By Giuseppi Verdi
Lincoln Center New York, March 27 2010
Libretto by Temisctocle Solera, based on the play Attla King of the Huns by Zacharias Werner.
Marco Armilato (Conductor), Pierre Audi (Production), Miuccia Prada (Costumes), Herzog & de Meuron (Sets).
Iar Abdrazkov, Russell Thomas, Violeta Urmana, Fraco Vassallo, Ramon Vargas, Samuel Ramey.
Some people think that the Metropolitan Opera is an exclusive enclave wherein the last of the oligarchs pay $400 a seat to tickle each other with ostrich feathers and dance to the music of time. This is of course entirely true but only if you sit in the orchestra seats, front centre, or in what is quaintly named the parterre.
It must be admitted that I too paid such prices when I knew no better but since I discovered the $20 seats in the family circle and the $40 seats in the side boxes I have eschewed the ostrich feathers and choose instead to gaze upon them from on high like Garance in Les Enfants du Paradis. Any sense of privilege one experienced in the posh seats is more than replaced by a sense of frugal delight in saving so much money and the fact is the view is better from a long way up. The view of the wings, that is, or the orchestra, or (from the side boxes) the face of the conductor himself if you are lucky enough to get the director’s box which actually faces the auditorium and not the stage.
On this occasion I had a Family Circle ticket which cost $40 instead of $20 because it was the last performance of the Metropolitan’s first ever production of Attila. It was also the first ever appearance at the Met of Riccardo Mutti who had been engaged to conduct it. However he had left this final performance in the hands of Marco Amiliato (pictured) and although it was disappointing not to see Mutti whose greatness was recently proven when he terminally offended the administration of La Scala as so many musical giants have done before him, Marco Amiliato’s appearances added an additional and unexpected excitement to the evening. He is one of those jobbing opera maestros who do not remain in one place for longer than is necessary to give a unique and much admired season without ever creating a sense of stardom around himself. It could even be said that he is relatively unknown, except that he isn’t. He is widely, yet quietly, admired.
Musically, Attila was superb and Ildar Abdrazakov, Violeta Urmana and Ramón Vargas were in good form even though Urmana (a Lithuanian) announced she had a cold. I heard this production broadcast on the radio twice before I attended it and on each broadcast occasion the audience was asked for its indulgence for Urmana’s cold so I suppose this is her little ritual. If so, it works, as she sang perfectly. Samuel Ramey's appearance as the ghost of the general was a delightful surprise as I did not know he was in it.
The production was another matter entirely. The design was by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, the Swiss architects who designed the Beijing Olympic stadium and lots of other famous buildings, and the costumes were by Miuccia Prada whose program note says she is indifferent to public opinion. The production was directed by Pierre Audi, founder of the Almeida performing arts centre in London, commissioner of many operas by contemporary composers, and artistic director of the Netherlands Opera since 1988. His reputation for exemplary contemporary interpretations of theatre and opera is so established that I can only assume he wanted to give free rein to the experts in architecture and couture and see what emerged, hoping for the best.
What did emerge were sets and costumes which were possibly interesting on an architectural and conceptual basis and were definitely innovative but they sustained little or no relationship to the music and lyrics. I’ve previously mentioned the booing that accompanied the curtain calls of 2009’s new production of Tosca [click here for review] , when the audience demonstrated its resentment for the new production which has displaced its much loved Zefirelli bon bon. The booing at Attila was just as audible, yet it was not an expression of determined conservatism as it was at Tosca but a response to sets, costumes and stage directions which failed to engage the music or the audience, and possibly alienated both. I was not the only person who kept his eyes closed so as to enjoy the musical performance without having to solve the arcane puzzles posed by the visual absurdities paraded throughout the otherwise enjoyably long evening.
The only exception to the directorial failure of this musically brilliant production was Scene 1 (pictured) in which the curtain rose on a vast cross section of ruined Rome, with the victorious Hun planted on the top of layer upon layer of half-recognizable detritus, while the enslaved Romans sang their quiet and sullen chorus on the bottom. It was thrilling, and showed what theatrically inexperienced architects and fashion designers could do to enormous effect if they understood the design from the audience’s perspective instead of remaining locked inside the limited if not inhumane boundaries of professional and slightly egocentric adventurism.
As far as the audience was concerned, I went on the last night, when there was a charity gala requiring evening dress so, for the first time, I mingled with women wearing trains. This taught me that trains have an immediate effect on the the crowd in the foyer because people were trying (at least) not to step on these expensive fabrics, though I have to say the women wearing them made no effort at all to be considerate about the imposition on others of their sartorial extravagance.
I’ve always had reservations about the ushers at the Metropolitan Opera. Like the security guards at the Metropolitan Museum, they show signs of being underpaid and ill-treated as they are often quite abusive, but I had never seen anything like the behaviour that occurred at this performance of Attila. Before it began, an usher in the front of the Family Circle screamed for five minutes at a person sitting thirty rows back, who was taking photos. It would have been perfectly easy for the usher to walk over and speak to the culprit directly, but she preferred to stay where she was and scream at everyone.
As if this was not enough, twenty minutes later, at the first scene change, when we were all sitting quietly in the dark, a latecomer arrived to claim his seat and found someone sitting in it.
“Get out RIGHT NOW,” the usher bellowed. “Go on, MOVE! MOVE! OK? You are not moving? I am CALLING THE POLICE!!”
Lincoln Center New York, March 27 2010
Libretto by Temisctocle Solera, based on the play Attla King of the Huns by Zacharias Werner.
Marco Armilato (Conductor), Pierre Audi (Production), Miuccia Prada (Costumes), Herzog & de Meuron (Sets).
Iar Abdrazkov, Russell Thomas, Violeta Urmana, Fraco Vassallo, Ramon Vargas, Samuel Ramey.
Some people think that the Metropolitan Opera is an exclusive enclave wherein the last of the oligarchs pay $400 a seat to tickle each other with ostrich feathers and dance to the music of time. This is of course entirely true but only if you sit in the orchestra seats, front centre, or in what is quaintly named the parterre.
It must be admitted that I too paid such prices when I knew no better but since I discovered the $20 seats in the family circle and the $40 seats in the side boxes I have eschewed the ostrich feathers and choose instead to gaze upon them from on high like Garance in Les Enfants du Paradis. Any sense of privilege one experienced in the posh seats is more than replaced by a sense of frugal delight in saving so much money and the fact is the view is better from a long way up. The view of the wings, that is, or the orchestra, or (from the side boxes) the face of the conductor himself if you are lucky enough to get the director’s box which actually faces the auditorium and not the stage.
 |
| www.opera-online.com |
Musically, Attila was superb and Ildar Abdrazakov, Violeta Urmana and Ramón Vargas were in good form even though Urmana (a Lithuanian) announced she had a cold. I heard this production broadcast on the radio twice before I attended it and on each broadcast occasion the audience was asked for its indulgence for Urmana’s cold so I suppose this is her little ritual. If so, it works, as she sang perfectly. Samuel Ramey's appearance as the ghost of the general was a delightful surprise as I did not know he was in it.
The production was another matter entirely. The design was by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, the Swiss architects who designed the Beijing Olympic stadium and lots of other famous buildings, and the costumes were by Miuccia Prada whose program note says she is indifferent to public opinion. The production was directed by Pierre Audi, founder of the Almeida performing arts centre in London, commissioner of many operas by contemporary composers, and artistic director of the Netherlands Opera since 1988. His reputation for exemplary contemporary interpretations of theatre and opera is so established that I can only assume he wanted to give free rein to the experts in architecture and couture and see what emerged, hoping for the best.
What did emerge were sets and costumes which were possibly interesting on an architectural and conceptual basis and were definitely innovative but they sustained little or no relationship to the music and lyrics. I’ve previously mentioned the booing that accompanied the curtain calls of 2009’s new production of Tosca [click here for review] , when the audience demonstrated its resentment for the new production which has displaced its much loved Zefirelli bon bon. The booing at Attila was just as audible, yet it was not an expression of determined conservatism as it was at Tosca but a response to sets, costumes and stage directions which failed to engage the music or the audience, and possibly alienated both. I was not the only person who kept his eyes closed so as to enjoy the musical performance without having to solve the arcane puzzles posed by the visual absurdities paraded throughout the otherwise enjoyably long evening.
 |
| Ken Howard, Metropolitan Opera |
As far as the audience was concerned, I went on the last night, when there was a charity gala requiring evening dress so, for the first time, I mingled with women wearing trains. This taught me that trains have an immediate effect on the the crowd in the foyer because people were trying (at least) not to step on these expensive fabrics, though I have to say the women wearing them made no effort at all to be considerate about the imposition on others of their sartorial extravagance.
I’ve always had reservations about the ushers at the Metropolitan Opera. Like the security guards at the Metropolitan Museum, they show signs of being underpaid and ill-treated as they are often quite abusive, but I had never seen anything like the behaviour that occurred at this performance of Attila. Before it began, an usher in the front of the Family Circle screamed for five minutes at a person sitting thirty rows back, who was taking photos. It would have been perfectly easy for the usher to walk over and speak to the culprit directly, but she preferred to stay where she was and scream at everyone.
As if this was not enough, twenty minutes later, at the first scene change, when we were all sitting quietly in the dark, a latecomer arrived to claim his seat and found someone sitting in it.
“Get out RIGHT NOW,” the usher bellowed. “Go on, MOVE! MOVE! OK? You are not moving? I am CALLING THE POLICE!!”
The elderly woman who had “stolen” the seat was about 80 and could barely stand, so two ushers grabbed her by the shoulders and literally dragged her out, sliding her polyester fabrics and shopping bags across the knees of the German tourists seated beside her. People were simply appalled.
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