Only In New York; i.e. "To Me, Eurotrash is Zeffirelli". The Opera Chic Editorial

Only in New York City would an essentially conventional, prudent opera director such as Luc Bondy be considered some sort of insane, incendiary bomb-thrower, the Piero Manzoni (link mildly NSFW) of the opera world. It's New York at its most unfavorable; the city where at the opera house, blessed are the meek because new things and new ideas make the audiences nervous and desperate, where singers get standing ovations, karaoke-style, just for showing up -- the Tosca premiere no exception -- and directors don't even have to be faithful to the libretto (a highly debatable definition to begin with) but they simply should be as Zeffirelli-like as they can.

"What would Franco do?", the director is supposed to think, then act accordingly: when in doubt, over-decorate, cram mind-numbing detail into every corner to show the audience that they really got their money's worth. Oh, and sex is also a very bad, scary thing -- and anyway, some big paper critics want the rape victims to be as hot as they can be -- "She was also remarkably unsexy, which made one wonder what Scarpia was so excited about", wrote the Wall Street Journal about poor Karita Mattila, that the financial newspaper, always pragmatic, simply didn't find rape-able -- not hot enough to be attacked by Scarpia, Tosca must not have asked for it badly enough.

One is therefore worried and a bit saddened by New York that as of late, gleefully collects opera directors heads like wildlife mounts in Teddy Roosevelt's study -- first Graham Vick then Mary Zimmerman and now Luc Bondy, the latest stag sacrificed on the altar of the city's opera-going mediocrity. Only in New York, seriously, a half-a$$ed minimalist like Bondy could be depicted as some sort of deranged Calixto Bieito by an audience eager to preserve (in amber) Franco Zeffirelli's stagings for all eternity (and obviously Frengo, for all his by0tchyness, does well what he does -- his old Bohème and Tosca and Aida and more than a few other stagings are indeed well thought out and worth seeing -- but, really, how many times? Like, forever?).

"To me, Eurotrash is Zeffirelli", Graham Vick once said, and it's hard not to think of his prophecy in the middle of all this Tosca chatter.

Bondy unsurprisingly and predictably got on the nerves of opera-goers that consider stark sets an insult to the art form -- they want opera as Moulin Rouge, as a Disneyland version of a romanticized, European past that might or might not have existed in the first place. Zeffirelli obviously delivers their goods, with more taste and talent than most of his contemporaries -- he is and will always remain a 1950s man, with the happy exception of his Busseto pocket-size "Aida". An audience that essentially knows what it wants -- traditional stagings, big stars (even in the sad twilights of their careers, see Pavarotti's last hurrah), big voices, designer costumes, expensive-looking sets -- is pretty hard to deal with, especially in a time of financial crisis. And for all the "Broadway Pete" talk, once the Met audience roughs up a couple more new directors -- one can only imagine what David McVicar's Pasolini-style Salome or his orgiastic Rigoletto would ignite among the Metropolitan opera-goers -- poor Peter Gelb will basically have to hire back Zeffirelli and have him rehash his old stuff, or raise poor Jean-Pierre Ponnelle from the dead, and then Luchino, too, and usher in the glorious new age of the zombie opera directors -- zombies who, famously, like to eat brains, and in their Metropolitan opera outings would probably end up skipping dinner, if last night's reaction is anything to go by.

Comments

[Rodarte]

BRAVA DARLING!

[Dork Chester]

I just visited that WSJ link and was greeted with this: Tosca as a "concept-driven piece of European Regietheater". No comment, really.

[siris]

One thing about these directors of "concept-productions" is that they're LIVING artists. They hit, they missed. With them there's alway risk. I love love Vick's Onegin(Scala) but no one would disagree his Met Trovatore was a total mess. Same applied for Zambello, Bondy etc. Frengo and other old skoolers, on the other hand, might bore you to death but they always play safe...

And man, after surprises in recent years, I'd rather the Met shops around for proven productions like they did w/ ENO's Butterfly and CG's Trovatore...

It seems that every house has its own identity - e.g. w/3800 seats the Met might be destined to produce sth glamorous... pleasing to the general opera public than rough edgy thought-provoking thangs. While smaller companies(alas, if they survive) take on more challenging concepts...

[walter]

Why does it make you people so upset that even NYC audiences hate this junk? I will definetely be on hand when this production (if it ever does...) makes it to La Scala. Now THAT will (would) be a night to remember! I am not a "Disneyland opera" person but there nmust be a happy medium somewhere! With all this talk of financial crisis you'd think they'd be a little more careful about throwing around money like this...

[David Smith]

As someone who has to pay for their own tickets and travel 100 miles to get to NYC, I am very picky about what I am willing to spend my time and very hard earned money on. My wife and I have been the victim of too many directors who think they are smarter than those who created the original work be it Shakespeare or Opera. I can fully understand and appreciate the reaction of the audience. Just because the copyright has expired is, not in my mind, a license to ignore what is on the page. Based on what I have read this is not an opera version that I will go see.

[El Cajon]

I haven't seen the new Tosca and don't plan to. But I certainly will schlep to the Met for From the House of the Dead and I suspect Met audiences will be enthralled by the Chereau production. I don't think Met audiences are nearly as hidebound as some suggest. Savvy New Yorkers generally know good good theatre when they experience it and if they're up in arms, it's probably for a good reason, as it was when Robert Wilson's embalming of Lohengrin premiered in 1998.

Actually New Yorkers not all that different from audiences in Vienna, Munich, and elsewhere that boo trashy productions. They pay big bucks to go to the opera and expect artistic merit in return. Zeffirelli is an anachronism, a director who appeals to Phantom of the Opera-type audiences and whatever the merits or demerits of Luc Bondy's production, the Met is well rid of the previous, overstuffed production of Tosca. If the Bondy production is truly trash, it won't be around for long. But this doesn't automatically translate into "Return of the Zombies at Lincoln Center.

[StellaNasca]

Miss OC, didn't you just have a post on Renée Fleming and how fab she looked in that gown? A pretty basic gown, in basic colors... but it suited her beautifully and she did look fab.

Now what if Miss Fleming had turned up in some outfit that was the aesthetic equivalent of that Bondy production, and if someone raised an eyebrow she insisted that the idea of classically cut, flattering clothes, was just meek, nervous, and desperate? That the idea that a beautiful woman must get past these notions of being set off well by clothes that suit her figure and coloring? That we are a lot of stupid backward people for thinking that?

Framing matters. (See this old but relevant item from the Washington Post on an experiment they ran with Joshua Bell: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html ). If you take something amazing and frame it poorly you might find that people don't like the result and even may overcome their meekness enough to say so, right aloud!

[ciocio]

You don't have to necessarily do Tosca the way Zeffirelli did it....nothing wrong with doing something different. The problem here is that directors like Bondy either do not take the time to read what Puccini wrote in the score ( specific directorial things are in the score like Tosca putting the candles, etc etc )or simply decide to ignore what the composer wanted, or , even worst, don't have a clue of what the words one by one mean...!!! So they decide to make their own show with the sound track of Puccini or Verdi or whatever else. That is the problem. It's not a question of being conservative or not...it is just a question of respecting what is in the score: and it should be possible to come up with something that meks sense. looks different, but respects the score. Otherwise these people should pick other pieces, or direct straight theater. Punto e Basta

[Thomas]

Bravo OC for your analysis. Attending regularly to the Paris Opera (Garnier and Bastille), Theatre du Chatelet, Opera comique, and Theatre des Champs Elysees, I am surprised to hear how violents are the reaction of the Met's audience to some production which are not so modern. How would have they reacted to King Roger at Bastille last June! I will see this new Tosca at the Met (regretting once again this star-system that conducts to hear singers when they are no more in their prime). But I would not have bought any ticket to go and see an old Zefirelli's production.

[renee8]

People forget that Zeffirelli was an innovator
back when he started out in the 50s and into the 60s. He was the leading edge guy that drove the traditionalists crazy with things like
his flashback Traviata production and in films
with things like nudity in Romeo and Juliet.

But that was 50 years ago and people forget.

Personally I think he ran out of things to say a loooooooong time ago and seems mostly concerned with how many donkeys he can get on stage at one time.

Also any of his "direction" in his Met productions is mostly long gone. All that's left are the physical properties, the staging is done by stage managers. An exception would be his Falstaff which came back to NY to restage a few seasons ago

[Claudia4Ever]

>StellaNasca: agree completely! i find it revoltingly narcissistic when a director has the sad need to make a production "all about him/her" without any respect to the work. and sadly, when they don't understand, the work COULD still very much be their expression and talent even with that respect intact to the composer's creation. and yes, while some Met go'ers are of the closed-minded guard, most today are NOT; and as noted here in previous posts - we know good theater of any art form when we see it. the performance in its entirety unfortunately missed. it's always a combination of things. and at the core: we are just simply in a very acute drought of leading singers for such roles. strategically -- i think i would've gone with a marketing plan that underplayed and noted the experimentalness of this instead of making it larger than life only to have it fall further - even with the stunt dummy.

[Chip Michael]

Nice review... I quoted you in my blog covering the various reviews from the "Tosca" production - your matched all the rest of the reviews I've read about this production. However, yours was the most targeted.

Chip Michael
InterchangingIdioms

[Rachel]

I attended the Met's opening night of "Tosca" and was stunned by the booing. I have continued to be stunned by the vitriol in the press, especially Manuela Hoelterhoff's review. Calling this production Regieteater is ridiculous, and her nasty remarks about Karita Mattila do not belong in a music review. Thank you, OperaChic, for offering a clear assessment of the merits and faults of Bondy's production. I think that the messiness of the blocking and muddiness of certain ideas will be cleaned up in rehearsal and performance, and the additions of Kaufmann and Terfel will be a big help.

I am in my twenties, and I attend the opera regularly- mostly in New York, but also Paris, London, Munich, Vienna, and Stockholm. I suppose I'm the kind of audience that Peter Gelb wants to attract- young and hip ;) . I for one hope he is not discouraged by this reaction and continues to bring productions to New York that evoke strong opinions. I would love to see more Robert Carsen and Richard Jones. And Graham Vick and David McVicar. And what the heck, why not Calixto Bieito, Gunter Kramer, Hans Neuenfels, Dmitri Tcherniakov, and the Alden brothers? I'd love to see the Upper East Side dowagers during/after a Bieito production!

[Halldor]

You go, OC! WAY TO TELL IT LIKE IT IS!

[Coloratura Tempura]

People should picket the Wall Street Journal because of that quote. Pigs.

[Linda Ginsburg]

Brava OC! And Rachel, as well.

Vick is 2 for 3 at the Met. His productions of "Lady Macbeth of Msensk" and "Moses und Aron" are triumphs. The "Trovatore" didn't work but there were some interesting concepts. Particularly the opening tableau of a single figure silhouetted against a full moon which then split to become the figures of Manrico and Di Luna. (And a travesty that funding was pulled from a planned taping/filming of "Moses.")

On the other hand, all this hullabaloo might just end up working out. When the Robert Wilson "Lohengrin" premiered there was the same vitriolic reaction and the same publicity. And the next day there was a rush at the box office and the run sold out.

(Now there's a one-trick pony - Robert Wilson. After "Einstein on the Beach" he has simply repeated himself.)

[Furst]

We do not disagree with OC to the extent that she correctly assesses and describes the preferences and caprices of the Met audience. We are certain that she does so correctly with respect to a significant portion of that audience.

However, we are inclined to agree with El Cajon that to some extent the problem is more closely related to the quality of the staging and that for many the flaws in the production have more to do with the specifics of concept, individual direction and faithfulness to the score and libretto than the unZeferelliesqness of the production. We have not read OC's full review yet but suspect she will provide a notably insightful and interesting evaluation of the actual goings on stage and in the pit, and in doing so will perhaps address some of these imperfections.

We tend to agree that New York audiences are not in the respect all that different from those in Europe. Moreover, it is not only New Yorkers who have what some would consider an excessive fondness for singers past their prime - an affliction very much present in just about all the great houses of Europe. (We are not quite prepared to admit that Mattila is past her prime, and even if she is very much superior to almost all of her "competitors" across the majority of her repertoire.

We would also chime in with El Cajon identification of the Wilson Lohengrin as a particular atrocity but would note that even there, after a while one can learn to ignore the production to a significant extent and enjoy the opera where the musical contribution is of sufficient quality. This does not, of course make it acceptable as staging should contribute to rather than significantly detract from the experience.

[Furst]

Furthermore, we suspect that those with the opportunity to go who will abstain from the performances this spring might well be depriving themselves of a musically terrific Tosca (at least we certainly hope so, seeing as we've already taken the trouble to reserve our seats).

[renegade maestro]

"poor Peter Gelb will basically have to hire back Zeffirelli and have him rehash his old stuff, or raise poor Jean-Pierre Ponnelle from the dead, and then Luchino, too, and usher in the glorious new age of the zombie opera directors"

OC, this is why I love you. You always cut through the crap. I'm in awe of your honesty and your reliability.

[woodenhouse]

It's not like Gelb has to worry about his donors pulling financial support from the MET over this production. It was provocative without being inherently offensive, so he's in the clear.

Personally, I think it's bold of him to bring directors like Bondy to the MET, which definitely suffers from an insular list of boring directors. I love these little controversies. It can do nothing but good for the MET. It's laughable to read all the comments on the internet that predict endless demise, gloom, and doom over this new production. Get over yourselves!

[Robert Johnson]

I'm only an intermittent opera goer (twice a year, say), but I have seen the work of a few of the new opera direcrors during stays in Germany. I find much of the work insulting - in the sense that they seem to believe that I wouldn't really be interested in opera unless I could see some tits, or maybe the chorus miming sex. I actually like opera, and I accept that operas are period pieces. That's OK, not a criticism. I don't know what Bondy did (obviously), but I prefer directors who acknowledge that 19th century Italy was a different place from 21st century America and the differences are part of the show.

[El Cajon]

Very good discussion. The comments underneath the blogger's post are often as interesting as those made by the blogger Herself. And we all know she is a very savvy operagoer and observer, even when we see things differently.

[Lou Ann D]

I want to chime in; OC you set the stage for a wonderful, thoughtful discussion. I am more than eager to see the production, though I do wish I could see Kaufman and Dessi instead. What a wonderful world!

[gramofaun]

In an ideal world, traditional productions (faithful to the composer's instructions) would continue to be staged alongside new interpretations. It would be a real loss if the former were to be completely displaced by the latter to the extent that new generations only have the Bondy versions available. We do not throw away century-old paintings to make room for new artists -- or century-old buildings, for the most part. Sets, costumes, and staging are an integral part of opera. Why take liberties with them while treating the score as sacrosanct?

[Reed]

OC's favorite Hans Werner Henze wrote an interesting essay on this topic (it's in his essay collection "Music and Politics"). His main point, with which I whole-heartedly concur, it that most producers (American = stage directors) have no ears. They don't know anything about music, they ignore the score and base their "insights" on all manner of written/textual material, but not the music of the opera itself.

This often leads to awkward, silly or just wrong-headed stage action or design that does not respect or deepen our understanding of the whole work. Or, as Henze put it (I paraphrase): Modern producers do not understand that the libretto already has been interpreted by a "producer" — the composer. The composer has taken the libretto and "produced" it, and in the process has embedded essential dramatic information in the music itself. If the modern producer does not hear what is in the score — and not just what is in the text — then he will fail to illuminate the essence of the work (whether his production is "traditional" or "revisionist").

It's also worth noting that the great opera composers were, after all, some of the greatest "men of the theatre" of all time and—not to be unkind—can we think of a single producer working today who understood stagecraft, human emotions and artistic expression as well as (or better than!) Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, et. al.?

The producer (and the conductor, and the singers, etc.) are recreative artists; they should serve the vision of the composer. That doesn't mean we have to have year after year of re-tread productions of "traditional" stagings and ham-fisted acting. It does mean that the producer has to understand the totality of the opera, beginning with the music, and should respect the work he or she is producing. (And if a producer doesn't love the work as created by the librettist and composer, he should leave it alone and write his own masterpiece. It's harder than it looks.)

I live too far from NYC to attend, but I suspect many of this Tosca's negative reviews stem from these causes, rather than a general mourning for the death of the old Zeffirelli production (but, yeah, there's some of that, too). I love cutting-edge ideas in the theatre (opera or other), but I'm so tired of seeing productions staged by "brilliant" yet tone-deaf stage directors and designers. Basta!

[Gilliad]

So true. New York bills themselves as progressive, but in the spectrum of the world, it's not so. Opera is changing and the 40/50/60 year old generations (the 70/80/90 year olds don't care anymore, and the 20/30 age dynamic don't weigh into this discussion) are clinging to the old notions of opera that give them nostalgia and comfort, the singers of yesteryear that they listened to on old LPs bought for a quarter at a garage sale. The art form is changing. Gelb said so himself. If the Met doesn't get lean and mean, and start putting on "risky" productions, the Met will sink lower and lower into mediocrity and provincial thought. The Levine and Volpe years set that boring, safe standard, but thank goodness for Gelb, even with all his ignorance of good voices and good conductors, knows that the artform is changing while the Met is still stuck in the 80s. Bravo to you for highlighting this in the editorial, and for setting the record straight.

[Charles]

Gilliad wrote "If the Met doesn't get lean and mean, and start putting on "risky" productions, the Met will sink lower and lower into mediocrity and provincial thought."

But the very nature of "risk" is that sometimes you fail. The new Tosca was "risky" and it is a failure.

[lyons]

i basically agree that when it comes to "war horses" the met resists new ideas...it's too bad. The Bondy production seems pretty tame

however, it is NOT the case that being booed discourages directors from returning to a house-they go wherever they get paid, and don't care if the audience doesn't like it. Only singers and conductors are driven away by booing. Directors thrive on it, I think.

[Maria Lenderman]

I think Met's audience recognizes new talented productions; the proof is their reaction to the wonderful new Barbiere staged by Sher. With this Tosca, there are unfortunately a lot of psychologically unconvincing moments, and to me it looks like director's negligence.

[Craig]

I loved Bondy's Tosca, it gave new life to the story and the music for me. Zeffirelli's work is kitsch and no amount of booing can take the stink off New York City's provincialism.