14 days to the Doctor Atomic premiere!

“It looks like a big atomic explosion, doesn’t it?” Charles Sheek, Assistant Editor at the Met, was walking through the Met lobby but stopped to observe a sight not seen in over forty years: the big chandelier, just returned from Vienna where it was outfitted with new crystals, sat at the top of the landing. Electricians and technical crews carefully spun its long, crystal-encrusted arms back in place.

“Isn’t this fun? What a starburst!” answered Jerry Seeram, who has been a security guard with the Met for eight years. Seeram had also stopped by late on Friday afternoon to observe the proceedings. “No one believes me when I say the chandelier, when it’s lowered, takes up the whole atrium. But it does,” he continued. “Look at it! It’s huge. Just gorgeous. There aren’t words to describe this.”

The chandelier spans 18 feet. Electrical crews stepped slowly around its spindly extensions. “Think that’s solar powered?” Sheek joked. “Looks more like nuclear. I think Oppenheimer would have approved.” “I hope it’s green,” Seeram added. “It sure is beautiful.”

The officiating crew turned the chandelier on to full blast and stood back, their arms around each other for a photo. The protective brown paper covering the rolling staircase crinkled beneath them. The crystals glinted, refracting rainbows.

“One, two, three.”—Click.

“That was fun,” someone said. “Can we do it again?”

As the theater darkened for the beginning of the Metropolitan Opera’s Opening Night Gala last Monday, the packed house fell to a hush as Ramón Vargas, singing the role of Alfredo in Act II of La Traviata, chased a demure Renée Fleming across the stage in her role as Violetta, and then sang of his profound love for her. The evening, offering up selections from La Traviata, Manon and Capriccio, would push the opera stars, orchestra and set changes to the limit as a lavish home gave way to a decadent ball, a grand street carnival, and an austere cathedral, before the evening closed with another dramatic domestic scene. Watching the Met in full swing, it was not hard to imagine the 1,100 shipping containers stashed in a New Jersey storage facility where the Met houses it set designs, costumes, and all the trappings of a full production.

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19 days to the Doctor Atomic premiere!

Listen to choreographer Dawson on his “free agents”

“So you like the falling towards the screen?”—“It was better when it ends with your arms outstretched.”—“Last time I was too far forward. I couldn’t get out of the box.”

A group of dancers stood in sweats and sneakers around a towering wooden box, the front of the box covered with white fabric. Soft light illuminated the screen. Doctor Atomic choreographer Andrew Dawson watched as a single dancer moved towards the box and slowly fell. The dancer’s shadow, enormous now, dripped down the screen.

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