By James Jorden
With one of my favorite opera productions returning to the Met tonight, I’ve been considering lately what makes Willy Decker’s Traviata so fine, so satisfying, and so worth a return visit. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘willy decker’
Then is now
Thursday, March 14th, 2013What went wrong?
Friday, December 9th, 2011By James Jorden
After putting off for a week trying to make some sense of the horrific mess that is the Met’s new Faust, I’m finally just going to give up. There are some disasters that bear writing about as what you might call teaching opportunities: this season’s Don Giovanni, for example, as a cautionary tale about the perils of timid conservatism. But there’s nothing to be learned from this Faust besides, perhaps, “never hire Des McAnuff to direct another opera under any circumstances.” (more…)
Peter’s Principles
Friday, November 4th, 2011by James Jorden
“I’ve almost come to the conclusion that this Mr. Hitler isn’t a Christian,” muses merry murderess Abby Brewster early in the first act of Arsenic and Old Lace, and to tell the truth I’m beginning to think I’m almost as far behind the curve as she was. Recent new productions at the Met suggest strongly that Peter Gelb either doesn’t quite know what he’s doing or else, if he does know, has some wildly inappropriate ideas about what music drama is supposed to be. (more…)
Three for Regie
Friday, January 28th, 2011By James Jorden
Instead of beating my brains out trying to make sense of the comings and goings in the final act of Simon Boccanegra at the Met (or am I just deluded to find it unlikely that convicted rebels should be marched to their execution through the Doge’s unguarded council chamber?), I thought this week I’d take the lazy blogger’s way out and link to a few other blogs that are carrying on the Regie discussion. (more…)
Myth, Matched
Friday, January 7th, 2011By James Jorden
New Year’s Eve may have marked a significant turning point for the Gelb administration at the Metropolitan Opera. The replacement of the “beloved” Franco Zeffirelli Traviata extravaganza with a lean, mean non-literal staging has garnered rapturous reviews and strongly positive audience reactions. The single reported boo for director Willy Decker’s production team (someplace over house left in Orchestra) was, from where I was sitting, drowned out by applause and moderate cheering- though, to be perfectly accurate, there weren’t many shouts of “bravo.”
The point, though, is that the sky hasn’t fallen. Big Bad Regie hasn’t chased the audiences away from the Met. Remaining performances of the run, including tonight’s, are heavily sold, and rumor has it that the production will be revived in the next two seasons. So, what went right? Why is Traviata the triumph that Tosca or (thus far) the new Ring is not? (more…)