A new set of recordings of opera singer Olive Middleton have just become available. Who’s that, you say? Some great legend of the stage of whom I was previously unaware? Well, not exactly: “Middleton’s singing goes beyond parody. And it goes well beyond good singing. It’s just plain awful.” But her celebrity during her heyday in Britain was such that no one seemed to mind that her voice deteriorated so early in her long career. And besides, “all opera hovers on the border of parody. No other performing art — except possibly dance — so exposes its practitioners to ridicule. Part of the thrill of opera is pitting sheer volume against human limitations, the constant awareness of the possibility of failure.”
Tag: 04.09.06
Politicians Have Such Lousy Timing
When Tom “The Hammer” DeLay announced last week that he would resign from Congress in the wake of multiple scandals (and a few indictments), liberals across the country rejoiced. But for one leftist filmmaker putting the finishing touches on a new documentary slamming DeLay, the timing couldn’t have been worse.
The New Sitcom Prototype?
If ever there was an argument for just leaving creative people alone and letting them work on their own terms, NBC’s critically acclaimed but frequently ratings-challenged sitcom, Scrubs may be it. Now in its fifth season, the show’s creators have always faced tremendous network pressure to add a laugh track, give up the single-camera technique, and just generally make a sitcom more like every other sitcom on every other American network. It may be formulaic, say the network brass, but viewers like it, and the numbers prove it. But Scrubs has hung on to become quite popular, and even as they defy TV conventions, its creators are also embracing every new technology they can get their hands on in an effort to connect with viewers.
The World’s Funniest Archive (They Hope)
Humor is universal, so they say, but quantifying it can be awfully difficult. For anyone to attempt to archive the history of American comedy, for instance, might seem like the ultimate quixotic mission. But Boston’s Emerson College is attempting exactly that: “The archive’s centerpiece is an oral history collection, which so far consists of videotaped interviews with 51 comedy professionals… Whatever their value to scholars, the interviews have a lot to offer anyone thinking about pursuing a career in comedy.”
The Stones In China
The Rolling Stones finally make it to China, but play to an audience of only 8000. “The gig has been a long time coming and the fact that it is now possible reflects how the cultural and economic gap has closed between China and the West. When the band started in 1962, millions of Chinese were dying in the famines that followed the Great Leap Forward. In the decade that followed the only pop icon allowed to be worshipped was Mao Zedong. Even at the end of the Cultural Revolution, several attempts to arrange a Chinese concert were thwarted by financial concerns, political worries and, most recently, the outbreak of Sars.”
Too Far, Too Much Work, And They’re Playing That Again?
Why are classical concert audiences eroding? Composer Libby Larsen has been studying the problem, and has some ideas. For one thing, suburbanites (and a majority of the population in most metro areas lives in the suburbs) already make an average of 13 car trips a day, and aren’t terribly keen on battling traffic into the urban core for a concert. For another, technology and its constant advance means that even hardcore music-lovers don’t actually need the concert hall to get their fix. And then, of course, there’s the repertoire problem…
No Classical Left To Cross Over From
“Classical crossover isn’t a new category, but it’s one that morphs more ceaselessly than any other, and appears to be going further afield from core classical than ever. Originally, the crossover chart was created for artists who fell through the cracks, like harpist-composer Andreas Vollenweider. Now, any disc is fair game if issued on a classical label, if featuring a classical artist (even in nonclassical repertoire), or if featuring a nonclassical artist taking a crack at the classics.”
Are Music Schools Selling A Fantasy?
Occasional pronouncements of doom from the press aside, young musicians appear to be more enthusiastic than ever about pursuing a career in classical music. “An estimated 2,700 music performance majors graduate from American centers of higher learning every year. The usual number of jobs available: 160 or fewer.” That’s great news for the top U.S. orchestras, of course, which are more or less guaranteed a steady flow of high-quality applicants. But with so few jobs available, should music schools be more up front with their students about the odds against them?