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Met の開幕ギャラ公演でトスカ新演出にBooing [音楽時評]

Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager,が初めて100%自分で手がけたシーズンの開幕ギャラ公演で,Gelb が公約していた新演出,新人歌手,新規指揮者のうち,トスカの新演出にスイスから招いた演出家 Mr. Bondy が激しいbooing を受けて,話題を呼んでいます.

Met の観衆は9.11以来減少傾向にありましたから,Gelb は自分やJames Levine 音楽監督の賃金をカットし,Ticket代の上限を引き上げながら,下限を引き下げ,他方で新演出を試み,新人歌手を登用し,有名指揮者をMet に招き,新しい聴衆の獲得に乗り出そうとしていたのです.                                 そこでギャラ公演「トスカ」に,新演出家Bondy を招いて新演出をかけ,ギャラ公演ですからLevine 指揮で,思い切った新人歌手を登用していたのです.                            しかし,新人歌手達, title role: Karita Mattila とLevine は Standing Ovation を受けたのですが,Bondy は激しいBooing に見舞われた ようです.

何しろMet は1985年以来同じ演出を続け,聴衆はすっかりそれに慣れていたのですから,Bondy の演出は一方では専門家に評価されながら,一般聴衆に受け容れられなかったということのようです.

今シーズンは思い切った新演出を7つ予定していますから,これから聴衆が新しさに慣れてくれば,評価は高まり,ムーティ,サロネンなど有名指揮者のMet 新規Debutなどが加われば,Met の人気は次第に高まり,観衆は増え,マルティ・メディアの拡大もあずかって,収入増に寄与するのではというのがプラス思考なのですが...

 

For Opening Night at the Metropolitan, a New Sound: Booing

By DANIEL J. WAKIN     Published: September 22, 2009                           

                                                            Harsh booing at the gala opening night of the Metropolitan Opera — where strong negative reactions are rarely heard, at least in comparison with European opera houses — was still ringing in the ears of the opera world on Tuesday.

Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

George Gagnidze and Karita Mattila in a stark new production of "Tosca" by Luc Bondy at the Metropolitan Opera House. More Photos »

The Met defended the new production of Puccini’s “Tosca,” as did its Swiss director, Luc Bondy, who made his debut at the house on Monday night. Audience members, some of whom had paid $1,250 for a ticket, gave ovations to the singers. But when Mr. Bondy took the stage, loud and prolonged booing broke out in parts of the house.

Some Internet commenters called the production pretentious, textually unfaithful and clichéd. But many others found it refreshing and believable.

Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, said he was not surprised at the reaction to the production under the circumstances. The Bondy version replaced that of Franco Zeffirelli, a favorite of Met audiences, whose “Tosca” had been a Met staple since 1985.

“There are people in that audience who came there expecting not to like anything,” Mr. Gelb said. “They were perhaps rooted in the past. But I think a lot of the audience enjoyed it and saw it for what it was meant to be, which was a modern theatrical presentation of a classic in which musical standards were fulfilled.”

Mr. Gelb acknowledged that his director had taken liberties. “But the liberties he took were intelligent ones,” Mr. Gelb added. He said that the rest of the run was sold out and that the production would return next season. “It certainly is the ‘Tosca’ of the immediate future,” he said. “We’re proud of it.”

Mr. Bondy’s vision is a spare one. The sets and costumes are stark. He applies violent and lewd touches. Tosca gashes the portrait of the Magdalene (with a breast bared) painted by her lover, Cavaradossi; Scarpia, the villain, clasps a statue of the Madonna in a sacrilegious embrace; and three lascivious women drape and fondle him in his study at the outset of Act II.

Mr. Bondy said that his direction was rooted in the text. The tearing of the picture is a natural extension of Tosca’s jealous rants. Scarpia’s cry, “Tosca, you make me forget God!,” supports his Madonna hug. And Scarpia has clearly stated his fondness for the possession and disposal of women: hence the three female playthings at the opening of Act II, even though the libretto does not call for them.

The director blamed a strain of hidebound traditionalism for the lusty boos.

“The reaction was very, very violent because they have a ‘Tosca’ since 22 years or 30 years and they don’t want to see something different,” Mr. Bondy said. “To think one work exists, and it has a final interpretation, is a problem.”

Mr. Bondy also fired back at Mr. Zeffirelli, who had said in an interview that reports about the new production had led him to view it as a betrayal of Puccini’s intent and had called Mr. Bondy a third-rate director.

“I’m a third-rate director, and he is a second assistant of Visconti,” Mr. Bondy said, referring to Mr. Zeffirelli’s early collaborations with the director Luchino Visconti. “I learned to be a director. He didn’t invent Puccini. He’s only Zeffirelli. I’m only Luc Bondy — more, not.”

Renaud Machart, chief critic of the French newspaper Le Monde, who attended the opening night and gave the production a favorable review, said that the booing resulted from ingrained expectations based on “fake traditions” of opera direction.

“But that is typical of many audiences, including France and Europe,” Mr. Machart said in an interview. “Believe me, I see so many things which are outrageous and stupid and try to do the opposite of what’s in the libretto. This is not what Bondy’s doing.”


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