Just in: Gender bender wins biggest composing prize
NewsThe Austrian Olga Neuwirth has won the 2022 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award, worth $100,000.
She was cited for her opera ‘Orlando, based on the Virginia Woolf novel about a poet of flckering sexual identity.
‘I wanted to reflect the wonderful diversity of life and evoke a subtle form of sexual attraction that cannot be pigeonholed into a single gender,’ said Neuwirth. ‘What’s more, the main character refuses to be patronized and treated in a condescending manner, something that continually happens to women with no end in sight.’
She’s a fashionable choice.
photo (c) Priska Ketterer
She is a fine composer who has been writing operas for years. There is nothing ‘fashionable’ about this choice.
Indeed. What a patronizing and condescending final like.
Like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seJCQB9MLlw
Deeply embarrassing… not to be taken very seriously.
This lady is a PRODUCT of fashion, a ‘punk composer’ as she says herself proudly, maybe a new term has to be found for what she writes: ‘woke punk’.
And it is not the first opera on Orlando — there was another in 2016. Presumably this is better. The composer has a pretty damned good reputation.
I first heard her music over 20 years ago, conducted by Pierre Boulez with the LSO. “Fashionable”? No. Distinguished, accomplished, and proven.
The only thing proven is that N’s work stems from the same spirit as ‘works’ of conceptual art, like ‘Piss Christ’ by Serrano, also a big prize winner…..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ
…. and Manzoni’s ‘Merda d’Artista’:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist%27s_Shit
This trend stems from the famous urinal that Duchamp exhibited as ‘Fountain’:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp)
The ‘Fountain’ stems from 1917, in a period of war and general eclipse of civilisation and loss of faith in humanity. Later-on, it was developed as a perfectly legitimate modern movement, first meant as a middle finger towards art, the art world, Western civilisation, and later as a totally acceptable expression of cynicism, filling museums of modern art.
Music followed after WW II, trying to combine the mask of high art with cynical mockery. Why do so many people take such phenomena seriously? Because conceptual art and conceptual music have been labelled legitimate expressions of modern times. That the whole movement has nothing to do with art or music, is a minor disadvantage – it is simply something else: theatrical gestures with ideas, but without artistic talent.
“…with no end in sight.”
Here’s to a little optimism for music and life yet to come.
‘I want some of it
I want some of it
I want some of it
I want some of it
I want some of it
If it’s all the same to you’
She is bending more than gender:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW1RhZoL1UA
I am no modernist but this music is interesting and engaging.
It’s the best woke punk around, for sure. It’s sticking-up the middle finger, to music, to music life, to males, to the world – with the appropriate ugly hysteria. It’s neurotic sound art.
A few years ago I was a part of a performance of her contribution to the “Brandenburg Project,” new works inspired by each of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti. I was initially dubious, but found myself becoming quite convinced with her work. Very clever (and that is not a bad thing in itself) writing, and a very inventive and fine piece. I need to get to know her music better.
‘Fashionable choice’? Are you kidding [redacted]
If you had the courage to state your name, we would publish your pejorative comment in full.
And it is in 19 scenes. . . But there is a ray of hope: at least the libretto is not by Elfriede Jellinek.
“Gender bender”? Language matters, Mr Lebrecht, and you ought to know better. Or are some animals more equal than others when it comes to this kind of thing?
Wouldn’t it be more professional and, frankly, classier to maybe discuss the quality of her music rather than stooping to childish, bigoted name-calling and snide implications that her gender/sexuality are the only reason she’s succeeded?
Presumably you would prefer artists to be judged solely on merit; why don’t you set an example by doing just that?
The merits of this woke punk are there for everybody to hear. It is the best woke punk available for people who love this kind of thing. For musicians however, it is fraudulent rubbish.
Darmstadt nonsense died 70 years ago, but since there is no easier way for composers without talent and musicality to suck on the academia teat of prizes, grants, festivals and salaries, the Ivory tower continues bringing it back over and over. Of course, adding currently popular PC/woke ideology helps a great deal. It does not matter audiences and musicians are sick of it.