Covent Garden forces Netrebko to take down post

Covent Garden forces Netrebko to take down post

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norman lebrecht

March 27, 2019

The diva writes:

 

 

Comments

  • Alexander says:

    I’ve heard her Maledizione in this footage before she deleted it. Fantastic.Cadenza as long as Callas had. She is always a good girl.
    Disclaimer – My opinion 😉

  • Anon says:

    A bit over the top of ROH. 23s is well within the permitted excerpt length for a news item.

    • Bruce says:

      Two snarky-but-honest questions:

      1) Are you sufficiently familiar with ROH’s master contract to know how many seconds they allow without special permission?

      2) Does an Instagram post count as a “news item”?

      • Anon says:

        It is standard industry practice (and long permitted by the MU’s collective agreements) that a short duration, not of a complete item, is permissible for news, and in the recent decade also for promotional purposes. Both usually fall under ‘permitted exceptions’ (e.g. in the MU/ABO agreement, the ROH being signatories to ABO) or similar.I can’t say, in answer to your question, if ROH have a different arrangement, but it would be quite surprising, particularly since on top of their better-than-the-rest-of-the-UK orchestral salaries the players also receive a (pensionable) media fee of £4747.41 (17/18 figure). To pay more and get less would be an odd place for the ROH to be.
        The thorn in Anna’s side is likely that one is supposed to ask first, so taking a clip without being polite can go down badly. Even so, pulling 23s is quite strange behaviour these days. And we haven’t got as far as public benefit and the vast sums ROH receives for that, either!

        Your second question is more up for debate. Years back it was only the obvious broadcasters who counted as ‘news’ for MU purposes, but that was before smaller journals etc. could disseminate media other than print. It certainly counts as non-commercial and as promotional, though.

    • Mark Atwood says:

      Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a time limit on what is considered Fair Use or not. It’s all up to the copyright holder. So ROH is not wrong in asking her to take it down. Now that the UK has banned certain types of porn and the EU has voted in favor of Article 13. Everything is now fair game to take down and the copyright holders hold all of the cards. Soon we will be seeing less and less of this kind of content.

      From a marketing perspective, there is something to be said when AN posts what I would consider to be an advertisement for the company. It doesn’t make sense for a company to turn down the golden goose with this kind of free celebrity advertising only to make themselves look bad when they ask to take it down. It didn’t hurt their bottom line to have 23 seconds of audio and no one was getting paid.

      The ROH orchestra doesn’t care about the health and wellbeing of the actual company and they are only in it for themselves. Why should they have to advertise their product when they are going to get richly paid anyway with their massively cushy positions.

      What are people paying money to hear, AN, or the ROH Orchestra?

      • David Hilton says:

        Sorry, but there is no fair use right in sound recordings. Only in literary and artistic works (ie compositions). This is why sampling must be cleared and paid for in all instances, because there is no situation in which the copier can claim fair use (or fair dealing in the UK).

      • Tiredofitall says:

        When Anna speaks, people listen. Got that, ROH? They don’t read the adjective-heavy and self-congratulatory drivel from your marketing folks. Wise up.

    • David Hilton says:

      No it’s not. There is no permitted excerpt length for a bootleg sound recording, in Europe or US law.

      The orchestra is being silly to dispute it, but they’re well within their rights.

  • Caravaggio says:

    If only she learned to spell.

    • Viola da Bracchio says:

      If only you learned Russian, Clown!

    • Brettermeier says:

      “If only she learned to spell.”

      Didn’t notice anything except the abbreviation at the end.

      • Bruce says:

        Really??

        I’m not going to criticize someone’s spelling when they are writing in their second (or third or fourth) language, trying to spell words according to the way they sound (in English that is asking for trouble) and/ or translating the word or its spelling from another language… and at least she didn’t make some of the incredibly stupid mistakes native English-speakers make (there/ their/ they’re, hear/ here, etc)… but there are indeed several spelling mistakes.

        • Sarah says:

          So what? She communicated and we got the message. She’s not taking a PhD in English!

          • Bruce says:

            That was actually kind of my point. You could say the same thing two ways: “the mistakes were not important but they were there,” or “the mistakes were there, but they were not important.”

    • V.Lind says:

      Well, second language, etc. But her handwriting is that of a 6-year-old.

      • Viola da Bracchio says:

        And, err, her second alphabet, too. And she’s had to write it in MS-Paint with a pointer.

        But you’re all so very, very clever, aren’t you?

      • Bruce says:

        In this digital age, the handwriting of MANY adults is atrocious. I’m not going to throw stones from inside my glass house 🙂

        • V.Lind says:

          It gets worse and worse. A glance at any comments section online shows that people cannot spell or use correct grammar. We know they cannot do sums — they can, in some cases, use a calculator. Now they cannot form letters that in my upbringing a child of five could manage. Our wonderful technology is breeding illiteracy and innumeracy at an alarming rate, and the old jokes about basic schooling being “reading, writing and ‘rithmetic” is now absolutely obsolete. People can;t do any of it.

          Your future doctors, dentists, lawyers, engineers.

      • Sarah says:

        Yes, when she write Cyrillic on a daily basis – or like most of us don’t even write anymore with the advent of technology. Try writing Cyrillic and see how your handwriting is!

      • Jay Haskel says:

        And how good is your singing?

      • BrianB says:

        You should see mine.

    • Brettermeier says:

      Ok, you meant the English text. The image didn’t load until now.

      May I ask, how’s your Russian?

    • sycorax says:

      Well, languages aren’t her strongest virtue. The Austrians are pretty miffed about her still not speaking German. She’s an Austrian citizen by now and normally the requirement for a stranger to get an Austrian passport is mastering the language.

      • The View from America says:

        “The Austrians are pretty miffed about her still not speaking German.”

        How do you know? Have you taken a poll of “the Austrians”? How large is the sample? What is the margin of error and at what confidence level?

      • Brettermeier says:

        “The Austrians are pretty miffed about her still not speaking German.”

        It’s just jealousy, because her German is better than theirs. 😀

      • Tiredofitall says:

        FYI…Anna qualifies.

        There is however a possibility to apply for the citizenship on the basis of Art. 10 (6) of the Austrian Citizenship Act. This regulation allows a much favourable granting of the citizenship, if the applicant has already made extraordinary achievements and more of such can be expected from him. In these cases the Federal Government of Austria has to certify that the naturalization of such an applicant is “in the special interest of the Austrian Republic” because of his extraordinary merits.

        The Austrian Citizenship Act however doesn’t say precisely, in what field of activity these extraordinary merits have to be achieved. Typically, sports, art or science can be fitting, but also economic achievements can be taken into consideration, such as big investments or other economic benefit brought to Austria. A “golden investment” itself will not be enough though; the applicant will have to make prove of his extraordinary contribution to the Austrian society alongside his investment, like creating a substantial number of new jobs (possibly in a rural area), or transferring know-how or new technologies to Austria.

        If such a certificate is issued by the Federal Government, many of the basic requirements will not have to be fulfilled: neither will the applicant have to provide proof of his German or historical skills, nor will he need a certain period of lawful and continuous residence in Austria. Furthermore, he will be allowed to maintain his current citizenship as well, so that this is one of the few cases of legal multiple citizenship, which is otherwise mostly banned by the Austrian citizenship law.

    • Bogda says:

      I’m sure your Russian is perfect

    • Guerilla Monsoon says:

      If only you had written, “If only she *had* learned to spell.”

    • Sarah says:

      How is your Russian then, perfect and well spelt? – And your French for that matter as well, her second language? Says more about you than it does about her.

  • Orchestrapal says:

    How’s your Russian?

  • Cynical Bystander says:

    Notice the “Get Anna” crowd are out in force this morning. Same crew as the anti JK collective. It must really stick in their craw that both turned up and gave performances that have been universally praised. Still there will no doubt be further opportunities to give vent to their spleens.

  • Novagerio says:

    Here we go again, the Netrebko-fanatics having a field day…

  • Pedro says:

    Miss Netrebko can write whatever she wants because she is the best opera singer -and a top musician – in the world, as she proved in last Sunday’s performance of Forza. I was honoured to be in the audience. Unforgettable!

  • Edgar says:

    Is the ROH regressing into pre-Thatcher union behavior, I wonder? How sad. How very, very sad. Brava, Anna!

    • Viola da Bracchio says:

      It was the ROH orchestra’s special gift to the world on International Theatre Day (27th March). They big-heartedly donated the steam off their pee. 🙁

      Remind me – how much bunce does the ROH get from the taxpayer overall? And how much more in tax-reduction and charitable status schemes? And in return, they’ve given the non-opera-going taxpayer exactly WHAT?????

  • Viola da Bracchio says:

    ROH still living in the days before social media. Myopic, misanthropic, maladjusted misfits.

    • Tiredofitall says:

      Absolutely. They’d rather use paid media than piggyback for free to a star with thousands of (interested) followers. Smart marketers…

  • arnold says:

    They should not wonder empty seats then…people like her bring people into the ROH at least – she has enough followers and a small teaser is marketing for FREE!!

    • Viola da Bracchio says:

      Good point, but this show was sold-out thrice over, with scalpers making huge profits on the few tickets they could score.

      I doubt Henze’s Phaedra will fare so well – but the orchestral players get their wages anyhow, whether the show’s a sell-out or a wash-out. They don’t give a stuff.

  • NonMU says:

    It’s a shame the Musicians Union hasn’t always been so diligent regarding recording rights – they have progressively sold us down the river for years. Bravo to Netrekbo for posting this.

  • Harry says:

    ‘deleed ‘

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