Boston opera has new activist boss
OperaThe Japanese-American mezzo-soprano Nina Yoshida Nelsen has been named Boston Lyric Opera’s Artistic Director, starting this week.
From the press release:
…’As co-founder of the Asian Opera Alliance, Nelsen’s artistic vision, her commitment to excellence, and her advocacy for equity among opera artists have made important marks on the American opera industry. Nelsen plans to continue her performing career while serving as BLO’s Artistic Director.
“Since joining BLO in 2021, Nina’s partnership has provided strong artistic collaboration,” CEO Bradley Vernatter says. “As an Artistic Advisor, she showcased a remarkable ability to develop artistic programs, nurture artists, achieve strategic goals and engage community stakeholders while upholding BLO’s commitment to artistic excellence. Combined with her multifaceted industry experience, her dedication to pushing artistic boundaries, and her familiarity with BLO’s creative landscape, Nina is an ideal artistic leader for our Company’s future.”
I see something very sinister in this appointment. Think about it: Andris Nelsons is the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Now Nina Yoshida Nelsen has the equivalent position at the Boston Lyric Opera.
There’s a plot of some sort going on here.
You mean the fact that their surnames start with NELS might be a clue to a hidden conspiracy???
And the previous Artistic & General Director of the Boston Lyric Opera was named Esther Nelson.
The plot thickens!!
It’s like that urology paper authored by (I kid you not, look it up) Splatt and Weedon.
https://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f7543
Well, Admiral Horatio Nelson hasn’t approached Boston since 1782, when he sailed around Cape Cod on his way to Quebec.
You’re making an equivocation. The work of the music director (which BLO already has, 15 years into his tenure at the company) is distinct from that of an artistic director. It’s also worth noting that the appointee Nelsen has been a professional mezzo-soprano for most of her career. I find it purposefully obtuse of you to construct a grand plot of sinister intrigue when what’s happening concerning Ms. Nelsens’ appointment is actually quite commonplace. She’s been an artistic associate at the company for a few seasons, and is stepping up to serve a more concerted role. Then again, you’d know this if you were actively engaged in American Opera as opposed to making baseless speculations on the internet.
Lighten up, dude. I apologize if my sense of humor is not to your taste or if it registers as undetectable.
The plot is called DEI: diversity, equity, inclusion
Your response is called predictable, lockstep, moronic.
The truth is moronic?
Opera in America is just an unfunny joke at this point. Joke casting, joke leadership… hoping for an end at some point.
I’m so grateful to see your comment. You are so correct. Opera is so mediocre at this point, and getting worse. The overall casting is so bad. The business is now 100% politically-correct. The level of great voices is not very high. Opera has become one gigantic Young Artist program.
The Met is a disaster under Gelb. Lower and lower and lower. Let’s just continue listening to and watching great opera on video and other recordings.
Yes, but she is very pretty.
Ignorant reactionaries may find this a “joke appointment” but the lady in question is a serious professional with performance experience, deep ties in the industry and a track record as an administrator. WTF is your problem? Do you think only white men are capable of leadership?
The answer is always – yes, that’s what they think. As a European white dude, it’s amazing how many people go mask off in front of me on topics like this.
Eric, your pseudo-virtuous posturing is going to make the needle on my insufferable-o-meter break clean off!
I’m actually very aware of her history and was part of her musical team in the last decade. Here’s the truth- she’s bitter, jaded, negative. Pre-pandemic she was struggling to get gigs, her singing had been in a premature decline, she was flailing and failing to get the level of management she thought she deserved. She decided to blame everything on “it must be my race”. Yes she is pretty, but really a nasty person underneath. I don’t want any more artistic admins who are bitter failed singers – we have plenty, and it is truly the cause of crap casting these days. The worst offenders are often women, and I say this as a woman. Yes, she’s friends with several famous American singers- she went to school with them. I don’t really care about BLO (which already casts terribly), but of course she will angle for better things in the future. And there’s the problem. So stop assuming I don’t know what I’m talking about.
The lyric opera has cut the numbers of presentations per year, but one at a time and sets and singers that generally are pretty damn good. The Opera Theatre does a similar number of operas, one at a time through their season, also descent sets and singers. San Francisco commissions more works than any company in the US and have several world premieres this year along with repertory. I think your comments should be reserved for the disaster that is the Gelbverse at the MET. They need new leadership there badly. He should never have been given the title of artistic director. He was a one man show with his broadcasts in theaters, but he didn’t even figure that out, as he lost subscribers in NYC, Phily, Jersey and Boston, because he shows the operas there and why should they go spend MET prices when they can see it for less on the big screen.
Vision! Commitment! Advocacy! Important Marks! Performing AND artistic directing! Strong! Remarkable! Nurturing! Multifaceted! Dedicated! Pushing boundaries! Landscape familiarity!
The readings on my insufferable-o-meter are off the charts.
I hope this works out. She seems to have less experience as a programmer than as a performer.
Where…is the “activism”?
Nobody cares about the genetics involved. Hire the right person for the job, and then let zir/zie/zem sail.
And you know she’s not the right person for the job…how?
Who even mentioned genetics? Oh, just you I guess.
She comes across as someone who would glare at you in a committee meeting, and then send a strongly worded e-mail (replete with her pronouns in the signature), for misgendering a bucket of chicken. But if she “slays” or whatever it is Americans are supposed to do these days, all is (presumably) forgiven.
All this from a photo! What a ridiculous comment.
Younger people, even professionals, tend to submit glam photos as well as resumes to promote themselves. All that’s fine. If a person wants to be judged on a glamour photo, that is their choice. However, due to social media and media in general, a picture is still worth a thousand words and some will judge solely on the visual. Paris Hilton may be a Rhodes Scholar, but we’d never know it from her Instagram. Just ask Yuga.
What glamour photo? She’s in a suit standing next to a building like most other professional headshots. Surely you’re not judging her just on her looks.
This is not a headshot. Hand on hip, etc. She’s posed…
What is with this new trend of appointing singers who claim that they can still sing contracts elsewhere and do these jobs? Are these jobs not intense enough to require someone fully devoted to them and doing that job well? So much half-assed work at companies that do this.
The economy.
For whatever reason, Boston has had a weird opera history. Various middle to late 19th c. impresarios ran their companies through town with big named singers like Christine Nilsson. Then British impresario Henry Russell gave it a go from 1909 to 1914 with big named singers, until he found his wife in bed with the Russian bass Lev Sibiriakov in 1910 and over the next few years his interest started to dwindle until he folded his tent. Max Rabinoff gave it a go from 1915-1917 with Metropolitan opera singers. From then on, until Sarah Caldwell, the opera in Boston in a serious way was the annual MET tours which ended in 1986. That said, Sarah Caldwell on her own steely initiative with some support from the Cabot family kept a company going from 1985 until she retired in 2004. I just looked at the Boston Lyric Opera website. Big staff, big board, but go to their season nothing very lyrical about it for the little that’s there. If they don’t do something different, they will be relegated to histoire. DEI will not help them.
This reminds me to pay my personal injury lawyer
Dewey, Cheetum & Howe.