New Theatre for NYC Opera?

[oberon]

In today's Times, there is a story about NYC Opera's quest for a new home. Now they are looking at the Red Cross building on Amsterdam Ave. at 66th-67th Streets which is apparently to be torn down. The opera house would be on the lower levels of a residential building on the site.

City Opera's complaint about the State Theatre is that the acoustics are bad for singing. To be honest, I really think it is just a matter of conductors who don't know how to balance pit & stage. In the days when Julius Rudel ruled at NYCO, you always heard the singers...even such delicate instruments as those of Patricia Brooks and Louise Lebrun came across. Then a few years ago, it suddenly became an acoustical crisis. They installed an "enhancement" system but I really can't tell if it's still in place...some voices I heard there recently were covered by the orchestra.

Anyway, if NYCO moves out that will leave NYCB there alone with the burden of all the expenses. I have always wished that the State Theatre would be strictly a "dance hall" (no, not with Sofiane Sylve doing the can-can...but a theatre for dance...) ABT and NYCB could coordinate their seasons and visiting companies could appear there rather than at the Met. The Met really is too large for dance...you feel so far away from the dancers at the Met. Also, with audiences shrinking for ballet/opera it becomes increasingly difficult to fill the Met...except for the Taymor MAGIC FLUTE.

According to the article, NYCO is commited to the State Theatre thru 2014...of course, much can happen in the next ten years.

[Farrell Fan]

I agree that in the Rudel years nobody ever mentioned the supposed acoustical shortcomings of the State Theater. I thought it was because there were great singers at NYCO then -- Sills, Neblett, Domingo, Treigle, Carreras, Molese, et. al. But come to think of it, Oberon is correct that in those days even smaller voices could be heard without need of "enhancement" -- a euphemism for amplification. The system in place seems to work better on some nights than others. It was disastrous at one point in "La Rondine" in September when the character Prunier sat down at the onstage piano to play his latest composition. It sounded like somebody turned on a boom box.

I've hoped for years that ABT and NYCB would alternate seasons at the State Theater. But I've given up that forlorn hope.

[zerbinetta]

What we might be forgetting here is that, in the Rudel & Sills days, operas were cast with "big house" voices. For the most part, we had experienced singers.

The current artistic administration of NYCO prefers young singers, some barely out of school. They are not used to singing in a big house & the State, while smaller than the Met, is still a big house.

The stage sound deadening properties built into the theater to diminish the sounds of dancers' feet hitting the stage floor also diminishes the sound of the voice: think Elizabeth Futral in Daphne when she was on that great silly pillar: the voice range out clearly while lower down it was often covered by the orchestra. & EF is used to big houses. (Whether or not she was vocally right for the role is another question) The size & shape of the orchestra pit tends to make the orchestra sound correspondingly louder.

In any case, this is good news for those of us not looking forward to a trip way downtown for the opera & those of us running from the State to the Met all summmer long between City Ballet & ABT. Let's hope they can work it out.

[oberon]

Young, relatively inexperienced singers need lots of support from the pit. Manahan in particular tends to let the orchestra surge up and cover the voices...even experienced pros like Joyce Castle, in last week's CARMELITES, found herself swamped a few times.

During James Levine's early seasons at the Met he tended to give too much orchestral sound, nearly covering some pretty hefty voices. Levine literally learned his trade on the Met podium. He eventually grasped an opera conductor's main function: listen for the singers. He does have a tendency these days to keep his head down...even if a singer is in a bit of trouble, Levine does not look up at the stage.

I for one would go to ABT far more frequently if they danced at NYS Theatre. At the Met, even if I have orchestra seats, I feel like the dancers are far away. At the State Theatre I feel cozy and really involved. And I'm sure if I saw ABT more often I would get attached to their dancers just as I am now to the dancers at NYCB.

I wonder if the two companies would ever...merge?