Sonia Yoncheva gets reined in
OperaThe Bulgarian soprano, who responded injudiciously to a New York Times deprecation of her Norma and withdrew from the end of the run, has issued a statement saying that her outbursts are now being managed by other hands.
‘From today, 27th of March all social media channels of Sonya Yoncheva will be exclusively managed by her team,’ she tweeted.
Parading imperiously and successfully as Fedora is not the same thing as singing haphazardly while acting imperiously as Norma. Mme Y was not amused at the criticism.
Artists must make sure all statements are well-oiled and if necessary entirely disingenuous. Truth has no place in art.
Your choice of the term to “rein in” Sonya Yoncheva is injudicious because it suggests an opinionated woman needs to be controlled. She made a smart decision to have her staff respond to criticism and comments. That avoids awkward emotional responses to trolls and personal attacks.
An opinionated person of any gender should be able to regulate themselves to avoid appearing unhinged; Ms Yonchava failed to do so and her crazy flag waved a bit too proudly.
Personally I’ve always found ZW a lightweight of a critic. And I don’t trust his ears. I have no idea whether he was on target or off with his review of Norma. But I was surprised and disappointed when he was elevated to his current position at the Times. There are much better critical alternatives out there in my opinion.
And I definitely don’t have an opinion on SY. I don’t recall having ever heard her sing before.
I once sat next to ZW at one of The Big Summer Festivals. I was dumbfounded at his Q&A with his date: he nothing of the history of the venue or about the work we were all there to see, usually considered a top ten opera.
Yoncheva should be applauded for ger response to Woolf’s totally unprofessional, smarmy and insulting review. Comparing one artist with another is childish and is better suited to Fox TV. Yoncheva is so much better a musician than Woolf is a critic.
Comparing singers is a favorite pastime of opera lovers. How many times, when I started going to the opera, did I have to hear Beverly Sills compared to Lily Pons, or Birgit Nilsson to Flagstad? My friends who are singers are constantly being compared to their contemporaries and to artists from the past. It goes with the territory.
She must have been living on another planet not to notice that “big” stars, yes even movie stars, do not criticize the people that review their performances, particularly if they are from the New York Times.
Thank goodness she didn’t have immediate access to a paper bag of canine excrement.
https://slippedisc.com/2023/02/dog-shit-director-is-fired-again/
Was pianist William Kapell a big star? Kapell’s “first target was incompetent and dishonest criticism. He took it out on one of the New York’s most respected critics, Irving Kolodin, and threatened to punch him in the nose for having made an inept review of one of his concerts. in an interview in Piano Quarterly, Kapell’s wife Anna-Lou DeHavenon recounted an incident which had occured at an after-concert party. Kapell saw the critic Jay Harrison, who had just published an unfavorable review of a Vladimir Horowitz recital. He ran towards him, intending to hit him and shouting: ‘Who the hell do you think you are? You’re nothing more than a fourth-rate wind player who got thrown out of Juilliard. How dare you write such a criticism about an artist of Vladimir Horowitz’s stature?’ He was so furious that Anna-Lou had to come between them and ask Istomin to hold Kapell back.”
https://www.eugeneistomin.com/great-musical-collaborations/pianists/william-kapell/
By the way, what’s so great about the New York Times?
The critic was a prat who knew nothing about the history of Celtic Gaul. Sonya Yoncheva’s replacement was lauded for her down-to-earth acting. There was nothing down-to-earth about the high-caste Druids whose women were far more emancipated than their Roman counterparts. I suggest the ignoramus read up on the history of the real-life Celtic Queen, Boudicca of the British Iceni, who raised an army against the Romans killing seventy thousand in the process. Being smitten by another soprano, who to my knowledge has not even sung the role or Norma, does not make for a good critic. Sonya Yoncheva was very successful in the London production. She should tell New York where to get off. It’s not as though the Met is doing particularly well at the moment.
Extremely smart damage control strategy by the singer and her management. And the only way to manage social media: With caution, woth a time lag, and lack of spontaneity. Brava.
it is always unwise to attack any critic without first double-checking your performances ( there are two broadcasts of the four Yoncheva performed) and only after to open your mouth, but it did not help many like Molese, Ricciarelli, Netrebko, Blue etc. There always will be trolls on any media site, but you have to have a bit thicker skin if you initiate a fight. Plus you don’t cancel a Met performance for illness and than post pictures in bikinis on a beach (hundreds of miles away from NYC, when did she book that vacation, LOL) and not even 15 hours after the curtain went down in NYC with her cover subbing for her; you also do not leave NYC on a plane to attend the Oscars 2023 ceremony in Los Angeles in between your contracted shows without the METs permission and catching a cold ( reason why you are supposed to stay in town) and do not attack the institution itself on your medias. FYI there are many other stars which had been fired/removed from further contracts/ or not rehired for a decade just for one of these three offenses; contracts have conditions for a reason. Also if you had a big success in a certain role 5-6 years ago does not guarantee success later based on the mileage you put on your vocal cords/ or singers health and habits in between. The best comment to match the picture would be “Romulus W. avanti a Dio! ” 🙂 (some of you may get my point…
What do Americans need Kubelik or Yoncheva for when they can have Cassidy or Woolfe?