Grand Opera: The Story of the Met Read Online Free Page A

television’s Bell Telephone Hour documented her star turn live, preserving not only the voice of “la Stupenda,” but the impact of her interpretation. As her career progressed, Sutherland was often perceived as an indifferent actress. In this telecast, she makes vivid the young woman’s hallucination, the encounter with her beloved by the fountain, her joy at hearing the wedding music, the tender evocation of love, the febrile search for the invisible flute. For the nearly fourteenminutes of scrutiny by the cameras, the singer’s virtuosity serves the drama. Sutherland’s complete Lucia was captured in a Met telecast on November 13, 1982. At fifty-six, less nimble of foot and, naturally, less fresh of voice, hers remained the standard to be met.
     
    FIGURE 5. Lucia di Lammermoor “Mad Scene,” Joan Sutherland as Lucia, 1961 (courtesy Photofest)
     
     
    It was the drive to find vehicles for Sutherland that called back works not heard at the Met for at least three decades: La Sonnambula (1962–63), Donizetti’s La Fille du régiment (1971–72), I Puritani (1975–76), and new productions of Lucia di Lammermoor (1964–65) and Norma (1969–70). She had become one of the company’s most potent and ultimately most durable attractions. Marilyn Horne was the raison d’être for Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri (1973–74) and Semiramide (1990–91), both long absent. The newsworthy debut of Beverly Sills at La Scala in The Siege of Corinth propelled the soprano and Rossini’s opera onto the Met stage for the first time (1974–75). Cecilia Bartoli secured a place for Rossini’s La Cenerentola (1997–98). For Renée Fleming, keen to add bel canto credentials to her title of Mozart-Strauss specialist, the management scheduled Bellini’s Il Pirata (2002–03) and Rossini’s Armida (2009–10). Juan Diego Flórez, the sole tenore di grazia (a light, flexible tenor voice) in Met history to spearhead a bel canto premiere, was matched by Joyce DiDonato and Diana Damrau in the pyrotechnics of Rossini’s Le Comte Ory (2010–11). Donizetti’s Anna Bolena (2011–12) provided another opportunity for Anna Netrebko to extend her lyric voice intothe domain of the coloratura . And DiDonato shone in the title role of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda (2012–13). Callas had worked her magic. The appetite for unfamiliar bel canto she reawakened has continued to be satisfied by ensuing generations of artists trained to negotiate the most difficult embellishments with amazing virtuosity. The feast continues. 20

TWO
Cultural Capital, 1884–1903
    THE GERMAN SEASONS AND FRENCH OPERA
     

THE GERMAN SEASONS: 1884–1891
     
    AS THE 1883–84 SEASON CAME TO AN END , there was no clear decision as to which impresario, Mapleson or Abbey, or which house, the veteran Academy or the rookie Metropolitan, would emerge the victor in what was in retrospect the city’s first opera war. The outcome would have little to do with the tiff between the Nobs and the Swells that had set it off. Nor would the endgame be other than marginally affected by the much publicized face-off between sparring divas. It would, instead, have everything to do with the economics of producing opera on an internationally competitive scale in New York.
    When the smoke cleared, Mapleson was left weakened but standing, if only until Christmas 1885. Abbey was gone. His Grand Italian Opera had run up a heavy deficit for which he was personally responsible. Not that he was extravagant; he was actually quite frugal. But by neglecting to factor into his equation that the upper tiers held half the seats of the house, and that they accounted for one-third of the receipts of sold-out performances, he had made a costly miscalculation: at $2–$3 each, tickets were beyond the grasp of the popular, largely immigrant audience. Sales fell sharply as curiosity surrounding the new house dwindled. By the time Abbey adjusted prices downward it was too late. He offered to return for a