Why Is an Entire Age of American Opera Missing at the Met? - NYT - https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/arts/music/samuel-barber-vanessa-opera.html

Critic’s notebook A concert performance of “Vanessa” freshly argued for the vitality of a work that deserves to be staged but languishes with its midcentury peers. Dimitri Mitropoulos and cast members at a curtain call of the premiere of “Vanessa” at the Metropolitan Opera in 1958.

By Joshua Barone Reporting from Washington Feb. 17, 2025 

 “Vanessa” had the kind of pedigree you rarely see in a world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera. 

 Samuel Barber, who was already famous for his Adagio for Strings, composed the score. Gian Carlo Menotti, his partner and an experienced hand at opera, wrote the libretto and directed. Cecil Beaton, mere weeks from winning his first Academy Award, designed the production. Dimitri Mitropoulos, the house’s leading maestro, conducted. 

 On opening night, in January 1958, audience members sounded pleased during the intermission, according to a report. There were 17 curtain calls. The next day, Howard Taubman wrote in The New York Times that “Vanessa” was “the best American opera ever presented” at the Met. It would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize for music.

 The opera was revived the next season, and again in 1965, when a critic wrote that it “deserves to be kept in the repertory.” Instead, it disappeared from the Met.

 “Vanessa” has survived, to be sure. The aria “Must the winter come so soon?” is a staple of recitals and competitions. Conservatories and small companies stage productions; a “reimagined” version by Heartbeat Opera is coming to the Williamstown Theater Festival this summer. 

 Why, then, is it impossible to see “Vanessa” at an opera house like the Met? 

That’s a question with deeper implications: If one of the finest, most enduring American works of the mid-20th century can’t make it to the grandest stage in the country, what hope is there for others from its time? 

 “Vanessa” represents a period in American opera history in which Barber and his peers, most of them gay, were creating a style that would become known in the popular imagination as “American” sound: a plain-spokenness that folded well-known songs and folk melodies into a middlebrow classical idiom. The absence of “Vanessa” on the Met’s stage, and on others in New York, is more upsetting when you hear a persuasive argument for its vitality, like the one made recently at the Kennedy Center, with the National Symphony Orchestra presenting “Vanessa” in concert. (Not long after, the center was in upheaval.) 

 There, the opera received the kind of top-shelf treatment it had at its premiere: Its hit aria was sung with plush sincerity by the mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges; smaller roles like the Baroness and the Doctor were taken on by the veteran stars Susan Graham and Thomas Hampson; the players were led by Gianandrea Noseda, a conductor with a gift for shaping dramatic scores with a broad view that pays off by the opera’s climactic quintet, “To leave, to break.” 

That moment comes near the end of the opera, a brisk two of hours of plot in which Vanessa and Erika, involved in a love triangle with the uncanny Anatol, hold on to idealism and delusion to the point of regret and self-sabotage. The quintet builds to a declaration of Barber’s respect for the art form’s traditions; its woven melodies are like loose strands from “Fidelio” and “Der Rosenkavalier.” Which is fitting for a composer who, even when developing a homegrown idiom of his own, was criticized for sounding too European. 

 If “Vanessa” has a continental accent, Barber’s style is only part of the reason. His collaborator, after all, was Menotti, an Italian-born composer and librettist brought up on operas at La Scala in Milan. (In the 1950s, it wasn’t unusual for newspapers to refer to them as “close friends.”) Together they decided to set the story in a Scandinavian country house rather than, say, an old upstate New York mansion like the one they lived in. 

 There was even a moment when the title role could have gone to a star with one foot in America and the other in Europe: Maria Callas. As Howard Pollack recounts in “Samuel Barber: His Life and Legacy,” Callas visited Barber and Menotti’s home, with her husband and her miniature poodle, to hear Barber play and sing through the score. She complained that “Vanessa” had no melodies, and that, in any case, “I could never fall in love with a man who had already made love with my mezzo-soprano!” (She was also unsure about the prospect of singing in English, despite having been born in New York. Barber quipped: “A graduate of Public School No. 102 decided she did not know English well enough to attempt singing in that language.”) 

 Without Callas’s celebrity, there was still much anticipation for the opera’s debut. The Met hadn’t premiered an American opera in more than two decades; the only contemporary work it had presented in the five years before “Vanessa” was Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress.” Over a month before opening night, Esquire magazine published the entire libretto. 

 That “Vanessa” had such a high-profile premiere, on no less than the Met stage, was all the more remarkable because it wasn’t even a given for new operas to premiere in opera houses. It was just as common, in the 1940s and ’50s, for them to open on Broadway. 

 In the 1930s, the Gershwins’ “Porgy and Bess” started at what is now the Neil Simon Theater, today home of the Michael Jackson jukebox musical “MJ”; Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein’s “Four Saints in Three Acts” opened on 44th Street. Other works followed suit: Broadway theaters housed Kurt Weill and Langston Hughes’s “Street Scene,” Marc Blitzstein’s “Regina,” even Menotti’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Consul.” 

 Some operas were first presented outside New York or at universities, like Bernstein’s “Trouble in Tahiti,” Carlisle Floyd’s “Susannah,” and Douglas Moore and John La Touche’s “The Ballad of Baby Doe.” Often, those would end up onstage at New York City Opera, a haven of American opera in its best years and the company that premiered Aaron Copland and Horace Everett’s “The Tender Land.”

 When operas opened on Broadway, they were under enormous commercial pressures and typically struggled to find a sustained audience. Routinely, they were appraised by theater rather than music critics. “Regina,” an adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s “The Little Foxes,” received cool notices from theater critics, then dramatically more positive ones from opera critics who tried to save it. These works are by no means perfect, but they are too well crafted for their legacies to have either suffered or stagnated as much as they have since the mid-20th century. “The Tender Land” may be unsalvageable, and “Antony and Cleopatra,” Barber’s 1966 follow-up to “Vanessa,” wasn’t viable until it was heavily revised in the ’70s. But works like “Street Scene” and “Regina,” which combine masterly, melting-pot scores with quintessentially American themes, dramatize the soul of a nation. You’re unlikely to see either at the Met any time soon. 

 When Opera Theater of St. Louis mounted “Regina” in 2018, starring Graham, I asked Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, what was keeping his house from staging it or a more sure hit like “Vanessa.” He said, “It makes sense for the Met to produce them only if we can cast them with big singers, with promotional force.” When “Susannah” finally arrived at the Met in 1999, for example, it was with Renée Fleming in the title role. The cast of “Vanessa” at the Kennedy Center was made up of singers who are either established or rising stars of the Met. Schedules allowing, they could be transplanted to Lincoln Center with ease. So what’s the holdup? In recent seasons, the Met has become interested in American operas, but only those written by living composers. It has commissioned new works and revived ones from recent decades, like Jake Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking” and, next month, his adaptation of “Moby-Dick.” The goal, Gelb wrote last fall, is to program “operas with rich melodic scores and contemporary story lines.” You could use the same words to sell virtually any opera from the age of “Vanessa.” 

 40 comments

 James Wright Vancouver BC 17m ago 

In the writers, otherwise excellent article, why no mention of Robert wards remarkable opera T Crucible?

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag Davidson commented 18 minutes ago D Davidson Manhattan 17m ago The problem with the Met today has been the bad taste in music by Peter Gelb. He prefers noise rather than music.

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag Distraught commented 18 minutes ago Distraught Distraught usa 17m ago The NYC Opera regularly upstaged The Met from Alberto Ginastera to Philip Glass; Carl Orff to Hans Werner Henze, Douglas Moore to Carlisle Floyd; the list goes on and on for decades. Other composers waiting for a Met debut include Scott Joplin, George Antheil or Messaien ???

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag Denise Cummins commented 18 minutes ago D Denise Cummins Boulder, CO 17m ago Speaking of underperformed operas, what ever happened to The Ghost of Versailles? 

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag ManhattanWilliam commented 18 minutes ago ManhattanWilliam ManhattanWilliam NYC 17m ago I don't know the opera VANESSA, so I can't speak on it specifically, but I CAN say that the vast majority of operas written over the last 50-75 odd-years have been mediocre at best. Regardless what so-called critics think, the viewing (and paying) public know what they like and what they don't. It takes more than a minority of opera nerds to fill a 3000 seat auditorium like the MET, and it's rare when many of the works referenced by critics are able to achieve this. Add to this the fact that the MET, under Peter Gelb and Nezet-Seguin, are literally ruining their classics with vile productions that the public-at-large despise, and it's no wonder that the opera is suffering financially. Take AIDA. I was genuinely ready for a new production because I had seen the glorious last version so many times. BUT if you're going to replace a masterpiece with an update, you'd better make it just as masterful. And what did they do? Hire a BROADWAY producer to come up with a new version, ARCHAEOLOGISTS AND ALL. Whereas I would have gone at least twice to see AIDA every season, now I will avoid going altogether until this new production is thrown in the trash where it belongs. I was there opening night - an unmitigated disaster. And while I don't know VANESSA, I'm willing to bet that staging it would do very little to increase the MET's shaky finances. The answer to the problem? Start by replacing the 2 at the top, that would be my suggestion.

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag Times Reader 1978 commented 18 minutes ago T Times Reader 1978 New Jersey 17m ago I wish Mr. Barone and other Times' writers were as passionate about the fact that almost an entire century of American music is missing from The NY Philharmonic and many other of our major orchestras. Where is the Ives, the Ruggles, the Lou Harrison, the Cage and music by other important Americans? Almost nowhere to be heard. Shameful. 

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag Gumercindo commented 18 minutes ago G Gumercindo California 17m ago Scott Joplin's Treemonisha would bring to the opera house people who never thought they'd enjoy any opera performance. A Canadian company was set to perform it in Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall in 2020. We had tickets, but then Covid came. I discovered Treemonisha via a French classical streaming station, and having found a recording of a Houston Opera performance of it, I've wondered why it is so rarely staged. 

ReplyRecommendShareFlag Erc commented 18 minutes ago E Erc Ohio 17m ago When I read the topic sentence to my 95 year old mother, an opera stalwart, she interrupted with, "Yes, by Samuel Barber! That's a beautiful thing!" So it has the kind of staying power for music lovers that repertoire status requires. Mr. Gelb? The ball's in your court. 

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag Arthur commented 18 minutes ago A Arthur New York 17m ago Vanessa and Ballad of Baby Doe both deserve full productions at the Met. 

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag The Other George W. commented 18 minutes ago T The Other George W. MO 17m ago First, I think that the intended link to the article about Opera Theatre of Saint Louis' production of 'Regina' is not the correct one. This should be that link: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/21/nyregion/las-vegas-meets-the-met-to-the-distress-of-a-lifelong-opera-buff.html That aside, I wonder also if the poor critical reception in 1966 of Barber's 'Antony and Cleopatra' may have had unintended consequences, in possibly leading to a turnoff towards presenting mid-century American operas since then. (There is also the issue of the artistic tastes of the long-time Met Opera MD pre-YNS, in that apparently he had little sympathy for works like 'Vanessa'.) There is also the question of what other American operas are candidates for restoration, along with mid-century operas from elsewhere that would potentially work well at the Met, like Tippett's 'King Priam' or Britten's 'Gloriana' (the latter would be quite a vehicle for Renee Fleming, IMHO, but I digress). More modernist works like Zimmermann's 'Die Soldaten' and Ligeti's 'Le grand macabre' would also work well at the Met, again IMHO. But that is a whole other issue, to be sure. 

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag Joe Pearce commented 18 minutes ago J Joe Pearce Brooklyn 17m ago Absolutely without doubt at the time (say, 1945 to 1965), the leading opera composer in America was Menotti, so one must wonder why Barber (whom Mr. Barone mentions only as the composer of 'Adagio for Strings") was chosen to compose this opera with Menotti (not a native-born speaker of English) was given the job of librettist. It worked very nicely, though, and VANESSA is a quite good opera. Most of it is quite lovely, something that cannot be said about any new opera presented at the Met in the last 25 years. If Mr. Gelb's goal is to present operas "with rich melodic scores", he has failed both miserably and laughably with the new noise heard at the Met in recent years. If one hasn't heard an older opera, it is new at least to him or her. With that in mind, Mr. Gelb might certainly consider at least a couple of Menotti's operas, most especially THE SAINT OF BLEECKER STREET and THE CONSUL, both powerful operas with riveting stories, and with strong enough leading roles to attract star singers. SAINT includes what for me is the only great tenor aria to come out of an American opera, "I Know That You All Hate Me", and THE CONSUL the near-great soprano role of Magda Sorel. Either of them, or THE MEDIUM, could easily be performed as part of a double-bill, with Menotti's AMELIA GOES TO THE BALL or AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS (the latter especially at Holiday time). And if not Bellinian, they are still melodic and tonal and, AMAHL apart, address reasonably modern story line. 

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag Edward commented 18 minutes ago E Edward Wichita, KS 17m ago The Crucible and The Consul are both great operas, and chillingly timely. Gelb is probably too conservative to dare either one. Sad. 

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag MountainStick commented 18 minutes ago M MountainStick Copper Hill, VA 17m ago Might you not have considered mentioning that the divine Nicole Heaston sang the title role in this concert performance of Vanessa that you so laud? 

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag Mouse commented 18 minutes ago M Mouse Maine 17m ago "Promotional force". Ha. I appreciate that he said it out loud. 

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag fred commented 18 minutes ago f fred NYC 17m ago Thank you Joshua for highlighting this failure by Gelb and the Met. In recent years, he and it keep producing new operas that few people want to see after one viewing because they are, to be blunt, boring. Many of those operas are playing to whole sections of empty seats, but still Gelb and Maestro Nezet-Seguin keep trying to shove uninspired works down our throats. IMO, any of the "old" American works mentioned in this column would be more interesting than such ho-hums as "Dead Man Walking" or "Champion." Even the strangely beautiful "Four Saints in Three Acts" by VIrgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein would beat out those two duds.

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag Donald Levine commented 18 minutes ago D Donald Levine New York City 17m ago The neglect of Vanessa, Regina, Street Scene and The Ballad of Baby Doe among others is shameful. I suspect they are no longer politically correct? It would have been nice to have mentioned the stellar cast of that Vanessa premiere. Callas didn't show an interest but they could have had Vienna's Sena Jurinac who I think was one of the choice after her. For some reason, it's been said Bing didn't like Jurinac. Instead the Vanessa was the great Eleanor Steber, one of the greatest sopranos this country ever produced, not to mention Regina Resnik, Rosalind Elias, Nicolai Gedda and Giorgio Tozzi. The Met went all out on this one. A good cast could be assembled today. Baby Doe as we all remember was the great starring vehicle for the young Beverly Sills. Come on Gelb, get off your derriere and revive some of these works. They belong on the Met stage. 

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag Grittenhouse commented 27 minutes ago G Grittenhouse Philadelphia, PA 27m ago When you mention opera on Broadway, how could you omit the big success Menotti had with that? But in those days, you could see ballet and flamenco on Broadway, too. Does it matter that much if these American operas are performed at the Met? It does if there is no New York City Opera to present them. They are regularly programmed at regional opera companies. If the Met had a second, smaller house, then they might be better able to present them. While there's nothing wrong with being "middlebrow," labeling Barber's music with that tag is kind of insulting. His level of composing is the finest, which should make it "highbrow." But that gets into the distortions that are taught in every college and conservatory music history programs where Germanic music still dominates, along with the Avant-Garde, and the inherently false view of classical music as an endless progression, as if it were an industrial product. I saw Regina at the Chautauqua Opera Theater, and it was dramatically memorable. The music was fine, but not terribly memorable, but far better than most 20th-century American opera music, which I have seen a fair amount of. Another reason for American opera not having more of a foothold in New York is pure snobbery, looking down on anything associated with the hinterlands, which is simply ignorance. NYC is no longer the cultural capital it once was. It can't be as long as the artists it depends on can't live there. 

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag Xe commented 2 hours ago X Xe CA 2h ago As mentioned by another commentator, the Santa Fe Opera did it in 2016 with Leonard Slatkin conducting and Erin Wall as Vanessa. It was a stunning success all the way around. I was so moved, that I went back to see it a second time. Virtually all the performances were sold out. Reply2 

RecommendShareFlag DeLuca Wannabe commented 4 hours ago D DeLuca Wannabe Delaware 4h ago The potential "problem" with staging Vanessa in the past has been its very psychological libretto… not a lot of action, per se, to be staged. It’s certainly worth a revival though. It also makes for about a perfect "concert opera"… the music is gorgeous and involving, and interesting for the orchestra to play. Reply4 

RecommendShareFlag Immy commented 5 hours ago Immy Immy Phoenix, AZ 5h ago Whatever happened to John Corigliano's "Ghosts of Versailles" - a commission from the Met, which premiered in 1991? As I recall, it proved something of a hit; and was revived a couple of years later, but not again in the last 30 years (and counting). This is a 'new' opera which seems to have a proven track record. I hope and believe that The Met should consider this work. Reply3 

RecommendShareFlag 2 Replies Brian commented 5 hours ago B Brian Pennsyvania 5h ago @Immy "Ghosts" has my vote as the finest American opera ever written. It's astonishing melodic qualities and brilliant orchestration fit it in with any European work. It was also more entertaining than any broadway show at the time. I'm guessing the cost stops it from further production. Reply2 

RecommendShareFlag Operaman 2000 commented 18 minutes ago O Operaman 2000 Chicago 17m ago @Brian Saw “ Ghost of Versailles “ at Lyric Opera of Chicago several seasons ago. Also “ Morning Becomes Electra” , and “ The Wedding “ . Didn’t enjoy any of them. Worst evening ever was Berio’s “ Un Re in Ascolto” . So many failed attempts at forcing new works on the public that have very little positive responses from those who go to the opera for beautiful music and beautiful singing, or simply accessibility for those who are not professional musicians interested in modern works . Has a great tune resulted from any of these recent offerings that have grabbed the ears of the public. No, no and no. 

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag PL commented 7 hours ago P PL Washington, DC 7h ago It's a testament to Gianandrea Noseda's leadership that this "Vanessa" was recognized in such a fashion. I'm a frequent concertgoer and am heartened to see this. The Kennedy Center is the home of this American jewel of an orchestra and may it continue to be an artistic beacon for years to come! Reply5 RecommendShareFlag James Howsmon commented 9 hours ago J James Howsmon Oberlin. OH 9h ago Another great piece from Mr Barone. I have a small quibble with his editor, who apparently did not recognize enough of the faces in the curtain-call picture from opening night (there are some advantages to being old) to identify everyone. I will fill in the blanks from left to right: Giorgio Tozzi, Regina Resnik, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Rosalind Elias, Gian-Carlo Menotti, Samuel Barber, Eleanor Steber, and Nicolai Gedda. Maybe not all Mr Bing's first choices, but the rare cast that the overused term "stellar" can be applied to without exaggeration. Reply20 RecommendShareFlag Joe Pearce commented 9 hours ago J Joe Pearce Brooklyn 9h ago Further to my previous comment, it might be noted that when Callas turned down the chance to create the role of Vanessa, Bing offered it to Sena Jurinac as a debut role for her at the Met. She accepted, but then it all fell through when she decided not to sing at the Met that next year (she had an absolutely glorious career, but never did appear at the Met), and the role was finally given to the Met's always-undervalued soprano, Eleanor Steber. Callas's decision that she couldn't sing the role in English isn't particularly surprising. Offhand, I know of her performing in English only once, and that was her recording of "Ocean, Thou Mighty Monster!" from OBERON. She may have justified this as the aria was originally written in English but may also have thought the choice preferable because at least she spoke English, and I don't think she knew any German at all, so that "Ozean, du Ungeheuer!" would have been totally beyond consideration. And sure enough, you can hardly understand a word of her English on the recording, and in an opera like VANESSA, it was very important that the dialogue should be clear. Actually, Gedda, Elias and Tozzi all had more clarify in English than did even Steber, and lest it be forgotten, it was the role of Erika that made Rosalind Elias a star at the Met and on recordings for the next 15 or so years. Reply5 

RecommendShareFlag 1 Reply Joe Pearce commented 6 hours ago J Joe Pearce Brooklyn 6h ago @Joe Pearce Well, I just mentioned my 'first' comment, but don't see it printed here and so will try again. It is laughable to read Mr. Gelb's goal of new "operas with rich melodic scores", since no new opera since GHOSTS OF VERSAILLES has had one, and certainly none of the socially relevant swill that he has put on for the past decade or so. One could question the choice of Barber as composer of this, since Mr. Barone mentioned him as being famous at the time for his "Adagio for Strings", while Menotti, arguably the most successful opera composer in the country from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s and only whose second language was English, was chosen to write the libretto! I might suggest that Mr. Gelb put on THE SAINT OF BLEECKER STREET or THE CONSUL (the first a searing work having the only really great tenor aria in any American opera, and the second having a great starring role - Magda Sorel - for the soprano), or even THE MEDIUM. The second two are short enough to use on a double bill with Menotti's AMELIA GOES TO THE BALL or AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS (especially good at holiday time) and all of them, if not Bellinian, have rich melodic scores unimpeded by rampant atonality. Menotti was THE (Italian born) American opera composer of that whole period, and it is both strange and sad that the Met has never done any of his three major works. Modern audiences might like them, if they could ever get to hear them! Reply3 

RecommendShareFlag Charles Michenerp commented 10 hours ago C Charles Michenerp Palm Beach, FL 10h ago To stretch the mid-century parameters a bit, the Met might also take on revivals of Marc Blitzstein's fiery pro-union opera from 1937 "The Cradle Will Rock" and Carlisle Floyd's harrowing "Of Mice and Men" from 1970. I might also suggest correcting some notable European omissions from the last century, Reimann's "Lear," "Messiaen's "St. Francois d'Assise" and Liget's "Le Danse Macabre." "Vanessa" aside, these may be tough sells at the box office, in which case the Met should consider dropping the ticket prices accordingly. Reply10 RecommendShareFlag 2 Replies Grittenhouse commented 18 minutes ago G Grittenhouse Philadelphia, PA 17m ago @Charles Michenerp I consider it execrable that the Met continues to constantly perform Wagner, and none of the composers murdered in the Holocaust, such as Franz Schreker, or the refugees such as Kurt Weill. Schwanda the Bagpiper was a huge success, but hasn't been seen in decades. And why doesn't the Met also produce oratorio programs? Berezowsky's Gilgamesh was also a big success. And there is his children's opera, Babar. 

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag Sam Jack commented 18 minutes ago S Sam Jack Goddard, KS 17m ago @Charles Michenerp Gelb expressed a surprisingly strong revulsion toward "Le Grand Macabre" in an op-ed the Times published recently, so I wouldn't hold my breath for that one. Even though it would certainly find an audience. I've often wondered why the Met has never mounted either "Four Saints in Three Acts" or "The Mother of Us All," by Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson. And this is off the point of Barone's article, but: Given how successful "Akhnaten" and "Satyagraha" have been for the Met, they should really consider presenting "Einstein on the Beach."

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag Maksquibs commented 10 hours ago M Maksquibs Manhattan 10h ago We're lucky to have a fine recording of VANESSA with the original cast under Mitropoulos. Easy to find on most music platforms. (And what a lesson in how to sing English by the great Swedish tenor Nicolai Gedda!) Reply11 

RecommendShareFlag 1 Reply RR commented 18 minutes ago R RR Memphis 17m ago @Maksquibs Absolutely! Gedda's English is perfect! 

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag cornell commented 11 hours ago c cornell new york 11h ago I would love to see the Met do Vanessa and these other cited works. There is an audience for more than warmed over productions of the same Puccini, Verdi, and Mozart work. Reply19 

RecommendShareFlag 1 Reply Grittenhouse commented 6 hours ago G Grittenhouse Philadelphia, PA 6h ago @cornell There's nothing wrong with those warmed-over productions, as the new ones are so offensive, and the new operas are, as well. People go to museums mostly to see the Old Masters. Some people will come to see Akhnaten, but they won't come for the rest of the season. Reply5 

RecommendShareFlag Desert Rat commented February 17 D Desert Rat Palm Springs Feb. 17 The Santa Fe Opera hit it out of the park with a magnificent Vanessa a few years ago. Maybe it wasn’t a starry cast but they delivered the goods in spades. All to say that this work is so worthy of the Met’s attention. That Regina featured Susan Graham, Susannah Phillips and James Morris in St. Louis. Nice group of stars, I’d say. Reply15 

RecommendShareFlag Stephen in AP commented February 17 S Stephen in AP Asbury Park Feb. 17 I attended a very strong and beautiful performance of Vanessa at City Opera in 2007. The estimable Anthony Tommasini, in the Times, hoped that well-received production might prompt a re-evaluation, and more restagings, of such a worthy opera. Didn't happen. I first came to appreciate the piece years before during a fine, if economical, production by the Boston Academy of Music. It's a beautiful work, full stop: a showcase for singers and orchestra with a ravishing love duet and a final ensemble that brings tears to the eyes. It doesn't require a lavish or complex physical production. Its libretto may not be brilliant, but it's as good as ninety percent of the works that are in constant rotation in opera houses across the country. Please, somebody stage this work by one of America's greatest composers. I will be there. Reply16 

RecommendShareFlag 2 Replies Grittenhouse commented 6 hours ago G Grittenhouse Philadelphia, PA 6h ago @Stephen in AP Estimable? I read Tommasini's reviews for years and found myself having a very low estimate of him, indeed, and the new writers are not doing very much better, especially Woolf. Barone has promise. The editing is a big problem. And the lack of frequent reviews of all performances. Reply3 

RecommendShareFlag Diogenes the Cynic commented 18 minutes ago D Diogenes the Cynic Syracuse, NY 18m ago @Grittenhouse "estimable" did make me laugh...

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag D. Carle commented February 17 D D. Carle Windsor, Ontario Feb. 17 Robert Ward's "The Crucible" is a wonderful, riveting show, and ever more timely (alas)! Reply12 

RecommendShareFlag 1 Reply Osagge commented 18 minutes ago O Osagge NYC 18m ago @D. Carle. Amen! Gorgeous opera. 

 ReplyRecommendShareFlag Daniel Evans commented February 17 D Daniel Evans Philadelphia,PA Feb. 17 Bravo Joshua Barone! Your point is well taken and these now half-forgotten American works need to be seen and appreciated by larger audiences. Others, like Menotti's "Saint of Bleeker Street" seem to languish, only heard on recordings, though I was lucky enough to see that work at N Y City Opera in one of its best periods under the direction of Julius Rudel. Reply18

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