OMGWTFNYCO
New York City Opera just put up the new schedule for the next season, and it is INSANE. Not surprises: Stephen "Pippin" Schwartz's Séance on a Wet Afternoon, Leonard "Mass" Bernstein's A Quiet Place, and Schönberg's Erwartung, all of which were predicted by the enigmatic La Cieca, astrologer to the stars.
SURPRISES: the other two one-acts completing the Erwartung-evening are, get this, La Machine de l’être, a new work by John Zorn, and Neither by Morton Feldman and Samuel Beckett; there will also be a benefit matinee performance of the brief, brilliant, savage Where the Wild Things Are by Oliver Knussen and Maurice Sendak.
People, THIS is how you make modern opera appealing to audiences. You don't apologize, you don't pander, you don't bait and switch. Zorn fans know exactly what they're getting themselves into with his music, and if they stick around for Feldman and Schönberg they're going to get even more of what they love. Expect the Miller Theatre/The Rest Is Noise crowd to turn out. Actually, can I please have three tickets for this, right now, please?
Stephen Schwartz—I don't know his Séance, but the man has demonstrated that he can write for voices and pit band, that he can tell a story with music. Surely some tiny fraction of the millions who have swarmed to Wicked will be curious to hear the guy do opera?
I was pleased, if not thrilled, by the announcement of this season's City Opera programming; this time around, color me thrilled. More here.
SURPRISES: the other two one-acts completing the Erwartung-evening are, get this, La Machine de l’être, a new work by John Zorn, and Neither by Morton Feldman and Samuel Beckett; there will also be a benefit matinee performance of the brief, brilliant, savage Where the Wild Things Are by Oliver Knussen and Maurice Sendak.
People, THIS is how you make modern opera appealing to audiences. You don't apologize, you don't pander, you don't bait and switch. Zorn fans know exactly what they're getting themselves into with his music, and if they stick around for Feldman and Schönberg they're going to get even more of what they love. Expect the Miller Theatre/The Rest Is Noise crowd to turn out. Actually, can I please have three tickets for this, right now, please?
Stephen Schwartz—I don't know his Séance, but the man has demonstrated that he can write for voices and pit band, that he can tell a story with music. Surely some tiny fraction of the millions who have swarmed to Wicked will be curious to hear the guy do opera?
I was pleased, if not thrilled, by the announcement of this season's City Opera programming; this time around, color me thrilled. More here.
Labels: Bernstein, George Steel, NYCO, Schoenberg, Schwartz
posted by Dan Johnson at
2:31 PM
4 Comments:
this season isn't over yet. partenope, thank you very much.
Haha sorry, I meant I was pleased by "this season's programming" or by "the last season announcement," not by "last season's programming." I'll fix that right now.
No love for Donizetti? I shed una (not quite so) furtiva lagrima.
Suggested quip: "L'elisir d'amore"? I'll drink to that!
Oh c'mon you know I <3 me some Donizetti! But there's Donizetti in New York every year.
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