Does the Metropolitan Opera of New York deserve to live? Are we talking of a 40/50s noir movie where we all know right from wrong? Yet the right is not really that far from wrong? A few more days before yet another deadline between unions and management approaches. One can surf all the whys and wherefores in other publications. But no one has asked the question whether the Met has ‘had its day’? Well: that isn’t the question. Rather: could the Met Opera reinvent itself in an age where even erstwhile print publications go to the wall? Let alone opera companies.
I thought of this this very morning when I happened upon the blog of a former colleague of mine Tom Sutcliffe. In his hey day at The Guardian newspaper, Tom was one of the most feared, hated and revered critics of the world. He (along with a handful of critics me included) championed American iconclast director Peter Sellars. Tom, as of last year, has a blog- something I had to fight over for the last 8 years ago in the face of ignorance. Erudite, opinioned as ever The BLOG (IT not me;) has now become the equal of the New York Times- who itself relegate items it ‘has challenges’ with into their internet blog pages (yes you do…). But my issue here is not with the hypocrisy of recognizing blogs or not earlier on in life. Or indeed now. My list of those who had foresight and those who not is endless.
The issue is with the Met and whether it could and/or should reinvent itself. General director Peter Gelb is always ‘head over heels’ when he can ‘vamp’ up the musty productions. Wrong word, really, vamp. Far more serious in intent is that. Modern productions are really the only thing audiences want to see in European opera houses. Though many go just too far. And have for decades. But those houses are government subsidized. Not so the Met opera. Yet Glyndebourne’s George Christie (rest his soul- a very early supporter of Peter Sellars modern productions et al) proved that one could privately fund an opera house with somewhat crusty ‘old fogey’ audiences and STILL host interesting modern interpretations of the repertoire.
Could the Met survive under such a radical re-think? NOBODY has dared. The great thing about the Met is one can hear THE greatest opera voices in the world. But that is something that is de rigueur for major European opera houses. Frankfurt Oper won awards for its bold stagings (and they WERE and are many fantastic) but you will never hear A-list singers there. Understandably. But a few sacrifices along the way and a few tiers up and one can now go to La Scala, Wien, Bavarian Staatsoper (transformed or transmogrified by ex ENO chef Peter Jonas many moons ago) etc etc. It is shameful that New York City Opera should have gone ‘to the wall’. And if it weren’t’ for the theater renovations that lost the opera its audience for a few years would it have survived? Most probably I think. Could Gerard Mortier’s (again rest in peace) appointment hero of European opera advancement have changed its fortunes? Maybe yes, but then maybe no. There are reviews of the Pesaro Opera Fest annually celebrating Rossini. Met Opera 'darling' Renée Fleming just sang there. Was it a great production? By all accounts no. But nor would it have been at the Met. Yet when stage director Mary Zimmerman and world renowned extravert singer Natalie Dessay conjured a very new production of Bellini’s La Sonnambula at the Met in 2009 (it was GREAT thoughtful fun well at least at the revival) it was booed opening night. So what can one do?
Opera is a very bizarre art form to keep alive. If you had never been exposed to those classical voices etc would you ever desire to set foot into an opera theater? Probably not. And yet Robert Wilson and Philip Glass proved with Einstein on the Beach that a new think of opera was possible. Alas: I was there at the Met back in the 90s when they revived Glass’s opera and by midnight there were very few of us left in the stalls. Sometimes truth is salutary. Nor have the Met HD broadcasts been well attended at cinemas and the Met is questioning whether to continue the enterprise. What can one do? HD in the cinema for me was, if not heaven, then a baseball cap saying 'f off' to Faust! A live broadcast in IMAX in London of John Adams' Doctor Atomic? I guess thrills are all relative. Would making live opera broadcasts cheaper tickets have worked? Probably not.
The Met’s opera in the park during summer with young singers is a such a great thing. I defy anyone not to be inspired sitting in Brooklyn Park hearing opera arias on stage whilst the sun sets against water vessels and the NY downtown skyline.
What’s the solution for the Met opera? What I fear is that the stagnant forces of darkness and capital whey it down. Unions are a necessary thing (not evil but like anything else mismanaged they can be). New York is an expensive city and if you are employed as an artist at the Met then you are by default at the top of your game. So should you not be paid as everyone else at the top of that tree? But what if the trees are dying? That is no fault of the gardener or the horticulturalist or the bees or the birds. Or indeed the DNA! That garden was never a ‘secret garden’. It was always a garden for us all as Leonard Bernstein said. Perhaps we can make the garden grow a little differently. The world changes. Perhaps we should. Deal with those ‘unwanted intrusions’ to our hard won world. But there will always be a GARDEN. And no one but Nobody can take that away from the glory of stage and song.
