How was batman at the Met? First review here.
mainPaul Pelkonen must have been the only NY critic to eschew the bubbles on New Year’s night. He went to the Met and saw Fledermaus in Jeremy Sams’s new production. Here’s what he thought.
Eisenstein (Christopher Maltman) woos Rosalinde (Susanna Philips) in Act II of Die Fledermaus.) Photo by Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera.
I was able to listen only to Frosch’s Monologue. I think it is an inappropriate use of socalled wit, accompanied by what sounded like burst of laughter from the audience, similar to those which occur canned during an evening’s sitcom. Some of wordage should not be used even in today’s permissive slanguage. The English monologue in the 1930 Bing production was much funnier without the use of modern slang, swearing and innuendo.
Ms. Philips sounded like she was in dire difficulties during the testing Czardas. She dodged the trills that Strauss wrote and nothing above G at the top of the staff was safe territory for her.
I did like the earlier placement of the number, preceding the Watch Duet. Much of the book and lyrics came off as a contemporary updating of the 1950 Kanin-Dietz Met version. Did my ears deceive me or were there several references to Chu-Chin-Chow, which is of course wildly anachronistic for the 1899 setting. But praise be to Jeremy Sams for not letting Gelb force him into a contemporary NY setting which the latter initially proposed.
Paul seems to have had a bit too much bubbly before the performance, which he seemed to love. Chacun a son gout, as Orlofsky sings (very badly in this production) – but music is music. The Czardas – badly sung, she doesnt have the notes. Adele’s laughing aria, equally dire, musically. Mr Szot and his colleagues always behind the beat in the Act 1 patters. Strings with tuning problems in overture. Vulgar, crude book, over the top acting – sitcom, not operetta.
An embarrassing night at the Met. Something of a regular thing under Mr Gelb.
I was so looking forward to this but found it a major disappointment. Perhaps I had set my expectations to high? Lewis, above, nails the singing! Astonishingly bad, even by MET standards nowadays. I was listening to it at home so comments on the stage antics and the sets are not appropriate. But my ears were sorely tested.
Disastrous. If I wanted Broadway I would have gone to Broadway.