“The operatic potential of The Jerry Springer Show seems blindingly obvious, at least in hindsight. Like characters in an opera, Springer’s guests come on stage and immediately reveal their innermost secrets, then pitch into emotional exchanges with their wives, boyfriends or boyfriends’ girlfriends. Love, hate, sex, power: All the big operatic themes are there, minus the singing. There’s even a built-in chorus: the studio audience, with its volatile sympathies and free-floating hostility.”
Tag: 12.11.05
Ratings Drop After DC Station Drops Classical Music For Public Radio News
Last February, Washington DC public radio station WETA ditched its classical music format and went news. Did the switch backfire? “After two ratings books, two fund drives and nine months of the new programming — a mix of news and talk shows from National Public Radio, the BBC and other outside sources, much of it oriented to foreign affairs — WETA’s audience is smaller, no more generous than the classical audience was, and no more reflective of the demographics of the Washington area.”
The Anti Anti-Piracy Backlash
A backlash is developing against recording companies’ anti-piracy measures. “Some at Sony BMG candidly say that copy-protection software, particularly a program which has since been discontinued, but which was embedded in a number of discs, such as the latest Burt Bacharach CD At This Time and Ray Charles’s Friendship, has been a massive blunder at the worst possible time of year.”
The Sudoku Craze
“Since the arrival, at the very end of 2004, of the number grid game sudoku, Britain – like Israel, France, India and the US – has become a puzzle nation. The statistics are amazing. Sudoku puzzles now feature in most national newspapers, and are moving on to mobile phones and pay-to-play websites. The magazine Puzzler Sudoku was first launched in March with a circulation of just 15,000. It now sells 300,000.”
Cindy Sheehan, Onstage
Nobel-winning playwright Dario Fo has written a play about peace activist Cindy Sheehan. “Peace Mom received its world premiere in London on Saturday night, starring British actress Frances de la Tour, with both Sheehan and Italian dramatist Fo in the audience. The one-woman show is based on extracts from Sheehan’s letters to Bush and other writings.”
Actors Protest Sales Ban On Springer
The British actors union Equity is protesting decisions by two retail chains to stop selling DVDs of “Jerry Springer, The Opera.” “Equity strongly supports artistic freedom and equally strongly opposes censorship in all its forms, however offended any individual may feel themselves to be by a particular piece of dramatic art.”