Luc Bondy’s vision of Puccini’s Tosca booed at The Met: shouldn’t this stuff be organic?
For the past twenty-five years the Metropolitan Opera has been producing Frnaco Zefferilli’s lush, plush, production of Puccini’s “Tosca”. Anybody who has seen it will never forget the gorgeous decor so it is hardly surprising director Luc Bondy’s darkly lit and brooding vision is roundly hated by the Met faithful and booed on opening night.
Nobody is complaining about the most important thing: Puccini’s music, they hate Bondy’s vision of a Puccini without glamour.
New Met director Peter Gelb warned of a shake up in an effort to get the Met to go further than simply resting on the canon but I can understand why people love the old Met productions so much. One wonders why they don’t start an off shoot Met working on newly thought takes on the classics, the way the Public does so often with Shakespeare.
Gelb claims that in order for the Met to stay vibrant it must evolve and he is right BUT can’t the Met have it both ways?
