I keep hearing these horrible things about the Met’s production of La Sonnambula. I heard the audience actually booed Mary Zimmerman, the director.  What is this, the 1800s? You hear stories all the time about operas that were booed their first time around. Like Madama Butterfly and Carmen - which are of course total crap that no one ever listens to. Except everybody. Which bodes well for Mary Zimmerman’s production, no?

Today I saw the broadcast of La Sonnambula (you know how to pronounce it by now, right?). I think Zimmerman put the cast in Swiss Alps Costumes for the last 2 minutes of the opera so we could all be really grateful for the magic she had worked. Seriously, if I had had to watch The Little Goat Girl for 3 hours I would have headed to the snack stand and stayed there. Dirndls and lederhosen and embroidered edelweiss all have their place, but I’m not sure where it is.  One of the circles of hell, perhaps?

Here are some things I liked:

Here’s what I didn’t like:

I loved seeing La Sonnambula placed in a rehearsal hall and didn’t find it the least bit incongruous. I always figured singers talk like that when they’re in rehearsal. Granted I should know better after Karita Mattila gave her famous “let’s go kick some ass” quote to 5 quadrillion people in high definition.

I must also say that Apple Betty love love loved it. Yes, she is six. But she is very discerning and I bet she knows more about opera than a lot of those posers at the performance.

I bet the people who booed are closet lederhosen fetishists.