Opera Now fails
NewsThe monthly magazine Opera Now is to appear just four times from next Spring – and as a supplement to its stablemate Gramophone magazine.
The Mark Allen Group which owns the struggling sheets, as well as Classical Music magazine, last week made managing director Paul Geoghegan redundant in a ‘restructuring’.
Here’s what editor Hattie Butterworth is telling Opera Now contributors:
Dear writers of Opera Now,
It’s great to be in touch with you all again, although I’m sorry it’s not to provide better news.
We have been made aware that the Mark Allen Group, our media company, will be making Opera Now Magazine a quarterly publication, reducing its current monthly output. You may remember it becoming affiliated with Gramophone Magazine as a sister publication back in the summer – as this continues we will become a supplement to Gramophone, though continuing with the same format – albeit with a slightly ‘wider’ or more ‘general’ outlook on the industry and events.
More contemporaneous content will continue to appear on the website, with reviews, opinion and features. I’m yet to find out whether any additional budget will be provided for these between print months, but I hope it may be possible to commission some online-only content for our website, which seems to be doing really well at present.
Do let me know if you have any questions about the changes – there are still quite a few questions to be answered internally and I’ll endeavour to keep you updated as more is revealed.
For the meantime, the January and February issues will go ahead as planned, with February being our ‘Spring’ issue and the start of the quarterly pattern.
These people are either stupid or trying really hard at it. Slapping that has-been, burnout case, Callas, on their October cover stands as proof, if any were needed. I mean, what more can be regurgitated over and over and over about that corpse until we are all black and blue in the face? Folding up may make better business sense. It’s called cutting one’s losses.
Yeah, ‘cos Callas doesn’t sell any more, does she? That’ll be why there are events all over the globe marking her anniversary.
Don’t blame Callas that non-talents from Abramović to Zeffirelli continue to exploit her after her death!
It’s appropriate to put Callas on the cover (right now) because there is a new documentary and concert film of her being released soon on top of Jolie’s feature film biopic on Callas in the works. That being said this magazine should be featuring modern active performers on the cover and not ghosts.
** Eats Popcorn **
So, tell me again, why should society continue to subsidize this elitist, decaying, oblivious artform?
99% of the stuff worth listening to already have 50 recordings (at least) of fantastic quality. You don’t see artists repainting the Mona Lisa every year, do you?
It’s a waste.
Because Opera is not a recorded art form, it is live and messy and exciting at its best, that’s why it refuses to die.
So it doesn’t need subsidies then . . . .
People go and look at the painting though don’t they you numpty
Tell me Mecky, how many times a day do you eat? Surely, with all the times you have eaten pears or brie or crusty bread with olive oil, that is enough. How about air? You still inhaling the old stuff? I am a choral musician/ music educator .(43 year and counting) I have teenagers sign up for a choral music class for many reasons other than “the music”. Their wide eyed disbelief in the beauty of O mio bambino, Mozart Laudate Dominum, Faure Pie Jesu, Beethoven’s Choral Symphony opens their heart and spirit. And when their parents come to me in similar rapture upon hearing ” all sorts of classical music” screaming from their teenager’s bedroom, they tell me of the change in them and that they themselves never knew of such beauty. I wish I could welcome you into a few music sessions-rehearsals with my students. How many times have you inhaled since reading this? Those of us that have been exposed to this old dying stuff consider it as key as inhaling the air and nutrition for our bodies- because the spirit and mind requires inspiration as well.
If only they operated more like
Slipped Disc, they’d have plenty of business!
Teen beat but for opera
Print publications are failing because of cost. Online magazines like Slipped Disc are popular because they offer news, sometimes with opinion and humor. I subscribe to SD and Operawire because of their different approaches. If you want photos of your favorite stars, they usually have websites with their new fashions and vacations.
I used to be a subscriber to Opera Now, but their monomanic focus on stage direction and costumes in their reviews at the often complete expense of musical direction and performers made me unsubscribe after two years. Even in their interviews with singers they only asked about the stage direction and the directors intentions. I don’t know if they ever realigned those priorities, but if they didn’t I say good riddance
Nice cover. i didn’t know green was Maria’s favourite colour, or was it her record company’s?