At a dialogue with the Metropolitan Opera’s general manager Peter Gelb that was partly broadcast on public radio today, directors of controversial new productions spoke of the small-mindedness of audiences that have the audacity to boo.  Bartlett Sher, director of the new Les Contes d’Hoffmann, called booing “a self-interested expression of ownership.” Gee, that’s weird. I thought booing was a self-interested expression of contempt.

The Metropolitan Opera is one of America’s great cultural institutions, but it is succumbing to the disease that afflicts all our major cultural institutions. Going to the opera today is more and more like attending the rites of some ancient fertility cult. The opera is consciously thumbing its nose at the great works in its trust. That’s why boos are a timely issue for these directors. Opera fans have had the audacity to express their ownership.

The recent production of Puccini’s Tosca, featured a pantomime of oral sex, a man lewdly embracing the Virgin Mary, an enormous painted canvas prominently displaying Mary Magdalene with one breast exposed, and prostitutes in see-through clothing pawing each other. The new version of Offenbach’s  The Tales of Hoffman includes women in the late stages of pregnancy half unclothed, women in thongs and breast cups stroking each other, women in thongs and breast cups lying on their backs with their legs spread open in the air, enough cleavage to satiate a porn addict, and the title character planted between a woman’s legs. Today’s performance of Bizet’s Carmen features the Spanish beauty in clingy, wet clothes. 

These innovations are attempts to attract young people to opera, as if only crass sexuality would make great music and great singers interesting.

                                        — Comments —

Michael S. writes:

I heard that segment too. It made me think, and say aloud to no one in particular, “This is why I despise stage directors.”  And of course, Patrice Chéreau thinks we’re all just silly because in 1976, Bayreuth audiences hated his centenary Ring, but then by 1980, “they didn’t want to let it go.”

Sometimes opera is better heard and not seen.

Laura writes:

Peter Gelb, in a commercial move, has brought in directors from film and theater who do not have a dedication to the art form. These operas are based on the most  romantic of stories. The sexualizing of the librettos is a way of expressing disdain for this high idealism. Opera of all things must be brought to its knees by today’s nihilistic artists. It cannot live.  It is one of the most elitest of art forms, both for its performers and its audience, and thus must be undercut and diminished. 

I do not exaggerate when I compare some of these recent productions to ancient fertility rites in their open glorification of the primitive. It brings to mind the thinker R. J. Rushdoony’s words:

In ancient fertility cults, which, as genetic faiths, enthroned the lowest as the primary, a ritual return to chaos was held to be the means to social regeneration. The fixed, lawful and rational were late and higher developments and hence less basic and also seen as essentially sterile. Closeness to the primitive was closeness to creativity and vitality, and chaos itself was the principle of regeneration. Saturnalia, the primitive festival, orgies, rituals involving confusion in the forms of incest, bestiality or perversion, were necessary rites and means of social regeneration. [The Messianic Character of American Education] (emphasis mine)

In the discussion broadcast today, Luc Bondy, the director of the controversial new Tosca, said the nearly-naked prostitutes in his production, one of whom briefly performs oral sex on the villainous Scarpia, were just “pretty women on the stage.” It’s all just epater le bourgeoisie in Bondy’s mind.

Inga D. writes:

I’m so glad you posted about the decline of opera. I hadn’t heard the interview with Peter Gelb, but I have been attending the Live at the Met HD Broadcasts at the movie theatre for the past three years.

In the 70s and 80s, when I lived in Toronto, I used to see live opera performances at my local opera company and watch all the Live From The Met broadcasts on PBS. Then I moved to a rural area which made it a hassle to travel to the city so I gave up my opera subscription and I wasn’t able to get PBS any longer. 

When I discovered that the Met was broadcasting live into movie theatres and to one not far from my home, I was thrilled that I was going to be able to see my beloved operas again. From what I’ve seen lately, I would agree with you that this cultural disease is infecting opera as well. I was disgusted and embarrassed when I witnessed what you describe in Tosa and The Tales of Hoffmann. Most of my fellow audience members were at least my age (mid-50s) or older. I wonder what they thought of it. 

It seems they’re slowing adding more vulgarity. The broadcasts of the previous seasons were not as offensive.

Laura writes:

I’m happy to hear you agree. I have attended a couple of the HD performances with my elderly parents. The theaters were filled with mostly elderly people and frankly I was mortified for them. But none seemed to be bothered by it. Here’s my theory on this. I think these people are attached to opera; they know it has a dwindling audience and they can’t face that it is being desecrated from within. Also, some fans are just in thrall to the Met no matter what it does. I’ve generally noticed that many old people seem timid, as if they’re overwhelmed into silence by the pace of cultural change.

As you say, the change is gradual. The older productions are still fine. I saw Aida earlier this season, a production that’s been around forever, and it was traditional Met. But, the divas who moderate during intermission push their buoyant personalities onto fans, further spoiling the incomparable magic of opera at its best.

Michael S. writes:

Laura wrote: “But, the divas who moderate during intermission push their buoyant personalities onto fans, further spoiling the incomparable magic of opera at its best.”

The mutual gushing to which we are subject during the broadcast intermissions does get tiresome very quickly.

Also, on a minor and largely unrelated note, I’m annoyed that they identify singers “in order of appearance.” Peter Allen used to say “in order of vocal appearance.” Why leave out the word vocal, especially since radio listeners can’t see anything?

Laura writes:

This “mutual gushing” is the strangest thing. The singers are interviewed during intermission about the characters and the vocal demands. Suddenly, Carmen and Aida are not bigger-than-life personalities, but careerists talking over their resumés and the magnificent sets are the tedious work of a thousand stagehands in jeans and T-shirts.

Please follow and like us: