CINCINNATI - A journalist asking James Conlon about the unending blight of
Eurotrash in opera will have a Pogo moment: "We have met the enemy and he
is us."

Allowing the obvious, that directors can make a name for themselves faster
and easier with a non-standard production (regardless of how well the work
is being served, if at all), Conlon points at the questioner and says, not
unkindly, "et tu, Brute."

"It's easier to write about the staging of an opera than about the music,"
he says.  "So you have six-seven paragraphs about what the audience sees,
and then - maybe - something about the music." It's understandable, he
allows, because describing music in words is hard.  Writing about the
action - the more bizarre, the better - doesn't pose the same obstacles
as saying that this phrase was like that, the harmonic progression was
interpreted in a novel way, and so on.

In no way does Conlon blame the messenger for the bad news, but he
is pointing out something I never thought of - how even opposition to
regietheater can turn into significant publicity for something you wouldn't
want to promote in any way.

Conlon, a veritable Mr. Opera in Europe, is leaving as the head of the
Cologne Opera after 13 years and serving two more years in Paris, which
Will take him to a record nine years at the helm of one of the world's
most "difficult" houses.

In the middle of significant changes in his career - relief from decades of
administrative duties and the opportunity to move back to New York with his
family, especially for the sake of his daughters aged 5 and 13 - the one
small point of stability is his job here, as music director of the May
Festival for 23 years.

Among his predecessors in the 128-year-old line of the Western hemisphere's
oldest choral festival: Eugene Isaye, Eugene Goossens, Fritz Busch, Josef
Krips, Max Rudolf, Julius Rudel, Leonard Bernstein and James Levine.

Succeeding Levine had an unexpected drawback for Conlon who was eager
to fill the festival's two weeks with opera, especially Wagner.  He was
greeted in one of the country's most German-influenced cities with a double
plea from festival officials: Please no opera, especially no Wagner.  The
reason? Conlon's predecessors and especially Levine (who dazzled the town
with Scott Joplin rags), marinated the city in Wagner, including Levine's
still-talked-about uncut "Parsifal," which set the record for the longest
concert in festival history.

Conlon gave Cincinnati a short breather, but in 1981, he came up with
a much-acclaimed complete "Simon Boccanegra" (featuring Cornell McNeil
in his last performance of the title role), "Samson et Dalila" (with
James McCracken), the world premiere of Jeffrey Kallberg's restoration
of the original version of "Luisa Miller," and others.  Last year's
offbeat feature was Viktor Ullmann's "The Emperor of Atlantis."

Because of the demands of his permanent positions, Conlon had a
limited number of concert and opera guest-conducting engagements, but
that will change once he becomes "free" - which is how he characterizes
the post-Paris period.  Two productions have been announced already: "A
Florentine Tragedy" at La Scala ("I am a Zemlinsky nut, love `Der Zwerg'
above all") and "Dialogues of the Carmelites" at the Met.  Many more to
follow, but they have not been announced yet. . .  including Wagner,
for sure.

Janos Gereben/SF [In Cincinnati, to 5/21]
www.sfcv.org
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