Monday, November 20, 2006

A Night At The Opera (or The Marx Brothers in the 21st Century)



Saturday night I took my dearest friend to the opera. It was her first visit to The Met in NYC. Alice had listened to my stories of the wonderful operas and the magnificent ambience that is The Met and had asked me to take her to a performance. We saw Madama Butterfly, the season opener, which was directed by Anthony Minghella and conducted by James Levine, our very own Boston Symphony conductor.

We settled into our Center Parterre box with our opera glasses at the ready. The first act was incredible. Cio-Cio-San is the signature role for Christina Gallardo-Domas. Her portrayal was perfecto!! However, Minghella's design for the production is very modern with just a few shoji screens that slide across the stage as the set. The grumbling started around us in our box and the neighboring boxes. Traditional vs. Moderne; always a battleground.

The first act intermission started and went on....and on and on. After about 45 minutes a lady came out on stage to tell us that the computer system had 'technical difficulties' and that they were working on it. More grumbling around us.....this has NEVER happened before; it's these Moderne productions...bah humbug!

Finally the 1st part of the Second Act started and we were introduced to the next Moderne touch: puppetry in the Japanese Bukrati style by the New Summit Theatre. This is the act that introduces Pinkerton's 3 year old son to the audience. I present him to you:



When the second intermission started the boxes exploded in conversation. Isn't that the ugliest little boy you have ever seen? If I was Pinkerton and saw him, I'd run back to the ship and sail away fast!! The Countess christened him "Chucky" and we speculated on all the evil that this doll was doing backstage.

Now the second intermission is dragging on and on and on. The performance should have ended at about 11:15 and it was almost midnight with another act to go. The poor Met lady returns to the stage amid a lot of booing to tell us that "Christina Gellardo-Dumas has been taken ill and will not return as Madama Butterfly. Her understudy will complete the performance." WE KNEW THAT CHUCKY DOLL WAS TROUBLE! He must have stabbed her during intermission!

The understudy finished the opera and we finally left around 12:30 am.

So ended Alice's first trip to the opera. As I told her.....this has NEVER happened before!
Countess Bedelia 11/20/2006 11:04:00 AM

1 Comments:

It's like the time they staged "Carmen" in 1930's Civil War Spain. Stick with the classics, please!

The understudy was human, I presume.

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