[Dixielandjazz] Bringing Something New To The Party

[Stephen G Barbone]

Caveat - Not Dixieland, however, IMO  there is a parallel. Last  
September this same updated production of Tosca was roundly booed.  
Then 2 nights ago, it was wildly cheered. The difference? The cast. So  
if the audience doesn't like an Opera, or a Jazz Band, changing the  
cast or the musicians, and not rehearsing may be the answer. <grin>
Below excerpted for brevity.
Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

April 16, 2010 - NY TIMES - By Anthony Tommasini

Boos Become Bravos at the Met


What a difference a cast can make.

Luc Bondy’s new production of Puccini’s “Tosca,” which opened the  
Metropolitan Opera’s season in September, returned on Wednesday night.  
Yes, that production, the one with the convoluted staging that  
elicited vociferous boos for the creative team when it was introduced;  
where the lecherous Scarpia straddles a statue of the Blessed Virgin  
and consorts with tawdry prostitutes; where, after stabbing Scarpia,  
Tosca muses on a couch in his rooms at the palazzo instead of enacting  
the ritual of expiation with the candles and the crucifix that Puccini  
devised.

Yet Wednesday’s “Tosca” was one of the most exciting performances of  
the Met season to date, thanks to three exceptional singers, all  
performing their roles for the first time at the Met. Patricia  
Racette, an inexplicably underrated soprano, brought a richly  
expressive voice and raw emotion to her wrenching portrayal of Tosca.  
Jonas Kaufmann, currently the hottest tenor in opera, was an impetuous  
and vocally smoldering Mario Cavaradossi, singing with vulnerable  
tenderness one moment and burnished power the next. And the bass- 
baritone Bryn Terfel commandeered the stage with his vocally chilling  
and shockingly lusty Scarpia.

The conductor Fabio Luisi, replacing James Levine, who has ongoing  
back problems, drew a taut, surging performance from the orchestra,  
chorus and cast — a wonder, since in the typical ways of repertory  
opera houses this “Tosca” was thrown together at the last minute.  
Wednesday night was the first time Mr. Luisi, the orchestra and all  
three of his principals were together. After Mr. Luisi agreed to cover  
for Mr. Levine, he flew into New York for one day last week to work  
with the cast in a rehearsal studio. Mr. Kaufmann, nursing a bad cold,  
was absent that day.

Despite the lack of rehearsal this “Tosca” was riveting. Mr. Kaufmann,  
Ms. Racette and Mr. Terfel are gifted, compelling and intuitive  
actors. Their interplay — the romantic banter between Tosca and  
Cavaradossi, the dangerous dance of wits between Scarpia and Tosca —  
was so nuanced you would have thought the singers had been rehearsing  
for weeks. . . . (remainder snipped for brevity)