Secco Recit

 I saw Flying Over Sunset --  the new musical by James Lapine ( Sunday In The Park With George ), Michael Korie ( Grey Gardens ), and Tom Kitt ( Next To Normal ) -- once at the very beginning of previews, and a second time at the very end, two days before opening. It is interesting to watch a new work in development, to see how it changes as its creators try to clarify their intent. And while Flying Over Sunset  did not fix all of its problems in its preview period, I can say with no hesitation that they did make strong steps toward rendering the show considerably more coherent. Things which seemed random the first time around clicked into place, things which seemed redundant better justified their retreading of trodden ground, and things which seemed aimlessly didactic were still fairly didactic, but less aimlessly so. And the whole thing became tighter with the cutting of about fifteen minutes of run time. Flying Over Sunset  opened on December 13th, 2021, to mostly negative reviews.

This is here for the thumbnail.

This weekend marked the inaugural production of a new opera company, which is something I don't think a lot of us were expecting in the midst of a still-ongoing pandemic. Opera NexGen made its first foray onto the scene with a virtual presentation of Cosi Fan Tutte , ambitiously presented with live performances from the singers, to a pre-recorded piano track. Oh all the things that can go wrong. I cannot in the least bit hold many of the technical glitches which occurred against the company, cast, or creative team. As we've all learned these past twelve months, these things are difficult and there is no way to be sure of everything working perfectly. There were lag issues, sync issues, sound balance issues, crackling sounds as singers overpowered their microphones, and, during much of the first act, background noise that sounded as though it might have been conversation coming from a control room, which included a little bit of the performance in progress, about two seconds ah

Okay I'm still really hung up on that horse thing. Is Brian on good terms with Zamor or not? How does Zamor feel about all this? Illustration by Maurice Greiffenhagen.