Comments

Maybe the Met needs assistance in casting. Should we make suggestions?
Here is where opera fans are analogous to baseball fans. Most of them feel they can manage the athletic/financial (artistic/financial) imperatives better than the incumbents. They cannot.

But it makes for enjoyable discussion.

Paul RicchiBoston

Comments

Celeste Aida was not lyric on the radio. The mezza da voce on the B flat was spread. He had used good Bel Canto principles up until the end and then it was like he was exhausted and things fell apart. I was like he was reaching.We seem to have forgotten the legato line, it must be an European thing.Concerning smaller productions and young singers. I site for example, The Lyric Opera of Chicago had a smaller Auditorium, 1/3 the size, for the purposes of smaller productions, other foreign languages. They have a school. They did not use it, and later usurped the space. It appears this approach does not work. The Lyric would claim that they were just as good as the Met.Miss Gruber, was she the cover, prepared?Something must be wrong when one goes to or listens to the nation's finest Opera and finds fault. I realize one cannot bat a 1000 all the time. I know during the war, the Met had problems getting singers, but really. Here is a house that can pick and choose anyone they want in the world. So, I guess, the problem is, who is doing the picking? Is there someone on the list who could help the Met out in casting. Who is available now, with Aida in their repertoire, who could replace what we heard today? Maybe the Met needs assistance in casting. Should we make suggestions?Coughing, and program rattling means something is wrong!

Today's Mess on the Nile

Would that there had been "ice skating upon the Nile" todayrather than the tepid mediocrity we were left with. What ISwrong with Conlon? No tension, no shaping, grand momentafter moment thrown away; this is the second time I've heardConlon conduct in a month (Sibelius violin in LA was other), andhe's acting like an accompanist not a conductor. Bigdisappointment. He needs to get better - quick! No one was very good, and poor Gruber was pathetic. Butwho can criticize her? She's lucky to be alive. We oft are toldto 'hate the sin not the sinner,' and that surely applies here.Gruber had no business in that cast and as far as I can tellno business singing in a classical context in public; it'sa wonder she got through the afternoon, haphazard as shewas. Many loud boos to Volpe and Friend and Billinghurstor whoever pushed Gruber out on that stage; cruel and unnecessary punishment for all concerned, including the radioaudience. Oh to long for Daniza Ilitsch! I never thought it wouldcome to this. Time for a nap; maybe I'll dream of Kurt Baum!Jim/Under-pitched in Santa Fe

Gruber

Opera singing, like athletics at the highest levels, requires a commitment and self-discipline totally at odds with the "counterculture" values which have damaged Gruber's life and career.