Out & About
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Most people in the audience at the Metropolitan Opera House for the opening night performance of Donizetti’s “Luciadi Lammermoor” Monday suspected the stumble of soprano Natalie Dessay in her first scene was intentional. But when she stepped forward and pretended to stumble during the curtain calls, it became clear it had been an accident.
“I told her I’m going to make her keep it,” the director of the production, Mary Zimmerman, said at the post-performance dinner, where she sat with the Lookingglass Theatre Company’s co-founder, actor David Schwimmer, and its artistic director, David Catlin. “She was spectacular, the way she recovered, and it elicited sympathy from the audience.”
Maestro James Levine came to the podium to note his pleasure at performing”Lucia” for the first time in his career. And he spoke about the first time he saw the opera.
“I was 10 years old, and the lady who sang it is here tonight,” Mr. Levine said, announcing soprano Roberta Peters, who received a big round of applause.
The moment exhibited the generational continuity in the opera community but, in keeping with the general manager Peter Gelb’s goal to make opera accessible, the evening was also about welcoming newcomers
Jane Fonda, who turns 70 in December, was an eager convert. “At my age, I’m ready to understand opera,” she said. Two of her good friends, Brooke Hayward Duchin and Judith Bruce, would help her to do so, she added.
Ms. Fonda, who attended with her boyfriend Lynden Gillis at the invitation of actor Willem Dafoe and director Anthony Minghella, offered her impressions of the performance.
“I’m coming back soon. She was extraordinary,” Ms. Fonda said of Ms. Dessay. “Her acting, her singing, the way she moved: on her back, on her stomach” — high praise from one who is also well known for her agility.
A vice chairman of the Met’s board, Mercedes Bass, had this to say about the Met’s 124th season opening night.
“The most wonderful thing is that you can tell your grandchildren, ‘I was there.’ “
agordon@nysun.com