{"id":3261,"date":"2014-03-29T14:29:19","date_gmt":"2014-03-29T18:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rockwellblake.com\/blog\/?p=3261"},"modified":"2014-11-27T09:19:38","modified_gmt":"2014-11-27T13:19:38","slug":"1000-words-on-chickens-eggs-opera-and-singers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/29\/1000-words-on-chickens-eggs-opera-and-singers\/","title":{"rendered":"1000 Words on Chickens, Eggs, Opera and Singers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/170436369?et=66ecCQE0n0OoxLsLlfOC9A&amp;sig=_lFx7UzDplwigGAvflSzCKja2r6aCWDI98nzin0Ce2w=\" width=\"507\" height=\"407\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The question is about the order of things, like: \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chicken_or_the_egg\" target=\"_blank\">Which came first, the Chicken or the Egg?<\/a>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The answer is dependent upon what you assume to be true. It is a grand scale dividing line that separates people of faith. For the person of the Christian faith the assumption that His Scriptures are telling the truth gives rise to answering that the chicken was created before it could lay that first egg. A person who has faith in another god will be much harder pressed for an answer. Wikipedia sort of rests my case.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/08\/hot-stuff\/\" target=\"_blank\">HOT STUFF<\/a>\u201d of which I wrote on 8 March gives me ammunition for a much smaller argument. It\u2019s about what is going on with \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Opera\" target=\"_blank\">Opera<\/a>\u201d these days. Which came first; \u201cOpera\u201d or the \u201cOpera Singer\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Let me put this question in perspective. I have always felt that the craft of singing and the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Performance_art\" target=\"_blank\">performance art<\/a> in which I participated was not much more important to <a href=\"https:\/\/lifeonearth.seas.harvard.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">Life on Earth<\/a> than flower arrangements might be to a soldier in a war zone. So this question, as applied to \u201cOpera\u201d \u201cOpera Singer\u201d, is not as important as \u201cChicken\u201d \u201cEgg\u201d. The soldier needs to be fed breakfast: \u201cEgg\u201d and then for dinner: Roast \u201cChicken\u201d\u2026 If you\u2019re a Southern boy: Fried \u201cChicken\u201d. If one part of the equation is missing the soldier may eventually starve and not be able to win the war. If both parts of the \u201cOpera\u201d \u201cOpera Singer\u201d or \u201cFlowers\u201d \u201cFlowers in Vase\u201d dichotomy\u00a0are absent the soldier can still be fed and fight battles. Life will go on. The war for survival can still be won. My interest in the \u201cOpera\u201d\u00a0 \u201cOpera Singer\u201d question is critical to all Opera Singer types, but seems to be carelessly disregarded by most members of what has become an \u201cOpera\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/#q=conservancy+definition&amp;revid=1288972550\" target=\"_blank\">conservancy.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Opera News\u00a0deserves applause for giving Matthew Epstein a chance to explain the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tug_of_war\" target=\"_blank\">tug of war<\/a> in which he engaged at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lyricopera.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Chicago Lyric Opera.<\/a>\u00a0 He\u00a0became disengaged by\u00a0the loss of his\u00a0grip on the rope in Chicago, but, happily, Matthew relocated to NYC to take a new position at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cami.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">CAMI<\/a> where he can continue to influence the fate of \u201cOpera\u201d. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.operanews.com\/operanews\/issue\/article.aspx?id=1735&amp;issueID=78\" target=\"_blank\">The Opera News article<\/a> shows us that Matthew Epstein and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lyricopera.org\/about\/william-mason.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">William Mason<\/a> have strong opinions about the future of \u201cOpera\u201d, and, unfortunately, they\u00a0do not\u00a0agree.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lets let Matthew start the argument:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>&#8220;Look, there&#8217;s a dichotomy between the old-line New York and Chicago subscribers and the younger audience that goes to BAM and some of the smaller Chicago theaters. There must be a way to satisfy both groups, but it is a mistake to do only what keeps our rapidly aging big-money subscribers happy when the future is in people who aren&#8217;t yet at that point. Maybe it&#8217;s a younger audience. Maybe it&#8217;s a more last-minute-ticket-buying audience. Maybe it can&#8217;t or doesn&#8217;t want to purchase a full subscription a year in advance. But it is an audience &#8211; and a growing audience, and an audience that is going to be tremendously important. And we can&#8217;t eliminate from our seasons the very works that may bring in this new audience.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Matthew introduces the premise that his way \u201cmay\u201d be the way to keep \u201cOpera\u201d alive. \u00a0Bill Mason tugs in the opposite direction with:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>&#8220;The creative decisions and wishes of a music director and\/or artistic director can only be realized if there is the money to pay for them. Financial integrity is no less important than artistic integrity. If your ticket-buying public doesn&#8217;t like what you&#8217;re presenting most of the time, they will stop buying tickets and stop contributing. This is not to say that Lyric will cease presenting new opera or new and possibly controversial productions. But balance is the key.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>These guys arguments\u00a0are interesting, and can be a source of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.juilliard.edu\/faculty\/greg-sandow\" target=\"_blank\">syllabus for University types<\/a>, but that Egg equivalent (Opera Singer) is kind of ignored until Matthew starts talking about the opera singers who have always been his bread and butter:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>&#8220;The future of opera in America depends on the realization that stars won&#8217;t do the trick anymore. There are any number of excellent singers out there, but very few real stars left who will always sell out a house &#8211; and that number is diminishing all the time. The future lies in ensemble-oriented productions &#8211; well-directed, well-designed and well-conducted productions of interesting repertory, fully rehearsed, and cast with the finest singers available for their parts. And if the stars won&#8217;t commit the time and energy required to perfect such a production, you engage other singers.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Matthew Epstein seems to suggest that the link between \u201cOpera\u201d and \u201cOpera Singer\u201d is really getting frail, and the \u201cwhich came first\u201d question irrelevant. \u201cChicken\u201d is dependent on \u201cEgg\u201d for species survival, but Matthew seems to say that \u201cOpera\u201d cannot depend on \u201cOpera Singer\u201d to\u00a0sell the seats. Why not?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Matthew\u2019s explanation of his vision for the future is unique. It is the first public argument over the future of Opera I have heard or read that included any mention of opera singers. It\u2019s sad that a great agent to the \u201cStars\u201d only mentions singers in context of his loss of faith in them.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Matthew, from his Worldwide Director\u2019s chair at CAMI\u2019s vocal division, might have suggested ways to increase the number of \u201cOpera Stars\u201d, if he thinks they are needed, and why their number is dwindling, anyway. No. He suggests abandoning those few remaining \u201cStars\u201d, if found uncooperative, to pursue the perfecting of production values.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>So, let\u2019s summate.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Matthew Epstein believes:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The \u201cOpera Singer\u201d isn\u2019t worth an \u201cEgg\u201d. Opera singers, if we follow Matthew\u2019s published logic, are interchangeable necessities that can detract from the genius new Operas and Opera\u00a0productions that Matthew\u00a0suggests as\u00a0key to keeping Opera Houses healthy.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Bill Mason believes:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>If he gives the public what it wants, then the public\u00a0should keep\u00a0coming to his theater, and contributing to his fund-raising campaigns.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Do opera singers\u00a0really matter???<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The question is about the order of things, like: \u201cWhich came first, the Chicken or the Egg?\u201d The answer is dependent upon what you assume to be true. It is a grand scale dividing line that separates people of faith. For the person of the Christian faith the assumption that His Scriptures are telling the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,85],"tags":[300,269],"class_list":["post-3261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-opera","tag-columbia-artists-managemen","tag-matthew-epstein"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2kj1l-QB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3261"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3556,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3261\/revisions\/3556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}