Friday, October 20, 2006

Rumors

A poisonous if well-trafficked site that doesn't need my hits reports the rumor that Peter Gelb is clearing the roster of, well, pretty much every American principal singer not favored by PBS.

Now I wouldn't be surprised at this happening, but the information seems neither complete nor necessarily reliable. So we'll see.

I am fairly sure, though, that Gelb has less catholic tastes in opera than his predecessor. This is unfortunate. The Met is too large to be a one-aesthetic house.

3 comments:

  1. I have doubts about Gelb - his future casting has some strange ideas - mainly Gheroghiu singing Carmen. Also - with all he he doing at the Met - I wonder where the money is coming from - did the Met suddenly hit a gold mine? I hope the rumors about casting away many singers is just that - rumor.

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  2. He's clearly won over certain big donors to open their pockets to make this initial splash. The plasma TVs (which are also, jarringly, in the Belmont Room and Patron's Lounge) were donated by Panasonic -- advertising. More new productions are being shared, something very rare in the past.

    As for the future, as I said, we'll see. Judging by what's slated I'd be surprised if actual sound tops Gelb's casting criteria, though of course all sorts of voice types have done well as Carmen.

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  3. I think the concern may be size more than fach. There have been soprano Carmens, sure, but a singer who gets covered up in Act III of Traviata (and I did love her Violetta, don't get me wrong) may have a tough time being heard in the big smackdown with Don Jose.

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Absolutely no axe-grinding, please.