| re: "The Opera House" documentary | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 03:09 pm EDT 05/26/18 | |
| In reply to: re: "The Opera House" documentary - PlayWiz 12:27 pm EDT 05/26/18 | |
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| "One thing the documentary sort of touches on, but doesn't quite admit to is that while Rudolf Bing championed the new Met's being built at Lincoln Center, he also was responsible for wrecking the old opera house. But one main reason is not really given: he didn't want competition. It's not touched on, but having read his autobiographies, I know that Bing knew his opera history very well. When the Met Opera was started in the 1880s there was also in NY Hammerstein's Opera House (yes, from that Hammerstein family). Bing wanted the new Met to be the big prestige opera house -- though he did raid the relatively low-budget NY City Opera for some singers over the years. The Old Met looked really beautiful; I feel sad whenever I'm on the NW corner of Broadway and 39th by the Chase Bank, as that housed the former Met. Voices like Enrico Caruso, Amelita Galli-Curci, Rosa Ponselle, Lawrence Tibbett, Grace Moore, etc. used to be heard there and kind of haunt the place with its history. While the old opera house lacked backstage and storage space (the sets had to be loaded out onto the street every time they changed operas), it still could have possibly been updated or used in some manner, but it was razed nonetheless." Some of these points have been made before, but I can't imagine what sort of purpose the old Met might have been used for once the company moved to Lincoln Center. After that occurred, I don't think the building had any possible fate other than destruction. P.S., I've heard about the lack of backstage and scenery storage space in the old house, but I think this new documentary is the first time I've heard about how made sight lines were from the upper regions of the house due to view obstructions by posts. |
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