Lincoln Center Activities

PHOTO: New York State Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Fall means a return to the arts for Dan and I. We're big opera goers. We saw our first opera of the season, New York City Opera's production of "Margaret Garner," at the State Theater a couple of weeks ago. It was excellent. We'll be returning for many more performances both at City Opera and at the Met. We'll also be attending Met operas in "HD" format that are shown at local movie theaters, a most enjoyable format that saves the wear and tear of commuting.

Jim

Late September At The Beach

Fire Island has its own schools. This school bus is a regular sight on the beach after schools open.

It's that time of the year again for opera. We have performances to attend starting this month. We enjoy both live performances in the houses and the new high definition performances in movie theaters. We're looking forward to a great new season.

Jim

More on the Great Pavarotti

It was a great privilege to appear, as a supernumerary, with Luciano Pavarotti
in two operas: La Boheme (which Jim mentioned in his post) and Tosca. The La Boheme
was performed by the Opera Company of Philadelphia. The unique Italo-American composer and director Gian Carlo Menotti put the cast through their paces before Pavarotti arrived for rehearsals. He told us all that he would not stay once the tenor arrived and he grimaced with exaggerated horror at the thought of sharing directions with the big man. On stage in the second act, as part of the crowd near the Cafe Momus, I was drawing, an artist lost at the back of the crowd. Since I'm a painter, I was actually sketching members of the chorus, and one woman asked Pavarotti to autograph my sketch of her, which he kindly did.

During Tosca at the Mann Music Center, a touring production of the Metropolitan Opera, I was a super during the amazing choral "Te Deum" that ends the first act. It was an unbelievable thrill to hear that great choral music surround one totally, as much as hearing Pavarotti's voice from the wings. After the performance the tenor kindly signed photographs for members of the cast and others who visited him backstage.

I was also lucky enough to see Pavarotti in several operas in both Philadelphia and New York. He was unique in La Fille du Regiment, his nine high Cs pinging out with a surprising accuracy. He was the most Italianate of tenors in L'Elisir d'Amore, Luisa Miller, La Favorita, Un Ballo in Maschera and the Puccini works previously mentioned.

Though many of the points Anthony Tomassini wrote in his evaluation of the great tenor today in the New York Times were on target, I disagree with two. Tomassini claimed that Pavarotti never reached his full potential. I believe that he used his glorious lyric tenor to the best of his ability and his superb musicianship was evident in most of his performances. Yes, Pavarotti had a fairly small repetoire, but better that than trying to sing roles that were inappropriate for his honeyed voice or his limited acting abilities. I also disagree with Tomassini that it was a fine experience to see Pavarotti in Andrea Chenier. By the time he assumed that role, his career was on the decline, and it was a sad spectacle to hear him struggle with the high notes he could no longer summon in the last act.

It's best to remember Luciano Pavarotti at his peak, when he was the equal to such great singers as Gigli, Caruso, Schipa, Bjorling and the young Di Stefano. Addio, dear Luciano, and mille grazie for having put so much of your heart into your stage appearances, concerts and recordings.

Dan

Mammoth Productions At The Met

The best production of opera I've seen all year was the new Trittico at the Metropolitan Opera. A huge physical production, it features meticulously detailed sets for each of the three operas that comprise Puccini's extraordinary triptych. Not only a complete river barge materialized in Il Tabarro, the first opera, but also an overhead bridge that crossed the Seine. A cloister and 'stone' chapel set the stage for Suor Angelica, which accommodated deft sunlight and subsequent 'mystical' light effects in that powerful opera. Yet the last of the three operas, Gianni Schicchi, contained the biggest coup de theatre, when a large and ornate room in a Renaissance palace sunk into the stage, in seconds supplanted by a terrace overlooking Florence's glorious skyline. This is a photo of the cover of the original score.

The musical values of the three operas were strongly delineated by Maestro James Levine. And the Met cast all three works from strength, with such fine singing-actors as Barbara Frittoli, Stephanie Blythe, Maria Guleghina and Salvatore Licitra. Yet the size of the production, described by the Met as the largest in its repertory, started me thinking about the current peculiar double standards that exist in opera stagings in this country and in Europe.

Usually, realistic productions are decried by the New York press. Is there a single New York Times critic who admires Franco Zeffirelli? If so, I've yet to read such an opinion. Most critics praise minimalism (like Robert Wilson's) and the distortions of countless European regie directors. Wilson's staging is done solely with lighting effects and he forces his actors to stand still as statues for long periods of time. Such practices rarely add anything to Wagner's operas or the other pieces he directs. The other type of staging popular now in theater and opera is called "Regie," from the German word for 'direction.' This usually involves updating the story and tossing in clumsy symbolism. A current example at the Met is this season's new production of Richard Strauss' opera Die Agyptische Helena. English director David Fielding included such distractions and (by now cliches) as a group of warriors in suits who carry suitcases onstage and leave them spread about the floor to no discernible effect. This type of direction has been discourteously and quite accurately labeled "Eurotrash." Though such practices are just as often done now by American directors, as the New York City Opera's unfortunate production of Rossini's La Donna del Lago proves. Certainly it's not impossible to update an opera and make a powerful statement, as the Met's production of the Shostakovich opera The Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District demonstrates.

But a double standard seems to exist, to read the reviews of the Met's new Il Trittico. The Times applauded the production, and rightly so. Yet if the same designs and realistic directing had been created by Zeffirelli the whole production would have been lambasted. It could be that realistic and 'traditional' versions of stage design and direction may be on the way out for good. If that happens, it will be a sad world for future audiences and the masterpieces such directors trash.

Dan