Tag: 11.22.03

The cello is showing up a lot more in popular music. “Unlike guitar or drums, the cello in popular music is definitely a visitor from another place, and comes wrapped in a cloak of romance and serious purpose.”

So promoter Raymond Gubbay is going to present opera in London’s West End, and many are skeptical. But Gubbay has a formula, and the formula is a winner. “Hire a prestigious hall, get together a band of highly experienced musicians, give them music to play that they and the rest of the civilised world all know backwards, allot on that basis minimal rehearsal time, engage young, inexpensive soloists eager for the experience or desperate for the work, ditto conductor, dress the whole thing up with a fancy title (preferably printed in rampant italics to give it that classy look), and sit back and wait for Mr and Mrs Average from the Home Counties or suburban Averageville to buy their tickets in their droves. One can easily sneer at all of this, of course, but it works as far as the balance-sheet is concerned. Gubbay will not promote anything if he risks losing so much as a shirt-button. He’s a businessman, not an altruist.”