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PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 8 OcTOber 2019
Met Opera starts regular Sunday matinees, breaking tradition

By RONALD BLUM mittee. "For those of us
Associated Press with families and children
NEW YORK (AP) — Some in in school, we now have
the audience wore tuxedos committed another week-
and evening gowns, oth- end day to the Met, which
ers wore jeans and sneak- means we no longer have
ers. There was even a man a full day to spend with our
wearing a black sleeveless families."
shirt and blue suede cow- As part of the labor con-
boy boots. tract, orchestra members
The Metropolitan Opera receive an additional per-
began regular Sunday- sonal day that, with the
afternoon staged perfor- permission of the orchestra
mances for the first time in manager, can be used to
its 136-year history with Puc- be let off from a weekend
cini's "Turandot," an effort to performance. Because
boost ticket sales and rev- there are more Mondays
enue. off, the Met has had to
"I love it. Outstanding," said alter its schedule of final
E.G. Fisher, a 51-year-old dress rehearsals, which usu-
New Yorker who was at- ally take place three or four
tending the performance days before the first perfor-
with his 15-year-old daugh- In this Aug. 1, 2014, file photo, pedestrians make their way in front of the Metropolitan Opera mance of a run.
ter, Bella, a high school ju- house at New York's Lincoln Center. "That complicates the puz-
nior. "We get to watch the Associated Press zle a little bit," Met assistant
whole opera and don't general manager for per-
have to go home early and "This is not confined to the spring: evenings from Mon- tion of Verdi's "Otello" with formance John Sellars said.
do homework." Met. Sunday matinees day through Saturday, plus Georg Solti conducting in "When you're doing grand
As part of three-year labor on Broadway have been a Saturday matinee. The 1963 and of Marc Chagall's opera repertory, you've got
contracts agreed to in the hugely successful." Saturday afternoon shows designs of Mozart's "Die multiple operas in perfor-
summer of 2018, the Met Last season saw 75 percent have been featured since Zauberfloete (The Magic mance and have multiple
has the right to present up of tickets sold and 69 per- 1931 on radio, a series Flute)" in 1967. operas in rehearsal all simul-
to 17 Sunday matinees this cent of box office revenue that runs from December But moving forward, there taneously, and you have to
season and 27 in 2020-21. capacity realized factoring through the end of the will be regular Sunday af- consider how many days
Any Sunday show will be in discounts, down from 90 season. High-definition vid- ternoons and fewer Mon- rest in between perfor-
followed by a Monday off percent in the 1990s. The eo simulcasts to theaters day evenings — tradition- mances singers need."
for both performances and Met said 78 percent of Sun- started in 2006-07 and now ally the dressiest night of The audience gave a
orchestra rehearsals. And day's tickets were sold to transmit about 10 matinees the week at the Met, with a huge, louder-than-usual
Tuesday-morning rehears- paying customers and next per season. marked increase of men in ovation to music director
als will have limits. Sunday's performance of There were Grand Sunday white tie and tailcoats. Yannick Nézet-Séguin and
"On a weekend people the Gershwins' "Porgy and Night Concerts from 1883- "This will be a massive shift the cast highlighted by
can relax and devote Bess" is sold out. 1944 plus the occasional in lifestyle for all of us," said Christine Goerke (Turan-
three or four hours that an The Met has long present- Sunday-night staged gala, Brad Gemeinhardt, a third dot), Yusif Eyvazov (Calaf),
opera takes," Met general ed seven performances including the premieres horn and representative of Eleonora Buratto (Liu) and
manager Peter Gelb said. a week from fall through of Herbert Graf's produc- the Met's orchestra com- James Morris (Timur). q

'The Liar' makes a good case for telling the truth

By OLINE H. COGDILL er, prettier sister, Maya, ig- is incensed that he had dia, social media and just
Associated Press nored by her parents and to wait for this 17-year- plain gossip. This momen-
"The Liar," Little Brown and pretty much invisible to her old to return and verbally tum pulls in Nofar's family
Co., by Ayelet Gundar- classmates, even those abuses her. Avishai, who and people claiming to be
Goshen who have sat next to her for won a TV singing contest friends.
As expected in a novel ti- years, Nofar feels she has lit- and is a well-known real- Gundar-Goshen effectively
tled "The Liar," lies abound tle future beyond being "a ity star, also has been hav- delves into Nofar's ascent
in this engaging story that is drab ice-cream server." Her ing a bad day, having just in popularity while showing
part mystery and part com- main goal is that her high found out that his career her guilt about lying and
ing-of-age tale. Actually, school crush will come into may be over. Fearful of this her fears that she will hat-
it is just one liar and one the ice cream shop where man's vile insults, Nofar runs ed and joked about if she
lie but that one falsehood she works, notice her and into alley but Avishai fol- tells the truth. The arrogant
grows and multiplies and become her devoted boy- lows and grabs her. Nofar's Avishai's descent is both a
takes on a life of its own friend. But when the boy screams bring a crowd, in- comeuppance that he de-
as it evolves into chaos, as does come in with some of cluding the police who ask serves and yet he also gar-
author Ayelet Gundar-Gos- his friends, he barely recog- if she has been sexually as- ners sympathy. After all, be-
hen so persuasively shows. nizes her. saulted and, almost with- ing a jerk isn't a crime.
Israeli teenager Nofar Sha- The night almost ends on out thinking, Nofar says yes. The perceptive "The Liar"
lev has spent her young life a worse note when she A washed-up celebrity This cover image released by makes a good case for al-
like she "lived in the world returns to the store after attacking a slightly built Little, Brown and Co. shows ways telling the truth, es-
as if she were an uninvited emptying the trash in the teenager is too salacious "The Liar," by Ayelet Gundar- pecially when the conse-
Goshen.
guest at a party." Always in alley to confront an angry a story to be buried, and it Associated Press quences of lying can be so
the shadow of her young- customer. Avishai Milner steamrolls through the me- dastardly.q