CommentJan07 - Page: 1 of 1

The last time we attended an opera where the audience got up by the hundreds at intermission and walked out was when the Washington National Opera performed Andre Previn’s musically challenged “A Street Car Named Desire.” Production-wise, it was a visual treat, to be sure, and the treat was worthwhile. But when you have nothing pleasant in a score to speak of, aesthetics just won’t carry a performance.

A couple months ago James Levine brought to Boston Arnold Schoenberg’s unpleasant creation “Moses & Aron” – a musical choice we called at the time a “monumental blunder,” especially if the purpose of performance is to bring enjoyment and entertainment to an audience and, yes, maybe even grow a new audience. Stuff like “Moses” is a sure killer. What are music directors thinking? What was James Levine thinking?

And then last month, for the Christmas season, someone decides to assault the Christmas spirit yet again, by re-uniting the Boston Symphony Orchestra with John Adams’ new seasonal greeting, the Nativity oratorio, “El Niño.” Another seasonal classic? We seriously doubt it! The last time the BSO and Adams tangled was just after 911 when the BSO took a pass on Adams’, “The Death of Klinghoffer,” an opera some consider an offensive and sympathetic tome to terrorists.

Anyway, the local music critics in Boston gushed with enthusiasm about “El Niño,” invoking words like “lyrical”, “deeply moving,” “an exciting departure from the norm” and “splendid and satisfying.” In fairness, one critic noted that while the show started with some empty seats – and here’s the important part of what he wrote -- the number of empty seats grew more noticeable first chance the audience had to leave the hall at intermission – and therein lays the rub.

We here at OperaOnline.us listened to the performance on the radio. It was unpleasant and discordant throughout, with only one or two passage that contained something approaching melody. Cognitively and emotionally, it was eminently forgettable. The critics misled yet again.

“El Niño” is precisely what is wrong, and has been wrong, with opera cognoscenti for far too long: it’s not about the audience, not at all; it’s about them, and how good they feel when they push the envelope of sound and produce discordance and call it music, and think they know something we don’t. How enlightened.

We question the wisdom of Maestro David Robertson, music director of Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, in bringing this general audience-hostile work to Boston and causing audience members to actually leave before the performance is over. And what is the BSO thinking, bringing another dubious musical selection to Boston – at Christmas, no less.

“El Niño” was a celebration, of sorts. It was a celebration of the ego of the composer and arrogance of music directors who put themselves first and forget why people listen to music in the first place. Shame on both for bringing this unpleasantness before the public and claiming its genius – as if the rest of us don’t get it.

As this edition of OperaOnline.us goes to press we have not had the opportunity to actually see and hear Tan Dun’s “The First Emperor” at the Met. We won’t see and review it here until after the 13th of January. The reviews, from most of the press are in, though, and as noted in our news section, the reviews have been less than enthusiastic. The opera, we read, is too long, it lacks enough melody to carry its length, and the libretto is weak. These seem to be the biggest complaints. While disappointing to see so many people raise the same issue across the board, the reviews do serve one good purpose: they give the Met and Mr. Tan an opportunity to retool the opera to fix the parts that so many say need fixing. There’s nothing wrong with this, and those who know the history of opera know it had been done by the greats for some of their greatest hits.

Actually, it’s at times such as these, when an opera is just getting its feet, that the first legs it stands on may not be its strongest. Because so much is riding on the outcome – the Met has already invested $2-3 million on this piece – getting it right makes a great deal of business sense. If the critics are right (and we’ll let you know if they are by January 14th of this month) the effort might actually result in a long-term bonanza for the Met and Mr. Gelb – especially if this piece is one day added to the standard opera repertoire and picked up enthusiastically by others because of audience demand.

Critics don’t always get it right, and we have written about just how often they have gotten it wrong. Still, on this opera, the critics seem to have honed in on three problems: length, melody and libretto. Before this production heads out to the West Coast, it can and should be given a second hard look. We think Martin Steinberg’s comments for A.P. are about appropriate: “For ‘The First Emperor’ to last more than one season, Tan should unsheathe his pen and make some changes.”

Our review will follow.