MORE THOUGHTS ABOUT THE MET’S DWAYNE CROFT DEBACLE

The Met’s big-time dissing of Croft brings up a larger issue: Gelb’s apparent policy change from the Volpe era, when a cover was always given a single scheduled performance.  That was a great system.  Some cover performances were downright revelatory.  For instance in 2006, Greer Grimsley’s Scarpia and Klaus Florian Vogt’s Lohengrin were better than James Morris and Ben Heppner in the same roles.

It may be that the Met’s pursuit of superstars at all cost has begun to backfire.  The Mattei subbing is a question of adding insult to injury, because it’s not as if Mattei wasn’t already at the Met performing his own scheduled Figaros. The Met just did not want Croft to perform, even at the expense of a less artistically organic opening night.  Pulling a few all-nighters cannot compare with the weeks of rehearsal that Croft had.  And the entire ensemble integration was undoubtedly affected as well.  As Tomassini writes, “It is impossible to know how much the last-minute casting shuffle affected Mr. Grandage’s intentions.”