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Great Performances at the Met
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Saturday, September 28~ 8pm; Sunday, September 29 ~ 3am; Monday, September 30 ~ 12am
DETAILS: [CC] [STEREO]
GENRE: PARENTS PICKS
Met opera season opens amid controversy
Gay Rights Protest Greets Opening Night at the Met
By MICHAEL COOPER
After the lights dimmed for the Metropolitan Opera’s Russian-themed
opening night gala on Monday evening, the first solo voice that rang out in the
house was not of a tenor or soprano, but of a protester criticizing the recent
antigay laws signed by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
“Putin, end your war on Russian gays!” a man shouted in the
vast auditorium, which was packed for the black-tie gala opening of
Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin,” before turning to two of the evening’s Russian
stars: Anna Netrebko, the popular Russian diva, and Valery Gergiev, the
artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. “Anna, your
silence is killing Russian gays! Valery, your silence is killing Russian gays!”
Some members of the audience tried to shush the protester,
as security guards walked into the house. After a pause, the opera began.
Four protesters in the Family Circle were asked to leave and
did, opera officials said.
At issue was a new law banning “propaganda on nontraditional
sexual relationships” that Mr. Putin signed into law in June, drawing worldwide
attention to the difficulties gay people face in Russia. Both Ms. Netrebko and
Mr. Gergiev were vocal supporters of Mr. Putin in his last election.
The outburst in the opera house capped an evening of
picketing outside it, as opera patrons in black tie and ball gowns were met
with chanting protesters and a 50-foot rainbow banner that said “Support
Russian Gays!”
The seeds for the protests on Monday night were planted when
Andrew Rudin, a composer who is gay, started an online petition urging the Met
to dedicate the performance to gay rights in Russia. The petition, which has
been signed by more than 9,000 people, noted that Tchaikovsky, a gay Russian composer,
was being performed by artists who supported a Russian government that had
passed antigay laws.
“Here’s a chance for the Met, in an entirely benign and
positive way, to use its great cultural influence to be relevant, and to do
something positive,” Mr. Rudin said in an interview on Monday.
Peter Gelb, the general manager of the Met, declined,
writing in an opinion article for Bloomberg News over the weekend that while he
was confident that “many members of our company join me in personally deploring
the tyranny of Russia’s new antigay laws,” it would not be appropriate to
dedicate the opera’s performances to political causes.
“We respect the right of activists to picket our opening
night and we realize that we’ve provided them with a platform to further raise
awareness about serious human rights issues abroad,” Mr. Gelb wrote. A printout
of the article was inserted into the opening night programs.
One of the organizers of the protest, Bill Dobbs, said,
“This is a way to pressure Putin, because Putin is using culture, and the
Olympics, to divert from human rights abuses.”
Ms. Netrebko said in a statement on Facebook that: “As an
artist, it is my great joy to collaborate with all of my wonderful colleagues —
regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation. I
have never and will never discriminate against anyone.”
“Some people said I have to say more, but that is the
maximum I can say right now,” she later told The Associated Press. “In my next
life, when I will be a politician, we talk!”
Mr. Gergiev was honored by Mr. Putin this spring with a
revived Soviet-era title, Hero of Labor, around the time he opened a new $700
million theater, the Mariinsky II. He has declined to comment.
“Although Russia may officially be in denial about
Tchaikovsky’s sexuality, we’re not,” Mr. Gelb said in his article. “The Met is
proud to present Russia’s great gay composer. That is a message, in itself.”
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Why Met Won’t Bow to Protest of Anti-Gay Law:
Peter Gelb
By Peter Gelb - Sep 22, 2013
With activists preparing to picket the Met’s season-opening
production of Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” tonight, I think it is important
that the public understands why the Met is not dedicating its performance to
the oppressed gay citizens of Russia, even though we’re being pressured to do
so.
The activists argue that since Tchaikovsky was gay and our
performance features several Russian artists who have been associated with
Vladimir Putin, the Met must turn our performance into a public rebuke of
Russia and, by association, the Russian performers on our stage.
While I’m confident that many members of our company join me
in personally deploring the tyranny of Russia’s new anti-gay laws, we’re also
opposed to the laws of the 76 countries that go even further than Russia in the
outright criminalization of homosexuality.
We stand against the significant human rights abuses that
take place every day in many countries. But as an arts institution, the Met is
not the appropriate vehicle for waging nightly battles against the social
injustices of the world.
Over the course of our nine-month season, artists from
dozens of different countries -- some with poor human rights records -- will be
performing at the Met. If we were to devote tonight’s performance to Russian
injustice, how could we possibly stop there?
Artistic Message
Throughout its distinguished 129-year history, the Met has
never dedicated a single performance to a political or social cause, no matter
how important or just. Our messaging has always been through art.
However, we’re engaged when it comes to social advocacy
inside the Met. Through the choice of our LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender) rainbow of artists and staff, the Met has long been at the
forefront of championing sexual and social equality within our company.
We leave it to our artists to integrate their own ideas
about society and politics into the work they create for our stage.
We respect the right of activists to picket our opening
night and we realize that we’ve provided them with a platform to further raise
awareness about serious human rights issues abroad.
As they watch our performance on the giant screen on the
facade of the opera house, we hope that they will be moved by Tchaikovsky’s
soaring melodies and telling drama.
Although Russia may officially be in denial about
Tchaikovsky’s sexuality, we’re not. The Met is proud to present Russia’s great
gay composer. That is a message, in itself.
(Peter Gelb is the general manager of the Metropolitan
Opera, whose 129th season opens today with Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin.” The
opinions expressed are his own.)
Muse highlights include Elin McCoy on wine, Martin Gayford
on art, Warwick Thompson on U.K. theater and Robert Heller on rock music.
To contact the writer of this column: Peter Gelb at
generalmanager@metopera.org.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela
Hoelterhoff at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.
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Backstage Drama at the Met, Worthy of Opera
By ZACHARY WOOLFE
“It needs more psychic atmosphere,” said Fiona Shaw, the distinguished actress and, as of last month, the director of the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin.” She was standing in an aisle in the Met’s auditorium during a rehearsal break one recent Friday, staring up at the stage like it was a gifted child having trouble fulfilling its potential.
The new “Onegin” was being a bit of a troublesome child itself. Putting on opera is always full of unexpected turns and unpleasant compromises. But this “Onegin,” which opens the Met’s season on Monday, has taken an unusually precipitous tumble from sure thing — a pinnacle of Russian music, featuring the most eminent Russian soprano and Russian conductor of our time, in a production by a widely admired theater director making her Met debut — to headache-plagued.
For one thing, that admired director, Deborah Warner, who led the production’s first iteration at the English National Opera in 2011, underwent an unexpected surgical procedure this summer and couldn’t come to the Met. Ms. Shaw, her longtime collaborator (on Broadway productions of “Medea” and “The Testament of Mary,” among others), who had also never directed at the Met, took on the assignment at what in opera amounts to the very last minute.
The Met approved the switch even though Ms. Shaw had a partly overlapping commitment to direct Britten’s “Rape of Lucretia” for the Glyndebourne Festival’s fall tour back in England, a project she had no intention of shortchanging. (She has also directed three productions for the English National Opera since 2008.) So after starting rehearsals for “Onegin” on Aug. 13, Ms. Shaw left New York on Sept. 6. Her only subsequent visit to the city was that recent Friday, Sept. 13, to work on the first and third acts and give notes to the cast before flying back in the evening.
She stood in the darkened auditorium, half-illuminated behind the lighting board, in constant motion, seeking atmosphere, while the soprano Anna Netrebko poured out her heart onstage and Valery Gergiev conducted, with his customary inscrutable hand flutters, in the pit.
Ms. Shaw pointed to a spot on the stage, then another and another. The lights would change as she went, making abrupt shifts from cool white to rich yellow and back again as she and the designers tried out different options for the classic story, drawn from Pushkin’s verse novel, about missed attempts at love between a bookish girl and a bored aristocrat.
With the addition of some light from the wings, a scene that had seemed stark suddenly turned warm; a forbidding character became, in the glow of a well-placed spot, heart-wrenching. Atmosphere gradually emerged, but the work was complex, slow and frustrating, and Ms. Shaw needed to get a lot done in very little time.
The down side of her arrangement with the Met was that Ms. Shaw was never able to see the second act — with its grand ball scene and harrowing duel — onstage with the orchestra, not to mention any of the show’s final run-throughs. Nor, as of press time, did she plan to return for opening night. All of this is extremely unusual for such a prominent production, particularly at the Met, which these days loudly and proudly touts its theatrical bona fides.
“The basic direction is done,” said the Met’s general manager, Peter Gelb, in an interview. “Most of the detail work is done, now it’s really a question of just following it up and making sure people remember what they’re supposed to be doing.”
Mr. Gelb said that he and the production team could together handle the execution of what he called Ms. Shaw’s “meticulous notes” in her absence: “There’s always some amount of fine-tuning going on, but the basic blocking of the movement of the performers, everything they’re doing, is set.”
Direction in a production’s final stages, though, is not just about setting the blocking. It is also about tiny details, about being on the scene to approve small yet telling shifts — from the lights to the acting — and to experience the full production and make last-minute suggestions. “It’s an unusual situation,” Mr. Gelb acknowledged.
Besides the scheduling issues with Ms. Shaw, there is the matter of the petition. The online petition, that is, signed by almost 9,000, that criticizes President Vladimir V. Putin’s antigay policies in Russia, that says Tchaikovsky was gay (which many music scholars believe but is not universally accepted at the moment) and that calls on the Met to dedicate the opening-night performance to the issue.
Mr. Putin, who in June signed the law banning “propaganda on nontraditional sexual relationships,” is not as distant from this “Onegin” as one might think. He has been a crucial backer of Mr. Gergiev, the director of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. Mr. Putin was the featured speaker at the gala opening of the gleaming Mariinsky II theater in May, when he also awarded Mr. Gergiev a recently revived Soviet-era prize, the Hero of Labor award. Mr. Gergiev and Ms. Netrebko were vocal supporters of Mr. Putin’s 2012 presidential campaign.
The Met, while expressing its displeasure with the law, has resisted the idea of dedicating opening night to anything.
“At the end of the day, what I do not think is appropriate is for the Met as an institution to become a political forum for a particular issue,” said Mr. Gelb, who added that he was working as an office boy for the impresario Sol Hurok in 1972, when Hurok’s office, which booked Soviet artists, was bombed by activists incensed by the plight of Jews in the Soviet Union.
“We are not here to exhort externally — to exhort the public into action,” Mr. Gelb said. “That is not the role of an opera house, in my opinion.”
But the writer and critic Jason Farago observes, in a column on the BBC’s Web site, that major arts institutions sometimes do speak out about politics. In 2011, when the artist Ai Weiwei was arrested and held in China without charges, the Tate Modern in London wrote “Release Ai Weiwei” in large letters on its facade. When the Bavarian State Opera in Munich put on Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” this spring, it published an article in its magazine, by Max Joseph, in support of the punk band Pussy Riot, three of whose members were convicted of hooliganism and imprisoned for a brief 2012 performance in a Moscow cathedral.
In early August, Ms. Netrebko, who was soon to begin rehearsing the role of Tatiana in “Onegin” at the Met, released a statement saying, in part, “I have never and will never discriminate against anyone.” Mr. Gergiev, on the other hand, has remained silent. (He declined through a Met spokesman to comment for this article.)
The controversy has cast a shadow over what should have been an entirely celebratory reunion for the two artists: they are appearing together at the Met for the first time since the 2002 performances of Prokofiev’s “War and Peace,” which were Ms. Netrebko’s debut with the company.
“I love him as a person because especially lately, in the past 10 years, we kind of have come to be like friends,” Ms. Netrebko said about Mr. Gergiev in an interview in her dressing room.
The return to the Met of mentor and protégée had some in the rehearsal audience remembering their early years together at the Mariinsky in the mid-1990s, when Mr. Gergiev had been artistic director for just a few years and Ms. Netrebko was just out of conservatory. Among her biggest early successes were Russian operas like Glinka’s “Ruslan and Lyudmila,” Prokofiev’s “Betrothal in a Monastery” and “War and Peace,” productions that can get you noticed in St. Petersburg but that are rarely performed in Europe or the United States.
Conducted by Mr. Gergiev, “Ruslan and Lyudmila” did bring Ms. Netrebko to San Francisco in 1995 for her American debut, and “War and Peace” — she was a girlish yet poised Natasha — brought her to the Met. But as she rose to international stardom, she abandoned those Russian parts for the more popular French and Italian ones, roles like Mimi in Puccini’s “Bohème” and Violetta in Verdi’s “Traviata.” While she has spent a lot of time in the coloratura repertory of Bellini and Donizetti in the last decade, her trills and fast runs always seemed like something she had to get through on the way to showing off her ravishing tone and radiant presence.
That is why the opera world has been waiting for her to get to Tchaikovsky. His phrases require arching lyricism more than agility, and they show off every corner of Ms. Netrebko’s voice, which has grown bigger and lusher in recent years. It was clear from a performance of his soaring one-act “Iolanta” in St. Petersburg in May, her voice simultaneously expansive and penetrating, that this is music she was born to sing.
“Of course, being Russian, I understand it very well and I can immediately, you know, color the phrase,” she said. “Nobody has to tell me that, because I know how it has to be. To put one word there, to shade another one and some phrases without” — she drew in a slow, rich breath and smiled — “any movement and it works.”
As she rehearsed Tatiana’s sweeping “Letter” aria with the orchestra for the first time, Ms. Netrebko bit into the Slavic consonants while keeping the phrasing sumptuously creamy. Mr. Gergiev slung his left arm over the edge of the pit and conducted with his right hand alone, fluttering his fingers and mouthing the words along with her. When it was over and the music continued, Ms. Netrebko came out into the auditorium and embraced Mr. Gergiev from behind as he conducted.
“He was worried about me going to the heavier repertory,” she said a few minutes later, referring to the roles on her horizon, including heavyweight Verdi parts like Lady Macbeth. (And someday, perhaps, Lisa in Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades.”)
“Maybe for the other singers he would say, ‘O.K., go, go,’ ” she said, “but for me he’s very protective always. He wants me to sing long, he doesn’t want me to burn out.”
Ms. Shaw, too, had watched Ms. Netrebko’s “Letter” aria, which she thought had become vaguer in the transition from the intimacy of the rehearsal room to the Met’s cavernous auditorium. “It’s not there,” Ms. Shaw said of the performance. “She needs to get back to what she was doing in the room.”
Onstage, the director acknowledged, Ms. Netrebko had far more things to think about than she did a few weeks before: the lights, the costume, the pressure, Mr. Gergiev. Now, Ms. Shaw said, with a rueful smile, “there was a man waving his hands in front of her.”
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SAVE THE DATE! At the Jane Pickens Theater in Newport
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| La Scala, Milano |
LIVE SIMULCAST: LA SCALA OPENING NIGHT FROM MILAN :LA TRAVIATA ON DECEMBER 7TH AT 1:00PM
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| Diana Damrau |
OVERVIEW:
La Scala officially inaugurates its opera season with an opening night regarded as the European cultural event of the year. This year, La Scala presents Verdi’s beloved work La Traviata, broadcast live! Opening night in Milan is always December 7th. This year it is a Saturday. The opera will shown on our big screen as it is being performed in Milan.
Performed at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan
Sung in Italian with English subtitles
Starring Diana Damrau, Giuseppina Piunti, Mara Zampieri
Conducted by Daniele Gatti
Staging and sets by Dmitri Tcherniakov
New Teatro alla Scala production
December 7, 2013 1:00pm
Running Time: 2 hours 40 minutes intermission included
Sung in Italian with English subtitles
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OPERA ON THE INTERNET
WITH
DAVE D' AGUANNO
This coming Saturday (September 28), internet radio has quite a variety of operas of different styles on the schedule. For example, if an opera written as early as 1607 is of interest to you, you might want to tune in to German Radio, as Monteverdi's opera "L'Orfeo" will be presented in a performance that took place earlier this month (September 7) in Bucharest.
A number of internet radio stations will be broadcasting a LIVE performance from Paris of Gluck's "Alceste" in its 1767 Italian version.
Moving into the 19th century, Bellini's early opera "Il Pirata" can be heard on ORF. The performance being aired is one that took place in Barcelona onJanuary 4 of this year.
In the meantime, NPR is continuing its series of radio broadcasts from San Francisco Opera's 2012/2013 season. This Saturday it's Wagner's "Lohengrin" in a performance from last October.
And 20th century opera is represented this Saturday as well, when the Met's free LIVE audio-stream will be giving us a performance of Shostakovich's "The Nose." Consider it an audio preview of the upcoming HD-transmission of this satirical work which will be seen in local movie theatres on October 26.
Enjoy!
DAVE
BLO's 2013/2014 Season opens on October 4
Single tickets are now on sale for Boston Lyric Opera's 2013/2014 Season of all-new productions, including the season opening world premiere new English adaptation of Mozart's The Magic Flute. This season BLO welcomes an international lineup featuring Sarah Coburn, John Tessier, Emily Hindrichs, Morris Robinson, Caroline Worra, Nadine Sierra, and Music Director David Angus.
Join us for a thrilling season by securing your seats today! Tickets may be purchased online at www.citicenter.org, by phone at 1-866-348-9738, or by visiting the Citi Center box office at the Wang Theatre located at 265 Tremont Street.
Interested in seeing more than one opera this season?
subscribe today and receive the best seats at the best prices!
To become a subscriber please call BLO Audience Services at 617-542-6772.
Boston Lyric Opera
11 Avenue de Lafayette
Boston, MA 02111
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IT'S COMING!
See interview with the director Deborah Warner about Eugene Onegin:
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Some interesting articles
The very end of the letter scene from Eugene Onegin, sung by
Anna.Netrebko
Anna Netrebko Wears Irena Vitjaz Haute Couture Gowns
Backstage Drama at the Met, Worthy of Opera
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These interviews are about last year's Royal Opera
production of Eugene Onegin but they are very illuminating about the opera and
the preparation of the singers for it.
Eugene Onegin in rehearsal - Royal Opera LIVE
Language coaching for Eugene Onegin - Royal Opera LIVE
Anna Netrebko/Dmitri Hvorostovsky - Onegin Finale - Moscow,
2013
Antonio Pappano Vocal Masterclass - Royal Opera LIVE
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Flash Mob Carmina Burana
Choir gives voice to Kenyan youth
Luca Pisaroni answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Singers’
Edition
Elektra: A portrait of the ultimate dysfunctional family
ROH programme book explores the violent and powerful
emotions running through the opera.
MET OPERA MEMBERSHIP
Members get DOUBLE the DISCOUNTS online and in the store
this week.
Learn more about becoming a member: here http://www.metoperashop.org/membership?utm_source=FacebookPost&utm_medium=Web9.24a&utm_campaign=FACEBOOK
And start shopping!
http://www.metoperashop.org/#utm_source=FacebookPost&utm_medium=Web9.24b&utm_campaign=FACEBOOK
Met Members get DOUBLE the DISCOUNTS online and in the store
this week.
Learn more about becoming a member
here: http://www.metoperashop.org/membership?utm_source=FacebookPost&utm_medium=Web9.24a&utm_campaign=FACEBOOK
And start shopping!
http://www.metoperashop.org/#utm_source=FacebookPost&utm_medium=Web9.24b&utm_campaign=FACEBOOK
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*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.
The Met radio broadcast season is
over for now...
check this space the first week
of December.
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NO OPERA ON WGBH TV
THIS WEEK!
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