Night After Night

Congratulations.

Allow me to join the parade of well-wishers saluting Alex Ross on his National Book Critics Circle Award for The Rest Is Noise. I have a strong hunch that this won't be the last award that Alex picks up for his vital tome. I second his recommendation of Ben Ratliff's Coltrane: The Story of a Sound, and I now plan to dig into a copy of Joan Acocella's Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints  -- right after I finish this.

God and country.

The Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall
The New York Times, March 6, 2008

Seasonal affective disorder.

(Posted this afternoon on the TONY Blog.)

Get used to the photograph of Renée Fleming that you see to the left: I'd say it's the odds-on favorite for next year's ubiquitous Metropolitan Opera advertisement, the one you'll be seeing on subway stops, vacant lots and city buses the way Natalie Dessay (as Lucia) was splashed all over town this year. The image is a teaser for Fleming's appearance in Jules Massenet's Thaïs, one of six new productions the Met will be presenting during its 2008-2009 season, which was announced late this afternoon at a press conference in the Met's List Hall.

You'll be hearing a lot about the upcoming season, which was announced with an air of bonhomie that has become typical of the Peter Gelb era at the Met. But the moment that will likely generate the most gossip came during the question-and-answer session that followed the formal presentation. Veteran critic John Simon began by praising Gelb as someone who has done more for opera during the last two years than many people achieve in a lifetime.

"One mark of genius is the ability to learn from one's mistakes," Simon continued. "Do you plan on learning from your two most egregious mistakes, namely Mary Zimmerman and John Doyle?" The shock that rippled around the hall after Simon's remark was magnified by the look on the face of Zimmerman, who had presented her vision of next season's La Sonnambula only moments before.

Of course, the very fact that Zimmerman had talked about a new Sonnambula in which Natalie Dessay will still be playing the lead role of Anina was newsworthy, given the lackluster reception of the director's Lucia this season -- we include ourselves among the unconvinced, but note that the show was apparently a box-office success -- and the dissatisfied performers (including Dessay) whose comments circulated on blogs and in the mainstream press. Gelb noted that Zimmerman's Sonnambula will be very different from her Lucia, and Zimmerman described a scenario in which the opera will be staged as a rehearsal of a production of La Sonnambula that gradually morphs into something else, noting a similarity between the process of taking on a dramatic role and dreaming. "When Anina wakes up, she's in Switzerland!" Zimmerman said.

Of the six new productions to be presented next season, Gelb inherited four and inserted two. In addition to Sonnambula (for which Gelb engaged Zimmerman), the Met will present the previously mentioned Thaïs; Puccini's La Rondine, now a starring vehicle for soprano Angela Gheorghiu; and Verdi's Il Trovatore—"a work that has a notorious record at the Met," Gelb said, "as those of you snickering know"—which will star Salvatore Licitra and provide the house debut of inventive director David McVicar.

New to the Met are John Adams's Dr. Atomic, with Gerald Finley reprising his role as Dr. Robert Oppenheimer in a new production by Penny Woolcock, and a Robert Lepage staging of Berlioz's Damnation of Faust starring Marcello Giordani. Woolcock, a first-time opera director, has previously worked with Adams on the revised film version of his second opera, The Death of Klinghoffer. Illustrations of wide, flat-panel sets and massive blocks of cubicles accompanied her talk. Richard Paul Fink and Eric Owens are featured as Edward Teller and General Leslie Groves, respectively; mezzo Sasha Cooke, an extremely promising young company member, takes the role of Kitty Oppenheimer. Alan Gilbert, music director designate of the New York Philharmonic, will conduct the run.

Lepage, who will be designing the Met's next Ring cycle, was commissioned by Gelb to create his Damnation for the Saito Kinen Festival. Gelb later arranged to purchase the sets from the Paris Opera, and Lepage was said to be extensively reworking them.

The reason that the Met is presenting only six new productions, rather than the seven previously stated as Gelb's annual goal, is that the Otto Schenk Ring cycle will be brought out for its farewell run from March to May 2009, with the director returning to supervise its farewell voyage. Gelb noted that this was part of a new initiative that will see the director who created a Met production returning to direct its revivals whenever possible.

Other announced highlights of the season ahead include an Opening Night Gala on September 22, in which Renée Fleming will be featured in an act apiece from Capriccio, La Traviata and Manon, and a March 15th gala that will mark both the Met's 125th anniversary and Plácido Domingo's 40th year with the company. For the occasion, Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott will supervise projected recreations of historic sets such as Marc Chagall's 1967 Magic Flute, 1903's premiere of Parsifal, 1910's world premiere of La Fanciulla del West, the Met's opening-night Faust from 1883 and more. In addition, the first anniversary of Luciano Pavarotti's death will be marked by a September 18 pre-season performance of Verdi's Requiem, for which 3,000 free tickets will be distributed.

Daniel Barenboim will make his Met debut with Tristan und Isolde in November, and on December 14 he will present the first piano recital on the Met stage since Vladimir Horowitz's historic concerts in the 1980s. Seiji Ozawa returns for the first time since 1992 for The Queen of Spades. The highly touted young Finnish conductor Mikko Franck makes his debut with Salome. Louis Langrée returns for a run of Don Giovanni. Notable for his absence will be Valery Gergiev, whose tenure as principal guest conductor ends this year; he will be back as of the 2009-2010 season, and no replacement has been named for his former role.

There's plenty of noteworthy casting to be discussed, as the opera blogs are no doubt doing right this minute. On the plus side, Stephanie Blythe will be featured in the Mark Morris production of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice opposite the fabulous Daniele de Niese, and Karita Mattila sings her first Met Tatiana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. As previously rumored, Diana Damrau will be taking over the early-season Lucia performances that Anna Netrebko will be missing due to maternity leave. Less thrilling was the announcement that Rossini's La Cenerentola will be revived as a vehicle for elegant eyeful Elina Garanca, as opposed to the utterly charming Joyce DiDonato, absent this season.

Last but not least, Gelb announced two forthcoming works of note: Adams's Nixon in China for the 2010-2011 season, directed by Peter Sellars in his Met debut, and Thomas Adès's The Tempest in 2012-2013.