 1996 with an Emmy-nominated production by Mark Lamos, this is an all-new staging.

Mosè en Egitto (April 14-20 at City Center.)

The company moves (back) to City Center in April. Since Passover is early next year, observant opera lovers will be able to enjoy Rossini's Mosè en Egitto, a three-act re-creation of the events depicted in the Book of Exodus. Michael Counts, whose imaginative direction was the best thing about 2011's production of Monodramas returns to lead the opera company to the land of manna and matzoh.

Analysis: City Opera reaches deep into the Rossini catalogue for this Biblical drama from 1818. This is an Italian opera, and (almost) completely different from Moïse et Pharaon, the composer's later recycling of the same libretto for the Paris stage in 1827. Presenting Rossini that requires visual flair and spectacle is a welcome risk for this company. Mr. Steel, we're ready for our close-up.

La Périchole (April 21-27 at City Center.)

The season ends with La Périchole, a Jacques Offenbach rarity mounted by house favorite director Christopher Alden. This opera-bouffe is a comic romp about class warfare in Peru, making it the second opera (that I can think of) to be set in that exotic land.

Analysis: This is an odd choice, considering that New Yorkers are eagerly anticipating Mr. Alden's Nozze di Figaro (now slated for 2014) which would complete his Da Ponte trilogy and probably allow City Opera to make a mint by running it in repertory with Cosí fan tutte and Don Giovanni. George Steel has tried his hand at odd French repertory before (the 2010 revival of L'Etoile comes to mind) with mixed results, but Mr. Alden is critically acclaimed.

Watch the opening scene of Powder Her Face.

The Devil is in the Details

Inside the Metropolitan Opera's new 'Dynamic Pricing.'

by Paul Pelkonen

"Homer Simpson: you will renew your Metropolitan Opera subscription!"
Image from The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror IV, © 1991 Gracie Films/20th Century Fox.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2012-13 season brochures are out. In the past year, it appears that the company has been hard at work figuring out how to squeeze as much money out of the pockets of New York opera-lovers. To that end, they've implemented two major changes to the way you buy your tickets.

Carving Up the Theater: 

In the old days at the Met, a subscriber had their seats in one of the opera house's six levels of seating: Orchestra, Parterre Box, Grand Tier, Dress Circle, Balcony, Family Circle. Each level had different prices for side (partial view) seats and for "main," with the box seats on one level corresponding in cost to the "main" seats on the level above. Starting in 2011, the Orchestra was divided into "Premium," "Prime" and "Balance." That should have been a warning for what was to come.

This year, each of those sections has been subdivided into Premium, Prime, Balance and Boxes, with corresponding price increases:

• Premium: The first six rows in the center blocks of seats.
• Prime: The remaining center seats. 
• Balance: The back left and right corner seats, which do not afford the best view.
• Boxes: Are the same as they were, although you can now order a whole season in a box. (This is a good thing, as long as you don't mind the wall that blocks your view of half the stage.)

What this means:

My 2011-2012 subscription seats in the Family Circle (Row B, 107-108, Row D, 106-107) are now "Family Circle Premium" and as a result I am faced with a choice: move back to cheaper seats or pay $10 more per ticket ") Since I have two subscriptions (part of my ongoing effort to keep writing about an opera company that doesn't want bloggers writing reviews of its shows) I'm looking at a renewal fee of approximately $850 for next season. 

Fees, Fies, Foes, Fum:

The Met has learned well from Ticketmaster, Live Nation, the New York Mets (who put this system in in the 1990s) and other legitimate ticket agencies: gouge your customers whenever possible. Each purchase made from the Met (even at the box office) has a "facilities" fee of $2.50. 

Ordering by phone or the Internet? Add on another $7.50 (again per ticket)  "convenience charge." That adds up to a hefty $10 fee per seat per night.

The Met continues its third year of charging fees to change your tickets. This year, the fees go up to $7.50 per ticket. So if you buy seats for the opera, it may be cheaper to keep them. If your grandmother dies or something, you can still donate them back as a tax-deductible contribution to the opera house. Doing some digging through the site reveals that certain productions are not available for exchange. 

Welcome to Alphabet City!

This year, the Met introduces a new "Price Categories" system, inspired by the price-gouging that goes on at Broadway houses. If you look at the individual ticket orders on the back pages of the program, you'll find little red letter grades next to the operas that are scheduled. 

Those letter grades (A, B, C, D, E, F, with F for "holiday" performances) have correspondingly higher ticket prices.  The higher the "letter grade" of the night you want to attend, the more you'll pay. The Met was already charging attendees more for performances on Friday and Saturday, but this is the next coldly logical step.

So if your seats are in the Family Circle on an "E" night, you could pay as much as $15 more per ticket, in addition to all the fees mentioned above.  If your seats are lower down in the house, the amount added gets higher, with an "E" ticket in the Orchestra Premium going up by a staggering $40.00.

Looking closely, it's apparent that the letter grade system (reminiscent of New York City's new health inspection grades) are not organized according to what opera is being performed. They're attached to the specific operatic performances (days of the week) that the Met believes will be the most popular of the season. 

What's next?

The next step is to start charging more for performances where stars are scheduled to appear. If that happens, and Anna Netrebko doesn't show up, don't expect the Met to give you a partial refund.

Want to know what you'll be paying for? Our first look at the 2012-2013 season is here on Superconductor.

Das Haus ohne Dirigent

Music Director James Levine will not conduct at the Met until 2013.

James Levine, in happier times. He will not conduct at the Met this season or the next.

The Metropolitan Opera dropped another bombshell in the continuing saga of Music Director James Levine. At 5pm today, a story in the New York Times by reporter Daniel J. Wakin announced that the company's longtime podium chief will not conduct at the opera house until 2013 at the earliest.

After enjoying a 40-year career at the opera house, with much of it spent in the key post of Music Director, Mr. Levine started suffering serious health problems in recent years. He has battled cancer, spinal stenosis, and a series of back and shoulder injuries. He cancelled a number of performances in 2010-2011, but has not stepped onto the podium this season. These health issues also led to him stepping down from his job as Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a position which he vacated this year.

Mr. Levine was scheduled to make his return to the Met in October leading new productions of Don Giovanni and Siegfried. But a back injury suffered on Labor Day weekend led to emergency surgery, sidelining the conductor. His replacement was Fabio Luisi, who was also promoted to the post of Principal Conductor at the opera house. Mr. Luisi received good notices for his performance in the pit, although the productions were met with mixed reviews.

The latest announcement comes a few weeks after Mr. Levine cancelled his plans to conduct the premiere of the company's new production of Götterdämmerung in January. At six hours in length, this final chapter of Wagner's Ring cycle is a marathon for any maestro.
The complete statement from Mr. Levine can be read at Alex Ross's excellent blog The Rest is Noise. Here's the highlights:
"Since the Met must plan its seasons far in advance, I am now in the position of having to predict when I will again be ready to conduct. I have met at length with Peter Gelb and other members of the Met family to discuss this. We have come to the conclusion that it would be profoundly unfair to the public and the Met company to announce a conducting schedule for me that may have to be altered at a later date. I do not want to risk having to withdraw from performances after the season has been announced and tickets sold.
With that in mind, I have reluctantly decided not to schedule performances until I am certain I can fulfill such obligations. The Met’s 2012-13 season needs to be finalized, and the best conductors available must be contracted now. As my condition improves, I feel confident I will be ready to conduct again soon, but I cannot risk a premature announcement.  It is disappointing to come to this conclusion, but I know it is the right one."
The Met announcement comes as the company works to finalize its plans for the 2012-2013 season, an ambitious slate that may (or may not) include such James Levine specialties as Wagner's Parsifal, Berlioz' Les Troyens and another clank-through of the company's new Robert Lepage production of Der Ring des Nibelungen. The complete Met season will be announced in at a press conference in early 2012.

Mr. Levine's decision also affects the company's much-hyped trio of complete Ring cycles, scheduled for the spring of 2012. These performances will be led by Metropolitan Opera Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi. Mr. Luisi conduct the premiere of Wagner's Götterdämmerung on January 27th.