If you are one of those many opera goers like me who adore Rosenkavalier you will have been totally satisfied by the Met live performance relayed to movie houses across the country this afternoon. If you didn't know, but you went all the same, you will be a cold blooded beast indeed if you were not completely taken over by the exceptional performances we saw today.
Now I guess one might have expected something remarkable from Susan Graham and Renée Fleming, and it was their participation which largely persuaded me to put aside five valuable hours for this. But their matchless singing, acting, and general penetration of the characters, was on a par with the finest that serious theater and movies have to offer; and when you add their beauty of voice and physical stunningness there can be no further question as to whether opera singers can have it all and more besides. Marvelous, marvelous - heart and time stopping.
But the whole cast was entirely splendid with Christine Schafer as a totally unconventional and completely winning Sophie, Thomas Allen as her Dad, Faninal; and the exceptionally well sung and multi layered interpretation of Baron Ochs by the Icelandic bass Kristinn Sigmundsson was a major bonus. Edo de Waart in the pit has been conducting this piece for four decades - his intimate experience with this score and the superlative playing of the Met orchestra was the crowning glory.
The Met do this whole Live in HD show extremely well. There were interviews in the intermissions with some of the cast - conducted in this case by Placido Domingo in his usual extremely winning way. And the three adorable women and the Baron Ochs reminded my yet again how fortunate I am to have been working with opera singers for all these years. I really love them!
Now none of this of course is any substitute for the live experience in the theater. But what with the interviews being so engaging, the price being modest, and the whole affair being of such quality I can see that this can be seductive and addictive. But folks who really love opera can never get enough of it. So I generally regard these events as an extremely good thing. We have a presence in the River East multiple movie house building on Met HD days. So it provided us with a nice marketing opportunity. Those of you who have not done so already should book now for COT's 2010 season.
When I emerged at 4.45 I popped into Fox & Obel, (above) the excellent grocery store more or less opposite the cinema. Its the nearest Chicago can get to Dean & Deluca.
I am now having a quiet evening fully satisfied by the pleasures of my afternoon with Richard Strauss, Hugo von Hoffmannsthal and friends.
Isn't it interesting how stores in this category always seem to have two-part names separated by an "&" sign? Fox & Obel, Dean & Deluca, Fortnum & Mason, etc. I wonder if there are any others?
Posted by: Jordan Friedman | January 11, 2010 at 04:57 PM
What about Paxton & Whitfield then?......London'd finest cheese emporium. Excellent challenge to find even more!
Posted by: BD | January 11, 2010 at 05:02 PM