From Joseph Horowitz’s survey of the Met’s present tribulations in the New York Review of Books:
Of the Met’s earliest Aida broadcasts, the most esteemed (it is readily available on youtube) was aired on February 6, 1937. . . . What first commands attention is [Ettore] Panizza and his band. The intensity of this contribution is not merely different in degree from what we now hear; its difference is fundamental: a difference in kind. . . . The pit is not supportive; it is collaborative. . . . [In act three,] Amonasro enters: a wild man: “You are not my daughter! You are the slave of the Pharaohs!” And Panizzza’s orchestra is wild. . . . Juxtaposed with this powder keg, today’s Met orchestra is a matchbox. . . .
Panizza was no anomaly – he embodied interpretive norms once widespread and now best remembered via the recordings of Toscanini (they were colleagues at La Scala). . . . A further consideration: Toscanini, in his final Met season, led 68 out of 209 performances. Panizza, in his final Met season, led 38 of 69 performances given in Italian. This season, Nezet-Seguin (who is also music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra) leads only 36 of 194 performances. The house needs a genuine music director of its own….
Read on here.
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