Opera Review: She's Back on the Clock

A new Violetta in the Met's La Traviata.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Carmen Giannatasio as Violetta in the Met's La Traviata.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2017 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera's current staging of Verdi's La Traviata is indicative of a demographic split in the company's audience. Older opera-goers (the company's dwindling subscription base) bemoan its stark visuals, longing for the Franco Zeffirelli-designed puff pastries of seasons past. The younger set (whose loyalty is needed for the opera company's survival) like its simple iconography, stark social commentary and snazzy costumes. On Tuesday night, several women in the orchestra seats even cosplayed as Violetta, donning red heels and that scandalous red dress in homage to the opera's fallen heroine.

A First Look: The Metropolitan Opera 2017-18

Superconductor previews the coming season at the big house.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

This is why we can't have nice things: a scene from the cancelled Calixto Bielto La Forza del Destino, 
staged last summer at the London Coliseum,. Photo by Robert Workman for the English National Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera released its schedule on Feb. 15, 2016, with a curious lack of fanfare. Now that your friendly correspondent is back from Japan and no longer jet-lagged, it's time to look at the slate of operas on offer for next year.

This schedule is a dull offering from an opera company in an ever-increasing sense of crisis under general manager Peter Gelb. There are only five new productions (one of them a U.S. premiere) and just eighteen operas in the generale (I'm sorry, but staging the same Julie Taymor productions of Die Zauberflöte and (a shortened English-language) The Magic Flute do not count as separate operas! For that matter, neither do the pair of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci which will be played as per usual on the same evening.)

If I Ran the Zoo City Opera

"So I’d open each cage. I’d unlock every pen, let the animals go, and start over again."
 from If I Ran the Zoo by Dr. Seuss.
"I have just created something totally illogical."
--Ray Kinsella, from Field of Dreams.

The Nerd, from If I Ran the Zoo by Dr. Seuss.
© 1950 renewed 1978, the Estate of Theodore Geisel/Dr. Seuss. Published by Random House.

A little thought experiment, bloggers. Let's say that I, your humble scribe, suddenly found myself at the head of a certain opera company that used to occupy the New York State Theater. The economy has recovered. The Republicans: curiously silent. A certain industrialist took his name off the building. The opera company moved back in, and could afford to put on a real opera season: ten operas that people would want to see.

And things were just peachy keen.

What kind of a season would I put together?

Allow me to wax poetic....

What kind of an opera season could there be,
if New York's City Opera was managed by me?

It is such a challenge in these trying times,
when arts are defunded by right-wing pond-slimes.

But think on this fancy. And give it some weight,
I'd put on TEN operas: an ambitious slate!

Minor works by Puccini! They're audience-pleasing:
La Rondine paired with Schicchi to kick off the season.

Our schedule would echo with two guys named Strauss,
First Daphne by Richard, then Die Fledermaus.

But waltzes and myths aren't all that draw raves,
It's Eye-talian opera that New Yorkers crave.

Let's not forget Verdi, great man of the theater:
A new-mounted Falstaff: nothing could be sweeter.

The music of Korngold can melt one's cold heart
For spring, Tote Stadt would make a good start.

Boito's clever devil: Mefistofele,
with the right basso lead they'd be whistling with glee.

And of course dear reader it's the story of Faust,
Let's pair it with Gounod's! Then paper the house!

Our Gypsy friend Carmen t'would brings list'ners pleasure,
To cap it all off, here's a sweet baroque treasure:

It's Handel's Semele: she'll rake in a few bucks!
A relic from before the house ran out of luck.

Maybe I'm just dreaming it back from the dead.
But what if City Opera wasn't drowning in red?