Musings from the Metropolitan Opera

I went to the Met last night - Monday, October 19th. Saw Der Rosenkavalier. Started at 7:30 PM and ended at just about midnight - and worth every minute. Glorious singing - Susan Graham - Renee Fleming - Miah Persson - Kristinn Sigmundsson - Barry Banks - just breath-taking stuff. An orgasm for the ears. And the soul.

Ran into James Levine downstairs before the performance - wearing a neck collar and sweats, hair toussled, moving very slowly - his complexion was gray and he did not look good. Worrying. If this is only a slipped disc, it is taking a toll on the maestro. (Of course, on Sunday, I ran into Donald Trump at Grand Central, and while he is certainly healthy, he doesn't look good either. The hairdo is as unfortunate in person as it is on television. His assistant - or was it a bodyguard - is sporting the shaved head look, and standing next to the Donald, he looks much neater and cleaner and more together.)

New wrinkle - they have a sales table in the lower lobby before the show, and during the intermissions, on the first landing going down to the orchestra seating. I wonder that the fire department lets them block so much of a major entrance and exit. And a sign of how bad things must really be, that they are out hawking CD's and souvenirs at a lobby table. At the Met. Even selling expensive stuff, you can look cheap. Sigh.

I have to learn not to be angry at the people who dash up the aisles as soon as the curtain falls, so when the artists come out for their bows at the end of the act, they see an aisle filled with folks trying to get out. Even worse at the end of the show - people immediately stand up - I guess tourists, who think every performance should have a "standing ovation" a bit of theatrical currency that is fast becoming worthless. Of course, that means the only way you can see the cast is for you to stand. Those are better than the ones who simply leave as soon as it is over, not giving the singers the courtesy of three or four minutes of applause. Ah well - patience, John, patience.

I was surprised at the number of people who left after the second act. There is such glorious music in Act 3, especially the trio and duets at the end. I had empty seats on either side of me, and loved having the extra space.

As I was leaving - at the very end, AFTER the house lights were up, I got to the end of the aisle, and of course people were moving up the aisle as well - a very large gentleman stopped to let me out. I looked at him and said "Thank You," and he replied "Opera breeds courtesy." Would that it were so.

Imagine - they do these huge and intricate performances every night, sometimes two in a day, and not only do they pull it off, they sell all those tickets!!! Hard to imagine the whole structure that keeps all of that going.

The new fountain is really very pretty, although I confess I miss the old one. And one wonders if the work will EVER be done - construction barriers and temporary walls and detours - makes getting around Lincoln Center a little extra challenging. And when the snow arrives.... I miss the easy subway access. Might still be there but I certainly haven't found it.

FROM BROADWAY TO GOD

...How did someone who started out as a singer and an actor end

up as a Jesuit priest?

In a series of songs and stories,

Fr. John Sheehan, SJ traces the road that took him.....

From Broadway            to God

    Featuring

Fr. John Sheehan, SJ

With Woody Regan

 on piano

Wednesday, November 4

7 PM

Holy Name of Jesus Church

Our Lady of the Angels Chapel

207 West 96^th St – Between Broadway & Amsterdam

No Admission

BUT

A collection will be taken up for

The Xavier Society of the Blind

FATHER JOHN SHEEHAN, SJ

It’s a Singer!   It’s an Actor!   It’s a Priest!  

                                                 It’s Father John!

He’s been singing and performing all his life, from his days as a boy soprano and a child model (born in New York, baptized in St. Patrick’s Cathedral) , through high school (in Princeton and Trenton, NJ, both on stage and in radio) and college. He was the recipient of one of the first three degrees in Theatre awarded by the University of Notre Dame, and after graduation came to New York, where he sang with the Light Opera of Manhattan, did dinner theatre tours and summer stock, and a season with Arena Stage in Washington. He also worked with a stunt-driving team, managed dinner theatres and catering services, and had a small public relations business. He joined Actor’s Equity as a stage manager, ran several dinner theatres and was in charge of publicity and front of house for Pittsburgh Public Theatre. He has done voice-overs, local commercials, and he was Cantorial Soloist in a Jewish Temple for 2 1/2  years.

Entering the Jesuits in 1980, he studied and worked in New York and London, did a year of Philosophy study in Dublin, and earned his theology degree in Toronto. He spent twelve years in Nigeria (West Africa) and almost three years in the South Pacific, in the Marshall Islands.

He studied with voice with Charles Reading (assistant to Giuseppe DeLuca), and song study with Pat Maloney (student of Lotte Lehman) and Elizabeth Hawes-Smith, head of the vocal department at the Royal College of Music in London. In Innsbruck, he sang with the Walter von der Vogelweide Kammerchor, and has done multiple solo concerts in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, London, Tokyo, Austin, Orlando, South Bend, Chicago and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

Presently he is Chairman of the Xavier Society for the Blind and assists at St. Malachy’s Church (the Actors’ Chapel). He is chaplain for the New York Athletic Club, American Legion Post 1870 and the Notre Dame Club of New York.  He is a member of  Actor’s Equity, the Episcopal Actors Guild, the Blue Hill Troupe, the Mario Lanza Society, the Gilbert and Sullivan Society, the Lamb’s Club, and the Cornell Club. He has three CD’s available at www.lulu.com, and he cannot believe that God will let him die before he gets to be in a Broadway show.

WOODY REGAN

Woody Regan has been conductor or pianist for many well-known performers, including Elly Stone, Kaye Ballard, Liliane Montevecchi, Donnie Osmond and David Cassidy. In collaboration with Sam Shepard he created and played the piano score of Shepard's play When The World Was Green (A Chef's Fable" which opened The Signature Theater's Shepard Season at The New York Public Theater and The Singapore Festival for the Arts. In Moscow, Woody became the first American composer to perform his own work at The Moscow Art Theater. He also composed incidental scores for many plays, including A Taste of Honey (directed by Michael Mayer) and Marvin's Room at the Crossroads Theater.