I sat through an hour of commercials for that?
Initial thoughts
– why did they choose such an odd excerpt? Why on earth would you pick a portion of the opera that is totally unknown, that doesn’t show off any of the singers you have up there?
– Who was in charge of sound for the show? Despite being miked (hopefully for recording or tv broadcast purposes), the singers were completely unintelligible, and often could barely be heard over the orchestra.
– Why did they bother with costumes? If they were going to just stand and sing with mics, tuxes or suits would have made more sense.
I couldn’t help myself from going through 10 better ways to advertise opera on Letterman. It was a good idea Gelb, but the execution was unacceptably poor. You could have had an interview with one of the singers (or the director, or Gelb himself). You could have had segments of famous arias (“Figaro” and “una voce poco fa” stand out from Barber of Seville), or scenes. You had Juan Diego f$cking Florez, Samuel Ramey, and half of the Metropolitan Orchestra onstage in front of a live TV audience of millions. Who came up with the brilliant idea of burying them in a generic Rossini “imbroglio” scene, so we couldn’t hear them? Who thought it was a good idea to make opera out to be a bunch of guys in old costumes standing and singing nosense?
To draw a simile from one of the other guests on the show tonight, what the Met did on Letterman was like having Jaime Oliver there to cook toast with jam. It was a waste of the incredible talent they had assembled, the huge amount of money that I’m sure went into the project, the time of the audience and of a good opportunity for opera.
I hope the Met gets another chance to put opera in front of a mainstream audience like this. But after watching Letterman tonight; I wouldn’t invite them back.
