Jubak
Well-Known Member
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And if Gelb had his way, he'd make it a "pick-up" non contract chorus. I hate him!I consider the Metropolitan Opera Chorus one of the seven wonders of the world!
And if Gelb had his way, he'd make it a "pick-up" non contract chorus. I hate him!I consider the Metropolitan Opera Chorus one of the seven wonders of the world!
@canbelto your blog is terrific. Sometimes I click on it from here, sometimes from opera-l, but I always enjoy itI saw Kiss Me Kate, The Prom, and the new cast of the Met's Samson et Dalila:
https://humbledandoverwhelmed.blogspot.com/2019/03/theater-diaries-kiss-me-kate-and-prom.html
I'm so glad you're checking out the small productions, @emason. You can't win 'em all! I was cracking up at your account of the audience chatter at Esther and the mishaps at Cosí. You're an excellent reporter.The musical adventures continue:
On Wednesday I went to the Brotherhood Synagogue on Gramercy Park South to hear a staging of the rarely performed Italian Baroque oratorio Esther, Liberator of the Jewish People just in time for Purim. It's by Allesandro Stradella and that's the title more or less in English translation. It was a small venue with about 50-60 attendees. I was the only one who didn't seem to be part of the early music scene. I overheard a lot of interesting conversations, such as the lament about there not being enough theorbo players these days. It seems the same 3 guys are stretched thin getting all the early music gigs because no one is learning that instrument these days. Also lots of talk about who played or sang with which group and who was or wasn't trekking to BEMF (Boston Early Music Festival) in June. I really enjoyed the piece; the bass baritone Ian Pomerantz was a terrific Haman and the soprano who sang the interpolated role of Esperanza Celeste (Heavenly Hope) was another knockout. (I've forgotten her name and can't find my program at the moment to look it up.) The bass who sang Ahasueras (sp?) was also terrific; he was African-American, or perhaps Afro-Caribbean, and really had the goods, a gorgeous voice. I must find my program and get his name.
Alas, last night was the downer of the week. I went to hear Amore Opera at the Riverside Theatre at Riverside Church on the UWS. Bronx Opera Company, you have nothing to worry about if last night was the best AO could do. The Israeli-American soprano, Iris Karlen, was a terrific Fiordiligi, but that was about it. In short order: this is a production in English so they didn't put up supertitles, a big mistake because most of the singers didn't have good diction and even in English 90% of the time you had no idea what anyone was singing about. The fake disguise mustaches kept falling off, causing problems for singers; some singers forgot their lines and the prompter was very audible; a stagehand's arm came out from the curtain at one point to place a missing prop on a side table; and while the orchestra was actually quite good, there were some really rough, bad notes from the brass section on occasion.
Esther 1 - Cosi Fan Tutte 0
The musical adventures continue:
On Wednesday I went to the Brotherhood Synagogue on Gramercy Park South to hear a staging of the rarely performed Italian Baroque oratorio Esther, Liberator of the Jewish People just in time for Purim. It's by Allesandro Stradella and that's the title more or less in English translation. It was a small venue with about 50-60 attendees. I was the only one who didn't seem to be part of the early music scene. I overheard a lot of interesting conversations, such as the lament about there not being enough theorbo players these days. It seems the same 3 guys are stretched thin getting all the early music gigs because no one is learning that instrument these days. Also lots of talk about who played or sang with which group and who was or wasn't trekking to BEMF (Boston Early Music Festival) in June. I really enjoyed the piece; the bass baritone Ian Pomerantz was a terrific Haman and the soprano who sang the interpolated role of Esperanza Celeste (Heavenly Hope) was another knockout. (I've forgotten her name and can't find my program at the moment to look it up.) The bass who sang Ahasueras (sp?) was also terrific; he was African-American, or perhaps Afro-Caribbean, and really had the goods, a gorgeous voice. I must find my program and get his name.
Karita Freaking Mattila.
You can have it both ways with Family Circle box seats on the sides of the house. Be sure to sit in the front row. If you get one close to the stage, you get a big corner of the stage cut off but a wonderful closeup view of the rest. If you get one close to the regular center seats, very little of the stage is cut off, and though you don't get that great closeup view you do save a lot of money. My favorites were the ones close to the stage on the string side, but really all the boxes are fine as long as you're in the front row. Life is bad for those in the back.Single show tickets for the Met are now on sale. Looking to see the following:
Akhnaten
Turandot
Tosca
For Turandot, I am willing to splurge to have a better view of the stage but am wondering whether it’s better to sit family circle for Akhenaten (particularly during the funeral scene) or try to see the spectacle.