A Rainy Day in New York, Met Rehearsal, Master class, A Quiet Place

After a run of gorgeous weather, New York was deluged, traffic was barely moving, and a trip that in the best of times takes forty-five minutes took over two hours.  We were late, but so,we were told, was everyone else.  We slipped into a box to observe the working rehearsal of Cosi fan Tutti at the Metropolitan Opera.  It is undeniably a thrill to sit in an almost empty opera house with all the tables and staff on the main floor and people huddling and correcting and hear glorious voices singing shimmering notes.  Mozart did write magnificent notes.  They spent a lot of time getting the lights set, and scenes would suddenly shift with a sunset going from mauve to puce to fuchsia and the sky from electric blue to sky.  I really liked the electric blue.   William Christie was the conductor--his Met debut--although he is a famous conductor and far past the age for such things.   He worked the orchestra and singers relentlessly going over points--I have never seen a conductor redo this many phrases or go over and over bits like this, and I have never before seen a singer question the conductor.  They are all fine musicians and it will be interesting to see the reviews.

Lunch and rehearsal over we clambered down to List Hall to watch Stephen Wadsworth lead a master class of singers in the Lindemann  Program or at Julliard.  These students have been working with him for some time. He had each make a statement about the situation of the character they were singing about starting with the words, "This is a person who" and then developing it to "I am----"  They identified parts of their body  which tended to tighten up and worked to relax them.  Each was given three or four random actions to perform as they sang in character while maintaining a body released of tension.  Body, mind and heart must maintain character.  Fascinating.

Stephen Wadsworth in addition to mentoring young artists directed this year's production of Boris Godunov.  He also wrote the libretto for A Quiet Place, Leonard Bernstein's opera of his family life which we saw in the evening..  It is Bernstein in dissonant mode.  His childhood was not happy, nor was his parent's marriage. Even in a clangy modern score, he managed to write at least three lovely songs which could stand on their own.  Did I love it?  Well, I liked it a lot, can imagine seeing it again (but not next week) and wonder if I could listen to it on CD.  I don't think so.  But a friend wondered about the music as a symphony.  There is enough there to make it worth another listen, and it is difficult enough to challenge.  Which may explain why it has taken so long see it produced.