The Hours- The new Opera

I'm jealous. I want to go but I'm thousands of miles from NYC. Please report back.

If you're near one of the movie theaters that carry the Met Live in HD series, it's having a Saturday afternoon broadcast on December 10, R1.

Thanks for the link.

A friend saw it. He said the music is listenable but the production is god awful. Which is par for the course with the Met's new productions.

I saw it. I liked it and was moved by act two. The music is rather melodic for a modern opera and it was nice to be engaged with the actual plot line as opposed to only caring about the music/singers.

Fleming and O’Hara are both good, but Didonato steals the show.

Was there opening night. A very ambitious production, hard to live up to that book and movie, but they mostly did. Still some technical details to iron out, the moving sets a little clunky, about 10-15 minutes could have been trimmed overall, especially for Fleming's portion whose character was not given much of an arc and sang the same lines about Richard or the flowers every time she opened her mouth. And she had the most time on stage. The final scene needs work: the three women, predictably, come together, sit in chairs center stage, and slowly turn to face the audience as they cut the lights. Predictable, not exciting. All three ladies were great, but O'Hara was the standout for me. DiDonato got a lot of laughs out of Woolf's sarcasm.

I always get tickets in the Family Circle section, but they were twice as expensive as normal for this production for some reason. I actually could have gotten a discount through my old university, but at the time they were offering them, I didn't bother as they were "only" $5 cheaper. I'll try for Rush tickets next Thursday, I guess; their web site isn't working today.

I haven't seen it but friends have. Fleming is apparently wonderful but the libretto is dreadful and the music flat. The production is all about pizzazz and not much else.

R8 could you expand on what doesn't work about the libretto, in general or more specifically for you?

I liked the production. Music was okay. Very moving story. Of the three woman, Renée Fleming was the weakest, in my opinion. DiDonato very good as Virginia Woolf. I was blown away by Kelli O’Hara. Really brave to put herself out there on the opera stage in New York. She more than holds her own, vocally, and she’s a knockout dramatically. To hear the same person succeed in such diverse rep as The Pajama Game and The Hours is really impressive IMHO.

Saw the HD broadcast yesterday. I know Renee commissioned it but Kelli has the best part (and sang it well). What was with all the dancing and trite choreography? I guess they needed to fill up that big stage, but I wonder if it might have been better as a chamber opera.

I find modern Americans operas just blah. English is a terrible language for opera because each syllable requires one note— you don’t sing a few notes on one syllable like in Italian, for example.

This opera like all the others will disappear after this season, never to be seen again

The three ladies were fine, but the opera was not. The first act was so long because absolutely nothing happened.....everyone wanted to kill themselves, but no one moved a muscle. They just sang about the same shit over and over for almost two hours. The second act (less than an hour) was better; the ending was the only good part of the show.

The melodies they sang were dull and boring. The rolling music the orchestra played as accompaniment was pleasant.....sort of movie soundtrack/Hans Zimmerish without the electronic sound. The libretto sucked except when they used W's quotes.

I can't recommend it.

Composers have lost the talent for the long lined roiled or soothing melodies that opera needs to sustain to be compelling. The last one who had it was Richard Strauss. Any opera since then gets a premiere and people go out of obligation because it's good for them but they'd really rather be genuinely enjoying something else from Strauss or before. Don't really know what happened. Porgy and Bess plays much better as an operatic musical than an opera. Handel's magnificent oratorios in English have been staged and have had some success so 'opera' in English can work. You just need a classical musical genius and they no longer exist.

Menotti's operas in English all sound beautiful but they've fallen out of style.

English is just a terrible language for opera. It sounds much better in musicals

Wait, am I in this?