Polemic: The NY Times on Le Grand Macabre

This morning, after a more or less sleepless night, I flopped out of bed, brewed a bit of Stumptown, and tumbled onto the lawn to retrieve the Times, unaware that its coverage of the NY Philharmonic’s production of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre would have me seething in moments.

Daniel Wakin writes:

A contemporary surrealist opera at the New York Philharmonic?

About the end of the world?

On Memorial Day weekend?

What are they thinking over there at Avery Fisher Hall?

The Philharmonic is presenting the New York premiere production of the earthily absurdist opera “Le Grand Macabre” by Gyorgy Ligeti, first performed in 1978, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. It is a risky gambit for the orchestra and its new music director, Alan Gilbert, who have invested a lot of resources and hopes in the production. They are framing the performances as the signature event of Mr. Gilbert’s first season and a harbinger of things to come.

Two-thirds of the Philharmonic’s regular concertgoers are having none of it. Subscription sales averaged about 33 percent for the three performances, the orchestra acknowledged.

Wakin goes onto explain that while single-ticket sales are up, they’re still lagging behind blah blah blah

WAIT A MINUTE.

Given the extent to which the NY Times (rightfully) slammed the Phil for its conservatism and veritable ossification leading up to and epitomized by Lorin Maazel’s tenure as music director, shouldn’t the story be one of unmitigated celebration? This bold move by the Philharmonic has the potential to recast the orchestra as a vibrant institution, and the Phil deserves praise for bringing to the city what neither of the two primary opera producers have done: the New York premiere of the only opera by György Ligeti, who it need not be said (but I’ll say it anyway) looms over the second half of the 20th century as one of if not the greatest voice in music.

I nearly felt inclined to one-click some Adorno essays 

and send them over to Mr. Wakin.

Call me naive, but I think the Arts section should be dedicated to discourse about Art rather than to fluff about ticket sales that second-guesses brave and overdue decisions made by an institution that certainly deserves the benefit of the doubt at this moment.

Maybe I’m overreacting a bit… but like, at least he could have cast the piece in the context of the conservatism that came before, a little flag that says, “Yo young intelligentsia, come and get your hot Hungarian opera.”

Once you’ve asked rhetorical questions like “What were they thinking over at Carnegie Hall?” you’ve abandoned journalistic objectivity, so draw a line in the sand and say three cheers for Alan Gilbert’s brave little Philharmonic that can.

I for one will be at Le Grand Macabre on Thursday with bells on.

update: both Thursday and Friday are sold out. Get your tickets for Saturday right here.