Kinderopera!
Met’s Magic Flute to be Nutcracker-ized?
What will it take to get kids to go to the opera? The Met’s considering taking a page from George Balanchine and his intro-to-ballet blockbuster The Nutcracker, with a “Nutcracker-ization” of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, according to a source close to the director of the current production, Julie Taymor. The idea was for “a briefer version to run at five or six o’clock,” possibly in English, the source says. “They saw it as a wonderful way to introduce new audiences to opera—The Magic Flute is an ideal vehicle to launch this kind of marketing venture.” Whether this scheme happens or not, the thinking behind it could be an overture of things to come: Peter Gelb, the pop-savvy former Sony exec who’s co-general-managing with Joseph Volpe this year before taking over in 2006, brought in Taymor in the first place.
—Kate Pickert