Texaco

Texaco/Chevron Metropolitan Opera Broadcast of
January 4, 2003 --Intermission Feature "Opera Quiz"

Meyerbeer Fan Club Member Responds to
Caustic Comments of Panelist Terrence McNally

MFC Note: On Saturday January 4, 2003 the Metropolitan Opera (sponsored by Chevron/Texaco) broadcast a live performance of Poulenc’s "Dialogues of the Carmelites". During the Intermission feature, a moderator conducted the "Opera Quiz", a regular and popular part of the program. The "Opera Quiz" questions are chosen in advance from among those submitted by listeners across the world. This program is one of the most widely heard and respected opera programs in the world.

That Saturday, the Moderator was Steven Blier. On the panel was the playwright Terrence McNally ("Master Class", "Corpus Christi"), William Fulton and Bill Lutes.

The particular question chosen was, "What great opera is marred by a mediocre act, or alternatively, what mediocre or throw-away opera has an occasional flash of brilliance?" (or words to that effect)

Mr. McNally responded in a dismissive tone, but without any further elaboration, that he thought all of Meyerbeer's operas fit into the latter category !

Among the many letters of protest written concerning 1) the inappropriate selection of this particular question for "Opera Quiz" and 2) the ignorant and flippant comment of Mr. McNally, the following was chosen as representative of the views of our membership, and is republished here (with permission of the author) as an open letter to Mr. McNally and "Opera Quiz"

6 January 2003

Chevron/Texaco Opera Quiz
FDR Station
P.O. Box 805
New York, NY 10150

To Whom It May Concern:

At 51 years of age I have listened to Texaco Saturday Afternoon Opera broadcasts since my teens, first on WCLV in my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, and now on KVOD in Denver. While I don't listen to every minute of every performance, I do try to catch nearly every opera quiz, which I generally find stimulating and informative. Many of the questions asked on the air are those I wish I'd thought of myself.

This past Saturday, however, caused me great distress and has propelled me to write this letter to you, my first ever in response to a broadcast of any kind. The remarks made by Mr. Terrence McNally in reference to the works of Meyerbeer were inappropriate at best and appalling at their worst, in response to a question that I feel had no business being asked.

As a collector of opera CDs (I own copies of more than 130 different Italian and French compositions) and a serious student of the genre, I find Meyerbeer to have been a truly innovative spirit, both as a purveyor of French Grand Opera as well as a genius in the development of many important facets later adopted by Verdi, Wagner and others. His music is melodious, his thematic development through the course of a work is thoughtful and progressive, and his sense of drama is unparalleled.

My wife and I greatly enjoy opera. Although we are not especially well-to-do, we save our money to travel around the country and hear our favorite works and singers. For example, we were in New York last fall for Aida at the Met, went to Palm Beach to hear Dwayne Croft sing in Don Giovanni, and will return to New York in early February for his performance in // Pirata alongside Renee Fleming. In some circles I have heard that the Met is planning a revival La Juive for 2004 with Neal Shicoff. singing Eleazar. If this rumor proves true, I will buy my tickets for that performance IN TWO SECONDS since I never dared hope to see that opera performed in my lifetime. This would be the case for any Meyerbeer opera to be performed anywhere in the United States, naturally hoping that the production would do it justice, as opposed to tearing its heart out for the sake of brevity or cost-savings.

Those of us who love opera need to remember that, in these days of tenuous financial support, it behooves us to promote the positive aspects of the art. Yes, I am a proud member of the Meyerbeer Fan Club (MFC) and I urge you and your colleagues to visit their Web site (www.meyerbeer.com) to better understand what it is that caused this man to be revered in his lifetime (and throughout the balance of the 19th Century) as one of the artistic geniuses of opera. His Robert le Diable, which created one of the most musically diabolical bass roles in all of opera, has rightly been named the "savior of the Paris Opera House," taking in enough money over its performance lifetime to endow that edifice for decades. The avowed philosophy of members of the MFC is to denigrate NO composer of opera, a concept that deserves consideration for future broadcasts of the Opera Quiz.

Thank you for allowing me to express my thoughts in this forum.

Sincerely,

Paul Siegel