Once again taking my cue from regular DK-er Demi Moaned's past diaries on the Metropolitan Opera HD-casts in movie theaters, 3CM asks:
Did anyone here see the Met Anna Bolena today?
If you didn't, as usual, feel free to skip to the next diary. But if you did, feel equally free to hang around. First obvious info, namely that Anna Bolena is the extremely obvious Italianization of the name of Anne Boleyn (well, duh). Gaetano Donizetti's opera (libretto by Felice Romani) is also the first HD-cast of the Met's 2011-2012 season to movie theaters. More 'neath ye flippe.....
First, for those ignorant of the basics about Queen Anne Boleyn (like self), there's a webpage dedicated to her as well as the wikipedia page, of course. As you can imagine with any sort of dramatic treatment of such a complicated story, a lot of simplifications and distortions had to be done to make the story into some sort of manageable theatrical work. For example, the opera has the wedding bells for Henry VIII and Jane Seymour occur on the same day that Anne Boleyn went to the block, whereas in real life, that wedding didn't occur until 11 days after the execution.
Regarding this specific production at the Met, this NYT article by Zachary Woolfe is a warm-up for Anna Netrebko's appearance in the role, the first-ever production of Anna Bolena at the Met. For critical reaction, two views from critics with NYT connections are from:
(a) Anthony Tommasini, current chief classical critic at the NYT
(b) Anne Midgette, current classical critic at the WaPo and a past critic with the NYT
Midgette's is clearly the harsher of the two reviews. You can also click through to the reviews of other critics from Midgette's blog post.
While I'll admit that I wasn't hugely blown away by this production, overall, I liked it. The shortcomings of the set that both Tommasini and Midgette mentioned were minimized in the HD-cast, where the cameras are obviously focusing on the singers rather than the set. This actually touches on one point about the phenomenon about opera at the movies versus seeing it in person in the same real space, where the camera crew chooses your perspective for the HD-cast compared to the individual being able to focus where s/he wants to in the theater. However, if I ever decide to revive Friday Night at the Movies, I may save that discussion for then.
Back to this performance: given that Anna Netrebko is the groomed star of the moment for the Met these past few years, in keeping with Woolfe's article, she obviously has stage presence, yet the fact that I kept thinking about the clarity of her diction made me wonder about the hype. She herself actually seems quite unpretentious about it all, again from reading quotes from her in the Woolfe article, as well as the pre-opera chit-chat with Metrtopolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb. For example, when responding to the question of what advance research she did for the role, besides books, she did mention the cable TV series The Tudors, snarkily adding "But don't tell the director that". Admittedly, I've never actually seen her truly live, simply "live in HD".
If I had to give the vocal palm to just one singer in the cast, it would be to tenor Stephen Costello as Riccardo (Lord Richard Percy, or in real life, Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland). He's only 30, so obviously he still has room for growth, but he did quite well, with intense singing, well paced, and decent acting skills. Being the tenor, he is the de facto romantic lead in the plot, although given historical events, this romance obviously doesn't end well.
In the reviews by Tommasini and Midgette, the conductor, Marco Armiliato, got brickbats as "routine" and "uninspiring and heavy-handed", respectively. Having seen him on a number of past HD-casts, Armiliato strikes me a safe pair of hands, an impression reinforced today. Some in the opera biz might dismiss him as a "routinier", a conductor who won't get in the singers' way, but who isn't someone who'll push singers to their upper limits of expression. Also, FWIW, he does somewhat resemble Roberto Benigni, not that this should affect one's judgment of him. In short, Armiliato is the kind of conductor about whom singers would check off the box "plays well with others".
Even so, given all this, the HD-casts have clearly been a hit with audiences around the US and Canada, and increasingly the rest of the world, it seems. This is alluded to in this NYT article by Daniel J. Wakin and Kevin Flynn, which mentions specifically about the HD-casts:
"For the first time in seven years, the Met had balanced its budget, thanks partly to $11 million in profits last year from its HD movie theater transmissions, which had been operating for only five years."
But get the next bit, which may have some resonance on the normal lifeblood of Daily Kos (emphasis mine):
"The results have the air of vindication for the free-spending — and risky — strategy of Peter Gelb, the Met's general manager. He took over six seasons ago with a mandate to revitalize the company, stem a box office decline and make the Met more relevant in an era of aging opera audiences. He decided that the Met had to spend money to make money."
Admittedly, however, there is this qualifier regarding this "operatic stimulus" situation:
"But even Mr. Gelb's enthusiasm cannot erase the significant financial problems that remain. The Met is carrying $41 million in debt. Ticket sales declined last year. The endowment remains damaged by the recession. At last count, its pension accounts were seriously underfinanced. And no one, not even Mr. Gelb, suggests that it will be easy to repeat the fund-raising success of the past year."
That "fund-raising success" refers to the reported $182M in funds donated to the Metropolitan Opera last year. The Philadelphia Orchestra could use fund-raising help like that, but that's another story worth its own diary, if self ever found the time for it (perpetual loser, he).
Given that this is a "joint diary" of sorts, either the usual SNLC protocol (loser stories for the week) or actual discussion about this HD-cast can go below, as appropriate. So have at it, either way....