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We went to out first Met opera of the season last night. Turandot. I had never seen it in its entirety and never live so I was excited. It was also being broadcast on the Met’s Sirius Radio Channel. After passing ads in the lobby for special reward programs for people under 40, we took our seats in row Z. I couldn’t help but notice how many open seats there were all over the orchestra section. And this was with a buy one ticket get one for 50% off promotion. Perhaps the Jewish holiday was to blame. (I did see Kofi Annan I think down in the front though which made me happy.)
The performance began on time BUT the First Act Intermission went on for 55 minutes. AND the auditorium wifi was down during most of that time. I could only assume there was a problem with the Sirius broadcast connection as well. After about 50 minutes a large chunk of the audience began impatiently and rhythmically clapping in unison. I have never heard that at the Met before. I almost expected them to start chanting “We Want The Show! We Want The Show!” Finally a little man came out in front of the curtain with a mike. “The intermission is taking longer than expected. The performance will go on in another five minutes.” Really informative. And as if it was something the audience was doing. “So sorry the intermission is taking longer than expected but John Corn is still in the men’s room AND we haven’t sold the last crummy seventeen dollar dill cream cheese and salmon sandwich so…”
Intermissions don’t TAKE longer. They last longer because of delays with the show. I am still assuming it was a technical snafu with the Sirius broadcast. Why do we the audience have to pay for the Met’s Sirius snafus? Even if we are getting our second ticket for 50% off. I almost hoped there would be a riot. A calm, dignified, well mannered riot, but a riot nonetheless.
The performance itself was fine I guess. I was overwhelmed by the beauty and scale of the staging. It is breathtaking but holy cow does it need a tune up. This was the first Turandot of the season? It looked like it had been on a national tour that had gotten all the way to Omaha without any director’s notes. Very sloppy. Still lovely, but sloppy sloppy. The spacing and timing of the extras was often way off. The dancers too were frequently way out of sync. The Fans were out of sync. The Silk was out of sync. The stage right Pagoda was even misturned in the Act 3 finale. Zeff with his precision and attention to group detail would not be pleased.But, as I said, it was still lovely. I can’t imagine how breathtaking it is when all the pieces click as they were intended to.
The conductor had a lovely knee length jacket. And super neat David Lynch-y hair I really liked. Even if the brass blew a wildly discordant and wrong note at the end. And so begins the 2012-2013 Met Opera season.
-Elizabeth Frayer
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