If you call yourself a "serious" Met fan -- in other words, if your existence literally revolves around opera, you will be delighted to hear that in the very near future the Gelb-era Met Opera is planning to increase its number of radio broadcasts by as much as 500%. Yes, that's right, four or five broadcasts per week during the season! And how is this possible, you ask? Oh, cher public, La Cieca may have to get stern with you -- because she's given you three hints already!
13 comments:
Oh God! "serious" and "stern" + SIRIUS.
BUT I HAVE XM!!!! Ahime!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I'm excited, if you couldn't tell
How in god's name was this worked out with the unions?
Moving away from the MET for a moment: the Canadian Opera Company is opening their new opera house in Toronto with the first Canadian production of the entire Ring. CBC (Canadian Broadcasting) has set up almost an entire week of events including live performances from the new opera house starting September 12. The entire schedule can be found at:
http://www.cbc.ca/thering/index.html
This is something we've been waiting to see for a long time: a theatre built for opera in Toronto and the Ring.
I Have Sirius Radio; the main station for Classical Music is called "Classical voices" and every time I turn it on, it seems to be a Handalian Chorus or some other Barque. Now I love my Handel (not as much as I love my Gluck), but would it kill them to play some Verdi?
bill bookbinder and opera80221 --
You are SO on the money and on pitch. Nothing equals live performance, and yes I've been to terrible ones (didn't pay $200 for them though -- actually I've never paid that for any performance). The whole point of theater is the living, risk-taking performer who might or might not blow it in front of the entranced (one hopes) or bored or ignorant or UNKNOWN audience, the RISK is KEY. And when it's right, it's right, and things are often wrong on the recording of that very right occasion. Nothing beats being held there for two hours of Act I of Gotterdamerung, I don't care who's on your recording -- you're just not PART OF IT the way you are when you're there.
Take everyone you know who hasn't been to live theater, live cabaret, live concerts, live operas TO THE REAL THEATER, or they have no idea what world they will forfeit to Muzak.
(Bill -- did you hear a Sutherland Traviata where she sang the Tetrazzini variation of Sempre libera? I'd never heard that before, and it was a shock and a wonder and perfect besides.)
willym: I am one of the fundraiser's for Toronto's new opera house and can't wait for the Ring. I've seen a few rehearsals already and it sounds WONDERFUL in that hall.
While I enjoy listening to opera on the radio, it doesn't even come close to the experience of hearing it live.
Boringwhitegirl, I don't think there's any substitute for live opera but I agree completely about the anger over paying extraordinary money for routine performances. If I've been to the Met 65 times or more, which I think I have, I can count the performances I'd kill to hear over again as a very small percentage of that. I do not find the best opera recordings sterile or untheatrical at all, but I certainly understand why persons don't consider them 'the real thing.' Not the point, though, and I don't think either side of this debate should try to claim being correct. Incidentally, since going to CDs when they first came out, I've abandoned the LP format and have loads I've been nagged to get rid of. I'd love for them to have a nice home...
Somebody also has to tell me why the MET broadcasts cost so damned much money. This goes back to my point about being asked to subsidize something that costs so much more than it brings in. I think all the people involved in opera production--the unions, the singers, the producers and designers, and the conductors, have to make concessions if they want the art form to survive. This is the force of the market working at its most brutal efficiency. If you look at what today's young adults are listening to (monotonous crap, all electronically reproduced and processed, all made to sound like one urban style), and how they're listening to it (individually, downloaded from a computer, not even from "live" sources), then opera and many other forms of music performance may just die off. Accordingly, it's not the time to be asking for more and more money when the market has to adjust in some way. As much as I love my classical CD collection, it's based on my love of hearing real music performed by real people.
Kashania, I hear they've done an incredible job with the acoustics etc. I envy you being able to see it live - unfortunately I just cant' get down from Ottawa for the RING (this working to pay for my opera habit gets in the way of my habit.)
I am hoping to get down for the Electra with Podles and maybe the Lady Macbeth; though it would be nice to hear how the Cosi plays in the new space - God knows the O'Keefe/Hummingbird was no good for Mozart!
Rysanekfreak-
Sirius came with my new car, so I just have it while driving.
What is going to be on the air during the intermissions? Are we going to get Sills and Utley or the opera quiz with each performance?
BWG, I AM giving them up. Many of them are already on CDs, and I am far, far too dense to use an iPod for anything but a paperweight. I don't think my turntable has worked since the Reagan Administration. You want 'em? 99% of them are high-quality pressings...
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