OMG It's Dudamel on the TeeVee!

Latest OC crush tjfloyd alerted us to 60 Minutes segment on Gustavo Dudamel, which you can access via web (for those of us in Europe…or those of you in the USA who forgot to pay your cable bill). Titled “Gustavo The Great”, Bob Simon interviews the Venezuelan supah-stah and follows him from Los Angeles to Lucerne in a thirteen minute clip. Transcript and story here (with small video embed), while a bigger video embed is found here. 

Just make sure to stop the clip 5 seconds from the end, unless you want to hear this from Mr. Simon: "If you’ve never heard Gustavo Dudamel make music before, remember in years to come, you saw him on 60 Minutes first." laffeaux laffeaux. o ok, CBS. Yeah, Dudamel is like the Wii of conductors. CBS magically found him in their crystal ball. More like crystal balls. Don’t force my hand, Robert Simon!!

Comments

[Jay]

yeah, it's like no one ever heard of Gustavo until CBS "discovered" him. I guess they couldn't bear to show the BBC clip of the Dudamelites practically tearing down Albert Hall with that 2007 Proms "Mambo" encore.

[violainvilnius]

Gorgeous photo! Like the koool way in which he slings his sweater over his shoulders.

Bit tubby, our lad, isn't he?

[number five alive]

American media is quite sure that if it's not happening outside their windows, it doesn't exist. Proud American here, but that was a really myopic comment by Bob Simon.

Dudamel's English has really come along, and I'm very impressed at the speed he got it down. I remember reading an article not even a year ago where he had to speak through a translator. I'm too lazy to look for it. Way to go, kid.

[fignaz]

To be fair to Bob Simon, his comment seems myopic only to those of us who love & follow classical music. In the great warp & woof of things cultural (in the broadest sense) in the US, we are a distinct minority--- and I don't think that's an over-exaggeration. I would bet that most-- perhaps even a majority --of the viewers tuning in last night were seeing & hearing Dudamel for the first time. And I also wouldn't be surprised if that's precisely why his handlers & the LA orchestra had him on the program in the first place. Furthermore, CBS is unique amongst the 3 "major" networks in devoting any time whatsoever to coverage of the arts ("60 Minutes" & "Sunday Morning" being the primary venues). So I would cut Simon some slack as far as "myopia" is concerned.

[chris]

Well 60 Minutes gives, once in a long while, a bit of "culture" to its very middle class audience, perhaps LOWER middle class audience. I saw part of the segment and found Dudamel "fakey". He jumps about and throws himself into paroxysms of "feeling" when he conducts, all of which make me think he is prolly far better at attracting attention to himself than in leading the orchestra. Indeed, I thought I detected a sardonic smile on the faces of several of the orchestra members. In contrast, I recall seeing old film of Richard Strauss doing some conducting and he just mechanically beat time as if he were leading a German band. Dimitri Mitropoulos, whom I used to see when I was a college student in Minnesota, just stood on the podium with his arms hanging down and vibrated. CBS didn't spend enough time for me to hear what the orchestra sounded like under Dudie's direction, so I will wait to listen to a CD before passing final judgment.

[Jay]

Re: Dudamel's admittedly theatrical podium style, my guess is he will tone it down as he gets older. Some of it probably is show and I agree some of the musicians' facial expressions kinda' gave it away. But Deborah Borda, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Simon Rattle, et al wouldn't be interested in Dudamel if he weren't the real thing.

[Constantine A. Papas]

Bob Simon likes to be the "first," and to write exclamatorily about phenoms in classical music. But he has done right by me. I've never heard of Netrebko until his Dec. 12, 2004 interview on 60 minutes. And for the best or the worst I got hooked to the point of flying across America for Netrebko's debut recital at Carnegie Hall, and later to the Met for her Juliette. Any regtets? None!

[Bec]

Constantine, 2004?! Ha! Bob Simon was TWO years late! The Met in 2002! What do we expect from someone who does not check facts before posting?

[Constantine A. Papas]

Bec:

I don't get your comments. Bob Simon's interview was broadcast Dec. I2, 2004. Until then I've never heard of Netrebko, although she had made her debut earlier at the Met, a fact I learned later. I flew to NY the end of May, 2007 to hear her at Carnegie Hall debut recital, and then I met her at the reception. Then I flew back to NY the last weekend of September, 2007 to see Netrebko in her second performance of Romeo et Juliette at the Met. I think my facts are straight but you confuse Netrebko's debut in War and Peace at the Met in 2002, with her 2007 debut at Carnegie Hall with Hvorostovsky. You're very quick to judge! If Bob Simon was two years late, it's not my fault. By the way, Netrebko made her US debut in 1995 with SF Opera.

[Bec]

Constantine,

I was just trying to make a point that Netrebko was already known and loved by U.S. audiences.

The fact checking jibe refers to your incorrect statement about Bocelli doing (or not doing) fully staged operas. See:

http://operachic.typepad.com/opera_chic/2008/02/one-of-the-grea.html#comments

[Constantine A. Papas]

Bec:

I did not to profess to be an archivist, like you're, of Bocelli's operatic career elsewhere. I was referring only to his single, so far, full-staged opera, Werther, in the US in Detroit, which was panned. I had my facts straight, and sorry if I don't meet you expectations for accuracy! Let's leave it at that!

[Bec]

Constantine,

No we will not leave it at that, we will leave it with YOUR statement, and I quote:

"Andrea Bocelli has sung only in one fully staged-not in many-opera: Werther, in Detroit, MI with Graves"

Very misleading if you only meant the US.

Bec

[Henry Holland]

I've heard Mr. Dudamel conduct twice, both at Disney Hall:

Los Angeles Philharmonic
Kodaly: Dances of Galanta
Rachmaninov: Piano concerto #3 (w/Y. Bronfman)
Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra

Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra
Bernstein: West Side Story Dances
Mahler 5th

Loved the LAP concert, the end of the Rachmaninov with Bronfman playing like a man possessed being especially memorable.

Didn't like the SBYO concert at all. I made allowances that the players were young, but gawd the conducting was crass. Everything driven to the point of mania, tempos too fast, too many damn musicians on the stage. I fled before all the flag waving.

It'll be interesting to see him lead a bunch of subscription concerts and what kind of sound he wants from the orchestra.

[Ariel]

One wonders how come he didn't go back with the
youngsters he so well trained -was he using them all along as stepping stones to an international career?Clever little man I say .