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| re: James Levine passed away over a week ago | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 02:02 pm EDT 03/18/21 | |
| In reply to: re: James Levine passed away over a week ago - Michael_Portantiere 01:21 pm EDT 03/18/21 | |
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| I'm guessing that the thinking was that someone might start a new opera company and move into the old theatre, despite it's obvious limitations. Then audiences, who were used to attending opera at the old theatre might continue to do so and not ever make the move with the Metropolitan Opera company to Lincoln Center. Change is tough for people and I'm sure that there were also people at the time complaining up, down, and sideways about the new theatre for any of dozens of reasons. So, if they had an opportunity to make a statement by serving their love of opera at the old theatre they loved, they'd probably have done that and abandoned the Metropolitan Opera (although these folks might characterize it as the Met moving uptown and abandoning them). Bing wanted his company at the new theatre to be THE place in New York to go to for a night at the opera. And Bing did such a good job of it that, even in a city as large as New York, there are no opera companies that even come close to rivaling the Met. NYCO gave them a run for their money for awhile, but couldn't sustain it. Maybe, even in major cities, there just aren't enough rich people into opera to sustain multiple major companies...are there any cities that are home to more than one major, world-class opera company? |
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| re: James Levine passed away over a week ago | |
| Posted by: allineedisthegirl 04:28 pm EDT 03/18/21 | |
| In reply to: re: James Levine passed away over a week ago - JereNYC 02:02 pm EDT 03/18/21 | |
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| Berlin has two world-class opera companies. the Deutsche Oper and the Staats Oper Unter den Linden. A third, the Komische Oper, is a third solid, if not world-class, company. db |
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| re: James Levine passed away over a week ago | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 03:31 pm EDT 03/18/21 | |
| In reply to: re: James Levine passed away over a week ago - JereNYC 02:02 pm EDT 03/18/21 | |
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| "I'm guessing that the thinking was that someone might start a new opera company and move into the old theatre, despite it's obvious limitations." I would say the chances of a new opera company being formed that would have remotely had the resources and popularity to move into the old Metropolitan Opera house were so infinitesimally small as to be practically zero. If anything, perhaps Bing feared that the New York City Opera might move to the old Met opera house? I'm not sure if that possibility was ever even mentioned, not am i sure of the timeline of the decision that NYCO would move into the New York State Theater, thereby becoming even more direct competition for the Met in terms of being located RIGHT NEXT TO IT at Lincoln Center! "Bing wanted his company at the new theatre to be THE place in New York to go to for a night at the opera. And Bing did such a good job of it that, even in a city as large as New York, there are no opera companies that even come close to rivaling the Met. NYCO gave them a run for their money for awhile, but couldn't sustain it." Just for the record, NYCO sustained it -- first at City Center, then at the New York State Theater -- for about 70 years, which is quite a long while :-) |
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| re: James Levine passed away over a week ago | |
| Posted by: ryhog 03:47 pm EDT 03/18/21 | |
| In reply to: re: James Levine passed away over a week ago - Michael_Portantiere 03:31 pm EDT 03/18/21 | |
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| Also, as is so often the case, the failure to sustain occurred on the business side. Although there was plenty wrong internally, the dagger in the heart was the '08 crash. | |
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| re: James Levine passed away over a week ago | |
| Posted by: ryhog 02:46 pm EDT 03/18/21 | |
| In reply to: re: James Levine passed away over a week ago - JereNYC 02:02 pm EDT 03/18/21 | |
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| A couple of thoughts and I think the answer to your question is no, although I am not sure that a second substantial one would necessarily need to be world class. I would think the inquiry is more about competition than stature. Regarding the old Met, aside from just getting used to traveling somewhere unfamiliar, the old Met LOOKED like an opera house (once again, from the Victorian vantage point) and I am confident some of the reluctant ones were into the old world grandeur. And regarding competition, it is well to remember that this has always been something on the minds of the Met's tenders. The Met did not pay Oscar Hammerstein over $25 million (in today's dollars) to not present opera on 34th Street as an act of charity. It wasn't so much that the two were necessarily of the same stature but that Hammerstein was offering opera lovers a cheaper alternative. Fascinating stuff. Beyond that, while I agree the space was defective when built, the truth is all of this happened at a time when tearing down beautiful old buildings (e.g., Penn Station and the many others that were threatened with demolition but thankfully saved) was the rage. To say the 60s were not a good period for preservationists is well beyond an understatement. | |
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