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If the New York Metropolitan Opera Closed, would you care?
A Nonny Moose posted a topic in Current Events
Financial woes. The high costs of production is killing music-theatre in America. Between rapacious stage unions and musicians who have feather-bed deals, and an apathetic public who are more interested in the latest rap, the greatest art form ever created is going to go the way of the dodo. How many of us have ever been to a live opera performance? I, for one, have been to dozens. Unfortunately none of them at the Met, which is not even in my country. I've been to performances in gymnasiums, high-school auditoriums, and theatres all over the places where I lived at various times. Alas, I have never set foot in the new house, the Four Seasons Centre, in Toronto since it opened after I left the city. Opera is the most complete form of entertainment anyone can ever attend in person. Music, comedy, drama, the whole nine yards. And you are darned right it is expensive. A full symphony orchestra, usually a specialized theatre tuned most delicately for sound, performers who have trained to age 30 or more before the voice is really ready, super conductors who can handle the orchestra, the performers and the chorus all at once, an enormous staff, and an army of stage hands and electricians. You wonder why tickets are often more that a hundred dollars a pop? All this has to be paid for, even after government grants, if any, and any philanthropic organizations that might have dropped a million or two on them, plus any TV rights, again if any. Who, besides me, has seen Franco Zeffirelli’s production of La Bohème (Puccini). Life in a Paris garret, complete with death by consumption. A great opera worth a whole box of Kleenex. I think I've seen this one live a couple of times and every time I notice I can catch it on TV. Sitting in your living room with munchies isn't quite the same as sitting in a darkened theatre. The bar at intermission is usually better for one thing. Oh, and there are modern operas too. I'll bet most of us have seen West Side Story. And what about South Pacific?
