I am hearing that Fleming is not the draw the producers were hoping for. Even with the dirt-cheap ticket offer, they are comping heavily for these first performances.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
Her opera performances still sell extremely well. That said, there's a difference between selling out 6-10 performances total spread out over several weeks compared to 8 performances a week for 4 months.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
She is very famous, but can you blame people for not buying their tickets to a show that hasnt even started performances yet. jeez
frogs, she has been a draw at the box office at the met. The thing is, opera isnt selling as well anymore, but if you look at The Merry Widow versus other operas that she wasnt in, yeah she brought in money!
The show just got out. I thought it was "ok". Certainly not something I'll need to see again, but there were a handful of amusing moments throughout it.
I will say that if anyone from the production is reading this - your actors DESPERATELY need microphones. Between the audience of senior citizens' non stop hacking up whatever was lodged in their throats for 2 hours and what at times seemed like whispering on stage, a lot was missed, even from the front of the mezz.
Didn't care much for it, but there was a lot of love in this audience. Definitely agree about sound issues, especially for Fleming's speaking. Her singing was gorgeous, but I wish her acting choices had been stronger.
There just wasn't too much to the plot, and nothing humor-wise that gave me more than a chuckle. I enjoyed Jerry and the two butlers, for the most part. Thought Anna's wig was HEINOUS. If there are going to be that many throwing gags, let's have some target practice. Ran about 2:15, with intermission.
frogs, she has been a draw at the box office at the met. The thing is, opera isnt selling as well anymore, but if you look at The Merry Widow versus other operas that she wasnt in, yeah she brought in money!
This is not at all accurate. First off, she hasn't been a draw for years....ANYWHERE (perhaps her Rusalka of roughly 6 years ago was the closest she's had to recent success). Her Armidas were epic failures as were her Desdimonas and subsequent Rusalkas. Merry Widow was not the success you claim it is and any achievement it may have had was based upon it being a new production. With that said, Netrebko in Macbeth and Kaufmann in Carmen (who ended up canceling his run) did much better business as did the bad press plaqued "Klinghoffer" this season.
As to your second point, look at opera houses around the world. BSO and Covent Garden sell around 80% to give two examples and the Salzburg and festival in Aix sell at near capacity.
Once again: you don't know what you're talking about.
LOL YOURE SO WRONG!! Did I ever say she was sellin out the place? no! I was talking about the Met. Once again, you start changing up the subject! As far as the other two operas, Jonas Kaufmann is HUGE and he's younger than Renee, and just as famous. Anna is huge too. Look at the other opera sales with names not as big as Jonas, Renee, or Anna. YES Renee is a draw thank you very much
Play Esq., the most hilarious part about the success of the two Jonas Kauffmann Carmens was that he didn't even perform and the Met made more money on returned/exchanged ticket resales. The Netrebko Macbeth run has been far and away the success of the current Met season. And you nailed the reason for whatever modicum of success Merry Widow achieved thus far this season- pure speculation on it being a new production.
ETA- I just remembered I saw the show tonight. As Jordan said it was "ok". It had some cute moments and some nice small directorial touches, but entirely predictable. Sills is the highlight.