Grand Opera: The Story of the Met
Page 53
11. “It’s like watching”: Lawrence Johnson, Musical America Worldwide (Dec. 16, 2008).
12. “unpleasant artistic experiences”: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Feb. 13, 2006. “for the duration”: New Yorker (Oct. 9, 2006): 89–90.
13. “the lyrical set”: Peter G. Davis, New York (Jan. 8, 2007). “in a dream”: Matt Wolf, “Unconventional Means,” Opera News (March 2007): 28.
14. For Gelb’s engagement of Sher, see Helen Sheehy, “Sher Touch,” Opera News (Nov. 2006): 27. In “Resisting Rossini, or Marlon Brando Plays Figaro,” Opera Quarterly (Spring-Summer 2011): 153–78, Mary Ann Smart examines Sher’s production in her analysis of artifice and naturalism in operatic staging.
15. “not tolerate the”: “The Opera,” North American Review (Feb. 1892): 215.
16. “the star of”: Zachary Woolfe, Times, Sep. 23, 2011. “a natural actress”: Mike Silverman, Associated Press, Dec. 6, 2006. “a true stage”: Anne Midgette, Times, Dec. 27, 2006. “Was crazy, no”: Observer (England), Sept. 7, 2007.
17. For Dessay’s criticisms of Zimmerman, see the television interview with Charlie Rose, Oct. 9, 2007, Youtube. “whatever you do”: Rebecca Mead, “The Actress,” New Yorker (March 2, 2009): 58. Ostling designed the 2009 La Sonnambula. Chantal Thomas designed the 2008 La Fille du régiment.
18. John Cox directed the 2008 Thaïs; no designer is credited in the Met annals. The Nicolas Joël production of the 2008 La Rondine was directed by Stephen Barlow and designed by Ezio Frigerio. Adrian Noble directed and Mark Thompson designed the 2007 Macbeth. David McVicar directed and Charles Edwards designed the 2009 Il Trovatore. Richard Jones directed and John Mcfarlane designed the 2007 Hänsel und Gretel. John Doyle directed and Scott Pask designed the 2008 Peter Grimes.
19. “All these devices”: David J. Baker, Opera News (Feb. 2009): 52.
20. “In the final”: Midgette, Washington Post, April 14, 2008.
21. For Gelb’s expectation of losses in the first three years of his tenure, see Judith H. Dobrzynski, “A Knight at the Opera: Big Plans—Large Bills,” Wall Street Journal (Online), April 24, 2008. Volpe responded to Gelb’s agenda with skepticism: “Mr. Volpe said he had concerns about how the house would pay for Mr. Gelb’s ambitious plans. ‘Hopefully it will be financed and it will be funded,’ he said. ‘If it’s not, then Peter will have to reconsider.’ ” Wakin, Times, Feb. 14, 2006. For annual reports for the years 2007–08 and 2008–09, and for Form 990 of the Met’s Federal Income Tax return for 2010–11, see www.metopera.org. Erica Munk remarks that the Met has been unforthcoming in releasing financial information. See Munk, “The Met’s Grand Gamble,” Vanity Fair (May 2010). Her piece is based on the twelve years of data she “managed to gather.” We rely on her analysis.
22. For Gelb on the fiscal crisis, see Wakin, Times, Jan. 16, 2009. The endowment was $336 million in fiscal 2007 and $247 million in fiscal 2009.
23. “a decision of”: Erica Orden, New York Magazine (Feb. 27, 2009). For the depletion of the Met endowment, see Munk, Vanity Fair (May 2010). For the Met budget for 2009–10, see Rebecca Olles, Crain’s New York Business, Oct. 9, 2011. In March 2013, Ziff family contributions were reported to have exceeded $53 million, see Chip Brown, Times, March 24, 2013.
24. For the average age of the Met audience, see Charlotte Higgins, Guardian (London), Dec. 9, 2011. “we’ve covered all”: Warrick Thompson, “Star Manager Gelb’s Live Broadcasts Make 11 Million for Met,” Bloomberg.net, March 4, 2012. “acknowledged for the”: Wakin and Kevin Flynn, Times, Oct. 10, 2011. “that competition from”: Anthony Tommasini, Times, March 15, 2013. Early on, in 2007–08, Opera America and the Metropolitan, working with Shugoll Research, conducted a survey to “analyze the impact of the Met’s HD transmissions.” See Opera America (Fall 2008): 38–44. Given the infancy of the project, the findings were few and tentative. They included the following: the core audience comprised primarily frequent operagoers; the majority of respondents professed to derive equal enjoyment from live opera and simulcasts; most of those who had not been at a live performance in two years agreed that they were likely to attend one in the near future, implying that “HD transmissions may serve to reintroduce these recent non-attendees to opera.” But the big question was, and remains, “What has been the impact of HD on opera house attendance?” The research team’s tentative conclusion was that “the transmissions may truly be creating a new audience for opera.” About Gelb and the HD public, see Tommasini, Times, March 15, 2013. “uncommonly high amount”: cited in Philip Boroff, “Met Opera to Sell $1 Million in Bonds as Revenue Drops,” Bloomberg, Dec. 11, 2012.
25. For Gelb on Zeffirelli’s Tosca: “I promised the Met subscribers when I first came on board—well, I didn’t promise anything, but I did say that there were two iconic Zeffirelli productions, Bohème and Turandot, and that the other Zeffirelli productions are going to be replaced. A lot of these things are just sitting there like lead weights, so there is a lot of catching up to do.” Mead, New Yorker (Oct. 22, 2007): 143–44. “The Met’s New”: Midgette, Washington Post, Sept. 22, 2009. “An uneven, muddled”: Ross, New Yorker (Oct. 5, 2009): 84. “puny and halfhearted”: F. Paul Driscoll, Opera News (Dec. 2009): 53. “A Kinky Take”: Tommasini, Sept. 23, 2009. “Schweinerei”: Walter Dobner, Die Presse, June 30, 2010. “Volgare verismo”: Paolo Isotta, Corriere della Sera, April 24, 2012. “Refreshingly blasphemous edge”: Andrea Kohler, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Sept. 3, 2009. “life and relevance”: Adam Margulies, Opera Britannia, Oct. 1, 2009.
26. For the booing of Tosca, see Charles Affron and Mirella Jona Affron, Times, Sept. 27, 2009. “fiasco”: Brown, Times, March 24, 2013.
27. Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser directed and Christian Fenouillat designed the 2010 Hamlet. Ferdinand Wögerbauer designed the 2010 Boris Godunov. Bob Crowley designed the 2010 Don Carlo.
28. Offenbach’s posthumous score has often been rearranged; the 2009–10 version contained much music never before heard at the Met. Levine was criticized for not adopting musicologist Michael Kaye’s recent scholarly edition. For Sher on Hoffmann’s character: “I think Offenbach had that sense of anxiety and outsiderness that comes with being Jewish. I think it was his core.” Barry Singer, “Bartlett’s Quotations,” Opera News (Dec. 2009): 28. “enough time to”: Munk, Vanity Fair (May 2010). “political instability”: Anna Battista, “Prada at the Opera,” www.dazeddigital.com, Feb. 23, 2010. “stage picture . . . all”: Heidi Waleson, Wall Street Journal, March 4, 2010.
29. “reconceptions . . . are as”: Tommasini, Times, Jan. 3, 2011. Wolfgang Gussmann designed the 2010 La Traviata.
30. “the thumbprint of”: William R. Braun (July 2010): 43.
31. Ross, “Metamorphosis,” New Yorker, 89–90. Ross, “Crack-up at the Met,” May 23, 2012, www.newyorker.com.
32. “from the outside”: Justin Davidson, New York (Dec. 12, 2011). “acknowledged what many”: Wakin, Times, Oct. 11, 2012.
33. “a dramaturgical traditionalist”: Matt Dobkin, New York (Jan. 8, 2006). “For some people”: Munk, Vanity Fair (May 2010). Luisi appears to share Levine’s view of trendy restagings: “He avoids working with directors who stage radical reinterpretations of opera story lines. Instead, the conductor looks for meaning in the score, which he calls his ‘codex.’ ” Jennifer Maloney, Wall Street Journal, April 7, 2012.
34. “big, old-fashioned-looking”: Waleson, Wall Street Journal (Online), Sept. 25, 2012. “dramatic mishmash”: Martin Bernheimer, Financial Times, Sept. 26, 2012. “hardly a bold”: Tommasini, Times, Jan. 2, 2013. “this Don Giovanni”: Tommasini, Times, Oct. 15, 2011.
35. “maximum-security facility”: Rupert Christiansen, Daily Telegraph (London), June 24, 2010. “This rejiggered Rigoletto”: Eric Myers, Daily Variety, Feb. 1, 2013. Un Ballo in maschera was designed by Paul Steinberg. Rigoletto was designed by Christine Jones.
36. “contrarian yet predictable”: Baker (Feb. 2012): 50. “the grimness and”: Tommasini, Dec. 1, 2011. Robert Brill designed the 2011 F
aust. “perfectly suited to”: Waleson, Wall Street Journal (Online), Feb. 19, 2013. “so stuffed full”: Silverman, Associated Press, April 5, 2013. “all the theatrical”: Waleson, Wall Street Journal (Online), April 8, 2013. Parsifal was designed by Michael Levine. Giulio Cesare was designed by Robert Jones.
37. “magical in every respect”: Waleson, Wall Street Journal (Online), Oct. 24, 2012.
38. “tectonic,” Lepage in Wagner’s Dream.
39. “worth its weight”: Silverman, Associated Press, Sept. 28, 2010. “audience . . . spellbound”: Claire Prentice, Daily Telegraph (London), Sept. 29, 2010. “playing with toys”: Bernheimer, Financial Times, Sept. 29, 2010. “The current conventional”: Fred Cohn, Opera News (Dec. 2010): 59.
40. “a policy prompted”: Wakin. “less an interpretation”: Opera News (April 2012): 54. “The public is”: Ibid. (May 2012): 80. For other instances of Gelb’s attempts to suppress criticism of his regime, see Times, May 21, 2012.
41. “My point was”: Brown, Times, March 24, 2013.
42. “a certain amount”: Times, May 17, 2013.
Index of Names, Titles, and Foreign-Language Musical Terms
In addition to proper names and titles of works, the index includes opera houses and companies with their locations, as well as the first instance of the use of foreign-language musical terms, which are defined in parentheses. Page numbers for illustrations are in italic, followed by fig for figures and tab for tables. Years listed in subentries are given in boldface.
Abbado, Claudio, 188, 251, 306
Abbey, Henry E., 6, 8, 15–16, 24–25, 27, 32, 35–37, 39, 41, 45–46, 52, 54, 197, 297, 352, 354, 391–92
Abbiati (director), 17tab, 18tab
Abduction from the Seraglio, The. See Entführung aus dem Serail, Die
Abramovitz, Max, 232
Academy of Music (Brooklyn), 82, 85, 307
Academy of Music (New York), 2–3, 6, 8, 11, 13, 15, 24, 56, 83
Academy of Music (Philadelphia), 85
Adams, John, 379
Adès, Thomas, 381
Adler, Kurt, 187, 251
Adriana Lecouvreur (Cilea), 77, 134; 1907–08, 71, 73, 223; 1962–63, 223
Adrienne Lecouvreur: play (Scribe), 14, 72
Africaine, L’ (Meyerbeer), 14, 39, 52; 1888–89, 28; 1891–92, 38
Agnini, Armando, 110tab, 132tab
Ägyptische Helena, Die (Strauss): 1928–29, 108, 215; 2006–07, 362–64
Ahlquist, Karen, 394n13
Aïda (Verdi), 16, 143, 166, 168, 201, 206–7, 305; 1888–89, 28; 1908–9, 188; 1909–10, 84; 1930–31, 114; 1934–35, 128; 1935–36, 146; 1936–37, 144; 1944–45, 180; 1951–52, 210; 1957–58, 298; 1959–60, 328; 1961–62, 328; 1963–64, 213; 1972–73, 259; 1975–76, 276–77, 278; 1988–89, 300, 301–2
Ailey, Alvin, 267tab
Akhnaten (Glass), 313
Alagna, Roberto, 320, 348, 375
Albanese, Licia, 149, 161, 174, 178, 356–57, 365
Albery, Tim, 348
Alboni, Marietta, 14
Alceste (Gluck), 172; 1940–41, 167–68, 175–76; 1951–52, 176; 1960–61, 176, 223
Alcestiad, The (Talma), 240
Alda, Frances, 34, 81, 10, 138–39, 239
Alden, David, 382
Aldrich, Richard, 90
Alexander Nevsky, film (Eisenstein), 351
Alexandrov, Yuri, 337
Alfano, Franco, 319
Allen, Fred, 192
Allen, Peter, 355
Allen, Reginald, 185
Allen, Steve, 358
Almanz, Fernand, 50tab
Álvarez, Marcelo, 321
Alvary, Max, 34
Amara, Lucine, 190, 202
Amato, Pasquale, 88, 90, 90fig, 239
Amelia al ballo. See Amelia Goes to the Ball
Amelia Goes to the Ball (Menotti), 240; 1937–38, 147, 217
American Tragedy, An (Picker): 2005–06, 314
Amico Fritz, L’ (Mascagni): 1893–94, 44
Amore dei tre re, L’ (Montemezzi), 91; 1922–23, 135
Amore medico, L’ (Wolf-Ferrari), 97tab
Anderson, June, 303, 343
Anderson, Marion, 157, 207–9, 208fig, 224, 230
Andrea Chénier (Giordano): 1920–21, 104; 1954–55, 223; 1995–96, 318; recording, 217
Aniara (Blomdahl), 254
Anima allegra (Vittadini), 109tab
Anisfeld, Boris, 106–7tab, 109tab
Anna Bolena (Donizetti), 21; 2011–12, 22, 347, 365, 367, 381
Ansermet, Ernest, 188, 251
Anthony, Charles, 298
Antony and Cleopatra (Barber), 240; 1966–67, 236–38, 238fig, 243, 248
Aoyama, Yoshio, 221, 222
Apollinaire, Guillaume, 285
appoggiatura (grace note), 9
Arabella (Strauss): 1954–55, 215–16; 1982–83, 287, 320
Ardoin, John, 420n26
Ariadne auf Naxos (Strauss), 366; 1962–63, 215–16, 222; 1992–93, 345–46; 2009–10, 371
Arianne et Barbe-bleue (Dukas), 96tab
arioso (in this context, a short aria), 71
Armida (Rossini), 21, 378; 2009–10, 22, 378, 389
Armide (Gluck), 96stab
Armistead, Horace, 194–95, 217
Aronson, Boris, 239, 248
Arroyo, Martina, 141, 205, 209, 259
Asrael (Franchetti): 1890–91, 36
Astor, Caroline (Mrs. William Backhouse Astor), 34, 80, 395n10
Astor Place Opera House (New York), 12
Atlantida (De Falla), 225, 227
Attaque du Moulin, L’ (Bruneau): 1909–10, 84
Attila (Verdi): 2009–10, 376–77
Auber, Daniel, 27, 36
Auchincloss, Louis, 27, 35
Auden, W. H., 218
Audi, Pierre, 349, 377, 385tab
Autry, Gene, 358
Baccaloni, Salvatore, 161
Bach, Johann Sebastian, 167
Balanchine, George, 146, 228
Baldwin, Marcia, 259
Ballo in maschera, Un (Verdi), 14, 170, 254; 1888–89, 28; 1913–14, 91; 1940–41, 156, 170; 1954–55, 208–9; 1961–62, 213, 222; 1979–80, 281; 1990–91, 317; 2012–13, 381–82
Balò, Maurizio, 310
Baltimore Opera (Maryland), 372
Baltsa, Agnes, 303
Bampton, Rose, 175–76
Bantchevsky, Bantcho, 288
Barber, Samuel, 215, 237–38, 240
Barbier von Bagdad, Der (Cornelius): 1889–90, 32
Barbiere di Siviglia, Il (Rossini), 11, 50, 52, 144, 149, 168; 1883–84, 9; 1927–28, 20; 1955–56, 226; 1957–58, 298; 1981–82, 287, 347; 2006–07, 358, 364, 375, 379
Barbieri, Fedora, 190
Barenboim, Daniel, 306
Barlow, Klara, 261
Barnum, P. T., 14
Barrault, Jean-Louis, 222
Barrientos, Maria, 298
Bartered Bride, The (Smetana), 168, 170; 1908–09, 83, 327–28; 1935–36, 146–47; 1978–79, 280; 1997–98, 329, 335
Bartók, Béla, 302
Bartoli, Cecilia, 22, 325, 343, 346
Basing, Charles, 98tab
Bass, Mercedes T., 327, 349
Battle, Kathleen, 287, 290, 302, 317, 320, 348, 350
Baudoin, Monique, 299
Baudu, Pierre, 49tab
Baum, Kurt, 201–2, 224
Bavarian State Opera. See Bayerische Staatsoper
Bayerische Staatsoper (Munich), 349, 373
Bayreuther Festspiele (Bayreuth), 5, 7, 27, 32, 56, 59, 69, 73, 131, 155, 167, 244, 270, 274, 306, 341, 386
Beame, Abe (mayor), 265
Beaton, Cecil, 218, 222, 244
Beczala, Piotr, 382
Beecham, Sir Thomas, 129, 167, 170–72, 178, 192
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 54, 157–58
Behrens, Hildegard, 295, 301, 303, 365
Belasco Theatre (New York), 88
Belasco, David, 86–89, 87fig, 401n16
Bel Geddes, Norman, 197
Bellini, Vincenzo, 9, 11–13, 20–22, 346, 394n20
Belmont, August, 13, 123
Belmont, Eleanor (Mrs. August, Jr.), 123, 126–27, 141, 143, 162, 182–83, 197–98, 199, 229, 328, 336