Exclusive: The Met cancels two productions
OperaInsiders tell us the Metropolitan Opera has rowed back on plans to stage Handel’s Semele in the coming year.
The opera, an acrobatic co-production with Munich staged by Claus Guth and trumpeted by the Times as ‘A ‘Semele’ Bound for New York’. has vanished from current schedules and may have been kicked into long grass for financial reasons. (Or maybe fitness.) The cast inlcuded Allan Clayton, Jakub Orlinsky and Brenda Rae.
UPDATE: In the same round of cutbacks, the Met also scrapped Dvorak’s Rusalka for next season. A source tells SD: ‘All contracted artists are paid out their full fees to stay at home and not sing.’
Not a good look.
photo: Monika Rittershaus/Bavarian SO
The unprecedented disappearance (of global pandemic proportions) of important voices and important singers is already being felt. This is a direct consequence. Opera queens have reaped what they themselves have long sowed. Let it RIP.
How have opera queens reaped what they sow in regards to the claim of important voices disappearing?
They have engineered decades of poor casting based on looks and a poor understanding of voice. The Met paved the way back in the Ingpen days, with the advent of the great Jonathan Friend and company. The current choices, in the USA and abroad, of music directors [witness the Met and San Francisco Opera as two examples] and ‘directors’, to say nothing of singer-casting, are appalling to anyone who knows anything about opera. If the cancellation of Brenda Rae singing Handel is considered a ‘blow’, that shows our lowered standards.
I doubt there is any truth in what you are saying, as opera queens are very well-informed on singing, unless the experts all died in the AIDS epidemic. They made Jessye Norman a star. Radical directors are the ones killing opera.
Since you asked. Check out the crew at Parterre Box. That crew and its founder, back in the day, basically helped run many important and unique artists to the ground and out of town, artists that today we would gladly give up a vocal cord or two to have again in today’s deprived and demoralized opera circuit. As a result, that same crew, in their panic and despair, is now trying their utmost best to prop up any and every insignificant mediocrity that comes their while at the same time still regurgitating over and over and over the same old tired anecdotes on the long dead. But there is barely any in-between for them so that they skip from, say, the disappearance of Caballé to today. Nothing happened after or before for them. In addition, that crew has taken to calling their current propped-up favorites (and they are usually female singers) by their first name, as in Lise or Anna, as if they were on intimate terms with the singers or as if the singers were their personal possession. You get the idea. It is of course a very sexist and misogynistic attitude, not to mention childish and affected, that that crew is unable or unwilling to detect in themselves.
Give an example or two of an artist Parterre Box was responsible for running to the ground and out of town, as you say.
I’m no fan of the Parterre Box hyenas (and that’s exactly what they are – a geriatric pack of hyenas) but your “theory” is a stretch in my opinion. They don’t have the power to run a cockroach out of the subway let alone established artists. Seriously.
You do have a point. Thank you for the hyenas and the cockroaches. Could not have been better said.
This is nonsense. In every field, the practitioners today are better than in the past. Runners and swimmers are faster; footballers are faster and play better defense; and instrumentalists are leaps and bounds better than their predecessors; when Stanley Drucker recorded the Nielsen concerto in the mid-1960s it was a big deal, but now a good high-schooler can do it. Oboists are far more technically skilled than the generation of Ray Still (of whom I am a great admirer), Harold Gomberg, etc.. Admittedly, there’s probably no modern violinist better than Heifetz but he’s the exception that proves the rule.
No reason to think the same isn’t true of singers; they’re definitely better actors than in the past. And it’s not as though every MET production of the Golden Age featured Caruso, Melba, and Chaliapin with Toscanini conducting; there were undoubtedly a lot of dismal nights there back in the day.
In opera, no singer seems to have a bottom anymore. Low or even lowish notes are theoretical at best. Not faulting the singers, but the current system.
That is utterly untrue. Music is not athletics. There may be technical monsters, there always have been, but it doesn’t make them stars. The loss of a sense of style is widespread. Music is just another product in the digital age. Opera is not about acting.
‘All contracted artists are paid out their full fees to stay at home and not sing.’
The idea that the donations one makes to opera companies may be used in this way does not go down well.
Why should an opera company be allowed to renege on its legally-binding contractual obligations?
Wrong end of the stick, old boy.
Given the choice between supporting a company whose management paints itself into a corner in this way and one whose management does not, I am quite clear where my dollars will go.
Bravo, Paul! So true. Can you imagine spending on a mediocre piece such as Florencia, derivative, magically-forgettable score, poor orchestration, weak libretto? We should be excited by this? I’d love to see undoctored, accurate attendance numbers this season_ seem to be scads of empty seats many nights_
In reality, they will probably be asked to sing in some future performances, OR, if that does not come about, then they’ll get paid. They are legal contracts after all.
I can assure you the singers are as upset about this as you seem to be. They turned down other work for these contracts. It will be hard to now replace that work on such short notice. And the Met doesn’t want to pay these contracts out either. The first thing they would have done was try to find other performances in the season for the singers. But if they couldn’t, the Met is contractually obligated to pay the fees if they canceled the performances for reasons other than force majeure. And if the singers do manage to find other work in the period, the fees they earn elsewhere are deducted from the total cancellation fee. So don’t worry about your precious donation going to waste.
Right – and if the fees hadn’t been paid then you’d complain about how the Met treats its artists badly.
I’ve no problem with the fees being paid. The problem I have is with the management getting the company into this situation.
Then there’s the ALCINA that was to have been shared by Covent Garden and The Met. It was a huge success in London, and was to have opened the Met season.
The Met dropped a co-production (with ROH) of the Olivier Award winning “Alcina” for the contemporary music of Kevin Puts’ “The Hours”. But I think they realized it wasn’t season opener material so they swapped it with “Medea”.
I am sorry, it was “Dead Man Walking” that Alcina was replaced with.
This is untrue. Alcina was moved away from the opening slot first. And then it met its end. Dead Man Walking was planned to have occurred in the season cancelled by the pandemic. And then it was scheduled as soon as the Met could get the forces it needed (originally planned ones) together. There was no crossover in casting either. If it ended being in a similar period, that was by chance.
I LOVED Dead Man Walking, and I’m glad the Met has opened its mind and heart to newer operas. I also loved Champion. And I’m looking forward to seeing “The Hours.” 🙂
Alcina opening night? I prefer Sominex when I need to sleep.
Saw it in Munich in July – obviously made for a Merrrrkin audience, colorful and lively showbiz, not typical of this directors work. Rae and Spyres were excellent.
Just a matter of time until Peter Gelb buries this once great opera company…sad.
So true… Gelb is so clueless. Knows very little about opera. Can’t identify a standard aria when he hears it, speaks no other languages, doesn’t know which high notes or low notes are being sung when assessing a singer. And the board rubber-stamps him like Trump’s cabinet. Isn’t there some amendment to remove Gelb, the Met’s POTUS?
Newsflash,since the Board continues ro rubber stamp Gelb, it surely appears that clueless might be you.
Recently retired singer commenting here. To those turned off by singers being paid “not to sing” – that’s called “pay or play” and is a standard feature of USA AGMA contracts. Artists WANT to perform for their living! But when a large part of your income for a year goes away due to circumstances beyond your control, it’s only fair that you as an artist not suffer for it. It’s simply acknowledging that the artists are the ones who make the product, and shouldn’t be penalized if unable to do so due to management or company issues.
I am not surprised at all. When the main conductor, Mr. Nézet-Seguin was asked on 60 Minutes, if he wasn’t worried about the elder contributors who wouldn’t like his choices, he answered: “I don’t care, they have to change their thinking.”
Obviously, they haven’t changed their thinking, but their contributions!!!
I am one of them, I don’t support such an attitude of a leader of an art institution.
I agree. For 25 years I donated to the Met. I stopped this season because I have no interest in their modern operas.
There is nothing wrong with being “modern” but for the lamentable fact that most if not all of the new crop tends to be earsores as well as eyesores.
No surprise, if you think such cancelations left big holes in this years MET’s calendar, wait for the next one ( a reason for many non US based artists turning down any MET’s offers) the single MET’s cover casts looking like any small US regional company (but paying for such singer triple price for a MET seat) and such dire financial strains, yes let put on another unscheduled HD MET telecast of Nabucco with an unsucessfull on paper looking like a former Eastern Russian province cast (and based of hearing three of five performances I’ve heard with identical cast in September and October), but who cares about artistic quality, of you can claim political points for hiring mediocre, or past their prime Ukrainian singers (of course not trying to be against Ukrainian, or any other country artists, but wishing on MET level, if paying MET crazy prices per a seat).
The Great Gelb continues to drive the Met into the ground. And not selling the new Modern Met very well, with second-rate operas like Florencia and X and others.
The Met is a joke! I can’t stop laughing!
Actually in an effort to save money they basically screwed over the stage union and got an off site firm to make the sets. Well the sets weren’t safe, twice and an effort to save money ended up costing 3xs as much and still no set.
For less production cost, and more Instagram and TikTok attention, Orlinski can bust a few moves out in Lincoln Center Plaza while Yannick provides the beats.
Am not at all surprised. At this rate, the MET will not survive for much longer as an opera house. Perhaps it should just bite the dust and put up Broadway musicals to feed the masses …
I used to enjoy the Met relays to cinemas as I’m not US based. For Christmas presents and my own collection I am unable to source Dvds of Agrippina and Don Giovanni, being both terrific casting and bookending my covid experience. I have been unable to source anywhere and the Met website points only to the streaming platform product. If the Dvds are no longer being produced I would have liked the Met to announce the fact. By treating audiences with contempt does not encourage them to continue their support. Other opera houses are available and at present more effectively run.
I don’t understand why they would cancel Rusalka; didn’t they just debut a new production a few years ago? Or was it cancelled based on expectations of poor ticket sales? It generally sells well in Prague.
Was in Prague last year. Everything sells well, Doesn’t hurt that seats are inexpensive and seniors get any seat for half price. Rusalka seems to be their “Nutcracker” and the audience was full of children.
As a former singer turned opera company creator, it was due to the lack of cultural vision I witnessed in Europe and Merca. The wholesale depravity of theater which was supposedly designed to further age old histories and epochs has decayed into irrelevance. Hopefully we will be building our own theater soon to further the art form of history when we have been unable to secure performance dates but once per year. I sense a hunger for it.
Very sad. Semele had a great cast, and I always look forward to the rare Handel Met HDs we get. Seems like we will get another small 18-opera season. I hope this doesn’t mean future plans for Handel will also be canceled. I’ve been looking foward to the Met’s co-production of Ariodante.
So here’s what’s bothering me.
The Met decided to push diversity themed operas, diversity singers, diversity conductors , political statements etc. what they are dropping is good operas, good conductors and good singers.
How long will the audience accept this and come to the shows?
Those two cancelled productions are wonderful pieces that would bring audience. Last time the Met did Rousalka they had YNS co ducting it. Handel is a favorite with some parts of society.
I’m glad they’re paying the musicians. The only reason these productions are cancelled must be because the Met will save some money. So if they save money while paying the singers must be because A. The productions are too damn expensive
B. The singers and orchestra are paid too little
Is it due to lack of funds, or singers not willing to sing in a Gelbzabub trash production?