[Dixielandjazz] Gatsby as opera -- NOT

[loerchen2 at aol.com]

I saw Gatsby at the Met a few years ago, and it was absolutely the WORST performance I have ever had the misfortune to sit through (and I like all kinds of music).  I was hoping to hear some jazzy music, maybe a tune I could whistle or sisng afterward.  Not.  The only "music" in the whole thing were the two Charleston dance sequences at Gatsby's party.  The rest of it consisted of Gatsby chanting "oold spoooort" at ever opportunity and the others delivering similarly boring pronouncements in what sounded like a dissonant version of a post-Vatican II Mass.
 
I wasn't alone in my opinion -- over half the audience left at or before intermission, including all 8 of my party.  I only stuck it out because I had a backstage pass and wanted to meet the tenor.  But he looked so embarrassed after the show that all I could say was, "I'm sorry.  I hope I get to hear you in something else someday."
 
Sue
 
Steve Barbone writes:
"Note especially the last 3 paragraphs which describe an Operatic version of
F Scott Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby" and the adaptation of American Popular
music of the 1920s. Like "jazz age pop tunes, subtly spiked with astringent
modern harmonies." 
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