An opera about a dentist (you know you need to go)
mainWilliam Bolcom’s opera McTeague, premiered in Chicago in 1992, received its first European staging at Linz this weekend.
McTeague, an unqualified dentist, loses his job, kills his wife and joins the gold rush. More or less. Based on an 1899 novel by Frank Norris, it beame the plot of Erich von Stroheim’s 1924 movie, Greed.
This first-night reviewer thinks it’s a metaphor for 21st century post-liberalism.
The original New York Times review is even more confused.
The novel, McTeague, was also the basis for Erich von Stroheim’s silent film, “Greed.”