Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Last night was my encounter with Mozart at the Metropolitan Opera; the performance, Cosi fan tutte (“Women are always as such”), was conducted by none other than James Levine himself. Since the only brush I had with this opera was the old Schwarzkopf recording from the 60s, seeing it staged was a priority for this season.
It was wonderful. There are those works of music that were composed for the Diva (Tosca, La Traviata, etc.), then there are those works of music that need no great singers to make them exciting. This opera was the latter: Mozart can keep his audiences entertained with the sheer genius of his music without the need of a high-flying aria (though, to be fair, operas highest flying arias were composed by him). That’s not to say the Met didn’t put its best foot forward with its casting: Frittoli, one of the most beautiful soprano voice of today, sung along side with a beautiful tenor, Matthew Polenzani, and other great cast members.
You would think an opera in New York would produce some of the most unfriendly people – New Yorkers, rude; operagoers, snobbish – but I’ve never found that to be the case. I sat next to a friendly older gentleman and a military man. The older gentleman seemed to be a Met regular, pointing out the opera club area, why the Met uses a prompter in the center of the stage, and details about the production. He was, as I’ve found time and time again there, an extremely friendly and inviting person.
One of the problems with Mozart’s operas is that the acts are long. Cosi, for example, is just over three and a half hours long, but only one intermission: so you sit through two acts that are over an hour and a half each (the first act, I’m generally fine; the second gets a little rough) and by the end of the night you’re pretty tired.
For some strange reason it makes the whole experience better: you’re willing to suffer a bit, making the opera all the more telling. It's all part of "The Opera!"
(I think I can hear you groaning from here.)
It was wonderful. There are those works of music that were composed for the Diva (Tosca, La Traviata, etc.), then there are those works of music that need no great singers to make them exciting. This opera was the latter: Mozart can keep his audiences entertained with the sheer genius of his music without the need of a high-flying aria (though, to be fair, operas highest flying arias were composed by him). That’s not to say the Met didn’t put its best foot forward with its casting: Frittoli, one of the most beautiful soprano voice of today, sung along side with a beautiful tenor, Matthew Polenzani, and other great cast members.
You would think an opera in New York would produce some of the most unfriendly people – New Yorkers, rude; operagoers, snobbish – but I’ve never found that to be the case. I sat next to a friendly older gentleman and a military man. The older gentleman seemed to be a Met regular, pointing out the opera club area, why the Met uses a prompter in the center of the stage, and details about the production. He was, as I’ve found time and time again there, an extremely friendly and inviting person.
One of the problems with Mozart’s operas is that the acts are long. Cosi, for example, is just over three and a half hours long, but only one intermission: so you sit through two acts that are over an hour and a half each (the first act, I’m generally fine; the second gets a little rough) and by the end of the night you’re pretty tired.
For some strange reason it makes the whole experience better: you’re willing to suffer a bit, making the opera all the more telling. It's all part of "The Opera!"
(I think I can hear you groaning from here.)
# posted by otas : 12:59 PM
