Well, whattaya know...He may not be retiring the old favorites, but he is giving ample room to new composers, including Tesori and LaChiusa...and Rufus!
"In a recent interview, Mr. Gelb said that contemporary opera could use a jolt from composers who have worked in musical theater, jazz and popular music. He also said that the opera world had much to learn from the Broadway model of working on a show for months in advance, with members of the creative team bickering and bartering, revising, throwing out songs, writing new ones, jiggling the book, trying to get things right.
So he is inaugurating a collaborative program with the Lincoln Center Theater. Nine composers of diverse profiles will initially take part, ranging from the elegant musical theater composers Adam Guettel and Jeanine Tesori, to the brash (some would say crass) contemporary classical composer Michael Torke. Wynton Marsalis has been tapped from the world of jazz. The gifted pop singer and songwriter Rufus Wainwright, a passionate opera buff, will try his hand at writing one. Scott Wheeler — who, in the interest of full disclosure, is a good friend of mine — is a more proven choice. His "Democracy," commissioned by Plácido Domingo for the Washington National Opera, had a successful premiere there last year.
Mr. Gelb's idea is that as these operas are written, they will be developed in workshops, where problems can be assessed and changes made. Some will make it to full productions at the Met. Others may be found more suitable for the smaller stage of the Vivian Beaumont Theater. Then again, a work may be deemed unsuccessful and not produced at all."
"In a sense, the Met's collaborative program with the Lincoln Center Theater is an experimental side venture. The world of musical theater has become dismayingly commercial, Mr. Gelb said. It is not a hospitable place for composers with complex musical voices.
Maybe so. But is it the Met's responsibility to rescue the Broadway musical? Besides, whatever the problems in the worlds of opera and musical theater, I'm not sure that the solutions will come by combining the traditions. A case in point was Michael John LaChiusa's pretentious hybrid "Marie Christine." Its haplessly melodramatic score seemed to have been force-fed pointless musical complexities. Mr. LaChiusa is one of Mr. Gelb's chosen. I can only hope that Mr. Wainwright, whose songs I love, will not lose his musical identity in boosting his compositional voice to operatic dimensions."
(B*itch, B*itch, B*tch)
Big Changes At The Met
"Christ, Bette Davis?!?!"
