At the fabulous 125th anniversary gala last night it became evident that someone has turned up the forced air in the auditorium, quite probably as part of the recently-completed overhaul of the backstage facilities. There is now an audible white noise that takes the edge off bass and treble and everything in between. Please — emergency — turn down the forced air, at least when the show is ongoing!
As for the gala, management did a great job selecting performers to highlight the Hall’s incredible diverse history, from sublime chamber music of Ax, Ma and Lang Lang, to the supercharged pop of Michael Feinstein and, incredibly, brought all the performers together at the end of the show for a rousing encore.
Here is NY1’s coverage:
And Chinese television:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itUO0KUNawQ
Was great to hear from the legendary Marilyn Horne and Martina Arroyo. Horne’s Bernstein-conducted Carmen and Arroyo’s Lady Macbeth (substituting for Christa Ludwig, who declined to repeat in New York her success in Vienna the year before) opposite Sherrill Milnes Thane were highlights of the 1973 season. The Carmen featured a memorable coup de theatre — the house flipping from black to blinding white light on those first chords after the overture, literally dazzling the audience, pupils having dialated during the darkened-house overture, everyone blinking and shielding their eyes from the stage. The Arroyo-Milnes Macbeth was a revival of the 1959 Caspar Nehar-designed expressionist set (original production with Leonie Rysanek (substituting for fired Maria Callas) and Leonard Warren, recorded in the studio by RCA) reflecting Bing’s German/Austrian roots and the Met’s strong ties to the Glyndebourne aesthetic of the 1930’s. Nehar and Carl Ebert had designed Glyndebourne’s 1938 Macbeth. Everything is connected after all.