May 2014 - Page 12 of 18

The First Lady is participating in something called Turnaround Arts initiative, a worthy attempt to upgrade failing schools by adding arts education. She has recuited a number of celebrities to highlight the cause. But when push comes to shove and the kids come to the White House today, all she’ll hear is guitar, drums, ukelel and rap. What kind of message is that? Closing of the American Mind.

Press release extract below.

On Tuesday, May 20, First Lady Michelle Obama will host students from Turnaround Arts schools across the nation and renowned performers and artists at the first-ever White House talent show. Students will perform and showcase their work at the White House, joined by the Turnaround Artists who have been volunteering with their schools to support their arts education. Artists participating in Tuesday’s White House event include Sarah Jessica Parker, Chuck Close, John Lloyd Young, Damian Woetzel, George Wolfe, Alfre Woodard, Troy Andrews (Trombone Shorty), Cristina Pato, Shane Shanahan and Kojiro Umezaki. Artists in attendance include Kerry James Marshall, Kal Penn, Frank Gehry, Clarence Greenwood (Citizen Cope), Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Doc Shaw and Chad Smith.

Nicola Benedetti has been whisked in to replace Janine Jansen, who is unwell. It’s her proper debut with the orch, the previous appearance having been a bit part in September 2011 in Andrea Bocelli Live in Central Park, performing Lorin Maazel’s arrangement of Rodrigo’s “En Aranjuez con tu Amor” (Nicky, how could you?). This time she’s playing Szymanowski (phew!).

Also on debut with the Phil is the London Philharmonic’s Vladimir Jurowski. (What took them so long?)

Press release below.

Violinist Nicola Benedetti will make her New York Philharmonic subscription debut —
replacing Janine Jansen, who has been advised by her doctor not to play for at least a week — in
performances of Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Vladimir Jurowski will make his
Philharmonic debut conducting the concerts, Wednesday, May 21, 2014, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday,
May 22 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, May 23 at 2:00 p.m.; and Saturday, May 24 at 8:00 p.m. The
program will conclude with selections from Prokofiev’s Cinderella.

Nicola Benedetti made her New York Philharmonic debut in September 2011 in Andrea Bocelli
Live in Central Park, performing Lorin Maazel’s arrangement of Rodrigo’s “En Aranjuez con tu
Amor” alongside Mr. Bocelli, conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert. Szymanowski’s Violin
Concerto No. 1 is the work with which Ms. Benedetti won the BBC Young Musician of the Year
competition in 2004; it also featured on her debut recording, recorded with the London
Symphony Orchestra led by Daniel Harding on the Deutsche Grammophon label.

This is Nora Fischer, soprano daughter of the conductor Ivan Fischer, in the final round of Dutch Classical Talent this weekend. Very confident, accomplished performer, with a touch of the Cathy Berberian about her.

The winner was a cellist, Joris van den Berg. Nora and percussionist Niek Kleinjan were the runners up.

Just three operas – Bohème, Don Giovanni and Nixon in China – but a triumph for the board members and fundraisers who overturned the plot to shut the company down. Full details here.

Weasel words have been used by five male, middle-aged critics to describe a promising young soprano whom they deemed physically too heavy for the role. All five suggested she was fat, without actually using the ‘f’ word. The euphemisms were timid and dishonest.

The singer in question, Tara Erraught, may carry slightly more heft than a size eight, but what has that to do with performance? We want to know from a critic how she sang the role of Octavian at Glyndebourne, how she acted and how she interacted with the rest of the production. None of the reviews told us that. As a result, the five critics have been pilloried before the court of public opinion.

The only national female critic at opening night, Fiona Maddocks of the Observer, contradicted her male colleagues. She tweeted: Ahead of full review: Tara Erraught’s Octavian is touching, innocent, beautifully sung, beautifully acted.

Among other responses, a prominent mezzo-soprano Alice Coote called for a more holistic approach to casting and more sensitive criticism than is permitted by the current obsession with body image (Richard Wagner or Gustav Mahler might well have agreed).

The Guardian newspaper, discomfited by its own critic’s judgement, has published not one but two commentaries of rebuttal. Slippedisc has flared white hot with debate all day and social media are rippling with the aftershocks.

So, to brass tacks: does excess body weight affects artistic performance on stage? Obviously not, as Luciano Pavarotti loudly demonstrated, Pavarotti and as a recent entrant to Britain’s Got Talent amply confirms (below).

Does excess weight affect opera casting? Yes, very often, as almost every singer will attest. Should it? No, of course not, but so long as mass media endorse body fashion there will be no end to weight discrimination in opera.

The issue here is not a proposed reform of opera auditions so much as the language of criticism. The role of opera critic, ill-paid and under-appreciated, is to inform and educate the reading public. Some do so faithfully, some magnificently. But when a critic, or a pack of critics, expresses an unpleasant prejudice – whether on race, sex or appearance – that is an offence for which they and their newspapers must answer. A public apology to the young singer is the least they can offer.

This video may make things clearer. Or not.

Post by Kevin Sorbo Official Facebook Page.

Charles Harrison, Assistant Director of Music at Lincoln Cathedral for the past ten years, has been upgraded to Organist and Master of the Choristers at Chichester Cathedral. Hope he knows his (Bernstein) Psalms.

His name is Aleksandrs Antonenko and the scholarship is worth $15,000.

He has already sung in good company (see below). That’s some voice.

The mezzo-soprano Alice Coote, who sings leading roles at the Met, Covent Garden and major concert halls and festivals, was outraged like many others at the slew of body insults hurled by British critics today at a young singer appearing at Glyndebourne.

On a train to her next engagement, she wrote this open letter for publication on Slippedisc:

We need to talk.
Its gotten really serious now.
We ALL need to talk.
Arts administrators, Directors and Conductors, Audience members, Conservatoires, teachers, Families, Friends, Singers and Press and Critics and Opera Companies… EVERYONE.

All you of you who have known and love Opera..and still do. All of you who know it to be the Art form that is about celebrating the human voice, the human voice at its most Olympian heights of expression. The art form when done right, meaning at its essentials – sung by a truly great singer- takes the breath away, moves the human heart soul and spirit, and creates excitement like no other.

This magic happens when a voice, maybe of recognisable or greatness of tone, that has been trained for decades as an athlete and musician, launches its instrument – part of the human body and identity- upon the greatest and most challenging music that has been written for the human singing voice.

It is not about lights, it is not about costumes, it’s not about sets, it’s not even about sex or stature… It is ALL about the human voice. This is the Olympics of the human larynx attached to a heart and mind that wants to communicate to other hearts and minds. It is something that is done without amplification and without barriers.. It is one human singing to another. LIVE.

All the visual messages that a production and costume brings to an opera does not alter ( even though they can try very hard) the fact that it’s true success in moving and making an audience love the Art form lies in the voice that sails across the pit to the audience and into their ears.
They are not moved by seeing a conventionally beautiful or attractive person walking around in a lovely or impressive costume or lights or environ. This they can get in the theatre (although I doubt that moves them much either) or in film or in daily life. Opera is NOT about that.. It is about and really ONLY about communication through great singing.

If you go back not too far in our operatic times, Pavarotti stood on stages and sang audiences into near hysteria. He became the most famous classical singer of our time.

I attended two performances of Bellini’s Norma at the Metropolitan Opera in New York last season in John Copley and John Conklin’s production. One cast was perhaps perceived in simplistic terms as more conventional looking and in today’s values “starry”. The performance was a success but I didn’t witness any big audience reaction or atmosphere of excitement.

The second performance was by a “second cast” by two of the ” greatest ” younger singers of our day, they perhaps were not physically slight as in a Grazia magazine cover , but boy could they SING. These were great voices that filled the theatre and hit the solar plexus. The audience were immediately gripped by what hit their senses and ears and a huge standing ovation occurred at the end.

I am a singer. And born of painters as parents – I am also hugely visually aware. The physical shapes that a Fonteyn and a Nureyev whom I saw as a child (and still watch) moved and move me, and excite me beyond description. I have always been fascinated by physical embodiment as a form of communication. But more than two decades as a singer watching other singers and witnessing too many performances to remember.. I know one thing for sure; (to steal Oprah’s catchphrase) OPERA is ALL about the voice.

Many of those who think they know me and may be surprised by this.. But it’s not an opinion, it’s a FACT.

Before it’s too late we need to REMEMBER THIS FACT. If a voice is right for a role and can sing it better than anyone else.. It’s more important to have that VOICE singing on a stage than any other.. Despite whether you like the way they look or not. We cannot people our operatic stages with singers that above all are believable visually or sexually attractive to our critics… That way lies the death of opera. This is not in any case a BELIEVABLE art form .. WHO are we KIDDING? But it is one that can move humans in ways that they cannot explain. And in ways that make them fall in love with great voices singing GREAT music. That is Opera in a state of health.

Opera WILL die if audiences have only average looking, average singing humans walking around in interesting ( or average) looking productions.. This will make them wonder ” WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT OPERA? Do I NEED this?

Our current Culture mistakenly thinks the reverse. They think that if a singer doesn’t look like a model or a “celebrity” then the audience won’t be excited.

Audiences aren’t idiots.. They can sense when they are being duped. They can sense when they are witnessing something OK and when there is something happening that is EXTRAORDINARY.

Singers and teachers know that being underweight is far more damaging to a singer’s wellbeing and performance than being overweight. Similarly I can tell you that if our stomachs are toned anywhere near a six-pack our sound will suffer. The relaxation needed for low breathing is not aided in any sense by an over worked out body. I know from my own journey that I began to sing with far more physical authority when I got beyond a certain physical weight.. Below that I just wasn’t a strong enough vehicle to launch sound from freely into large theatres and concert halls.

If young singers are pressurised into accepting a bigger emphasis on physical shape over sound and this becomes any more pressured onto them than it already is today.. then we are robbing ourselves of the great singers of the future. We are robbing ourselves of the singers that will hit our solar plexus. And we are robbing our entire human culture of the HUMAN VOICE. The Olympic Great Human Voice. And you may as well hammer that nail into the coffin of Opera right now. And not carry on with the sham of loving it.

Critics.. I beg you.
Be kind to young singers -you may change the trajectory of their lives and career if you wound them with your words. Be kind to middle aged singers. Be kind to old singers. Be kind to all singers. But above all.. If you hear a singer with a great voice listen. Look too.. But above all LISTEN. Without us it’s OVER.

PLEASE SAVE THE HUMAN VOICE

This open email was written to Norman Lebrecht as a result of personal horror and shared horror in the singing community over reviews of Der Rosenkavalier at Glyndeboune in the British Press.

UPDATE: What newspapers should do next. Click here.

Andrew Clark in the FT refers to a singer as ‘a chubby bundle of puppy-fat.’

Michael Church in the Independent sniffs at ‘a dumpy girl’. Andrew Clements in the Guardian calls her ‘stocky’.

‘Unbelievable, unsightly and unappealing’, writes Richard Morrison in the Times.

Rupert Christiansen in the Telegraph calls one singer ‘dumpy’ and another ‘stressed by motherhood’ (how would he know?).

The boys – late-middleaged men, actually – were having fun at the expense of a beautiful young singer (pictured), an artist whose self-image could be seriously damaged by such mindless assaults. This was a slurry of sexist attitudes masquerading as music criticism, and the singing community are not taking it lying down.

Social media have gone white-hot with their fury.

Here are some anonymous samples:

– Just been reading the reviews of rosenkavalier at glyndebourne. Shame on every critic who wrote such cutting remarks about x’s physique. Shame on you. Congratulations on crushing yet another young woman’s self esteem.

– There’s a real anger from musicians towards the Glyndebourne Rosenkav reviews and their hideous, overly personal comments.

– Open mouthed shock reading the Glyndebourne Rosenkav reviews. Such personal hateful comments on a singer’s body. Totally deplorable.

– Tired of reading schlock headlines & casual, outrageous sexism from critics.

– “Chubby bundle of puppy fat”- who the xxx do you think you are? Could she sing it is that not relevant?

– I am sick of reading this kind of nonsense from critics who have experienced nothing and know even less. I currently teach many young singers who are increasingly suffering body dysmorphia anxiety because of exactly this kind of thing.

– I think it’s amazingly irresponsible of someone like Christiansen, who ought to know more about the bigger picture of being a singer. It does seem that he has free rein these days to say whatever he wants. His blinkered and sustained attack on ENO over the last few years has been pretty astonishing.

… and more, much more.

Slippedisc has just published an open letter on voice and image by one of Britain’s foremost opera singers, the mezzo-soprano Alice Coote. Click here to read Alice.

UPDATE: What the newspapers should do now. Click here.

This is Monti’s famous Czardas, transcribed for the entire piano faculty of the Washington Conservatory of Music by Haskell Small.

More fun than anyone’s had at the Kennedy Center in a very long while.

Taking part:

Michael Adcok, Lydia Frumkin, Bradford Gowen, Maribeth Gowen, Anastassia Ivanova, Martin Labazevitch, Dionne Laufman, Sana Lebedev, Jaewon Lee, Haskell Small, Jeffrey Watson, Wayne Wilentz

A host of grass-roots initiatives, many of them music based, will lose their funding over the next four years. The big institutions – Opera Australia and Australian Ballet – have been ring-fenced, but the language of the budget is anti-art and the outcome is likely to be another exodus of Australian artists.