Re: FINDING GREATNESS IN STRANGE PLACES

Duhhhhhh...................!    WHAT?????

Is it just me?

Jon E. Szostak,Sr.


"David Hurwitz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> --- A Community Educational Outreach Initiative ---
>
> ----------------------------
>
> "In life, democracy.
> In art, aristocracy."
>
> --- Arturo Toscanini
>
> ----------------------------
>
> "¿Cómo se siente? ¿Cómo se siente ver que el horror estalla en tu
> patio y no en el living del vecino? ¿Cómo se siente el miedo
> apretando tu pecho, el pánico que provocan el ruido ensordecedor, las
> llamas sin control, los edificios que se derrumban, ese terrible olor
> que se mete hasta el fondo en los pulmones, los ojos de los inocentes
> que caminan cubiertos de sangre y polvo?
>
> ¿Cómo se vive por un día en tu propia casa la incertidumbre de lo que
> va a pasar? ¿Cómo se sale del estado de shock? En estado de shock
> caminaban el 6 de agosto de 1945 los sobrevivientes de Hiroshima.
> Nada quedaba en pie en la ciudad luego que el artillero
> norteamericano del Enola Gay dejara caer la bomba. En pocos segundos
> habían muerto 80.000 hombres, mujeres y niños. Otros 250.000 morirían
> en los años siguientes a causa de las radiaciones. Pero ésa era una
> guerra lejana y ni siquiera existía la televisión.
>
> ¿Cómo se siente hoy el horror cuando las terribles imágenes de la
> televisión te dicen que lo ocurrido el fatídico 11 de septiembre no
> pasó en una tierra lejana sino en tu propia patria? Otro 11 de
> septiembre, pero de 28 años atrás, había muerto un presidente de
> nombre Salvador Allende resistiendo un golpe de Estado que tus
> gobernantes habían planeado. También fueron tiempos de horror, pero
> eso pasaba muy lejos de tu frontera, en una ignota republiqueta
> sudamericana. Las republiquetas estaban en tu patio trasero y nunca
> te preocupaste mucho cuando tus marines salían a sangre y fuego a
> imponer sus puntos de vista.
>
> ¿Sabías que entre 1824 y 1994 tu país llevó a cabo 73 invasiones a
> países de América Latina? Las víctimas fueron Puerto Rico, México,
> Nicaragua, Panamá, Haití, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, República
> Dominicana, Islas Vírgenes, El Salvador, Guatemala y Granada.
>
> Hace casi un siglo que tus gobernantes están en guerra. Desde el
> comienzo del siglo XX, casi no hubo una guerra en el mundo en que la
> gente de tu Pentágono no hubiera participado. Claro, las bombas
> siempre explotaron fuera de tu territorio, con excepción de Pearl
> Harbor cuando la aviación japonesa bombardeó la Séptima Flota en
> 1941. Pero siempre el horror estuvo lejos.
>
> Cuando las Torres Gemelas se vinieron abajo en medio del polvo,
> cuando viste las imágenes por televisión o escuchaste los gritos
> porque estabas esa mañana en Manhattan, ¿pensaste por un Segundo en
> lo que sintieron los campesinos de Vietnam durante muchos años? En
> Manhattan, la gente caía desde las alturas de los rascacielos como
> trágicas marionetas. En Vietnam, la gente daba alaridos porque el
> napalm seguía quemando la carne por mucho tiempo y la muerte era
> espantosa, tanto como las de quienes caían en un salto desesperado al
> vacío. Tu aviación no dejó una fábrica en pie ni un puente sin
> destruir en Yugoslavia. En Irak fueron 500.000 los muertos. Medio
> millón de almas se llevó la Operación Tormenta del Desierto...¿Cuánta
> gente desangrada en lugares tan exóticos y lejanos como Vietnam,
> Irak, Irán, Afganistán, Libia, Angola, Somalia, Congo, Nicaragua,
> Dominicana, Camboya, Yugoslavia, Sudán, y una lista interminable? En
> todos esos lugares los proyectiles habían sido fabricados en
> factorías de tu país, y eran apuntados por tus muchachos, por gente
> pagada por tu Departamento de Estado, y sólo para que tu pudieras
> seguir gozando de la forma de vida americana.
>
> Hace casi un siglo que tu país está en guerra con todo el mundo.
> Curiosamente, tus gobernantes lanzan los jinetes del Apocalipsis en
> nombre de la libertad y de la democracia. Pero debes saber que para
> muchos pueblos del mundo (en este planeta donde cada día mueren
> 24.000 pobladores por hambre o enfermedades curables), Estados Unidos
> no representa la libertad, sino un enemigo lejano y Terrible que sólo
> siembra guerra, hambre, miedo y destrucción. Siempre han sido
> conflictos bélicos lejanos para ti, pero para quienes viven allá es
> una dolorosa realidad cercana, una guerra donde los edificios se
> desploman bajo las bombas y donde esa gente encuentra una muerte
> horrible. Y las víctimas han sido, en el 90 por ciento, civiles,
> mujeres, ancianos, niños efectos colaterales.
>
> ¿Qué se siente cuando el horror golpea a tu puerta aunque sea por un
> sólo día? ¿Qué se piensa cuando las víctimas en Nueva York son
> secretarias, operadores de bolsa o empleados de limpieza que pagaban
> puntualmente sus impuestos y nunca mataron una mosca?
>
> ¿Cómo se siente el miedo? ¿Cómo se siente, yanqui, saber que la larga
> guerra finalmente el 11 de septiembre llegó a tu casa?"
>
> --- Gabriel García Márquez to Puppet Bush, Jr.
>
> ----------------------------
>
> On 26 September 2000, the so-called great Mickey (Mouse) "I-have-not-
> attended-a-performance-in-fifteen-years" (
>
http://listserv.cuny.edu/Scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0309B&L=opera-l&P=R13279&D=0&H=0&I=-3&O=T&T=1)
> Richter performed a 'plug in', heroically and by proxy, on behalf of
> Klaus Heymann, the so-called authority behind ---naXos---:
>
> {{ Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 21:40:41 -0700
> Reply-To: Mike Richter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sender: Discussion of opera and related issues <OPERA-
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> From: Mike Richter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Authoritative word on Naxos' methods
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
> The following comments are from Klaus Heymann, the force behind Naxos
> and other labels, to our posts on their approach to recording opera.
>
> > Mike Richter wrote in response to Bob Kosovsky's post
>
> [Bob Kosovsky of CUNY's Opera-L: Homosexual, Jew, Liberal,
> Librarian, and - would you believe it? - Censor]
>
> >>Since the Naxos label is being lauded by some as forecasting a
> future path of opera, I have a question. I know several people who
> have participated in Naxos recordings of chamber music. All of them
> have been paid a one-time-only fee, and have ceded the right to
> royalties. Does this kind of contract also apply to Naxos's
> recordings of vocalists in operas or recitals? (I hate to think that
> Ewa Podles doesn't get anything more than her initial fee for that
> Rossini recital of hers, Naxos 8.553543.)
>
> ### Yes, singers are also paid a flat fee. Ewa Podles is very happy
> with her Rossini ... she would like to do more recitals but the cost
> of recording her with orchestra and chorus is prohibitive ... we
> still haven't recouped our investment in this recording. ###
>
> >>It sounds a bit exploitative to me, IMO. On the other hand, my not-
> yet-famous acquaintances jump at the chance to record for them. (They
> are allowed only two or three takes, with no chance of fancy editing
> to correct mistakes.)
>
> ### Most singers understand that recording opera is extremely
> expensive, especially under our perfect studio (not live) conditions
> and are happy with our modest flat fees. Look at our Fidelio cast!
> The bit about being allowed only two or three takes and no chance of
> fancy editing is nonsense ... artists are allow as many takes as
> necessary to get the music right. However, having said that, we
> expect our artists to be well prepared unlike many big-name artists
> who rely on the producer and editor to produce a good performance. ###
>
> >>So I'm curious to hear whether vocalists are also bound to such
> contracts. I believe you have it right. My understanding is that
> Klaus and his people search the globe for artists and groups who
> merit the exposure and are doing (or are able to do) the works he
> wants to include in his catalogue. By providing one-time fees - often
> of critical importance to such artists - and exposure, Naxos both
> benefits the artists and produces high-quality, inexpensive
> programming. There may be exceptions in which royalties are offered,
> but that does not appear to be the rule. Of course, limiting studio
> time also contains costs.
>
> ### We do not limit studio costs but our producer have the authority
> to send poorly prepared artists home. ###
>
> >>The other major factor in Naxos and its related labels keeping
> prices down is that they give up much of the promotion the more
> famous marks employ. Since the recordings are focussed on the music
> and there are seldom acknowledged "stars", stellar advertising and
> displays are unnecessary. It is a different approach to marketing and
> seems so far to have been a most successful one.
>
> Mike
>
> Best regards,
>
> Klaus
>
> *********************
> (My apologies for the confusion in indenting of Bob's original post,
> my reply and Klaus's.)
>
> Mike
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Opera: http://mrichter.simplenet.com/
> CD-R: http://resource.simplenet.com/ }}
>
>
> End of quote
>
> ----------------------------
>
> Thus spoke the authority. We re-quote:
>
> "Most singers understand that recording opera is extremely expensive,
> especially under our perfect studio (not live) conditions and are
> happy with our modest flat fees. Look at our Fidelio cast! The bit
> about being allowed only two or three takes and no chance of fancy
> editing is nonsense ... artists are allowed as many takes as
> necessary to get the music right. However, having said that, we
> expect our artists to be well prepared unlike many big-name artists
> who rely on the producer and editor to produce a good performance."
>
> We ask:
>
> 1. Mr. Heymann seems to have contradicted himself by simultaneously
> affirming that his artists are indeed allowed "fancy editing...to get
> the music right" while ranting against the "many big-name artists who
> rely on the producer and editor to produce a good performance." What
> exactly is the difference? Isn't fancy editing what earns producers
> and editors their bacon, be it at naXos or Lucifer Classics? Or is
> Mr. Heymann whining and bickering because Lucifer's console is (or
> rather, was) bigger than his?
>
> 2. Mr. Heymann seems to have fallen prey to the epidemic virus of
> unfounded critical prejudice and the politics of defamation and
> character-assassination (the rate of infection appears to be
> abnormally high within the familial fraternity of
> American/Anglosaxon/Anglophile critical bedfellows). His words can be
> easily formulized: "Big Name + Big Label = Little Music (or
> Falsity)". No need to state the converse but we'll do it
> anyway: "Little/No Name + Little Label = Big Music (or Truth)". Who
> exactly are these many unprepared big names? And how, where, and when?
>
> 3. A few years back, the authority was also quoted in "The Boston
> Globe" - this other 'plug in' courtesy of CareerHomo-turned-critic-
> turned-promoter Richard "local church mice are world-class people
> too" Dyer. Lately, Dyer has been heard advocating for the equal part
> Charity/Chimpanzee Acts that are The Three Mo' Tenors, Andrea
> Bocelli, Charlotte Church, and Josh "popera boy" Groban.
>
> [What is going on?]
>
> ["Maestros of the Pen: A History of Classical Music Criticism in
> America", by Mark N. Grant, Northeastern University Press, 1998, ISBN
> 1-55553-363-9: n-o-t o-n-e f-o-o-t-n-o-t-e *not one* on Dyer ---
> and this after a 25+year career behind him dedicated to latter-day
> Anglo+Judeo+Homo-centric bitchery, dishonesty, and hypocrisy. And
> just as long dedicated to sobbing after the footnote (but no
> reference), indeed, that was one Lucine Amara.]
>
> But back to the authority:
>
> "The market is shifting away from name artists, and the average music
> lover is confused by bins crowded by recordings. What is the
> difference between Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado and Riccardo Chailly
> in a given piece? Whatever the difference is, it doesn't mean
> anything to the average music lover who gives up and chooses our
> recording because it is more reasonably priced, and the performance
> is just as good. It is an absurdity for Plácido Domingo to sing 'The
> Barber of Seville'; our recording is a better performance of the
> opera. If Cheryl Studer were to come to me and ask to sing some of
> the operas she has recorded, I wouldn't let her." {Author: Richard
> Dyer / Date: 19.01.1994 / Page: 61 / Section: Living Arts}
>
> We comment and ask:
>
> 3A. Funny but we bet that the suits at Lucifer Classics swear t-h-e-
> i-r barber gives a better haircut. Not that some of us (not nearly
> enough) give a one-night-stand about Sir Domingo, at least not since
> his early 90s (and thereafter) publicity and musical circus
> prostitutions - this case of gonorrhea is treatable no longer.
>
> 3B. Let us cut to the chase: we propose that one encompassing reason
> for the present-day crisis in this junkyard is that the ever-so-
> important anecdotal and testimonial lore and the ensuing
> language/narrative about the live stage experiences a-n-d about the
> documented legacies of certain important big-names (those immediately
> preceding the generation of today's Ass-ociated Press "A List")
> literally fell through a g-e-n-e-r-a-t-i-o-n-a-l and c-u-l-t-u-r-a-l
> c-r-a-c-k - an abyss, really. Little or nothing was said. In
> retrospect, a lot of people in this abortion-gone-bad of a business
> (a system that, with escalating aggression, knows the price of
> everything and the value of nothing --- a business
> that throws the baby, the bathwater, and the mother) have a lot of
> answering to do. Observe in comparison, if you will, how today's
> desperate and thus general(ised) press a-n-d the chintzy, natty
> queens (old and new, male and female) write about an integer to the
> far left of zero (if that) such as one Ruth Ann Swenson or, for
> example, Tibor Rudas' Third(rate, if that) Soprano and division by
> zero (if that), one other Kallen Esperian. Simply impossible to
> believe... but sadly true. And this is the flip side of the same coin
> -
> -- and a penny it is --- that places the 70+-year-old-Renata-Scotto-
> who-made-her-debut-in-1952-or-three-years-before-Cheryl-was-conceived-
> and-who-is-still-in-her-prime-and-getting-better-and-who-should-have-
> many-of-us-wondering-what-has-she-done-in-20-years on the cover
> of "Opernglas," March 2003. Or the other septuagenarian Montserrat
> Caballé, a has-been-but-getting-better-and-still-interesting-yes?, on
> the cover of "Opernwelt," April 2003. Or the penny that pays for
> space about Leontyne Price's enormously important, yes?, Meisterclass
> in "The Financial Times" (albeit bankrupt and then some)
> (see "Bernheimer, Martin"). Or the outrageously dumbo piece in "Opera
> News" (keeping up with their recent tradition) on the significant-
> other of soupy-pop-ballads-Duetto infamy, blue-collar teddy bear
> Salvatore Licitra - why yes, the twofer even made it to the cover
> of "Opernglas," October 2003. And a penny it is. And a penny it will
> be.
>
> In the realm of opera, this previous generation came "too soon" after
> the Marias and the Renatas and the Joans and the Montserrats and the
> Vickys and the Mirellas and the Regines and the whoevers....and "too
> late" for today's democratic free-für-Alles (think of the
> deregulation of the airline industry in the U.S.A. - surely it is
> cheaper to fly and with more options but the experience is ghastly -
> and look now, they is droppin' like flies) in deadly mix with the
> quick fixes and seductions of HyperPublicRelations and HyperText. Few
> artists can survive without some form or other of critical and
> popular encouragement. It became fashionable sport (nah, Mob Rule -
> nah, Olympics --- but becuz this singular marathon has and is being
> run by throngs-oh-so-bright, we have to coin it The Special Olympics)
> for too influential but equally ignorant, tin-eared and incredibly,
> corrosively partial critics (and their bedroom partners) to dismiss
> these artists' work faster than they could say Compact Disc (and
> worse: to fully ignore too - consider the phenomenon that is the
> Remarkable Eclipsing and Banishment by the press (we know of no
> greater form of disrespect) of a certain v-e-t-e-r-a-n and c-o-n-t-
> e-m-p-o-r-a-n-e-o-u-s soprano whose stage appearances are pre-judged
> to be just that: Appearances: Phantom Ships In The Night, when
> noticed ---- or to fully d-e-n-y the usual "critical anal(ysis)" -
> is that what it is? - accorded dimmer lights ("Monsieur Giordani
> could not sustain pitch b-u-t the Sicilian understanding" [by
> coincidence, the same understanding which, according to the experts,
> eludes fellow Southerner Riccardo Muti] - "Madame Phlegming [no other
> soprano before or during Renée is known to have "taken chances"]
> shrieked unnaturally, gurgling and flatting two high A naturals and
> her overall intonation was insecure too b-u-t all that (jazzy)
> rhythmic integrity!" (see "Tommasini, Anthony" --- and yet, you will
> look in vain for his promotional write-up on that Verdi "Blanche
> Dubois" from Houston - *after* the event, that is) - "Hausfrau Void
> was in customary shrill and squally voice again last night and her
> top sounded tired, though no fault of her own, b-u-t her sofa scene
> was comfortably moving --- that Svelte Lil' Debbie didn't make that
> final F-sharp is none of your business." - "Irish-American AFL-CIO
> Heroine Flanigan [who, by the by, tries (and is carded) to "sing
> everything"] [no other soprano before or during Lauren is known to
> have "taken chances"] could not sing Reiza's music [she replaced
> DeVoid, who had also cancelled all engagements in Vienna, and for the
> 2nd season in a row - not a bad thing when you try to remember - and
> try you must - those Scheiße AIDAs at the MET where Crayola connected
> them dots and none of the music - not to mention the brutal stupor
> that were Luciano "snotty handkerchief" Pavarotti and the ever-
> accomodating, yes? James "sweaty towel" Levine] b-u-t the visceral
> ennui of it all") - "Madame Shout squalled an Elektra consistently
> below pitch (that's about 75% of your evening) b-u-t it seems that
> the excitement of some level or other of on-pitch faithfulness to and
> by die Juden and a few silent-movie camp gestures secured her an
> unqualified triumph...and an onstage kiss too from Jimmy Boy (or
> rather, Jimmy the boy-paedophile - ladies and gentlemen, you too can
> have it all: from orchestras in Munich, Boston, and naturally New
> York to standing Os to gushing press coverage to paid Christian
> holidays to state-sanctioned murder to state-sanctioned looting to
> Presidential Pardons (see "Rich, Jonathan" - see "The Hassidic4
> [that's right, not one not two not three]" - see "Hillary 'some of my
> relatives are Jews' Clinton" and the race for the NY State
> Senate....provided you are "one of us" or "with us") --- but for how
> much longer? ....well, all that plus Gaby is getting better and
> better and better, yes?" - "Madame Attila spreads her top like butter
> on warm bread b-u-t her cool, Nordic, blonde looks carried the
> night [our bladders burst open when trying to reconcile the paradox
> that is the pre(and post)occupation with Aryan archetypes by these
> duplicitous pseudo-minorities in the industry (you know who and what
> you are), habitually the first to cry wolf at the whiff of perceived
> or real prejudice] --- and more importantly, she took off her shoes!
> (but what we'd really like to know is: what language was *that*,
> Querida?)" - "Debbie 'Crayola Opera Program' Void's French (not
> unlike the strangely clapped Yawn Upshaw's) and any language other
> than the Dixie Chicks is for and about pigeons --- merde ---
> [Crayola's sour and rusty tonal quality, let alone her musical
> probity, are more reminiscent of the gold you see in soiled underwear
> than of the Golden Age, by far...and worse: as stupid as the laundry
> water you soak and scrub it in] b-u-t her 'major' contributions to
> Culture are 'consistent.' --- or is it the other way 'round? --- B-u-
> t why give a hoot about such things, what with all that `Juno-
> esque rhythmic integrity'! (see "Tommasini, Anthony" - yes, the
> promoter used that again [as in Renée Fleming] to sell his Debbie)" -
> "The consensus that Madame Shorties could not really sing Konstanze
> is questionable and, in the end, unfair for she is a gifted, six-foot
> taller......b-u-t more importantly, her name is not Cheryl Studer." -
> "Monsieur Hiccup proved once more that you can crack loud and wide
> before a Manhattan audience of tourists as long as your name is not
> Cheryl Studer; b-u-t even better than that, the loss of 95-plus
> pounds, in cocktail with a widely broadcast Sob Story, are sufficient
> to satisfy the most discriminating thirst of the-below-IQ-of-47.5
> (that's-50%-of-something-or-other-to-you)-and-minus-set and anyday's
> coverage of the Arts in "The New York Times"" - "Maestrisssssimo of
> Legend, Gilbert "Lego Blocks" Kaplan, swears he can conduct but one
> piece of music and one piece of music alone b-u-t, as one of "our
> chauvinistic own", full coverage by "The New York Times" is fully
> warranted - all that plus a recording medal from the syphilitic
> Deutsche Grammophon" - "The authentically FRENCH LetItRain sounded
> anonymous and great b-u-t I blame the amplification for some
> harshness up top" --- "Suzie B. Anthony's soft-grained portrayals are
> just that, soft. B-u-t her problematic top notes, at this early stage
> in her career already, should be of no concern to a superb evening." -
> "Young Sondra mimed, for she couldn't sing, while (the) Old Nelly
> sang, for she couldn't act - this one constituted a triple triumph -
> two for the price of one Cheryl Studer - you do the math." - "Also in
> Paris, cover-girl Marisol's voice took a toll and she found herself
> voiceless b-u-t she mimed -with feral abandon and athletic grace!-
> while Lulu, positioned at the stage's edge in a black pantsuit and the
> use of a chair and walker!, sang - this too became a triumph, you
> see?" -"Schäfer is certainly no one's idea of coloratura
> b-u-t her hip-hop Violetta in Berlin, under the
> tolerant/multidimensional/psychodepth baton of Barenboim, must be
> remembered as an important achievement -don't ask but do tell." ---
> "Make no mistake, Christine is no one's idea of coloratura. B-u-t
> her gang-rape Gilda in London (conducted by Sir
> Edward Downes of 1994 fame) caused Mickey (Mouse) Richter to
> significantly wet his panties in print."
>
> Why yes, ladies and gents, even these public acts of levitation are
> denied Midland, Michigan's Prodigal Daughter --- But then, taking
> into account the desperate [in vain] efforts toward reconstruction
> and regeneration, toward opening new markets (undue over-exposure in
> Arts Journalism and in Arts Ad(as in advertising)ministration - over
> who counts - over what counts - and when and where --- and why and
> how and how much --- and for how long --- all this being the final
> vestige of their former Imperial selves), what is the increasingly
> brilliant, independent-minded, informed, impartial, cultured, mature,
> eloquent, and sympathetic Anglo/Judeo/Homo-centric Promotional
> Universe to do with a creature refusing easy categorization? - of
> what value or use is the lady? - of what value or use is the artist? -
> who is neither aesthetic suppository (credit where credit is due to
> Mr. James Jorden of Parterre Box Productions, certainly Ltd.) nor
> psychobabble nor English (nor pretender) n-o-r r-e-s-i-d-e-n-t n-o-r
> c-i-t-i-z-e-n n-o-r D-a-m-e nor Faerie Queene nor Greek (nor
> pretender) nor black-and-blue (nor pretender) nor Slav (how could she
> pretend?) nor German (nor pretender) nor Austrian (nor pretender) nor
> squally Kammersängerin nor French (nor pretender) nor Cinema Paradiso
> Italian (nor pretender) nor Eastern European (nor pretender) nor
> Spaniard/Latin American bombshell (they are the flavor of the moment
> and how could she pretend?) nor Brasilian bossanova nor Argentinian
> tango nor Appalachian spring nor Yiddishbbuk nor Anonymous4 (that's
> right, not one not two not three) nor Asian (how could she pretend?)
> nor Aussie nor Canadian --- nor deemed sufficiently A-m-e-r-i-c-a-n --
> - n-o-r r-e-s-i-d-e-n-t nor MET-centric nor Manhattan/Queens/Brooklyn-
> ette nor Broadway belcher nor Saint Francis-can nor Angelena nor
> Chicagoan nor Texan nor New Mexican nor Washingtonian nor Saint Louis
> Gal nor panderer nor tall nor thin nor heroine-overdose chic nor deaf
> nor dumb nor blind nor blonde nor Blonde Ambition nor Barbie Doll nor
> grotesque nor grotesquely zaftig nor power hungry nor agenda driven
> nor faghag nor lesbian nor hairy chested nor cherub nor fashion rag
> nor glamour puss nor arriviste nor aspirant nor aspirate nor
> potential nor promise (what you hear is what you get, sweetheart) nor
> apology nor antiquity nor preserved museum mummy nor soccer mom nor
> sucker nor trend nor hip nor H.I.P. nor hip-hop nor joined at the hip
> nor hippie nor barefoot at Carnegie Hall nor folkie nor cantor nor
> castrata nor contralto nor countertenor nor counterculture nor
> anarchist nor antichrist nor lyric mezzo nor soprano on the verge of
> a mezzo breakdown nor vice versa nor chanteuse nor soubrette nor
> starlet nor coquette nor canary nor woodbird nor nightingale nor
> cuckoo clock nor tic toc tic toc tic toc nor geriatric nor vanity
> record label owner nor downwardtransposer-Hochfinancier-conductor-
> doubleintendant-baritenor-voicecompetitor-crossoverpimp-moviemogul-
> realestatemagnate-restaurateur-sexsymbol-playboy-jetsetter (all in
> one and one for all and all in a night) nor married to one nor lazy
> nor lovely nor beloved nor shrinking violet nor daddy's lil' lass nor
> mystic nor myth nor minimalist nor hyperbole nor Überfeminist nor
> Konzept nor symbolism nor ying nor yang nor Dreams and Fables nor
> metaphysics nor philosopher ("Philosophier' Er nicht, Herr
> Schatz...") nor scholar (nor pretender) nor didact nor pedant nor
> peasant nor lecturer nor soapbox preacher nor symposium nor
> musicologist nor composer (you know, like Callas who wrote all them
> masterpieces now falsely ascribed to one Bellini, one Donizetti, and
> one other Verdi) nor paladin of the glorious avant-garde nor ostinato
> nor experiment nor rarity rat nor rat tat tat nor archaeologist nor
> room temperature nor Sponsored By Talbots nor Anglican Service nor
> Vivaldi postcard nor Handel MBA [opera's answer to the 80s business
> phenomenon --- everyone has one --- but look, ma, they is droppin'
> like flies!] nor Britten Ph.D. nor Janácek Nobel Prize nor stunt nor
> parody nor caricature nor Hallmark Card nor Disney nor Ozzie &
> Harriett nor Will & Grace nor smiley face nor horseface nor humor
> monger (in any event, not the shtick you grew up with) nor camp nor
> marketing-promo tramp nor cliché nor slogan nor acronym nor t®ademark
> nor image-chaser nor sensation-seeker nor Eurogarbage nor ez-
> listenin' nor pleasure ride nor automatic cruise control nor
> sentiment-al nor cripple nor married to one nor victim nor tearjerker
> nor nostalgia trip nor tourist trap nor good-cause nor fund-raiser
> (so to speak) nor social worker nor United Way nor Red Cross nor
> Katie Couric nor Walk For A Cure nor We Are The World nor Sound Of
> Music nor Under the Stars nor Over The Rainbow nor Rainbow Coalition
> nor Summertime nor Supper Time (nice tunes if you can) nor fruit
> salad nor cotton candy nor apple pie nor melba toast nor peaches in
> double cream nor café au lait nor cinnamon roll nor dark chocolate
> nor civil/human rights centerfold nor gulag survivor nor married to
> one nor refugee nor married to one nor UN Ambassador nor married to
> one nor member of any one precious special interest group (you know
> who and what you are) n-o-r m-a-r-r-i-e-d t-o o-n-e n-o-r s-t-r-a-t-e-
> g-i-c-a-l-l-y w-e-d-d-e-d (you know who and what you are) nor
> politician nor
> married to one nor inter-national political crisis parasite nor ad-
> minister of propaganda nor grassroots peace activist (you do know,
> don't you, that them ancient favourite warhorses of yours composed by
> Bach and Beethoven and Brahms and Schubert and Schumann and Wagner
> and Liszt were explicitly AND implicitly inspired by the Israeli-
> Palestinian conflict --- or even better, by the epicentric causes of
> Israel, Zionism, and of Universal Jewry --- everything, and we mean
> everything, seems to revolve around this Axis, no? --- ask Mehta and
> Señor Honorario und Tolerant Barenboim --- by the by, in a recent
> Chicago program of Hugo Wolf's Lieder, the "Great Jewish Musician"
> [and we thought it un-Klezmer to allude to the man's other career] in
> harmony with his German/Christian sub-ordinates - a "physically
> handicapped baritone" and an "underpitch soprano" (see "Kubiak,
> David") (the soprano is one Angela Denoke, whose disastrous Fidelio
> Leonore at the Salzburg Easter Festival of 2003 under Sir Simon will
> surely have to be patched by the studio wizards before the "Please-
> Save-EMI" hype campaign unfolds) - were heard "r-e-c-l-a-i-m-i-n-g
> the true meaning of the 'heilge Deutsches Kunst'" --- again,
> see "Kubiak, David" --- kindly note, please, that no one else
> before `GJM & Co. GmbH' had accomplished nearly as much, and in a
> mere evening --- but we live n' learn --- now we know that Herr Wolf
> wrote his songs inspired by populations everywhere holding hands - to
> promote future handholding. But Wolf was more than that - he was
> gracious and generous, which stands as a synonym for: in addition to
> reaffirming the existence [and illegal expansion] of Israel, he also
> sought to reaffirm the existence of a specific sexual-orientation
> population --- and all this, ladies and gentlemen, for a song) ---
> where were we?, ah yes --- nor married to one nor Adler Fella nor
> Crayola Opera Program alumna nor Karajan-Harnoncourt-Cardiff-
> VeraRosza-Schwarzkopf-Ludwig-Auger-GeorgeLondon-RichieTucker-
> BelleSilverman-Albanese-Horne-Scotto-vonStade-Heggie groupie nor
> traveler along the Anglo Silk Road --- the LandOfOz-
> BerlinStaatsoperUDL-LaMonnaie-ENO-Glyndebourne-NYCO-Glimmerglass-
> StLouis-SantaFe-SanDiego-DallasO-HoustonGO-FloridaGO-WashingtonO-n-
> such workshop ghettoes.
>
>
> [Imagine, if you dare.]
>
>
> E-N-V-Y = D-E-S-T-R-U-C-T-I-O-N
> but
> S-I-L-E-N-C-E = D-E-A-T-H
>
>
> Enter into the equation the contemptibly stupid (discerning,
> discerning) audiences who (wanted to and still do) believe everything
> they read...and voilà, the science gives the (false) i-m-p-r-e-s-s-i-
> o-n of yielding the expected (forced) hubris. Then add the ones who
> stayed away from attending these artists' performances because they
> were simply told to do so (in so many words). Never mind the c-o-w-a-
> r-d-s who n-e-v-e-r attended, self-admittedly, but who later saw
> fit to publish obituaries passing for legitimate eyewitness report
> (again, check out "Maestros of the Pen: A History of Classical Music
> Criticism in America", 1998, by Mark N. Grant, and see if you can
> spot "Dyer, Richard"). Never mind the h-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e-s who, in
> addition to prematurely and irresponsibly issuing death certificates
> (see "Davis, Peter G."), years later were caught with their pants
> down performing auto-erotica to the tune of "Returns Triumphantly!"
> (see "Davis, Peter G."). Little wonder many ceased listening --- and
> begin listening with others' ears and without their own little heads
> and hearts they did. But leave it to the bloodless (and if you don't
> have blood you don't need a heart and if you don't have blood you
> will find yourself thirsty, very thirsty, guaranteed) - it is in fact
> their exclusive province - to accomplish such feats. No, they
> were/are neither Maria nor Renata nor Renata nor Joan nor Leonie nor
> Gwyneth nor Anja --- impeccable vocalists that they were --- and why
> should they be? --- Take the particularly complex case of a
> fascinatingly complex yet elemental yet thoroughly modern, and yet
> not, artist...Cheryl Studer --- was/is the backlash really for l-a-c-
> k o-f q-u-a-l-i-t-y, for l-a-c-k o-f a-r-t-i-s-t-i-c w-o-r-t-h, for l-
> a-c-k o-f t-e-m-p-e-r-a-m-e-n-t, for l-a-c-k o-f p-e-r-s-o-n-a-l-i-t-
> y?
>
> A decade or so later there is a pregnant, pulsating and penetrating
> sense of panic and fatigue among critics, industry folk, and fanatics
> (naughty word but only and only when linked with you-know-who) alike,
> most shockingly noticeable within the gated communities of the old
> and the jaded, who can be heard loudly cheerleading anyone (and we
> mean
> anything)....
>
>
> [....as long as their names are n-o-t Cheryl Studer.]
>
>
> [God Willing.]
>
>
> [And yet more Enchantment/Jubilation courtesy of the
> Panacea/Schadenfreude of Cheryl Studer-Free Zones/Ground Zeroes.]
>
>
> [Sternstunde.]
>
>
> [God Willing.]
>
>
> [Young Ones - Do not be duped by the hollow enthusiasms of the age ---
> ever seen a sad clown playing happy?]
>
>
> [But now, oh today....Music and Art....or rather, what passes for
> it....and every new product or stage appearance tossed our way by the
> Star System we hate to love (certainly a system long preceding but
> fatally ran to the ground by the quasi-empty rhetoric and prissiness
> of political correctness run amok and afoul, and the Gestapo-like
> censorship tactics of the instinct/thought-control police, in concert
> with the 'World Music Congress' - the Rudases, the Breslins, the Sire
> Jonases, the Mehtas, the Holenders (whose nose is long and arrogant
> enough to sniff all the way to the Volksoper and as far as Berlin),
> the Levines, the Maazels, the Heymanns, the Previns, the self-
> professed rap-music fans of the world (see "von Dohnányi, Christoph" -
> -- Uncle must be spinning in his ashes --- ladies and gentlemen, more
> often than we are led to believe, death CAN be in vain), The Due(tto)
> or Three or Four or Five or Six or Seven Whores - we are losing
> count -, Best Friends & Co. Inc. Ltd. S.A. GmbH - the Ozawas and the
> Gergievs too (both would rather accommodate [and have] the Blind n'
> Pop(ular) Lounge Singer than the likes of Gorchakova ---
> yes, to this level we have sunk) are prime shareholders (and puppets)
> in this repugnant jUdErEi - (that's right) - i.e., by the
> Wish-Upon-a-Star System of Bocelli, of course, or Hampson (now pretty
> much an
> undisputed by-the-book Straussian, Wagnerian a-n-d ...hear
> hear...Verdian...of Stature, don't you know) or the Alagnas (f-a-k-e
> recordings of Verdi's -Trovatore- for Sire Tony/EMI and Bizet's -
> Carmen-, also for Sire-to-be Whoever/EMI --- Grecian Approximation
> No. XXVI - we have lost count - has yet to sing Leonora or Carmen
> where it counts) or the other Bocelli and Michael Bolton comrade,
> Fleming....well, all of it h-a-s sudden Meaning and Necessity, so the
> public relationists tell us....the Magic courtesy, n-e-i-t-h-e-r
> because of especially great voices nor exceptional interpretive wills
> nor because of bona fide personalities n-o-r because of remotely
> acceptable n-e-w music, but because:
>
> NUMBER 1: their names are n-o-t Cheryl Studer
>
> and
>
> NUMBER 2: ...*in good portion and out of proportion* due to the
> PromoOp-Catchpenny that has become 9.11 and its aftermath --- a
> monstrous crime monstrously debased by the Infernal Spinning Wheel of
> opportunism and commerce and avarice and mayhem and revenge and
> murder (widely disguised as justice) --- a tragedy now symbiotically
> hijacked to peddle everything from Arms Races to Military Buildups to
> Far Right-ism (see "Sharon, Ariel" --- how come we don't hear strings
> of consistently shrill High Cs crying for h-i-s removal and disposal
> of h-i-s (that is, ours) Weapons Of Mass Destruction --- the latest
> government double-standard/media buzzword and insult to our dignity
> and intelligence --- this time, however, we applaud Barenboim for
> being practically the only one playing fiddle on the roof [the
> root, the root] of the problem) to Nationalism to Patriotism to
> Requiems to Anglo-Zionist Terrorism --- the latter conducted both
> musically and extra-curricularly, most prominently with (critical
> mass-destruction) Heavy-Metal made in the squeaky clean U.S. of A.
> and paid for with y-o-u-r humble American tax dollar (as if you had
> a choice) and the blood of y-o-u-r sons and daughters. --- So why
> won't Israel and its Business/Washington lobbyists fight their next
> door neighbors, which include Iraq and now Syria and Iran, all by
> themselves and with t-h-e-i-r o-w-n currency and leave us all a-l-
> o-n-e a-n-d i-n p-e-a-c-e?]
>
> [Consequently, would that t-h-e o-t-h-e-r terrorists (for there
> are two sets) went home too.]
>
> [Did we fail to add that the terrorists need the U.S. as much as the
> U.S. needs them?]
>
> [As it turns out, no other country --- no other --- is as arrogant,
> as infantile, as selfish, as bellicose, as disrespectful, as
> insulting, as pervasively poisonous, as dubious, as abusive, as
> destructive, and as dangerous as the USA (in "universal" coalition
> with its satellites: its former occupier the UK and the UK-occupied
> Palestine, Israel). And we mean militarily, economically,
> politically, diplomatically, spiritually, culturally, and
> philosophically - about the latter five, it is the stuff of
> bankruptcy courts and all are on equal footing. Sviatoslav Richter
> knew (better yet, f-e-l-t) this and never came back. So did Brigitte
> Fassbaender. Terrible.]
>
>
> [In other words, and in some order or other of appearance...
>
>
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR THE WILLIAM KRISTOLS
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR THE PAUL WOLFOWITZES
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR THE ARI FLEISCHERS
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR THE ALAN GREENSPANS
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR THE JOE LIEBERMANS
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR THE LEFT-WING JEWISH LOBBY
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR THE LEFT-OF-CENTER JEWISH LOBBY
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR THE CENTERED JEWISH LOBBY
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR THE RIGHT-OF-CENTER JEWISH LOBBY
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR THE RIGHT-WING JEWISH LOBBY
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR SHARON'S SANDBOX
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR THE RIGHT-WING CHRISTIAN LOBBY
> (Surprise of surprises --- The ever-clever Jews
>  have contrived to ingratiate themselves with this
>  segment)
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR THE DICK CHENEYS
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR THE DONALD RUMSFELDS
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR THE JOHN ASHCROFTS
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR ARROGANCE
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR OIL
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR VENGEANCE
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR THE TONY BLAIRS
> NO MORE BLOOD FOR THE MARIONETTE/MINSTREL ACTS OF
> Sir COLIN POWELL
> ...Dame CONDOLEEZA RICE
> ...AND...
> ...Sir Koffi Annan]
>
>
> [Discuss, if you dare.]
>
>
> [About the new studio-product ('tis is what we call them fakery, no?)
> from EMI ---IDOMENEO---, we have read puff like "a recording that n-
> e-e-d-e-d to be made." --- after all, it contains the antipodean
> missionary of all things English, Sir Charles; British Will o' Wisp
> Bostridge; the Bocelli collaborator Frittoli; and, to top it all, the
> New (Age) Callas - the organically-grown, FDA approved, anodyne,
> pastel, drab as damp cardboard, and dull as fishwater, LetItRain Hunt
> (hyphen - I married a techie with composer pretensions + I too have a
> little Sob Story in circulation - what is yours?) Lieberson. But do
> not for a second believe the ad-men....for this product is yet more
> of the ho-hum variety.]
>
> [And don't forget that LetItRain is an "a-r-t-i-s-t", sensitive and
> musical - albeit a part-time one - but please understand that very
> few others are as musical, let alone sensitive and artistic].
>
> [About the GRAMMY®-winning but not-so-new DECCA ---COCKSUCKER BLUES---
> , we have read fluff like "A New F-i-r-s-t L-a-d-y of Bel Canto -
> Renée Fleming very nearly manages to shake the insistent ghost of
> Maria Callas." (see "http://www.andante.com";) --- But we are neither
> deaf nor naïve nor stupid. You see, n-e-v-e-r e-v-e-r f-o-r-g-e-t, we
> insist, that sopranos of the caliber of Cheryl and Maria (to name but
> two), frayed of voice and heart or not, n-e-v-e-r e-v-e-r s-t-o-o-p-
> e-d this low (below the navel) in the style department. But after
> all, the new product (foreplayed in a studio some years ago but not
> ejaculated for another 2 or 3) is being cart-wheeled under a neon
> sign that reads "bel canto" (yes, in lowercase and with the 'b'
> dangling), complete with a $2 rebate incentive b-e-l-o-w its already
> reduced repo artistic value - ya know, in the manner of the stereo-
> typical toupéed and polyester-clad used-car salesman - breathy,
> cajoling, cheap, cheesy,
> insincere, sleazy, slimy, slippery, sticky -- in that order -- and
> that's the singing -- a raw deal -- a lemon. Hard to swallow, ain't
> it?]
>
> ----------------------------
>
> IF YO NO KEEP `EM ENTERTAIN' N' DISTRACTED N' IGNORANT N' PLACID(O),
> WHO GONNA FIGH' YO WARS?
>
>
> Blue-Collar/Working-Class Cheap Labor (and the aesthetics, or lack
> of, of --- but why stop there? --- how about the absolute absence of
> artistic acumen? --- see "Flanigan, Lauren" - see "Radvanovsky,
> Sondra" - see "Goerke, Christine" - see "Makarina, Olga"-
> see "Queler, Eve" - see "Eastern Europeans" - see "the little touring
> companies that could") and Blitzkrieg-style Public Relations and
> Marketing have been summoned to the cause of salvaging something or
> other from the debris of these self-appointed arbiters/stewards of
> taste [tastes ranging from (Z)ubin to Purcell to Kirkby to (A)nalSex -
> the rawer the longer the harder the faster the deeper the sooner the
> better] and self-avowed "opera/music lovers'" own making. And thus
> have the armies of businessmen landed, triumphantly, with portfolios
> chock-
> full with the losers, the useless, the amateurs, the dilettantes, the
> pedigree-less, the unaccomplished, the homo-geneous, the vocally
> faceless, the emaciated, the pretty, the photogenic, the grotesque
> too, the church rodents, the H.I.P.-voiced, the H.I.P.-mannered, the
> pedigree-less, the correct, the obedient, the mega-amplified, the
> firefighters, the policemen, the heroes, the construction workers,
> the factory slaves, the custodians, the industrial quality, the white
> trash, the divas next door; the divas next door with the cute
> children as gimmicks; the divas next door who are so nice and behave
> so well and who must reassure us about it; the divas next door who
> seek psychotherapy and then have the distaste to announce it; the
> vedettes next door who love all that jazz and then scat and squat
> through e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g that is European a-n-d Classical and not -
> -- but then, in music that requires precisely that, the phlegm gets
> in the way of that thang called swing; the divas next door who thrive
> on wrestling, meatloaf, and fish n' chips --- and look and sound it;
> the garish mansions next door who marry well, transgenderly; the
> divas next door who, although already in their 40s and beyond, must
> appease us by "taking baby steps to protect their voices" and who
> swear that that's why they will still be in their prime in extreme
> old age; the divas next door who swear we will want to hear them
> then; the optically challenged, the physically handicapped, the sob
> stories, more sob stories, the victims, the politics of victimhood,
> the politics of sexual orientation, the politics of identity, the
> politics of race, the politics of reverse racism, the politics of we-
> are-holier-than-thou, the politics of lifestyle, the politics of
> triviality, the politics of image, the politics of artifice, the
> politics of banality, the politics of favoritism, the politics of
> partisanship, the politics of corruption, the politics of indecency,
> the politics of Puritanism, the politics of fleecing, the politics of
> the willing, the politics of "coalition", the politics of crass
> deception, the politics of the willful, the politics of oppression
> disguised as liberation, the politics of extracurricular social
> agendas, the politics of inadequacy, the politics of "The American
> Peepole," the politics of dumbing-down, the politics of the lowest
> possible common denominator, the pedigree-less, the pedigree-less,
> the pedigree-less, and yet more of that. And some more sob stories.
> And not to be missed: the Teddy Bears (think of - well not really,
> since you can't - the vocal troubles, the gross embarrassments of
> stunt-ed live programs - everything from Beg Your Indulgences to
> Public Regrets to Tosti to Walkouts - from, for instance, Juan
> Dieguito Flórez, the Brightman/Bocelli/Church/Sissel-comrade Domingo,
> the other Sissel and Bocelli comrade-in-arms Terfel, and Heppner - no
> matter - the insulted audiences correspond to their own cheating with
> tears and Standing Os --- but no surprise here, for it is nothing but
> another perversion of our desensitized, demoralized, diseased,
> frivolous, diluted, and vulgar days.)
>
>
> FUCK ME
>
> Even Joseito Carreras became the object of one of these
> demonstrations - and this in the enlightened and improved and newly
> innocent and important again (or so it goes) Salzburg of the summer
> of two-thousand-and-two-After-Christ --- to you that's 20+ years
> since the Spaniard lost IT --- or almost a quarter century riding on
> the [petty]coattails of his own sob story).
>
>
> FUCK ME HARDER
>
> On the opposite receiving end we read the quasi-ecstatic notices on
> behalf of Merola-ite but no one's conception, until now
> (mysteriously), of sound vocalism, Luana DeVol.
>
>
> And thus today's so-called "A-List" (really, nothing but a paid
> announcement transmitted by the "Ass-ociated Press"), the P®ops, the
> Pops, the Popp Clones (she of the intellectual and revisionist and
> hyperkonzeptual and seminal and monumentally popular programs, right
> Sir Peter?), the Grümmer Clones, the Callas Clones, the Tebaldi
> Clones, the Sutherland Wannabes, the Steber Clones, the Schwarzkopf
> Clones, the Sarah Vaughan Clones, the Price Clones, the Janowitz
> Clones, the Freni Wannabes, the Fischer-Dieskau Clones, the
> Furtwängler Clones, the Cut n' Paste Composites --- poor, pitiful
> facsimiles a-l-l ---, the Little Names, the Wannabes, the Crossover
> Hustlers, the Bubblegum, the New Age Mongrels, the Postmoderns, the
> Postmortems, the
> Multiculturalists, the Community Initiatives, the Soundbites, the
> Marketing Love Couples/Traumpaars (in the tradition of Peter n' Ben,
> Sir Peter n' Sancta Lucia, Galina n' Misha, Richard n' Joan, Edita n'
> Friedrich, Dietrich n' Julia, Anja n' Wieland, Christoph n' Anja,
> Christa n' Walter, Walter n' Elisabeth, Maria n' Ari, Plácido n'
> Marta, Nicoletta n' Luciano [we have lost count], now we have Arnold
> n' Maria, Peter n' Petra, Angela n' Roberto, Mia n' André, André n'
> Anne-Sophie --- by the widest and longest possible stretch of the
> imagination, her greatest career move since Karajan and since
> commissioning two or three (m)utterly charmless and obsolete b-u-t oh-
> so-rigorous! works for fiddle), the Exquisite, the Divine, the
> Fabulous, the Delicious, the Magnificent, the Paramount, the
> Fantabulous, and the Little Labels That Could all have it relatively
> easy in comparison to that preceding generation. And the critical
> standards --- what standards? - whose? - of what era? --- have
> reformed, or rather, have doubled and tripled....But injury is
> often prone to insult. Hell, standards have liquified and then
> evaporated vis a vis the new generation. It is no longer Sound Music
> Criticism but Lowest-Common-Denominator Public Relations Spin [and
> much worse: the fixation with that elusive something known as
> technique --- technique and organization and perfection as ends in
> themselves: music-making as athletic match: missing the forest for
> the trees --- but this is another angle for another day - or is it?].
> So much so that it has become strangely and suddenly k-o-s-h-e-r once
> more (Jesus!, how many more times are we going to hear about market
> over-saturation?) to make records [and k-o-s-h-e-r again to be
> an "American Opera Singer"] (Remember when you and I were advised [or
> should we say advertised?] to please r-e-j-e-c-t, swiftly AND
> wholesale, them records [or anything containing Cheryl Studer --- or,
> for that matter, any, and we mean any attempt at open discourse on
> her art? --- Do you remember the longstanding efforts amounting to a
> campaign to discredit the lady and her work? --- Must you be made
> aware of the pall hovering over the mere mention of her name in some
> circles? --- You do not need to be told, do you?, of the air-tight
> atmosphere surrounding the lady's name, tantamount to Can-Do-No-
> Right - not then, not now --- Have you forgotten the p-r-e-v-e-n-t-i-
> o-n measures taken by the taste/censorship police in these forums in
> order to curtail all
> possibility of even the minutest measure whiffing of favourable
> discourse on her art?] --- Oh, you know the litany --- something
> about digital and generalized and faked and frigid and manufactured
> and calibrated and illusory and phony and phoned-in and un-necessary
> and un-fair and in-competent and in-personal and contrived and in-
> experienced and un-felt and in-expressive and ex-pensive and un-
> popular and over-exposed and under the note and un-communicative and
> dull and null and sterile and perfect and flawed and clinical and
> precise and international (curiously, we hardly read such venom
> spouted at failed-serialist-turned-serial-partitur-surgeon Pierre
> Boulez) (and yes, yet again our bladders burst open --- consider that
> these traditionally liberal-anythinggoes-wandering-international
> minorities are the same ones seen n' heard wailing like widows over
> the caskets of
> national/regional styles --- but *try* telling them *that* --- try
> telling them that their notion of musical-personalities-and-music-
> making-as-china-doll has come unglued and undone --- finished --- or
> ought to be) and this and that and that and this - beautiful even -
> artistic even - you know, the toxic byproduct of uncontained
> Kapitalismus - the same Kapitalismus, isn't it?, that gave us such
> goodies as Meyerbeer Halévy & Sons, penicillin, Bocelli & Sons, cheap
> sentiments, more penicillin, Alan `my-competence-includes-championing-
> the-OJ-Simpson-cause-and-the-case-FOR-torture-but-as-a-Jew'
> Dershowitz, more penicillin, the Holocash, the Armenian, Russian, and
> Chinese Holocausts no one *and we mean no one* made an Industry of,
> the current Holocaust under our noses in Congo no one hears or cares
> about, Convenience Dictatorships, convenience stores, preservatives,
> PCPs, cigarettes, cancer, sunglasses, sunblock, suntanning, more
> cancer, opera glasses, the megaphone, the horn, the microphone, the
> photograph, the ("fideistic" and most pleasurable) Mapleson
> cylinders, maple syrup, Marston Records, naXos, the phonograph, the
> light bulb, gaslight, lamps, shades, nostalgia, animated pictures,
> the telegraph, the typewriter, carbon paper, the telephone, the
> clock, the metronome, the pitch fork, the antenna, the satellite
> dish, the radio, the television, bandwidth, TV dinners, the
> calculator, the metric system, calendars, famine, feast, walkie-
> talkies, headphones, headsets, X-rays, MRIs, cat-scans, night vision
> goggles, Google, Usenet, Yahoo, beepers, intercoms, elevators,
> escalators, bicycles, stationary bicycles, stationery, faster trains,
> the automobile, the jet plane, motorbikes, snowmobiles, surfboards,
> skateboards, rollerblades, ice skates, rollercoasters, houses of
> horror, houses of cards, houses of mirrors, Martha Stewart, Wal-Mart,
> Jerry Springer, NASCAR, The Vagina Monologues, Cori Ellison, Anne
> Midgette, Manuela Hoelterhoff, the efforts to erode the composition
> and sound and culture of the Vienna Philharmonic (in the manner of
> your favourite American Affirmative Action country club or of your
> favourite International-sounding ensemble), trailer parks, fast food,
> junk food, malnutrition, gluttony, obesity, anorexia nervosa,
> nervousness, bulimia, lawn mowers, snow blowers, vacuum cleaners,
> detergents, mops, brooms, dust pans, rags, sponges, shags, wigs,
> afros, mini-skirts, bellbottoms, platform shoes, pajamas, lingerie,
> bikinis, stockings, lava lamps, disco, beat poetry, grunge, turbos,
> sedans, vans, buses, minibuses, limousines, tanks, bulldozers,
> canoes, motor boats, sail boats, battleships, submarines, B52s, F16s,
> space shuttles, robots, rockets, missiles, bombs, stealth bombers,
> torpedoes, landmines, telescopes, Star Wars, Nuclear Races, Weapons
> of Mass Destruction, Agent Orange, palm trees, palm pilots, Napalm,
> Nepal, Free Tibet, Save the Whales, note pads, Post-Its, Hiroshima,
> Dresden, Vietnam (to name but a few of these insignificant mishaps,
> right?), MOABs (about the testing in mid-March of 2003 of such
> destructive a WMD in Florida, USA --- about the latest sham, that of
> Schwarzenegger in California, USA --- that either fiasco failed to
> generate as much environmental, moral, philosophical and whatnot
> concerns all around as a photo-op, says everything we need to know
> about the collective swamp we are), Apaches, Indian Reservations,
> indians, cowboys, Kleenex (we often cultivate and later spoon-feed
> you the Sob Stories but we also arm you with the tissue to wipe out
> the tears --- all on OUR terms), duct tape, gas masks, mascara,
> cosmetics, perfumes, Tammy Faye Baker, Mary Kay, Pink Cadillacs,
> Tupperware, bingo, lotteries, the welfare system, WICs, Vegas,
> Niagara Falls, casinos, Elvis, brilliantine, Crisco, hairspray, hair
> dryers, exhaust fumes, exhaustion, stimulants, sleep deprivation,
> sedatives, alcoholism, depression, depleted Ozone layers, synthetic
> fibers, fiberoptics, boxing, wrestling, rugby, frying bacon, monaural
> sound, analog tech, reel-to-reels, 8-tracks, the cassette, the LP,
> stereo systems, stereo sound, surround sound, boom boxes, faxes,
> paper clips, nail clippers, paper shredders, photocopiers, laser
> printers, overnight mail, the (unfortunate and devastating to the
> testimonials of a vast majority of contemporary artists) digital
> technology, the PC, laptops, lapdogs, hot dogs, alarm clocks,
> wristwatches, dishwashers, ice boxes, refrigerators, toasters, ovens,
> microwave ovens, food processors, blenders, the CD, SACD, the
> walkman, the minidisc, the famous (pitch re-engineered) Richter CD-
> ROMs, the (disgracefully influential, sound-engineering-bag-of-tricks-
> wise) Anglo/Judeo DECCA/Culshaw/Solti Ring, MTV, commercial
> infrastructures, eBay, Spam, frozen French fries, burnt-thin-weak
> American coffee, diners, Java, Starbucks, generators, engines,
> batteries, bartering, butter, department stores, super stores,
> supermarkets, mega stores, shopping malls, strip malls,
> overdevelopment, superstores, parking lots, overspending, high debt,
> low savings, high crime, rampant violence, credit cards, more credit
> cards, Carte Blanche (for some --- you know who and what you are),
> bonus points, more fleecing, fees, fees, fees everywhere, more
> penicillin, toothpaste, toothpicks, magazines, annual reports, filing
> cabinets, paper paper paper everywhere, papered halls, confetti, more
> paper shuffling, bureaucracies, red tape, yellow ribbons,
> deforestation, tourism, eco-tourism, Chevron/Texaco, Tibet, Mt.
> Everest, B&Bs, R&B, hotels, hostels, motels, park benches, jacuzzis,
> T-lifts, plastic surgery, breast implants, Vail, Viagra, ski resorts,
> Park Ave., Madison Ave., boulevards, summer homes, increasingly short
> vacations, ice cream, cotton candy, cotton balls, Q-tips, ear plugs,
> The Boston Pops, more wallpaper, formica, wood paneling, pop tarts,
> lollipops, soda pop, pop psychology, popcorn, corn flakes, vitamins,
> herbs, steroids, gymnasiums, hoola-hoops, pinballs, Chinese checkers,
> yo-yos, Yo-Yo Ma, Tan Dun, John Williams, Bobby McFerrin, PBS, Yanni,
> yet more wallpaper, more penicillin please, jams, jelly, jell-o, J-
> Lo, day-glo, go-go, psychedelia, fans, air conditioning, wallpaper,
> Vivaldi, The Four Seasons, 600+ variations on a theme, silk flowers,
> plastic flowers, fake spring water, faux marble, faux fur, faux
> leather, animal rights, stuffed animals, andante.com, 12,000 other
> music websites, the pirates, special effects, the VHS, HTML, the WWW,
> Apples, Windows, ATMs, FTD, LSD, FTC, IMF, DNA, UPS, the cell phone,
> the LD, the DVD, MP3s, HMV, Opera In The Original (that's English to
> you, naturally and perennially), survivor shows, SUVs, BMWs, VWs,
> IRAs, 401Ks, BBQs, bb guns, water coolers, televised war crimes,
> video games, Andy Warhol, instant soup, instant gratification,
> Instant Opera, Opera For All (a noble Konzept but it's just that
> the "critical masses" ain't there any longer...nor do they care to
> be),
> Shock n' Awe, more penicillin, Toys r' Us, CNN operas, soap, soap
> operas, Oprah, Howard Stern, more penicillin, Hollywood blockbusters,
> Hollywood stereotyping (but seldom of "their own" --- you know who
> and what you are), Jewish Racism (an issue of semantics, for we
> hardly
> dare call it what it is), more penicillin, Sellars Konwitschny
> Neuenfels Beito Wilson & Zambello, yet more penicillin, El Niño,
> septic tanks, latrines, toilet stalls, more penicillin, yet more
> Regietheater, yet more penicillin, graffiti, tattoos, wax, S&M, M&Ms,
> teflon, styrofoam, disposable incomes, tax loopholes, tax havens,
> creative accounting, ENRON, insurance scams, for-profit health care,
> nannies, nurseries, nursing homes, retirement communities, inner-city
> squalor, overpriced sneakers, gangs, segregation, not-in-my-backyard
> liberals, For-God-and-Country right-wingers, country clubs,
> fraternities, underpaid overseas labor, economies of scale, ever
> widening income gaps, The Gap, GNP, NASA, the NASDAQ, the NYSE, all
> out grossness, waste dumps, twisted metal, scrap heaps, junkyards,
> scaffolds, the ENO, more penicillin, karaoke, red light districts,
> peep shows, more penicillin, laxatives, aspirin, contraceptives,
> antacids, the legal and illegal drug culture, the corner drugstore,
> super drugstores, syringes, methadone, band-aids, prophylactics, test
> tube babies, petri dishes, no culture, bagels, pretzels, lox, hummus,
> Hummers, hybrids, Vilar gardens, Vilar foyers, Vilar lobbying, Vilar
> titles, Vilar entitlements, Vilar foreclosures, Vilar defaults, Vilar
> promises, skyscrapers, corporate-filtered news and op-eds, supply and
> no demand, no supply and demand, overflow, overlap, overhead,
> exaggerated price markups, unpaid overtime labor, the cheapest labor
> since slavery and then bread --- the Economy of Volunteerism, the
> Economy of Temporary Labor, outsourcing, more fleecing, multitasking,
> micromanaging, compartmentalization, specialization (and yet today we
> celebrate in the best way we can, posthumously, the versatility,
> repertory escapades and consistently diamantine vocalism, yes?, of a
> century+ ago of, say, the immortal [and Jewess] Lilli Lehmann or, for
> that matter, of anyone - provided their last name is not Studer ---
> and for that matter, how many of you experienced either one where it
> counts?), teleconferencing, telemarketing, wireless technology (but
> what are we really communicating?), multimedia, microchips, silicon
> (perhaps all that sand in the Middle East, which includes Israel,
> could be put to good use - BLOOD FOR SAND? --- nah, not worth it),
> underutilized solar energy, superhighways, software, hardware,
> peripherals, acoustically enhanced opera houses and concert halls,
> euphemisms, masked balls, virtual reality, cloning, artificial
> intelligence, Callas martyrs, more penicillin, Caruso, Ponselle,
> Callas, more Callas, more penicillin, Flagstad, Nilsson, more EMI
> Callas re-re-re-re-re-regurgitations, more penicillin, yet more Sony
> Glenn Gould re-re-re-re-re-compilations, yet more penicillin, yet
> more Vladimir Horowitz re-re-re-re-re-releases, yet more penicillin --
> - and of course, the same Kapitalismus that has transmitted the Oh So
> Long Anticipated, Oh So Very Important and, at last!, Oh So Necessary
> EWIGE WELTKULTURERBE belonging to, for example and randomly,
> Pavarotti's new excremental release (the Pop album), Bocelli,
> Cecilia, Bryn, Barenboim, Zubin `I owe my spectacles to the Jews'
> Mehta, Petra-Maria, E-di-ta! E-di-ta! E-di-ta!, LetItRain, Beverly,
> Sir Simon, Ozawa, Renée, Gergiev, Galina, Neil, Aprile Millo [these
> days [that is, when she is not excusing herself to audiences] reduced
> - or is it enhanced? - to croon, pathetically and below the note,
> opposite Danny Boy The 9.11 NYPD Singin' Cop], Alessandra,
> Grace, Shirley, Jessye, von Otter, Schäfer, "Marilyn Monroe Purr"
> and "Broadway Casting Agent's Dream" Debbie (see "Ross, Alex"
> and "Tommasini, Anthony" respectively) - (a f-a-k-e recording of R.
> Strauss' -Friedenstag- for Sinopoli/DGG --- "...Deborah Voigt's
> Maria...was in fact dubbed in after the recording was completed,
> after the original soprano had dropped out...." -'Fanfare', Sep/Oct
> 2002, p. 214), Cathy, Kathy, Jane, Ruthie Ann!, "Veteran Wagnerian"
> Karita (see CareerHomo-turned-critic-turned-promoter "Tommasini,
> Anthony") - (a f-a-k-e recording of Schoenberg's -Gurrelieder- for
> Sire Simon/EMI - http://andante.com/magazine/article.cfm?id=17979),
> Violeta (a f-a-k-e recording of Poncielli's -Gioconda- for Sir-to-be
> Viotti/EMI - Urmana has yet to sing Gioconda where it counts (and
> neither has her Spanish-Fly cohort as Enzo) - but at least she is
> still in possession of her renowned italianità and coloratura
> abilities, yes?, sufficient to render her a Favorite of critics and
> maybe, just maybe, to secure some paltry "Please-Save-EMI" sales),
> Waltraud - and much much more) ----- for naXos, FARAO, Rare Opera,
> Mom & Pop, even for Lucifer Classics. No matter.
>
>
> [But......we are afraid it's t-o-o l-a-t-e --- because the
> registers, they ain't ringin' (and all too often and in contradiction
> to what we are led to believe, not just the cash ones). Regrets.]
>
>
> 3C. How exactly is naXos alleviating the crisis of overcrowding and
> confusion among consumers? In opera titles alone, they have recorded
> yet a-n-e-w: Boheme, Fidelio, Butterfly, Tosca, Flying Dutchman,
> Barber of Seville, Aida, Rigoletto, Magic Flute, and on and on and
> on. Correct us if we are wrong, but these bread and butter works were
> not lacking in existing documentation, whether historical or not,
> hysterical or not, distinguished or not, low end or not. And the
> combined sad efforts from naXos simply do not measure up. Why pay
> less, then, when you can get better and more for twice the price?
>
> 3D. "Oh but it does mean something, it does", we say. So the "average
> music lover" has become the barometer of quality and relevance?
> Indeed they don't deserve Muti, Abbado, or Chailly (however much they
> deserve the three-minute-aria-cum-top-ten-hit and however little they
> give a dime or deserve whatever happens before and after the
> goddamn Big Tune). And is the Hulun Hu Tympany Orchestra really
> better than Amsterdam, Dresden, Berlin or Vienna? (although, truth be
> told, too many of us have heard the Vienna, for one, play and sound
> like a school of simians under the stick shift of a colonized and
> assimilated but loyal to Queen Mum, and thus celebrated, Indian
> cabbie).
>
> 3E. And Cheryl Studer, she's not one of the unwashed, is she? Were
> they her contemporaries, would Mr. Heymann have singled out Callas,
> Tebaldi, Sutherland, or Caballé, to name but a few, in his lowly,
> opportunistic manner? After all, they were/are *Daughters Of
> Lucifer*, to our benefit. Presumably naXos treats its "illustrious"
> roster with more dignity, respect, and vocal support. Speaking of
> vocal support, perhaps the crafty and clever Mr. Heymann is unaware
> that *his own* Floria Tosca (Madame Nelly Miri-a-e-i-o-u --- "más
> sabe el burro que tú") has reportedly bombed in this and other roles
> numerous times in numerous places. However, these catastrophes have
> failed to make a dent in the armory of the "cognoscenti" and their
> media spokespeople, strangely. For those not "in the know", Madame M
> is rumoured to be the Bastard Child of the Incestuous Union of the
> Twins Callas and Heymann, now all grown and matured into a very 'Rare
> Opera' singer complete with numerous fancifully edited recordings to
> her name. No matter.
>
> 4. Many of us have heard naXos' Caruso edition (and not just naXos')
> (mind you, not that the long-deceased tenor is remotely a Heymann
> discovery/original --- and neither are --- not one --- any of the
> others --- not one --- that Sir Heymann & Co. keep dumping as
> remasterings upon this reverential but funereal shopping cart). We
> have to wonder what Mr. Heymann's authoritative producers and editors
> (and his Public Relationists) would have made of the great man today
> for violating at least a couple of standards of sound conduct such as
> throat-clearing smack in the middle of a take and a glaring false
> entry at the beginning of another? And what of the poor pianist?
> Good God.
>
> ----------------------------
>
> Considering the Grand Meltdown (not lacking the "Grand Manner" you so
> prefer - or do you?) of new opera recordings (on Compact Disc alone?)
> from the Universal Classics family of labels (DGG, DECCA,
> Philips)....and now from Sony and EMI Classics too, it seems....let
> us take a Long and Hard (as you like it) look at the following
> repertorium ---
>
> * Title role in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, rec 8/90, London SO,
> Marin, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Hanna Glawari in Lehar's Lustige Witwe, rec 1/94, Vienna PO,
> Gardiner, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Countess in Mozart's Nozze di Figaro, rec 1-2/94, Vienna PO,
> Abbado, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Countess in Mozart's Nozze di Figaro, rec 5/91, Vienna PO, Abbado,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Title role in Rossini's Semiramide, rec 7/92, London SO, Marin,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Florinda in Schubert's Fierrabras, rec 5/88, Chamber Orch of
> Europe, Abbado, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Title role in R. Strauss' Salome, rec 12/90, Deutsche Oper Berlin,
> Sinopoli, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto, rec 6/93, Metropolitan Opera, Levine,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto Act III, rec 9/91, Metropolitan Opera,
> Levine, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, rec 5/93, Opéra Bastille, Chung,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Violetta in Verdi's Traviata, rec 1/91, Metropolitan Opera, Levine,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser, rec '88, Philharmonia, Sinopoli,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser, rec '89, Bayreuth, Sinopoli,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Senta in Wagner's fliegende Holländer, rec 1/91, Deutsche Oper
> Berlin, Sinopoli, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Gutrune in Wagner's Götterdämmerung, rec 5/89, Metropolitan Opera,
> Levine, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Title role in Floyd's Susannah, rec 3/94, Opéra de Lyon, Nagano,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Marguerite in Gounod's Faust, rec 2/91, Toulouse, Plasson, Lucifer
> Classics
>
> * Salomé in Massenet's Hérodiade, rec 11-12/94, Toulouse, Plasson,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni, rec 9/90, Vienna PO, Muti,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Konstanze in Mozart's Entführung aus dem Serail, rec 4/91, Vienna
> Symphony, Weil, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Queen of the Night in Mozart's Zauberflöte, rec 7/89, ASMF,
> Marriner, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Giulietta in Offenbach's Contes d'Hoffmann, rec 87/88/89, Dresden
> Staatskapelle, Tate, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Matilde in Rossini's Guglielmo Tell, rec 12/88, La Scala, Muti,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Madama Cortese in Rossini's Viaggio a Reims, rec 10/92, Berlin PO,
> Abbado, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Title role in Spohr's Jessonda, rec '84, ORF Orchestra, Albrecht,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Chrysothemis in R. Strauss' Elektra, rec 1/90, Bavarian RSO,
> Sawallisch, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Chrysothemis in R. Strauss' Elektra, rec 6/89, Vienna PO, Abbado,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Empress in R. Strauss' Frau ohne Schatten, rec 2-12/87, Bavarian
> RSO, Sawallisch, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Empress in R. Strauss' Frau ohne Schatten, rec '92, Vienna PO,
> Solti, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Title role in Verdi's Aida, rec 6/94, Covent Garden, Downes,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Odabella in Verdi's Attila, rec 6-7/89, La Scala, Muti, Lucifer
> Classics
>
> * Odabella in Verdi's Attila, rec 6/90, La Scala, Muti, Lucifer
> Classics
>
> * Elena in Verdi's Vespri Siciliani, rec 12/89-1/90, La Scala, Muti,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Drolla in Wagner's Die Feen, rec 7/83, Bavarian RSO, Sawallisch,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin (from Bayreuth), rec 6/90, Bayreuth,
> Schneider, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin (from Vienna), rec '90, Vienna PO,
> Abbado, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Eva in Wagner's Meistersinger, rec 4/93, Bavarian State Opera,
> Sawallisch, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Irene in Wagner's Rienzi, rec 7/83, Bavarian State Opera,
> Sawallisch, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Ortlinde in Wagner's Walküre, rec 8/81, Dresden Staatskapelle,
> Janowski, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Sieglinde in Wagner's Walküre, rec 2-3/88, Bavarian RSO, Haitink,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Zemlinsky's Der Geburtstagder Infantin, rec 83, Berlin RSO,
> Albrecht, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Coloratura Arias by Bellini (Sonnambula/Norma), Verdi
> (Traviata/Trovatore), Donizetti (Lucia/Lucrezia Borgia), Rossini
> (Barbiere/Semiramide), rec 4/89, Munich RSO, Ferro, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Mozart Arias
> (Entführung/Zauberflöte/Idomeneo/Nozze/Giovanni/Clemenza/Cosi), rec
> 9/89, ASMF, Marriner, Lucifer Classics
>
> * R. Strauss' Vier Letzte Lieder/Wagner's Wesendonck-Lieder/Isolde's
> Liebestod, rec 1/93, Dresden Staatskapelle, Sinopoli, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Isolde's Liebestod, rec 1/88, Bavarian RSO, Tate, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Wagner Gala (Tannhäuser/Lohengrin/Meistersinger/Walküre), rec
> 12/93, Berlin PO, Abbado, Lucifer Classics
>
> * First Europakonzert - in Prague (Mozart: "Non mi dir"/"Ch'io mi
> scordi di te-Non temer amato bene"), rec 5/91, Berlin PO, Abbado,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Covent Garden Gala (Otello/Traviata/Fledermaus), rec 7/88, Covent
> Garden, Barker, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Sacred Works
> (Bach/Schubert/Mendelssohn/Handel/Mozart/Gounod/Faure/Poulenc/Bernstei
> n/Bruch), rec 3/91, London SO, Marin, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Samuel Barber Songs, rec 9/92, Browning (R.I.P.), Emerson String
> Quartet, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, rec 8/91, Vienna PO, Levine, Lucifer
> Classics
>
> * Beethoven in Berlin (Ah! Perfido/Choral Fantasy/Egmont), rec 12/91,
> Berlin PO, Abbado, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Brahms' German Requiem, rec 10/92, Berlin PO, Abbado, Lucifer
> Classics
>
> * Schubert Lieder, rec 1/90, Gage, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Salzburg Recital (R. Strauss/Schubert/Debussy), rec 8/92, Gage,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Mahler's Klagende Lied, rec 11/90, Philharmonia, Sinopoli, Lucifer
> Classics
>
> * Mahler's Symphony No. 2, rec 11/92, Vienna PO, Abbado, Lucifer
> Classics
>
> * Mahler's Symphony No. 8, rec 11-12/90, Philharmonia, Sinopoli,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Mahler's Symphony No. 8, rec 1/94, Berlin PO, Abbado, Lucifer
> Classics
>
> * Verdi's Requiem, rec 6/87, La Scala, Muti, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Verdi's Requiem, rec 11/91, Vienna PO, Abbado, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, rec 4/89, Philadelphia Orchestra, Muti,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * Bruckner's Mass in F Min/Mozart's Vespers, rec 3/77, MIT Choral
> Society, Oliver, Lucifer Classics
>
> * Donizetti's Requiem, rec 1/84, Bamberg SO, Gómez-Martínez, Lucifer
> Classics
>
> * von Schweinitz's Messe Op. 21, rec 7/84, RSO Berlin, Albrecht,
> Lucifer Classics
>
> * R. Strauss Choral Works, rec 9/84, RIAS Kammerchor, Gronostay,
> Creed, Lucifer Classics
>
>
> "L-A Ú-L-T-I-M-A..........que ríe, ríe mejor."
>
>
> Bravissima Cheryl Studer, verlorene Tochter. Very beautifully and
> exquisitely done. A most wonderful, exemplary, and unforgettable
> legacy, a legacy of e-x-c-e-p-t-i-o-n-a-l q-u-a-l-i-t-y and d-i-
> s-t-i-n-c-t-i-o-n. Thank you for u-n-c-o-m-p-r-o-m-i-s-i-n-g
> Artistry of u-n-c-o-m-m-o-n i-n-t-e-l-l-i-g-e-n-c-e and i-n-s-t-i-
> n-c-t --- the work of a consummate being. Thank you. Thank you for
> Dedication, Seriousness, and Integrity. Thank you for remaining True
> to your self, to the artform (on life-support as it is...and counting
> down), and to m-u-s-i-c. Good Music. Thank you for a Universe of
> Sound and Textureand Expression and Communication a-l-l o-f y-o-u-r o-
> w-n. Thank you for g-e-n-e-r-o-s-i-t-y. Thank you for H-i-g-h I-n-d-i-
> v-i-d-
> u-a-l-i-t-y. And (to boot) individuality within the bondage of and
> respect for the T-r-a-d-i-t-i-o-n.
>
> Thank You.
>
> And thank you too, Universal, EMI and Sony, for having had the
> foreskin to recognize and capture genius (we know, we know - but
> worse has been written and said about the artist) in our midst while
> the going was good (now that these dinosaurs' [delusional] populist
> causes, causes lately so palatable to the Anglo/Judeo-centric and
> their Axes-[oh irony!]-Of-Love, have caused them to
> trim....ouch....their future....for that squeaky clean look and
> sound....and potent[ial] self-extinction).
>
> ----------------------------
>
> And now, a little something to ponder about ---
>
> "Things got pretty rough at the last Philharmonic concert. A bitter
> battle broke out over Liszt's 'Mephisto Waltz.' It was the standees
> and a part of the gallery, resolved to give their all, against the
> parterre, the mountain against the marsh. On the one side we had
> youth, intelligence, idealism, good judgement, enthusiasm and
> conviction; on the other dullness, frivolity, debility, ignorance,
> arrogance, materialism. Such were the contending forces.
>
> There was a lot of applause, but a lot of hissing, too. Since, as we
> all know, these Semitic hissing sounds traditionally served
> the 'chosen people' as shibboleth in combat with their neighbors, it
> was not hard to determine who it was that so emphatically proclaimed
> both their dissent and their identity. Indeed, these 'chosen people'
> habitually make a great show of their exquisite taste. They are
> always ready to recognize in Beethoven a good composer. And yet there
> are those who see nothing heroic in the courage of such convictions.
> What, then, can we call courageous? Let it pass. These excellent and
> generous souls will surely enrich the National Guard with a doughty
> legion of tailors, and thus be of service to the state. You can take
> an oath on that.
>
> To take seriously the ludicrous behavior of these worthy parterre
> subscribers toward the works of a genius such as Liszt would be like
> punishing children's bad manners with the rack. We are not so cruel.
> But it is well to look for what it is that causes the public to
> behave like an ill-mannered child and to think like a well-groomed
> cad. How is it, we ask, that Liszt's compositions are rejected by the
> majority of our degenerate public? The answer is made uncommonly easy
> for me, since it is contained in the question. But then why, someone
> could object, do Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, etc., appeal to this same
> degenerate public? The objection is so banal, the answer so obvious,
> that any blockhead could handle it easily. But should someone choose
> to ask me what I mean by degenerate public, I accept the challenge
> gladly, and am ready with the answer: a degenerate public is one that
> is content to be the ward of a degenerate press.
>
> It is a public of newspaper readers. That is the source of all other
> evils. That is the source of the thoughtlessness, frivolity,
> dependence, distraction, insensibility and, above all, the bias
> against those works condemned to death by the press. If this were an
> ingenuous public, it would not tolerate for another day the shameful
> chains it now fastens to itself voluntarily. But the habit of cud-
> chewing has already become too delightful to permit the slightest
> effort to use one's own teeth. Thus, this public receives its
> impression of a work of art not directly, but from the review in the
> newspaper, to be had in concrete form for a patent. Go then to the
> apothecary, and buy yourselves some nux vomica or some other
> purgative if you want to have an impression. The effect remains
> essentially the same, and you spare yourselves the price of the
> ticket. And so a public, the despicable tool of a despicable press,
> will pass judgement on the works of a genius! A sluggardly mob that
> enters the concert hall as if it were a toy store, reduces the
> noblest possessions of mankind to idle diversions, and then, if that
> is not satisfactory, arrogantly turns its back on the work of art and
> ceremoniously hisses...fie, fie, and once again fie!!!
>
> Given such circumstances, it is hardly surprising that Liszt's
> original compositions have excited a lively 'for' and 'against'
> whenever they have been played in Vienna. This time the applause from
> the standees was still far from constituting a demonstration when a
> few hot headed Philistines signalled, stupidly enough, the
> shibboleth. That was pouring oil on fire. The applause grew louder,
> and rightly so, since it was directed no less at the splendid
> accomplishment of the orchestra and its conductor, Hans Richter, than
> at the work itself. And did not the wonderful performance of this
> Lisztian composition merit the most extravagant praise? What did
> Liszt's admirers do to excite the drowsy parterre to a counter-
> demonstration? They were simply giving due honor to service
> rendered."
>
> Hugo Wolf
> Vienna
> 25 April 1886
>
> ----------------------------
>
> A HARPSICHORD GLISTENS AND TRIUMPHS
>
> You and I, we know that something in the air is profoundly d-e-g-e-n-
> e-r-a-t-e when a nobody of a harpsichordist and her twinklin' little
> instrument command more respect and accolades and anal(ysis)
> from 'the chosen people' (The Rake's Progress --
> http://www.operajaponica.org/reviews/dvd/rake96dvd.htm) than those
> ass-igned a certain soprano.
>
> {{It is a delight to find an ebullient, effective recording on DVD.
> There are some flaws, to be sure, but overall this disc provides an
> exciting and entertaining evening of opera. Credit must be
> distributed liberally among composer, librettist, cast, conductor,
> orchestra, designer and recording crew.
>
> The central voice in this opera is that of the rake himself and it is
> difficult to picture a more effective one than Jerry Hadley. He seems
> to find the music easy, which is as it should be, and he realizes
> the 'progress' by effective acting with voice and body. Upshaw is
> hardly less attractive as his true love. Her challenges are primarily
> vocal and she conquers them so easily that one does not even hear
> that they were encountered. Pederson is a bit less satisfying,
> presenting a colorless devil accurately; one would hope for
> more 'bite' in the character and in other productions one finds a
> more interesting and less shadowy Nick. This reviewer found the
> casting of Henschel as Baba disturbing since it appears to exploit
> her physique; still, she delivers a fine performance so presumably
> was comfortable with the casting. Those four and all the other
> soloists show exemplary enunciation and accuracy; even the chorus is
> generally understandable.
>
> The production is remarkable with brilliant sets and costumes
> prompting the viewer to look forward to the insights offered in the
> next scene. While some of the choices need a second viewing to
> decipher, none so dominates the stage that it distracts from the
> performance. Tom's jeans and tee shirt are consistent even as he
> achieves and loses wealth; the implication that he is the same man
> throughout is clear and relevant, while simply adding a hat shows his
> advancement. Makeup is used effectively, with reality reflected in
> the natural appearance of Ann throughout and Tom at the beginning and
> the end, where grotesquerie is used when he is dissolute. Why, then,
> the artifice for Trulove and the near-natural appearance (beard
> aside) of Baba? More viewings will be needed to appreciate those.
>
> Technically, the disc ranks among the best of its era. The picture is
> crisp throughout. Sound is effective stereo without surround; clarity
> is exemplary and Ann Beckman's harpsichord glistens without blaring -
> just right in performance and in recording. Subtitles are in English
> only and cannot be suppressed; that is unfortunate since their style
> and color (yellow) are sometimes diverting and they are superfluous
> in this performance.
>
> Overall, the word for this disc is 'delightful'. It rewards repeated
> viewing and serves the work well.}}
>
>
> Now consider this shibboleth ---
>
> http://www.operajaponica.org/reviews/dvd/aidaroh94dvd.htm
>
> Verdi: AIDA
>
> Reviewed by Mickey (Mouse) Richter
> 27 May 2002
>
> Cast: Cheryl Studer (Aida), Luciana d'Intino (Amneris), Dennis
> O'Neill (Radames), Alexandru Agache (Amonasro), Robert Lloyd
> (Ramfis), Mark Beesley (Il Re), John Marsden (Messenger), Yvonne
> Barclay (Sacerdotta), Chorus & Orchestra of the Royal Opera House,
> Covent Garden, Sir Edward Downes (conductor). Elijah Moshinsky
> (director)
>
>
> {{One can now prove that it is possible to make a performance of Aida
> dull. Singing and conducting are altogether competent, but the only
> elements of this release which enliven the work are those of the
> production - and they are more often confusing or distracting than
> constructive. Lloyd infuses some life into his character, but Beesley
> is both vocally and dramatically subpar. D'Intino has some moments of
> expression but they are not those most needed; the opening scene of
> Act IV, for example, is flaccid. Studer, O'Neill and Agache sing all
> the notes and none of the music. Many points in the score are
> marked 'a piacere', but the pleasure of the artists appears to be to
> do nothing at all. The effect is altogether colorless - a grey and
> pointless recitation of one of the most vibrant scores in opera.
>
> Color is present on the screen in profusion, thanks to the striking
> sets and costumes. Unfortunately, those bear little relationship to
> action in the work. Where the banks of the Nile seem to be
> represented in Act III by poles topped by cat figures, the same
> symbol is carried into the first scene of Act IV, clearly suggesting
> that the designer had something else in mind. It is difficult to
> believe that the stunning, traditional production of the La Scala
> Aida with Chiara and Pavarotti came from the same director as this
> one. Characters mill about on stage, doing mysterious things and
> thereby diverting attention from what is written and what is being
> sung. For this reviewer, any production requiring explanation is in
> and of itself faulty.
>
> Technically, this disc is fine with clear sound and picture. Large's
> direction is in line with his preference for extreme closeup. Many
> find that distracting even on tape; on DVD, often seen on a large
> screen, it can be even less attractive, but that is a matter of
> personal taste.}}
>
>
> And thus spoke our hero. We re-quote:
>
> {{One can now prove that it is possible to make a performance of Aida
> dull. Singing and conducting are altogether competent, but the only
> elements of this release which enliven the work are those of the
> production - and they are more often confusing or distracting than
> constructive. Lloyd infuses some life into his character, but Beesley
> is both vocally and dramatically subpar. D'Intino has some moments of
> _expression but they are not those most needed; the opening scene of
> Act IV, for example, is flaccid. Studer, O'Neill and Agache sing all
> the notes and none of the music. Many points in the score are
> marked 'a piacere', but the pleasure of the artists appears to be to
> do nothing at all. The effect is altogether colorless - a grey and
> pointless recitation of one of the most vibrant scores in opera.}}
>
> Let us ponder some more:
>
> "Things got pretty rough at the last Philharmonic concert. A bitter
> battle broke out over Liszt's 'Mephisto Waltz.' It was the standees
> and a part of the gallery, resolved to give their all, against the
> parterre, the mountain against the marsh. On the one side we had
> youth, intelligence, idealism, good judgement, enthusiasm and
> conviction; on the other dullness, frivolity, debility, ignorance,
> arrogance, materialism. Such were the contending forces.
>
> There was a lot of applause, but a lot of hissing, too. Since, as we
> all know, these Semitic hissing sounds traditionally served
> the 'chosen people' as shibboleth in combat with their neighbors, it
> was not hard to determine who it was that so emphatically proclaimed
> both their dissent and their identity. Indeed, these 'chosen people'
> habitually make a great show of their exquisite taste. They are
> always ready to recognize in Beethoven a good composer. And yet there
> are those who see nothing heroic in the courage of such convictions.
> What, then, can we call courageous? Let it pass. These excellent and
> generous souls will surely enrich the National Guard with a doughty
> legion of tailors, and thus be of service to the state. You can take
> an oath on that.
>
> To take seriously the ludicrous behavior of these worthy parterre
> subscribers toward the works of a genius such as Liszt would be like
> punishing children's bad manners with the rack. We are not so cruel.
> But it is well to look for what it is that causes the public to
> behave like an ill-mannered child and to think like a well-groomed
> cad. How is it, we ask, that Liszt's compositions are rejected by the
> majority of our degenerate public? The answer is made uncommonly easy
> for me, since it is contained in the question. But then why, someone
> could object, do Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, etc., appeal to this same
> degenerate public? The objection is so banal, the answer so obvious,
> that any blockhead could handle it easily. But should someone choose
> to ask me what I mean by degenerate public, I accept the challenge
> gladly, and am ready with the answer: a degenerate public is one that
> is content to be the ward of a degenerate press.
>
> It is a public of newspaper readers. That is the source of all other
> evils. That is the source of the thoughtlessness, frivolity,
> dependence, distraction, insensibility and, above all, the bias
> against those works condemned to death by the press. If this were an
> ingenuous public, it would not tolerate for another day the shameful
> chains it now fastens to itself voluntarily. But the habit of cud-
> chewing has already become too delightful to permit the slightest
> effort to use one's own teeth. Thus, this public receives its
> impression of a work of art not directly, but from the review in the
> newspaper, to be had in concrete form for a patent. Go then to the
> apothecary, and buy yourselves some nux vomica or some other
> purgative if you want to have an impression. The effect remains
> essentially the same, and you spare yourselves the price of the
> ticket. And so a public, the despicable tool of a despicable press,
> will pass judgement on the works of a genius! A sluggardly mob that
> enters the concert hall as if it were a toy store, reduces the
> noblest possessions of mankind to idle diversions, and then, if that
> is not satisfactory, arrogantly turns its back on the work of art and
> ceremoniously hisses...fie, fie, and once again fie!!!
>
> Given such circumstances, it is hardly surprising that Liszt's
> original compositions have excited a lively 'for' and 'against'
> whenever they have been played in Vienna. This time the applause from
> the standees was still far from constituting a demonstration when a
> few hot headed Philistines signalled, stupidly enough, the
> shibboleth. That was pouring oil on fire. The applause grew louder,
> and rightly so, since it was directed no less at the splendid
> accomplishment of the orchestra and its conductor, Hans Richter, than
> at the work itself. And did not the wonderful performance of this
> Lisztian composition merit the most extravagant praise? What did
> Liszt's admirers do to excite the drowsy parterre to a counter-
> demonstration? They were simply giving due honor to service
> rendered."
>
> Hugo Wolf
> Vienna
> 25 April 1886
>
> ----------------------------
>
> M-U-S-I-C OF THE FUTURE
>
> Berg, Alban / Wozzeck / Marie
> Tchaïkowsky, Piotr Ilyich / Evgeny Onegin / Tatyana
> Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus / Così fan tutte / Fiordiligi
> Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus / Don Giovanni / Donna Elvira
> Puccini, Giacomo / Manon Lescaut / Manon Lescaut
> Puccini, Giacomo / Tosca / Tosca
> Strauss, Richard / Capriccio / Gräfin
> Strauss, Richard / Salome / Salome
> Verdi, Giuseppe / Un Ballo in Maschera / Amelia
> Verdi, Giuseppe / Don Carlo / Elisabetta
> Wagner, Richard / Tristan und Isolde / Isolde
>
> MORE M-U-S-I-C....REDIVIVUS
>
> Beethoven, Ludwig van / Fidelio / Leonore
> Lehár, Franz / Die Lustige Witwe / Hanna Glawari
> Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus / Le Nozze di Figaro / Contessa d'Almaviva
> Strauss, Richard / Elektra / Chrysothemis
> Verdi, Giuseppe / Aida / Aida
> Verdi, Giuseppe / Otello / Desdemona
> Wagner, Richard / Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg / Eva
>
> AND YET MORE M-U-S-I-C
>
> Strauss, Richard / Arabella / Arabella
> Strauss, Richard / Ariadne auf Naxos / Primadonna/Ariadne
> Strauss, Richard / Die Frau ohne Schatten / Kaiserin
> Strauss, Richard / Der Rosenkavalier / Marschallin
> Wagner, Richard / Der fliegende Holländer / Senta
> Wagner, Richard / Lohengrin / Elsa von Brabant
> Wagner, Richard / Tannhäuser / Elisabeth
> Wagner, Richard / Die Walküre / Sieglinde
>
> ----------------------------
>
> "Wie wenn singen so leicht wäre! Nur Karriere-Machen ist für
> Sängerinnen und Sänger noch schwerer. Dabei wissen sie alle von
> vornherein, welche Partien zu singen sich lohnt, in welchen man auf
> jeden Fall Eindruck zu schinden versteht: Partien, die sich
> gewissermaßen von selber entfalten, gestalten und singen.
>
> Daneben gibt es natürlich auch reichliche Mengen von Wurzen-Rollen, um
> die man sich lieber herumdrückt; ihnen, wenn irgend möglich, aus dem
> Wege singt, sie mit Kusshand den Kolleginnen und Kollegen überlässt.
> Sollen sie doch selber sehen, wie sie den Singhals am glücklichsten
> aus der von Komponistenhand geknüpften Schlinge ziehen, wenn das
> überhaupt möglich ist.
>
> Es ist schon so: Um die Rolle der Irene, der bleichblütigen Schwester
> des letzten römischen Tribunen Rienzi, hat sich noch keine Sängerin je
> gerissen. Das wird wohl auch Neu-Bayreuth lernen müssen, wenn es -
> gegen Wagners erklärten Willen - unter Eva oder Nike, den
> Großenkelinnen auf Festspiel-Erneuerungskurs, das höchst
> kürzungsfreudige musikalische Römerdrama Jung-Richards auf dem Grünen
> Hügel vorzeigen will. Es sei denn, Bayreuth spränge eine junge
> Sängerin zu Hilfe, wie es 1983 bei der Eröffnungspremiere den Münchner
> Opernfestspielen unter Wolfgang Sawallisch durch Cheryl Studer
> geschah.
>
> Vielleicht hätte selbst Wagner seinen "Rienzi" damals schlankweg auf
> "Irene" umgetauft. Cheryl Studer jedenfalls stahl ihren Mitsängern,
> trotz René Kollo, die Opern-Show. Damit macht man sich nicht gerade
> bei den Kollegen beliebt, aber berühmt kann man darüber schon werden,
> und Studer wurde es auf der Stelle. Es war halt eine Zeit, in der das
> Feuilleton noch rundum funktionierte.
>
> Von buchstäblich einem Tag auf den andern sah sich Studers Ruhm
> etabliert. Sie durfte weltweit singen, was nur immer sie wollte, und
> sie wollte viel. Ihr Repertoire schwoll, wie bei kaum einer anderen
> Sängerin, mächtig in die Breite; und in die Höhe wuchs es, sie selber
> überraschend, gleichzeitig auch.
>
> Mit den Koloraturen der Königin der Nacht klopfte sie, zumindest auf
> Schallplatten, unternehmungslustig, sogar geradezu vorwitzig an die
> geheiligten Pforten von Gruberova-Land. Sie gab sich, wann und wo
> irgend möglich, als Mozart-Sängerin zu erkennen. Studers Stimme schien
> sich geradezu selbstständig gemacht zu haben: Sie sang gewissermaßen
> auf dem Ausflug nach künftigen vokalen Abenteuern.
>
> Sie war Salome, Desdemona, Semiramide, Violetta, aber gleichzeitig
> auch Lucia, die Heldin von Lammermoor. Sie sang Wagner am laufenden
> Band: die Senta im "Fliegenden Holländer", Elsa in "Lohengrin",
> Elisabeth im "Tannhäuser", die "Wesendonck-Lieder": das ganze lyrische
> Fach. Sie griff aus auf das Richard-Strauss-Repertoire: nach der
> Chrysothemis in "Elektra" lockte "Ariadne" und natürlich die
> Marschallin im "Rosenkavalier". Die Schallplatte riss sich um Studers
> Mitarbeit.
>
> Sie sang unter den bedeutendsten Dirigenten: unter Abbado, Sir Georg
> Solti, Levine, Gardiner, Sinopoli. Als Partner kamen überhaupt nur
> noch die feinsten Kollegen wie Placido Domingo oder Luciano Pavarotti
> in Frage. Auf breiter musikalischer Front ging es stetig voran. Die
> Leuchtkraft der Stimme, die Natürlichkeit des Empfindens, die
> Fähigkeit, rückentwickelnd aus altbekannten Operngestalten wieder an
> ihren Schicksalen beteiligende Menschen zu machen, zeichnete Studers
> schier einzigartige Kunst aus.
>
> Die Metropolitan in New York hieß sie willkommen. Sie sang an der
> Mailänder Scala. Berlin gab ihr einen Vertrag. Die Salzburger
> Festspiele ließen sich nicht lumpen. Ohne Studer schienen die Bühnen
> der Welt mit einem Schlag nackt und bloß.
>
> Was war bloß geschehen, das bald zu beunruhigen begann? Studer hatte
> über das ringsum herrschende Kästchendenken, über die Ränder der in
> immer enger geschnürten Fächern verwahrten Rollen hinausgesungen. Sie
> hatte wieder aufklingen lassen, was im 19. Jahrhundert noch
> selbstverständlich war, da ein Ludwig Schnorr mit seinen
> neunundzwanzig Jahren bereits den Tristan sang, gleichzeitig aber auch
> Ottavio im "Don Giovanni", und Lilli Lehmann buchstäblich alles, was
> sich von einer Frau in der Sopranlage singen ließ, mit
> Selbstverständlichkeit, Technik und Gottvertrauen dem Publikum
> vortrug. Studer versuchte, es ihr gleich zu tun.
>
> Sie eckte damit an. An allen Ecken und Enden tauchten plötzlich
> Beckmesser auf. So etwas wie künstlerisches Mobbing zeigte sich in den
> bislang einhellig geheiligten Opernkulissen. Man versuchte, Cheryl
> Studer verstummen zu machen. Man annulierte ihre Verträge. Man
> versuchte, sie in mindere Rollen umzutopfen. Jeder Buhruf vom Olymp,
> altgeübter leidiger Brauch, der schon Callas und Tebaldi umklungen
> hatte, wurde plötzlich zu Gottes Stimme erklärt und verklärt.
>
> Imponierend wiederum: Studer zog vor Gericht. Sie ließ sich diese
> Missachtung ihrer Kunst, ihres Könnens nicht bieten. Sie wollte sich
> nicht als Schallplatte aus Fleisch und Blut, als volltechnisierte
> Singmaschine eingestuft und zwangsläufig als Künstlerin abgewertet
> sehen. Sie wollte Frau bleiben dürfen: singender, jeden Abend auf
> offener Bühne sich preisgebender Mensch. Man gab ihr Recht.
>
> Das Publikum gab ihr Recht. Studers Rückkehr ins Zentrum des
> musikalischen Erfolges vollzog sich in imponierend gelassenen
> Schritten. Sie hat, singend, alle Querelen, die man um sie anzettelte,
> hinter sich gelassen. Seither singt sie nicht mehr mit dem Rücken
> gegen die Wand. Sie hat sich ihre jubilierenden Freiheiten
> wiedererobert: nicht nur eine bedeutende Künstlerin, zugleich eine
> tapfere Frau."
>
> ----------------------------
>
> "Sie begann ihre Ausbildung im Alter von 12 Jahren an der Interlochen
> Arts Academy; dann während drei Jahren am Berkshire Music Centre in
> Tanglewood Schülerin von Phyllis Curtin. 1978 gewann sie einen
> Gesangwettbewerb der Metropolitan Oper New York und setzte darauf ihre
> Ausbildung an der Wiener Musikakademie, u.a. bei Hans Hotter, fort.
> Sie war bereits in ihrer amerikanischen Heimat als Konzertsängerin
> aufgetreten. 1980 erhielt sie ihr erstes Bühnenengagement an der
> Staatsoper von München (Debüt als erste Dame in der "Zauberflöte").
> 1981 hatte sie dort einen aufsehenerregenden Erfolg als Marie in
> Smetanas "Verkaufter Braut". 1982-84 war sie Mitglied des
> Staatstheaters von Darmstadt, 1984-86 der Deutschen Oper Berlin. Es
> kam dann zur Ausbildung einer großen, internationalen Karriere. 1985
> hatte sie bei den Festspielen von Bayreuth einen sensationellen Erfolg
> als Elisabeth im "Tannhäuser". Diese Partie wiederholte sie dort
> 1986-87 und 1989; 1988-90 wurde sie in Bayreuth als Elsa im
> "Lohengrin" gefeiert. 1986 zu Gast an der Grand Opéra Paris als Pamina
> in der "Zauberflöte" an der Covent Garden Oper London hörte man sie
> 1987 als Elisabeth, 1988 als Elsa, 1994 als Aida; an der Münchner
> Staatsoper 1987 als Sieglinde in der "Walküre", dann als Kaiserin in
> der "Frau ohne Schatten" von R.Strauss, 1996 als Arabella in der
> gleichnamigen Oper von R.Strauss. An der Oper von Rom wirkte sie 1987
> in einer konzertanten Aufführung von Webers "Euryanthe" mit, an der
> Mailänder Scala sang sie das Sopransolo im Verdi-Requiem. 1988
> erschien sie wieder an der Grand Opéra Paris, jetzt als Elsa.
> Ebenfalls 1988 kam es zu ihrem Debüt an der Metropolitan Oper New York
> in der Partie der Micaela in "Carmen". 1989 übernahm sie an der
> Staatsoper von Wien wie bei den Salzburger Festspielen die
> Chrysothemis in "Elektra" von R.Strauss. 1989 trat sie an der
> Mailänder Scala als Elena in Verdis "I Vespri Siciliani" auf, 1991 als
> Odabella in "Attila" von Verdi. 1990 sang sie an der Wiener Staatsoper
> die Elsa im "Lohengrin" (mit Placido Domingo in der Titelrolle) und
> die Donna Anna im "Don Giovanni", 1991 die Gräfin in "Figaros
> Hochzeit", die sie auch 1995 an der Londoner Covent Garden Oper
> vortrug, 1996 an der Oper von Lyon die Leonore im "Fidelio". Bei den
> Salzburger Festspielen war sie 1990-91 als Elettra in Mozarts
> "Idomeneo", 1992 als Kaiserin in "Die Frau ohne Schatten" von
> R.Strauss 1995 als Marschallin im "Rosenkavalier", 1996 als Leonore im
> "Fidelio" anzutreffen. Sie gastierte am Teatro Liceo Barcelona, am
> Opernhaus Bonn und an den großen amerikanischen Bühnen, war aber nicht
> weniger erfolgreich als Konzertsopranistin. Auf der Bühne lagen
> Schwerpunkte ihres Repertoires im Mozart- und im Wagner-Fach, dazu in
> Partien wie der Mathilde in Rossinis "Wilhelm Tell" (Mailänder Scala),
> der Elena in Verdis "Vespri Siciliani", der Marguerite im "Faust" von
> Gounod und der Titelpartie in Rossinis "Semiramide". 1989 übernahm sie
> in Philadelphia mit der Lucia di Lammermoor eine der großen
> klassischen Koloraturpartien und unterstrich damit einmal mehr ihre
> vielseitige, die Fachgrenzen übergreifende Begabung. Beim Rossini
> Festival in Pesaro sang sie 1990 die Mme. Cortese in "Il Viaggio a
> Reims" von Rossini.Bei der Vielzahl von Schallplattenaufnahmen kann
> nur eine Übersicht gegeben werden: Ariola-Eurodisc (Walküre im
> Ring-Zyklus), Orfeo ("Die Feen" von R.Wagner, Requiem von Donizetti),
> HMV-Electrola (Verdi-Requiem, 9. Sinfonie von Beethoven, Elena in "I
> Vespri Siciliani", Kaiserin in "Die Frau ohne Schatten" von R.Strauss,
> "Attila" von Verdi, Sieglinde in der "Walküre"), DGG (Elisabeth im
> "Tannhäuser", Gutrune in der "Götterdämmerung", Elsa im "Lohengrin",
> "Fierrabras" von Schubert, "Salome" von R.Strauss, "La Traviata" mit
> Placido Domingo, Gräfin in "Nozze di Figaro", "Lucia di Lammermoor",
> "Das klagende Lied" und 8.Sinfonie von G.Mahler, Hanna Glawari in der
> "Lustigen Witwe"), Philips (Königin der Nacht in der "Zauberflöte",
> Giulietta in "Hoffmanns Erzählungen"), Schwann ("Der Geburtstag der
> Infantin" von Zemlinsky), EMI ("Faust" von Gounod, Eva in den
> "Meistersingern", Salomé in "Hérodiade" von Massenet), Virgin-EMI
> ("Susannah" von C.Floyd); Virgin-Video (Chrysothemis in "Elektra" von
> R.Strauss), Philips-Video ("Lohengrin", "Tannhäuser"), Castle-Video
> ("Lohengrin"), Videoland Wien ("Attila" von Verdi)."
>
> ----------------------------
>
> And now, ladies and gentlemen, some more shibboleth-by-proxy...
>
> FINDING GREATNESS IN STRANGE PLACES
>
> "Amid the ongoing talk of the classical music record industry in
> crisis, an odd phenomenon is taking shape: great records of repertory
> chestnuts are still being made. "What's so strange about that?" you
> ask. Here's what: many of these spectacular new recordings aren't
> coming from the expected sources--major artists on major labels-- but
> rather from, well, just about anywhere. This fact hit home hard
> recently, as you will see if you read on, so I thought that this
> would be a good time to examine this trend in greater detail since it
> touches on many of the issues that lie at the very heart of the
> current "crisis," not the least of which are some of the underlying
> assumptions and expectations that we all have as listeners.
>
> Many factors distinguish today's marketplace from that of years gone
> by, but one particular difference concerns us here. For most of its
> history, the classical music industry acted as an offshoot to the
> business of giving live concerts. Great artists performed their
> limited repertoire of certified masterpieces and their exclusive
> labels backed them up with recordings documenting their careers, thus
> allowing both the artists (and the labels) to capitalize on their
> fame and success. This practice still exists at some of the major
> labels, but on an increasingly limited basis and, more to the point,
> at an ever further remove from the vast bulk of recording activity
> taking place today.
>
> The emancipation of the recording industry from its origins as an
> adjunct to live concerts has had many consequences, some of them
> quite beneficial to the consumer. It has permitted the release of
> vast tracts of repertoire, from early and Baroque music
> to "neglected" symphonists of every nationality and period, which
> most people will never have the opportunity to hear live, if indeed
> these works will ever be performed in concert at all. It has
> permitted labels to proliferate and specialize in music of particular
> periods and styles, given countless artists access to the music
> loving public, and of course provided a boon to record purchasers,
> even while opening up a large and frustrating (to producers) gap
> between the spending habits of concertgoers as compared with those
> interested in home listening.
>
> Particularly relevant, though, are the consequences resulting from
> giving so many new or little-known artists access to the general
> public through the medium of recordings. Most of these performers are
> largely unknown, many are mediocre, but some are fantastic, and more
> to the point, in the world of music even mediocre artists often have
> a few great evenings (or studio sessions) in them, and the chances
> that the microphones will be ready to capture them on these special
> occasions, however rare, are better than ever before. Making records
> today is just so easy and cheap, technologically speaking. This in
> turn raises the tantalizing possibility of discovering great music
> making at virtually any point, from any source -- a possibility
> that's becoming an ever more frequent occurrence if one has the time
> and opportunity to listen and the willingness to do so without
> prejudice or preconceptions.
>
> In the past few months, I have had the good fortune to encounter at
> least four such recordings, two of them in circumstances that make
> for revealing comparisons, as recent versions of the same music
> by "major" artists and ensembles have been released at roughly the
> same time. These four are: the best-ever rendition of Rimsky-
> Korsakov's Antar Symphony (No. 2) from Kees Bakels and the Malaysian
> Philharmonic on BIS; stunning new readings of Shostakovich's
> Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6 from Oleg Caetani and the Giuseppe Verdi
> Symphony Orchestra of Milan; a Mahler Fifth Symphony on ABC Classics
> from the Melbourne Symphony under Markus Stenz that puts the recent
> (perfectly respectable) Rattle/Berlin Philharmonic disc to shame; and
> last but not least, Strauss' An Alpine Symphony from the Warsaw
> Philharmonic led by Kazimierz Kord on CD Accord, a performance that
> positively annihilates in every respect the new Thielemann/Vienna
> Philharmonic snooze-fest on DG.
>
> These releases raise interesting problems for us critics. After all,
> its one thing to praise to the skies neglected genius Theodosius
> Svohblcky-Dryzckiwszk's Symphony No. 31 played by the Lower Ruhr
> Valley Symphony Orchestra conducted by Egbert Schuchterflecker. I
> mean, who's going to know the difference? The three aging members of
> England's Theodosius Svohblcky-Dryzckiwszk Society as well as any
> surviving relatives will be thrilled beyond measure as a matter of
> course; collectors of recordings of neglected composers -- all
> hundred or so worldwide -- will want to listen anyway, and everyone
> else will simply ignore the review. But telling the public that the
> Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, at least in this case, don't hold a
> candle to the Warsaw Philharmonic and the Melbourne Symphony, or that
> true greatness may reside in the Malaysian Philharmonic (shudder), or
> (the ultimate horror!) an Italian orchestra--let's just say that
> there's a real issue of credibility here. As critics, we have an
> obligation to report what we hear, but will we be believed? Should we
> even care?
>
> In this respect it's important to keep in mind that when it comes to
> a critic's reputation, praise is far more dangerous than condemnation
> (and much more difficult to write as well). If a listener disagrees
> with a critic who hates a disc, he'll probably say, "He has his
> opinion and I have mine, and I happen to enjoy many of the things
> that this critic dislikes." No harm done. But when a reader finds
> disgusting a recording that a critic raves about, then the critic
> risks being labeled an incompetent with no standards, a sell-out to
> commercial interests, and a musical ignoramus besides. This is
> perfectly understandable. After all, that reader probably feels he
> has been duped into spending his hard-earned money on crap, and hell
> hath no fury like a serious collector deceived, especially one on a
> limited budget.
>
> And let's not kid ourselves: artistic reputations really do influence
> listeners' perceptions, especially when part of the classical music
> mystique involves the validation of one's own taste and discernment,
> a goal most easily achieved by joining crowds of like-minded fans of
> major artists. Don't get me wrong: there's nothing bad in this as
> long as it doesn't become a fetish. The quality of music making today
> is extremely high. Most major artists surely earn their stature and
> popularity over time, and deserve the adulation of their fans.
> Besides, like many forms of entertainment, the classical music world
> has always been artist driven. People buy recordings by performers
> they admire, know, and trust, never mind what they sound like, and
> many (if not most) consumers have already made up their minds to like
> something before the first note sounds. Unfortunately this is true of
> some critics too, but that's another story.
>
> The problem in making sincere critical praise of the unknown credible
> is compounded by the fact that what we might call this "repertoire
> driven" segment of the industry, the one that now dominates the new
> release racks, spends very little money on marketing or promotion,
> leaving it almost entirely up to chance that the public will discover
> its work (or that a store will bother to stock it). This in turn
> leads to the frustrating problem that even readers who might actually
> be inclined to act on a critic's recommendation and risk a purchase
> often have a heroic task ahead of them merely trying to find a place
> where they can buy the disc. Solving these problems represents
> perhaps the major challenge facing the industry today, particularly
> the independent labels, and they are doing a lousy job at it on the
> whole.
>
> In prior decades, we took it on faith that major artists on major
> labels, if not always representing "the best" on every occasion in
> every work, at least offered standards higher then those found in,
> say, Lahti, Finland or Nashville, Tennessee. Remember how odd it
> seemed to us just a few years ago that Chandos would record a
> Tchaikovsky symphony cycle with the Oslo Philharmonic under a no-name
> called Mariss Jansons? Now we know that this prejudice in favor
> of "name" artists was just plain ignorance, a fact clearly
> demonstrated by the innumerable excellent recordings made by vast
> numbers of superbly trained musicians the world over, in turn
> supported by generous quantities of public and private money
> available to artists and ensembles of every stripe. The Malaysian
> Philharmonic is funded by that country's state-owned oil industry.
> It's as good a band as money can buy, and I say this without a trace
> of cynicism. The orchestra's fine quality speaks for itself.
>
> So does this mean that the Malaysian Philharmonic and the other
> orchestras previously mentioned are "greater" than those of Berlin or
> Vienna? Of course not, or at any rate, not yet. One important aspect
> of greatness must be the ability to maintain consistently high
> standards over the long term. But for the critic (and the home
> listener) none of that should matter. These folks have made great
> records, and even if in concert they sound dreadful as often as not,
> at least one document exists to prove that on at least one occasion
> they stood with the very finest the world of music has to offer. As
> critics, we can do our best to point this out fairly and accurately.
> But it's up to the industry itself to promote these unknown artists
> and ensembles, and otherwise alert the public to the fact that
> there's some mighty impressive new talent out there, while at the
> same time making it as easy as possible for the curious or skeptical
> to sample and buy. In today's classical music world, greatness is no
> longer an assumption automatically bestowed on hallowed artists and
> institutions, but an ideal to be pursued, discovered, acclaimed, and
> cherished wherever it may be found."
>
> David Hurwitz
> http://classicstoday.com
>
> Postscript - "Try as you may to locate a Cheryl Studer review
> (other than the justly famous Samuel Barber set) in my little
> website that could --- as if nothing else had happened before and
> after."
>
> ----------------------------
>
> And why not end this session with a tad more courage?...
>
> HOW THE PC BRIGADE IS DESTROYING OUR ORCHESTRAS
> by Norman Lebrecht, "The Evening Standard"
> 8 October 2003
>
> "I went along to be enlightened and came away consumed with despair
> at the political realities which oblige arts managers to give up a
> working day for a preach-in on multiculturalism. The symposium was
> called 'Cultural Diversity and the Classical Music Industry' and it
> yammered on all day yesterday in a dreary side-room at the Royal
> Festival Hall, overlooking the railway cuttings. There was a sell-out
> attendance from just about every classical body in Britain bigger
> than a string quartet. This might make you think that the theme was
> compulsive.
> Compulsory is more like it. As things stand in British arts, only an
> autist would dare to profess disinterest in diversity. With 7.9
> percent of the population derived from ethnic minorities and the
> government sloganising away about inclusion, it would have been a
> brave orchestral boss who stayed away from diversity day. One manager
> whispered to me that his absence would surely have been 'noted'.
> There was an ominous edge to the proceedings. The organising body,
> the Association of British Orchestras (ABO), had 'aligned the event
> with the objectives of Arts Council England' - specifically with the
> ACE's aim to make cultural diversity 'central to all that it
> undertakes'. The ACE sent no fewer than ten observers to a room
> holding 160. An awful lot of next year's funding must hinge on
> diversity compliance.
> As for sell-outs, that was the fundamental premise. The ABO,
> representing a dwindling and dangerously uncool sector, was waving a
> white flag of acceptance that art must, for the time being, take
> second place to social engineering. Orchestras are increasingly
> expected to hire 'audience development managers' and work
> with 'grassroots communities' if they want to carry on playing the
> symphonies of Beethoven and Brahms.
> The day began combatively with a speech from Lord Moser, once
> chairman of the Royal Opera House and now of the British Museum
> Development Trust. Lord Moser, 81, told the apparatchiks that
> orchestras 'do not deserve lectures or pressures from the arts
> councils - what is lacking is on the other side of the coin, in the
> education and funding systems.'
> The reason orchestras have so few non-white players - only two, for
> instance, in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in the heart
> of multicultural Midlands - is because music teaching has been
> neglected in the poorest areas. State school recruitment of music
> teachers was down 12 percent nationally last year. Most of those
> teaching music in secondary schools were, he said, untrained in
> music. Until they provide music teaching for minority children, the
> authorities cannot point a finger at orchestras for failing to engage
> non-whites as players, staff and audiences. 'Classical music will
> always be a minority interest,' asserted Lord Moser, 'but it should
> not be as much of a minority as it has been allowed to become in this
> country.'
> After that, it was all downhill as the diversity industry turned its
> rage on the orchestral craft. Professor Lola Young, head of culture
> at the Greater London Authority and previously chair of the ACE's
> diversity panel, said we must 'change the look of the classical music
> industry'. The professor, resplendent in an African-style headwrap,
> named 'George Augustus Bridgewater', the black violinist for whom
> Beethoven wrote his concerto, as a useful role model. Every classical
> buff in the room knew the name was Bridgetower, but they were too
> cowed to correct a dominatrix of political correctness.
> Kim Evans, executive director of arts at the ACE, argued that if
> diversity was good for business, it must be twice as good for
> art. 'We are asking you to use your funding in different ways,' she
> instructed, 'to approach audiences in different ways.' A chill set in
> as she drew parallels with the ACE's assault on the theatrical
> sector, which it condemned as 'institutionally racist' and then
> promised to help reform. Evans urged orchestras to develop 'positive
> action plans' before they were similarly sin-binned.
> Roger Wright, head of Radio 3 which is getting flak from classic
> lovers for its output of world music, confessed that everyone at the
> BBC now undergoes 'diversity training'. Roger Lewis, head of easy-
> listening Classic FM, exhorted us, perhaps ironically 'to get out of
> comfort zones'.
> And so it went on, a daylong drizzle of ambiguities, hypocrisies and
> dissimulations that could not conceal a grim inevitability.
> Diversity, or the policy that speaks its name, is a means of
> diverting orchestras from what they ought to be doing, making music,
> to what the Government ought to be doing, creating social harmony.
> Few rose to challenge its preposterousness. Diversity is, to most of
> us, a fact of life. One does not have to travel far these days to
> find a cafe serving braised ostrich, or look beyond the next street
> corner to realise that forced marriages, honour killings and female
> circumcision exist in our midst. There are bright and dark aspects to
> the mass immigration of the past 30 years.
> The cultural benefits are, however, overwhelmingly heartening. The
> literature, art and music of this country have been enriched beyond
> measure by a generation of inter-mingling on equal terms with other
> traditions. London in particular has become the hub of cross-cultural
> fertilisation as Paris was between the wars and New York briefly
> afterwards. Such melting-pots are made by mutual respect. No-one
> wants qawwali ensembles to doff caps and sing Haydn any more than a
> symphony orchestra should have to drop oboes and bang dustbin lids.
> Yet that is what the diversity peddlers are pushing. Orchestras which
> struggle against an already inhospitable zeitgeist are being told to
> change their ways, while immigrant cultures are celebrated for their
> supposed purity. It is absurd, unfair and inherently disastrous.
> Sitting amid the Blairite blather, I was transported back to the
> notorious Zhdanovitsa of 1948, when Soviet composers were summoned to
> Leningrad to be instructed by party hacks, on pain of exile, on how
> to write music for the new society. There was something of that fear
> on the South Bank yesterday.
> And an uglier precedent sprang to mind. The ACE's aim is to
> accelerate the integration of minorities into established arts,
> heedless of cultural consequences. It amounts to a mirror image of
> Hitlerite policy which entailed the removal of non-aryan races from
> German music, even though this would relegate the art to the margins
> of civilisation. That one policy is well-intentioned and the other
> unutterably evil is immaterial. What the world learned from Stalin
> and Hitler is that state organs have no business meddling with
> culture. That lesson is being obliterated in Britain where cultural
> diversity is brandished as a weapon to intimidate the performing arts
> and ultimately to emasculate them."
>
> ----------------------------
>
> "The dangers of life
> are infinite
> And safety is among them."
>
> --- Goethe