Tuesday, January 15, 2008

In the news

I've wondered how much the Gelb-era uptick in Met attendance has been driven by the low dollar. Yesterday's NY Sun notes that exchange rates have at least raised overall city tourism figures quite a bit.

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I may be the only person in operaland who cares about this, but City Journal's recent puff piece on Abu Dhabi (as urbane and reform-minded as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan might be, his relatives have famously sponsored the worst sort of hate-filled filth) does offer this somewhat-reassuring non-news:
[Abu Dhabi] has approached New York’s Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center about a partnership, though executives say that no deal is imminent.
It also discusses some of the opposition to such name-lending projects.

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Huh.
[Turandot, at Domingo's WNO] will be conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson, wife of the Met's General Manager Peter Gelb, in her company debut.
Never heard her perform, myself.

Also, Radvanovsky's singing Lucrezia Borgia there.


UPDATE (10:20PM): Maury notes that Dallas Opera has a two-season announcement up, including a new Jake Heggie version of Moby-Dick. Success in such an adaptation seems wildly improbable to me, but if anyone can pull it off perhaps it's Gene Scheer, whose libretto of An American Tragedy was masterful.

3 comments:

  1. hay i *am* that tourist. It may interest you (or perhaps just make you sick) to know that it's not only seats that are cheaper in NY than London. Met drinks and eats are also half Covent Garden prices, despite being better. We are here for your macaroons....

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  2. as has been said before, buy low, sell high.

    That's not necessarily a bad thing.

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  3. I'm pleased, not sick -- like most New Yorkers, I more or less take the parochial view that everything is best here anyway...

    Actually, by local standards the food around Lincoln Center has long been a disgrace. Some good new options have opened up, but on the other hand formerly reliable places like Josephina have tanked. (It's been a while since I've been to the in-Met restaurant, but it had fallen off too as of some years ago.)

    But the in-house sandwiches and brownies are quite good...

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Absolutely no axe-grinding, please.