Word: theaterful
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...principal guest conductor at New York's Metropolitan Opera House for the past decade, maestro Valery Gergiev of the Kirov Opera, part of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, has developed a group of admirers worldwide for the epic Russian operas he has resurrected. Gergiev was scheduled to take the stage at the Met this past Christmas, but then Beijing called. The Chinese wanted him to conduct the opening opera in their country's highest palace of performance, the $40 million National Center for the Performing Arts, which is often referred to by its former name, the National Grand Theater...
...Gergiev and hundreds of singers and musicians (and two horses) were flown in from the Mariinsky Theater. And on Christmas night, they presented Alexander Borodin's classic opera Prince Igor on a world-class stage - alas, to an audience that appeared to pay little attention...
...Gergiev was great, the performance was immaculate, and the acoustic effect of the theater is truly amazing," says Liu Xuefeng, a music critic and editor at the Chinese publication Opera and the Chinese-language edition of Gramophone. But the hall was filled with more than music. "I could hear every word from the stage as well as from my fellow audience members 10 seats away from me," says Liu. "Chattering, eating, children crying, camera flashes going off here and there - it was the worst audience I have ever seen." By the end of the opera, only 60% of the full...
...best section were set aside for government and Communist Party officials, who he says were among the quickest to vacate them at the intermission. "I think only 10% of the audience are true music lovers," said a man surnamed Song, an amateur vocalist who hovered around the theater in freezing temperatures hoping to find a cheap ticket from the scalpers. "People think going to Western operas and classical-music concerts is a sign of a certain social status, and the National Grand Theater is also a novelty to them. I doubt many of them really understand opera...
...names Pierre Boulez or Ariane Mnouchkine in all four corners of the earth: those who love music or theater will tell you that they are outstandingly creative...