On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 2:49 PM, Ferenc Molnar <ferenc_molnar at hotmail.com>wrote:
>
> Joanna write: "I found it to be the most boring opera company I've ever
> witnessed."
>
> FM: Yes, before Peter Gelb took over as head the Met was considered to be
> one of the most conservative in the world. Under former head Joseph Volpe
> they had a house production style that was straight out of the Stalinist era
> with Disney-like illustrated sets and puffy wigs (I kind of liked the puffy
> wigs because they made me giggle). During Volpe's reign you had to cross
> under a huge American flag if you wanted to enter the opera house. It felt
> like every day was 9/11. Musically, orchestrally they've always been
> considered to be first rate which will probably continue as the legacy of
> James Levine for some time to come. Peter Gelb, a former music industry
> honcho, has tried to bring the company into the 21st (20th?) century which
> it has resisted kicking and screaming. But I pretty much stopped going when
> Gelb very vocally supported Bloomberg's self-coronation as a third-term
> mayor.
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