"In 27 Pieces" stemmed from a desire to update the repertory of well-masticated encore chestnuts.
As director, he wanted to update the repertory but also restore some of the qualities for which Paris has traditionally been famous: the distinctive musicality of its dancing, and the virtuosity of its pointe work.
Additionally, sometimes controversially, Mr. Gelb has sought to dust off the opera's crusty image by updating the repertory and signing new stars.
Still, the Salzburg group is updating its repertory: in one series this season it is focusing on the music of John Adams and Luciano Berio, as well as on Schubert and Schumann.
She still can and does -- that little voice remains somehow central to her -- but on "Careless Love," her recent album and her first in eight years, she enlarges and updates the repertory, wading into the Elliott Smith and Jesse Harris catalogs.
(Mr. Schwartz's "Pippen" is also getting an update, at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., starting Dec. 5).
However much credit Alan Gilbert may deserve for beginning to update the New York Philharmonic's repertory, the slowness with which it has come to the music of Philip Glass says a lot about its distance from today's repertory.
One of the first examples came in 2004, after the renowned Hungarian winemaker Jozsef Bock joined forces with a local chef, Lajos Biro, to open Bock Bisztro, a clubby wine bar with an ambitious menu that mixed updated favorites from the Hungarian repertory with imported flavors (wasabi) and ingredients (calamari).
By pushing for up-to-date theatrical values, Mr. Gelb has never suggested that repertory works should routinely be presented with updated concepts.
Mark Lamos's 1998 updating of Puccini's "Tosca," a staple of the New York City Opera repertory since 1998, returned to the New York State Theater on Saturday evening.
