Category: music

The Access Conundrum At The Heart Of Popular Music Journalism

There are more and more outlets, but they pay writers less and less; there are huge quantities of new music pouring out, but large bodies of readers are going to click on pieces about artists they’ve already heard of; those famous artists have less and less time to make themselves available to journalists, whom they no longer need to reach their fans. Jeremy Gordon looks at this conundrum and seeks a way beyond it. – Columbia Journalism Review

Blackface Opera Controversy In Verona This Summer

Tamara Wilson: “Operas like Aïda and Turandot were written for and performed by white European singers in, what was at that time acceptable, theatrical makeup to make them appear African or Asian. In theatre history, the terms blackface and yellowface would be applied, but today, especially in the U.S., these terms also have historic racist connotations. It is more and more difficult for opera to navigate this line between depicting race versus negative stereotype because they are viewed differently depending on where you are in the world and the individuals in the audience.” – Forbes

Have We Stopped Opera From Evolving?

Imagine if Hollywood were to issue shot-for-shot remakes of D.W. Griffith’s gauzy history of the Ku Klux Klan, “The Birth of a Nation ,” every few years. Imagine Tom Hanks re-creating Mickey Rooney’s infamously slant-eyed Mr. Yunioshi in a new “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” or Morgan Freeman cast in a live-action remake of Disney’s “Song of the South.” This is the reality of opera-house programming year after year. – Washington Post

Next Month, Baltimore Symphony Lockout Could Morph Into A Strike

The lockout began in May because there has been no musicians’ contract since January and management, which wants to end the orchestra’s year-round status and shut down during the summers, decided to cancel all this summer’s programming; the musicians wanted to play on and keep negotiating. But management’s stated intention has been to resume the orchestra’s activities with the start of the fall season — and now the musicians are saying they won’t play without a contract. – The Baltimore Sun

An Arts-Funded Online Survey Says 80% Of Australians Favor Publicly Funding Orchestras. Too Bad More Of Them Don’t Actually Go To Concerts …

A national online survey of 800 adults found that 83% of respondents believe that government funding of orchestras should be maintained or increased, 70% say orchestras are economically significant, and 48% consider classical music an important part of Australian culture. But 80% report not having attended a classical concert in the past 12 months. (Most said that cost is the primary reason for that.) – Limelight (Australia)