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FOR WHOM THE BOO TOLLS

This is fun.

Boo Who?

The new R-rated Tosca at the Met got a mixed reaction this week. Bipolar. Cheers and jeers.

The first opera I ever saw, there was booing. It was a production of one of Mozart's operas, presumably fail safe. And on the road at that. They'd only play the safe things out of town, in the provinces. One would think.

But this was Erich Leinsdorf who had his share of conflicts with orchestra and audience. He conducted from a raised platform visible to the audience (we were way up with the gallery gods) and presumed to play the recitative on a harpsichord so that all could see.

They didn't want to see.

I didn't understand the problem at the time but it was explained to me by my mentors who got me there in the first place.

I was so fortunate. In my freshman year at college I had dorm mates who dragged me to everything: pre-broadway shows, opera, "foreign" films and so on.

Later, I saw the controversial Eugene Onegin mentioned in the article. The entire opera was carried out within a huge picture frame and the artists held positions as though in a painting. It wasn't that bad. I thought it a bit weird but no one booed.

Later in life, we went to almost all the productions of The Boston Opera directed by Sarah Caldwell whose whole career involved the controversial. Boston cut her a lot of slack and she did some great shows but there were occasional boos and walkouts.

A walkout isn't much fun really. They don't see you go and you eliminate the possibility of booing at the curtain calls if you don't like it. Actually, I have walked out but I have never booed at a stage presentation. I just couldn't. We once catcalled the intro-act for Rosemary Clooney (her niece, for gods' sake) but no booing. I don't know that cat-calls are better. She was awful.

This guy Gelb, the new director, is a fresh wind blowing through the Met. One of his innovations is the broadcast of productions on live digital television. Here, in Palm Springs, we see them as digital recordings but the effect is the same as live. This has never been done before. I haven't gone but John has and he reports positively. He didn't mention whether anyone booed.

Labels: music