Home : Monthly blog archive : October 2009

October 2009

"Um... and a packet of ramen noodles, please."

Submitted by operaman on Mon, 10/26/2009 - 09:08

Philip Glass caricatureNot all operatic romance takes place on the stage

Stuff that's not about Philip Glass

Submitted by operaman on Wed, 10/21/2009 - 08:24

Ursula K. Le GuinFor those of you who have had your fill of writing and videos and all that about Glass and Orphée, here's your weekly assortment from Operaman's grab bag of opera ephemera.

Happy Birthday!
Ursula K. Le Guin is 80 years young today! Avid readers among you will know Ms Le Guin as one of the world's foremost writers of fantasy and science fiction novels. She has almost innumerable awards to her name, including five Hugos and 6 Nebulas. She was born and raised in Berkeley, California, but has made Portland her home since 1958.
What fewer of you will know is that she and her charming husband, historian Charles Le Guin, to whom she has been married for well over fifty years, are wonderful supporters of the Portland Opera. I had personal experience of this when I worked in the opera's patron services department and would speak to them both on a fairly regular basis.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish her many happy returns and much joy in her future.

Who's next - the ushers?
I expect you remember all the fuss there was when Luc Bondy and the production crew of the current Met production of Tosca were roundly booed on opening night. The next production to hit the boards was Verdi's Aida and guess what - this time the peanut gallery booed the conductor, Daniele Gatti! We get to see this production on Saturday as a Met HD transmission at the movie theater. Don't expect any booing there.

So you wanna be an opera singer? Fuggeddaboudit!

Bar Tender! Another Glass please...

Submitted by operaman on Mon, 10/19/2009 - 07:40

Such was the popularity of the first video in our occasional series Front Row, Center that my chum Bob Kingston and I sat down on Saturday morning and talked about Philip Glass and Orphée. In order not to test you patience and attention span too much we divided our chat into three segments and I present them here for your delectation and edification. The music you hear under the credits is taken from a recording of the Orphée Suite for solo piano, arranged by Glass and transcribed and performed by Paul Barnes.

I apologise for the background noise being as intrusive as it is. Next time we will do it at a quieter time of day, okay?

Who actually attends a performance of a Philip Glass opera?

New York City Opera and Esther

Submitted by operaman on Mon, 10/12/2009 - 09:42

NYCO's Esther; Carol RoseggI mentioned here a couple of weeks ago that our General Director, Christopher Mattaliano, is going to New York to direct the opening production of New York City Opera’s season, Esther. I am not familiar with this opera and as there were other aspects of this venture that interest me I had a chat with Chris about Esther, and what it is like directing for another company and some other stuff I thought you might like to hear about. Here's what he had to tell me.

 

Operaman: I know next to nothing about Esther, Chris. Could you tell me something about its origins and why it has been languishing all this time without a revival.

 

Mattaliano: When Christopher Keene was General Director of New York City Opera he had this idea of celebrating the company’s 50th Anniversary season in 1993 with three world premieres in one week. This was, let’s be honest, a crazy idea - totally insane, but he somehow managed to get together the energy, the casts, and the money to commission three new operas: Marilyn by Ezra Laderman, Griffelkin by Lukas Foss and Esther by Hugo Weisgall and all three of them were premiered in the course of one week during the NYCO 1993 season.

 

Operaman: How did they fare?

 

Tosca at the Movies!

Submitted by operaman on Mon, 10/12/2009 - 09:40

ToscaI was asked to be a guest reviewer of this HD transmission for an online opera-related website (www.parterrebox.com) and to concentrate not on what I thought of the show but what the audience reaction was. Here's what I wrote:

"I attended yesterday's screening of Tosca at the Regal Cinema in Portland, Oregon. I attend each and every one of the Met HD transmissions on behalf of of Portland Opera. I Have a table there, press the flesh and talk to the audience before the show about what they are going to see. I say this by way of introduction because what flows from my regular attendance there is that I see the same folks each and every time; by now we kinda know each other and are on a chatty basis. This made it very easy for me to talk to them before the show and to ask them to come speak with me during the intermissions about what they were seeing. These few lines will concentrate on what they thought of this show rather than what I thought.

I do not imagine the demographic is very different here from any other movie theater showing these transmissions: definitely an older crowd. Average age - mid sixties I would guess. The theater was solid full. I believe it seats around 500 people.

Before the show I asked many of the patrons whether they were aware that there had been a good deal of press about this production after its opening night last week. Very few of them knew about the booing at the Met or any of the stuff that has dominated our chat this last ten days or so. I think these people must have some kind of life outside opera. Strange, but true.

Perhaps the Met needs to start installing seat belts

Submitted by operaman on Mon, 10/05/2009 - 16:27

James LevineMore from the Met
Just in case you thought that last week, when I went on at such great length about Luc Bondy's new production of Tosca at the Met, that I was making a mountain out of a molehill, then you need to read this. See? Even the tenor singing the lead role thought the production bore similarities to a car wreck! I'll bet Peter Gelb just loved reading that! Now in fairness, not everyone shared that view. One reviewer had this to say: