Elevator Music at the Met

Metropolitan Opera

"Thais" at the Metropolitan Opera

Remember elevator music, those soothing strains of strings and muted xylophone to which we ascended through luxe hotels and department stores? Well, if you needed reminding, last night's performance of "Thais" might have been of help. The original production of Massenet's opera, about a prostitute who became an ascetic hermit and died in a holy grotto surrounded by angels, must have been quite racy because Anatole France, who was always being provocative, was thrilled by it and after the Vatican's representatives had seen the opera (over and over again) they put the novel on the Index of Forbidden Books, which thrilled Anatole France even more. But last night's version looked and sounded like a slow afternoon at Bergdorf's, which might have worked well had that had been the director's intention, and Iris Apfel could have have had a cameo.