Tag: 03.13.05

Crafting A Unique Career

Robert Craft has never been music director of an orchestra, and has always taken great pride in causing discomfort to the more staid and traditional corners of the classical music world. Still, Craft’s influence over the direction of 20th-century music was profound, and a slew of reissued CDs on the budget Naxos label are reasserting his position as one of the primary trendsetters and culture shapers of his era.

The Catch-22 Of First Time Fiction

“Literary first novels are almost impossible to introduce into the marketplace. Bookstores will only order them in small quantities, if at all, and it is difficult to get reviews, especially in places that really matter. Additionally, getting a bookstore reading for a first fiction author is an effort that would make Sisyphus proud. A well–established independent bookseller once told me flat out that he would never book a first fiction author into his store. Furthermore, to even have a chance of selling, a first novel has to classifiable, meaning it has to fit neatly into a genre or niche—mystery, thriller, crime, etc. A one sentence selling line also helps. However, literary fiction often cannot be easily classified or described.”

Into Every Painter Of Light A Little Rain Must Fall

Thomas Kinkade is making a crusade out of his career. “The 47-year-old painter sees himself as a fine-art rebel at war with elitism. He makes it sound downright radical to be the leading creator of easy-access art in the traditions of Walt Disney, Norman Rockwell and, believe it or not, Andy Warhol. ‘My art is a populist form of art. The official art of our day – the art that our tax dollars pay for – is an art of darkness, it is an art of alienation from the public. … What I create is very much a reaction to that system.”

Did Toscanini Kill Classical Music In America?

When did classical music fall off the American cultural radar? Moreover, how did it get on the radar in the first place? Joseph Horowitz’s newest tome tackles the full scope and history of classical music in the U.S., and comes to some fairly dark conclusions. “Horowitz partly blames the early 20th century ‘Toscanini Cult,’ devout worshipers of an imported Italian conductor, as one of the main catalysts for the demise. This was the Waterloo, the point at which, in the eyes of Americans, classical music went strictly European… It was also the point at which we became overzealously fascinated not with the music being played, but with the performers who played it, a shift the author views as an unhealthy offshoot of a market-driven culture.”

Nothing Much Going Right In Salt Lake

In the two years since the Utah Symphony & Opera merged to become one organization, ticket sales have declined and the ensemble has become alarmingly reliant on special contributions to stay afloat financially. The merger was supposed to cut overhead costs, but spending has actually increased instead, leading to accusations of mismanagement from the US&O’s musicians. Lots of U.S. orchestras are struggling, of course, but the US&O’s 2002-03 operating deficit was fully 10% of its total budget, an alarming figure that is causing some observers to question whether the merged organization can survive.

The Music’s Not The Problem

The Utah Symphony & Opera’s financial problems stem in part from a busted marketing apparatus, according to concertgoers in Salt Lake City. Many in town still voice strong support for the quality of US&O performances, but have been put off by flippant marketing campaigns, nonsensical schedule changes, and other rankling inconveniences.

The 22-Year-Old Ambassador

Whatever you may think of his slightly offbeat style or flamboyant stage manner, there can be no denying that pianist Lang Lang is bringing people back to classical music in droves with a devastating combination of “charm, charisma, stamina and an almost evangelical sense of mission… As far as Lang Lang is concerned, changing the world means you don’t just play concerts, you also appear on The Tonight Show and Sesame Street.” His open embrace of all the publicity that has come his way in recent years has led to an unusually bitter critical backlash, but none of the sniping seems to have dimished the pianist’s confidence or ability in the slightest.

So You Wanna Be An Opera Singer…

What does it take to become a player in the hypercompetitive world of opera? “Even a stellar voice is no guarantee of success. It helps, but so do looks and luck and that intangible, uniquely human quality called charisma. A knack for strategic schmoozing can’t hurt either. And great hair. Very important, that.” Sherrill Milnes, who knows a thing or two about all of those qualities, may be the best thing ever to happen to young singers hoping to become the next big operatic thing. From his perch at Northwestern University, Milnes has earned a reputation as not only one of America’s great vocal teachers, but as a man who can prepare students for what they will face in the professional opera world.

Paglia: Poetry’s Sorry State

Camille Paglia remembers the 1960s, when poetry mattered. “But over the following decades, poetry and poetry study were steadily marginalised by pretentious “theory” – which claims to analyse language but atrociously abuses it. Poststructuralism and crusading identity politics led to the gradual sinking in reputation of the premiere literature departments, so that by the turn of the millennium they were no longer seen, even by the undergraduates themselves, to be where the excitement was on campus. One result of this triumph of ideology over art is that, on the basis of their publications, few literature professors know how to “read” any more – and thus can scarcely be trusted to teach that skill to their students.”