In break with the past, Met opera is devoting a third of its productions to recent work
The Metropolitan Opera is broadening its repertoire this season by performing more recent operas alongside classics like “La Boheme.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Jake Heggie recalls that after “Dead Man Walking” premiered in San Francisco in 2000, his first opera was quickly taken up by other companies, but there was “not even a whisper of possibility” that the Metropolitan Opera might be interested.
When Anthony Davis' first opera, “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X,” was staged at New York City Opera in 1986 it was such a hit he says “audiences were around the block waiting to get in.” Yet it was ignored by the larger company right next door at Lincoln Center.
And Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, met with Daniel Catan before the Mexican composer’s death in 2011 to discuss staging his “Florencia en el Amazonas,” which had premiered at Houston Grand Opera in 1996. But he couldn’t find an established Met star willing to take on the title role.
What a difference a few years make.
