Music vs. Theater

What Ugly Isn’t

There’s been an uproar in the opera world after London critics delivered a series of very personal insults regarding Tara Erraught’s weight. “Dumpy of stature”, “unappealing”, and “chubby bundle of puppy fat” gives you a sense of it. Most of the critics have since tried to contextualize their comments as specific to the role at hand, one in which Miss Erraught plays a rakish young man. Indeed, it’s somewhat easier to swallow these comments as captions under an image from the production being reviewed than under Miss Erraught’s publicity still. But in a startlingly tone deaf retort, Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail actually doubles down, amazingly hurling a new round of insults towards the singer while defending the critic’s responsibility to speak their truth.

Here’s the thing Quentin, your truth ain’t shit. Your narrow definition of beauty has been polluting our collective brains for too long. If you were really searching for a truth, your criticism would read more like “Miss Erraught, who is more attractive than ninety nine percent of the people I encounter in the real world, and quite a bit more attractive than anyone I have ever shared any sort of intimacy with, doesn’t match the standard of beauty that I have been conditioned to expect when watching television or movies. By choosing to use my reviews to point out this difference in a particularly hateful way, I not only perpetuate these ridiculous, deceitful, and disgusting expectations, but I show that people who don’t conform to these standards shouldn’t be treated with respect or consideration. In short, I am a total asshat.”

Now that’s a truth worth publishing.

We’ve learned a lot about these critics in the past few weeks, enough for me to completely discount their thoughts and opinions regarding just about anything. We’re not censoring your thoughts, Quentin, we’ve just realized that they’re worthless.

I can’t tell if they’re serious. I think they might be. I think they really might believe that the only thing that keeps classical music from overtaking Miley Cyrus in the hearts and minds (and other body parts) of today’s listeners is the twerking. If it works for Miley, surely it can work for Antonín. In their 7 minute documentary about the making of this monstrosity, they actually seem to be trying to turn a three minute excerpt of Dvorak’s New World Symphony into an internet sensation by packaging it along with a video of wiggling butts.

Or maybe this is just a ridiculous publicity stunt to drive attention towards the Belgian B-classic festival.

But either way, I hope this never happens again. Ever.

Warning: Not Safe For Anywhere

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g10DqPbbUuw

Edit: It had 500,000 views yesterday and just doubled that number of views in the past 24 hours. Presented without comment.

Edit2: 2 million and counting. Maybe we should just take some porn and dub some Debussy over the whole thing. Voila. We’ve saved classical music.

Jeffrey Parola sounds kinda bummed in his latest blog post. He outlines the all too familiar plight of the contemporary concert music composer (no appreciation, money, and little hope of either). He then earnestly asks: Why do we bother?

In my mind the answer is simple. Creation of music that didn’t exist before HAS to be its own reward, devoid of compensation, recognition, or praise. If that drive for creation for its own sake doesn’t exist, I might humbly suggest that a composer should just stop.

Praise is nice, and earning a living doing something that you love is great, but just because you love something doesn’t mean you can make a living at it. And just because you wrote something doesn’t mean anyone should care. Money and acknowledgement have to be secondary concerns for a composer.

Of course we should try to capitalize on our work. Self-promote, market, try to get people to listen, care, and support . But that’s not WHY you should write. You write because no one else will create the things that you will create. And ideally you will love what you’ve written so much that promotion will be easy and enthusiasm will be contagious. But even if it’s not, you should like what you’ve created so much that even if no one else seems to care, it was worth the effort.

Perhaps that sounds kinda glib and self evident. But there’s a real nugget in there. A composer should think about the music they love and why they love it. They should think about how they feel when they listen to it. Then they should listen to their own music, and if they don’t feel similarly, maybe they’re doing something wrong. After all, if you don’t love listening to your own work passionately, why should anyone else?

And if you DO love listening to your own work, what else do you really need? Perhaps money and adulation will follow, perhaps it won’t. But you’ve made music that you love and that you love to hear. Strive for those things that we associate with success, but don’t let those goals ever be mistaken for the real reason you write music.

(By the way, you should listen Jeffrey’s work. It’s some really lovely stuff. All of it. And then maybe go write some of your own.)

Today’s blog entry in Deceptive Cadence echos a theme of my Voice Box radio show with Chloe Veltman and the corresponding conversation on Lisa Hirsch’s blog. Specifically, musical taste, both what you love and despise, is often more about self identification, ego, and image than it is about the music at hand. Some of the comments (predictably, this is an NPR blog after all) argue that opera is clearly more worthy since singers dedicate decades of their lives and thousands of dollars to honing their craft. But even that argument buys into it’s own narrative of ‘hard work and dedication’ over the narrative of ‘overcoming a hostile environment through self promotion’ prevalent in rap. (Although I’m veering dangerously close to a cultural relativism war that I’m ill-equipped for.)

I know which I prefer (even though I dislike most opera). But of course I would. And even those who loudly extoll the virtues of both wear their eclecticism on their sleeves. To paraphrase Buckaroo Banzai, No matter what you like, there you are.

Joan Jeanrenaud (Hank Dutt's-eye-view)

Look at that! Original Kronos Quartet cellist (and #Violagate White Knight) Joan Jeanrenaud is performing a concert to benefit my neighborhood library. Specifically, it’s a fundraiser to replace the somewhat dated mural on the library with a more modern piece of wall art. Of course, this being San Francisco, replacing that mural is no simple affair, and local blog, Bernalwood, has a fascinating account of the small neighborhood drama that such an endeavor engenders.

I think I knew that JJ was a fellow Bernal Heights resident, but I don’t think I’ve seen her around much in the neighborhood. Maybe because I spend too much time in the Mission…

After four years of filling the taverns and pubs of NYC with the sounds of Wagner and Verdi, Opera On Tap seems to be opening a San Francisco chapter. An audition has been announced on Facebook (hosted by local soprano/neuroscientist/miracle-debunker Indre Viskontas) and the Opera On Tap website has an as-of-yet unpopulated page for a San Francisco chapter. The invitation claims that the first concert will be August 27th at Cafe Royale.

Opera On Tap’s classical opera in casual settings is exactly the sort of non-traditional presentation that Classical Revolution has been doing with chamber music. There are certainly many fine singers in this town and I’m surprised it’s taken this long for the group to start up something out here. I’ve been to a couple of events in NY (mostly through my friend Natalie Wilson as well as their Opera Grows in Brooklyn co-productions with American Opera Projects) and they will be a welcome addition to the music scene here.

What a fantastic idea this is.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muCPjK4nGY4]

They need to have the input audio be a solo piano piece to see what happens. First some Mozart, then some Debussy. Now THAT would be cool.

I’m curious how much the transformation considers the audio spectrum of the output device. What if this was instead driving a sampler? You’d expect a different midi result depending on the samples chosen.

Generating the audio acoustically is a big part of the neat factor though. It reminds me of the coolest thing I ever saw a SIGGRAPH, the Wooden Mirror. It’s literally a low resolution monochromatic display device of wooden pixels. Each square pixel has a servo attached and it would tilt up or down to reflect the right about of light.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZysu9QcceM

Pretty cool stuff.

What IS happening with Hilary and Nick?

Felicia Day just posted this amazingly egregious bit of product placement, which, apparently, is pretty commonplace these days.

This could easily be applied to classical music with just a bit of media synergy. Imagine a couple finishing a candle lit dinner, staring into each other’s eyes:

“Thanks for the dinner. The chicken was delicious.”

“It’s the least I could do after you saved my family’s fortune. You’ve become so much more to me than just another corporate lawyer.”

“Well. It’s all I can do. I didn’t want to see another mom and pop surgery facility put out of business by the big medical corporations. And you’re much more to me than just another beautiful brain surgeon. Say… what’s this music playing?”

“It’s Hilary Hahn’s new recording of the Higdon and Tchaikovsky concertos with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Jennifer Higdon won the Pulitzer Prize for this piece. It’s available on iTunes and Amazon.”

“It’s so… intense.  Passionate. I didn’t think classical music could make me feel like this.”

“The San Francisco Chronicle called the concerto a knockout.”

“That makes two knockouts in the room…”

Music swells. Close up on suggestive looks. Fade to black…

Hmm. This could work. I’ll just contact my local TV soap and see if they can work in some plot point where two young lovers decide to go to a concert of Brian M Rosen’s new music for their first date on the premise that they’re both studying Emily Dickenson in their literature class. I’m sure I’d see a huge spike in women over the age of 50 with less than a high school education interested in my music. And I am a little weak in that demographic.

My fellow singing waiter Mark Hernandez notified me (and all his other Facebook friends) of this cutting “dark bio” from regional opera performer Robert Orth:

Robert Orth’s “Dark Biograpy”

While it’s tongue in cheek (and damn funny) it offers an honest glance into the not-so-glamorous life of most working musicians that’s much more common than the still-not-as-glamorous-as-you-might-think lives of the brand name soloists in the classical music world. Consider the countless hours of practice and numbers of auditions Mr Orth had to endure to get to even this level, then realize how many fail to even get this far, and you can see why any father worth his salt would encourage alternative means of getting by.

But we do it anyway. Because, for the most part, it’s a lot of fun. And if we’re really lucky we get to participate in something amazing, perhaps even enduring. And sometimes, even if it’s neither amazing nor enduring, even if it’s getting paid to sing the same Puccini aria you’ve sung dozens of times before, while wearing a name tag and polyester apron and pretending to be a waiter at an annual reward dinner for the regional association of  morticians, the enthusiastic cheers of the crowd, genuinely appreciative of  the talents and skills you’re sharing, will make it all worthwhile.

Although this will certainly perpetuate the myth that I am obsessed with Hilary Hahn (not an ounce of truth to it), this is just too funny not to post.

It was discovered by Hilary’s own publicist who wrote all about it in her Life’s a Pitch blog.

Now, if I were Hilary’s publicist, I’d definitely want them to do something about the little blurb on the right hand margin of the page…

Hmmm…