[Met Performance] CID:263670

Metropolitan Opera Premiere, New Production

Parade: An Evening of French Music Theater
Parade
Les Mamelles de Tir?sias
L'Enfant et les Sortil?ges
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, February 20, 1981

Debut : Manuel Rosenthal, Gary Chryst, Nadine Tomlinson, Joey Reginald, Craig Williams, John Dolf, Wade Laboissonnier, Daryl Murphy, David Hockney, Gray Veredon, Gwendolyn Bradley, Richard Vernon




Parade: An Evening of French Music Theater (1)




Parade (1)
Erik Satie | Erik Satie
Harlequin
Gary Chryst [Debut]

Columbine
Jane Muir

Vaudeville Lady
Kimberly Graves

Chinese Conjurer
Dave Roeger

Elegant Woman
Pauline Andrey

Pierrot
Sam Cardea

Villain
Christopher Stocker

Twins
Naomi Marritt

Twins
Antoinette Peloso

Jazz Couple
Nadine Tomlinson [Debut]

Jazz Couple
Marcus Bugler

Jazz Couple
Lucia Sciorsci

Jazz Couple
Ricardo Costa

Jazz Couple
Suzanne Laurence

Jazz Couple
Virgil Pearson-Smith

Jazz Couple
Ellen Rievman

Jazz Couple
Joey Reginald [Debut]

Fat Ballerina
Roberto Medina

Commedia dell'arte
Vicki Fisera

Commedia dell'arte
Patricia Heyes

Commedia dell'arte
Jack Hertzog

Commedia dell'arte
Craig Williams [Debut]

Acrobat
John Dolf [Debut]

Acrobat
Wade Laboissonnier [Debut]

Acrobat
Daryl Murphy [Debut]

Acrobat
Chris Pender


Conductor
Manuel Rosenthal [Debut]


Production
John Dexter

Designer
David Hockney [Debut]

Lighting Designer
Gil Wechsler

Choreographer
Gray Veredon [Debut]

Composer
Francis Poulenc


Les Mamelles de Tir?sias (1)
Francis Poulenc | Guillaume Apollinaire
Th?r?se, Fortuneteller
Catherine Malfitano

Husband
David Holloway

Manager of Theater
Allan Monk

Presto
Christian Boesch

Lacouf
Joseph Frank

Gendarme
John Darrenkamp

Newspaper Seller
Jean Kraft

Journalist
Nico Castel

Son
James Atherton

Elegant Woman
Shirley Love

Large Woman
Geraldine Decker

Bearded Man
Andrij Dobriansky


Conductor
Manuel Rosenthal [Debut]


Production
John Dexter

Designer
David Hockney [Debut]

Choreographer
Stuart Sebastian


L'Enfant et les Sortil?ges (1)
Maurice Ravel | Colette
Child
Hilda Harris

Mama
Isola Jones

Armchair
Julien Robbins

Louis XV Chair/Squirrel
Florence Quivar

Grandfather's Clock
David Holloway

Wedgwood Teapot/Animal
Robert Nagy

Chinese Cup/Shepherd
Claudine Carlson

Fire
Ruth Welting

Shepherdess
Betsy Norden

Princess
Gail Robinson

Little Old Man
Joseph Frank

Black Cat
Gene Boucher

White Cat/Animal
Shirley Love

Tree
James Courtney

Dragonfly
Ariel Bybee

Nightingale
Gwendolyn Bradley [Debut]

Bat
Therese Brandson

Tree Frog
Andrea Velis

Screech Owl
Loretta Di Franco

Animal
Nedda Casei

Animal
Richard Vernon [Debut]

Animal
Robert Nagy

Animal
Shirley Love


Conductor
Manuel Rosenthal [Debut]


Production
John Dexter

Designer
David Hockney [Debut]

Lighting Designer
Gil Wechsler

Choreographer
Stuart Sebastian

Francis Poulenc



L'Enfant et les Sortil?ges received seven performances this season.

FUNDING:
Production gift of Francis Goelet

Review 1:

Review of Peter Goodman in Newsday:

MET PROGRAM MIXES OPERA AND DANCE

"Parade" arrived last night at the Metropolitan Opera, before a gala audience that outshone many recent [first] nights. From first to last, it was a most unusual and rewarding evening of music.

The program gathered three theater works whose main connection was that they were all 20th Century French pieces, rather loosely connected on stage by the continuous presence of a band of choristers and dancers all dressed in green with high green hats. In addition Harlequin, danced by Gary Chryst in "Parade," the [first] ballet, reappeared at the end of "L'Enfant et les Sortileges," the concluding opera.

All three were being performed at the Met for the first time. It certainly will not be the last, for the evening was basically delightful.

"Parade," a ballet newly choreographed by Grey Veredon to music of Erik Satie, opened the show. It is reviewed elsewhere on this page. The second work is Francis Poulenc's absurd little opera "Les Mamelles de Tiresias" ("Tiresias' Breasts"), composed after World War II to a poem of Guillaume Apolinaire written in 1903. After intermission, the final work was Maurice Ravel's fantasy "L"Enfant et les Sortileges" ("The Bewitched Child") written to a script by Colette and begun just after World War I.

'Tiresias" is a curious proto-feminist fable about a woman (engagingly sung by Catherine Malfitano) who, tired of being bossed by men, throws off her breasts, grows a beard and goes off to live her own life. After some indecision, her husband decides he can have children, too, and has several thousand all in one day, to the astonishment and admiration of the townspeople. Finally, the woman returns to her husband, and they choose to have children together.

The ostensible moral of this strange little story is that everyone should have as many children as they can. The play premiered in 1917 in France, when the nation was being bled dry of people by the war. Poulenc set it to music in 1947, after a second terrible war. But the work is basically too full of buffoonery to make a serious case.

"L'Enfant" is a psychological symbolist work about a naughty little boy (Hilda Harris) who brakes all the furniture and crockery in a temper tantrum, then is terrified and finally humanized when first the furniture comes to life and then the animals berate him for his thoughtlessness. The music is superlatively lovely, full of miraculous effects including a chorus of frogs and insects that delightfully creates the world living in the child's garden.

The entire evening showed the sort of ensemble work among everyone from producer and conductor down to the last chorister that is opera at its best. The sets, painted by Hockney in his stage debut, were glorious. For "Tiresias" he made a green, red, white and blue painting of a Riviera town that seemed drenched in the bright Mediterranean light. "L'Enfant" used two simple but potent painted sets, the last an awesome, throbbing red and blue magical forest which evoked perfectly a mysterious animal and vegetable world.

The whole evening made for a usually enchanting, though occasionally slow, amalgam, devoid of much depth or meaning but full of rather chic fun. The casts were huge, and it is difficult to single out one or two prime performers. Malfitano warmed up quickly and then sang and moved beautifully. In fact, the singers did so much dancing in "Tiresias" it began to resemble a musical. Not to mention the four singers who suddenly jumped up from box seats in the second tier to join the action.

"L'Enfant" was handled differently. No one on stage except the boy and the green animal chorus did any singing - that as handled by more greenies and some in the party-colored costumes on either side of the stage. The stage was peopled by dancers and children, playing cats, frogs, a clock, furniture, a teapot and teacup, a mathematician, a princess, and so on. Harris was first sulky, then frightened and finally compassionate as the boy.

Manuel Rosenthal, who conducted the first performance of "L'Enfant" in 1937, was on the podium last night and his interoperation, soft rather than sharp, was as delicious as pure Northern lake water. Producer John Dexter is to be congratulated for the way he gently managed to tie together all three works.



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