A 1957
New Yorker cartoon by
Barney Tobey offers a bravura rendition of the inside of the Metropolitan Opera House, then located at 39th and Broadway. The old Met was built in 1883 and it closed in 1966 when the Metropolitan Opera moved uptown to the brand new Lincoln Center. From the stage setting it is clear we are in the final scene of Giuseppe Verdi's
La Traviata, specifically in Violetta's bedroom. Violetta is on her deathbed succumbing to tuberculosis. Of note here, the postwar years have ushered in a new antibiotic era, and Tobey's well-informed opera-goer shares with her husband a contemporary musing on the opera's tragic conclusion.
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"Isn't it a pity they didn't have drugs like streptomycin in those days?"
Barney Tobey, Original art, The New Yorker, March 23, 1957, page 29 |
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Skinner, September 15, 2006
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"Isn't it a pity they didn't have drugs like streptomycin in those days?"
Barney Tobey, The New Yorker, March 23, 1957, page 29 |
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"Isn't it a pity they didn't have drugs like streptomycin in those days?"
Barney Tobey, The New Yorker, March 23, 1957, page 29
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The Old Met as it appeared on January 1, 1896. The opera house opened in 1883 and closed in 1966 when the Metropolitan Opera moved to its current home in Lincoln Center.
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Giuseppe Verdi, La Traviata - "Parigi, o cara"
The Royal Opera
Renée Fleming as Violetta Valéry
Joseph Calleja as Alfredo Germont
Note: Did Barney Tobey get the staging right? I would be delighted to see a photograph or even a set design showing Violetta's bedroom from the 1950's-era Metropolitan Opera production of
La Traviata. Who can help out with this?
Tragedy on the high C's? See what happens when
Attempted Bloggery goes to the
opera.
Also see what happens when this blog sings the praises of
Barney Tobey.
How about some more
original New Yorker cartoon art? There's more of it here than on any other blog. And that's not just Wagnerian bombast.
Do you know when the blog post is over? Hint: The fat lady is singing.
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