Gustavo Gustavo Gustavo Gustavo: Marketing The Messiah

Disclaimer: Opera Chic not only likes Gustavo Dudamel...she loves him. She was at la Scala for his Don Giovanni debut (an uneven performance of a monstrously difficult work, by the way, but this is beside the point) even before she had an actual blog, in the early fall of 2006.

And she's been blogging about him more or less since day one.

So, let's make it clear that Opera Chic really likes Gustavo and she totally adores Eloisa, generous and easygoing, who endures politely all the talk about her husband being a genius when, in fact, she's the one who wears the smartypants. 

Therefore, this post isn't really about Dudamel, but more about the choice of marketing him (especially as of late) by the LA Phil the way he's being marketed.

Cool? Cool.

Let us go, then.

Everybody is excited for Gustavo Dudamel's impending inaguration, too. But when you start alluding to Dudamel as a deity ("Some have taken to referring to the new music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic by his initials, thus: G*D."), when you seriously start comparing a great talent with a major league career that started 3 years ago with Leonard Bernstein, things are starting to get seriously out of hand. And when it comes to the mostly embarrassing, fawning, breathless media coverage of Dudamel's debut as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, we can safely say that most of the "general-interest" media is behaving poorly.

The media seems to be fascinated by the fact that, for once, on the podium they don't have an elderly Italian gentleman (Giulini), a weird-looking Jew with a French name (Previn), or a taciturn, shy, very blond Finn. Hence all the silly talk about Dudi as "the Obama of music" (actual quote) -- they simply wouldn't care otherwise, let's face it. Do you think that Robin Ticciati, that soft-spoken, polite British cherub with a posh accent who's even younger than Dudamel -- and not necessarily a worse conductor -- would turn them on that much?

The media -- with more than a little help from the LA Phil itself, who should know better -- is itching badly to turn Dudamel into the Roberto Benigni of classical music, half mad genius and half court jester (speaking of Benigni, interestingly enough, off the air he has a much lighter Italian accent when speaking English -- he hams it up shamefully for the cameras, pretending to be the cartoonish Italian one would expect in the lamest of stereotypes).

All the "Gustavo" branding -- Amanda Ameer, who has X-Ray vision like Superman for this kind of thing, explained it all here -- is just that: gimmick. They needed a word that ended with a vowel, and "Dudamel" is not ethnic enough for their concept. It's ~MOLTO MARIO~ for classical music -- watch out soon for Dudi on the Food Network making arepas. Unless you also remember all those "ESA!!!" billboards when Salonen took over in the 1990s, and the English/Finnish dual language microsite -- OC doesn't.

Opera Chic wants Dudamel and the LA Phil to succeed but you don't build a new audience with stunts.

Salonen basically bored the non-classical media because he doesn't go against the grain of how a conductor is supposed to look like in the mind's eye of the people -- a vast majority of the public, after all -- who never go the symphony. But it's just plain wrong to assume -- or even hope -- that Dudamel would excite them because they assume he should either be parking their car or at least be playing the Mariachi instead of Beethoven. Just as TIME magazine a couple years ago, famously, was so impressed by a (then) thin soprano that they put Anna Netrebko on one of their "Most Whatever" zany lists -- they expect fat German ladies with horns, they saw Anna, and fainted.

Yes, yes, yes: conductors are no longer exclusively European, no longer Anglos (the occasional gay Jew didn't count): for more than a few years now there have been Asians, women, blacks and even countertenors on the podium. In backwards-a$$ Italy, a place where a 2009 workplace looks like an episode of Mad Men with updated wardrobe and less stupid dialog, even there, Milan's second orchestra, La Verdi, hired a new Music Director and knew better than to beat the "she's female & Asian" angle to death in the press -- they just hired her because they really, really liked the way she made their orchestra sound. No Year of the Dragon parties, Bruce Lee t-shirts. Just music. They hired her because they really like the music she makes. Xian Zhang is not a prop for a PR campaign to bring different ethnic groups to the concert hall -- she's a musician. You only need to look at her picture to know that something big has changed. It has. It will change even more deeply, because history moves forward and PR campaigns are not the engine of history. Now let's make some music, OK?

Can Deborah Borda say the same? Really?

Xian Zhang -- in an undeniably sexist, racist country like Italy, by US standards, where stuff that would get you fired on the spot elsewhere simply provokes a chuckle -- conducted la Verdi while she was eight months pregnant and the Italian media, magically, mentioned that in a couple lines then simply wrote about the music.

It's a circus mentality and the LA Phil is milking that for all it's worth. I think it's a mistake but I hope it works out for them.

And by the way, Gustavo's back hurts when he's overworked. And he's almost always overworked. Let him rest a little, between microsites.

Comments

[Xerxes]

The Dudamel (I don't think I'll ever be able to switch to "Gustavo") backlash has begun! This is exactly what I needed to start my day. You're always on the pulse before anyone else. So how's this for feeding the frenzy: Brava Opera Chica! ;)

[Rigoletto]

Very well said, Opera Chic. The best that can happen to Dudamel is to have to listen to you and others who write in the same vein, instead of to all the sycophants. No matter how down to earth he tries to stay, all this hype is going to affect him; he's human.

Dudamel, oye lo que esta muchacha te está diciendo, que te conviene.

[Ida Lopes]

Brava, OC! But... what a picture of the wonderful night view of Rio de Janeiro and Guanabara bay has to do with Dudamel, LA Phil, Salonen, Zhang and Verdi Orchestra?

[Claire]

what! O.C. Anna is stil thin. I think shes stil hot in a size 8 way.

[C'estMoi]

I find it quite possible to be a fan of this type of music and yet to distance myself from any hype, marketing, or canonizing that gets in the way. I think it comes from learning to distance oneself on a daily basis from everything that is even more in our face, i.e. "pop."

I guess this is not as easy when you have a blog that you have to keep up to date, so, yes I predict OC will indeed get sick of 'Gustavo' as we go along.

[siris]

I drove past Disney Hall this morning and they've already blockaded the road to set up tents and chairs... Yes the whole circus thing is a little bit embarrassing... but it's nothing compared to the stupid Freyer Ring going on next door at the opera - that's the real "obama-nation"[uh-bom-uh-ney-shuh] of music...

[the young Werther]

Yeah, I also find a lot of the Dudamel hype a bit condescending. He's Latin American. Big deal. I honestly don't think he's gonna bring in that contingent and the hall will still be full of rich old people.

[tempestrata]

You can't deny that Dudamel makes music exciting. And that's what is important to lure in the new audiences. Not his race or color or ethnicity or nationality. To be honest, I'd rather watch Dudamel on the podium than some old guy in a tuxedo. And I'd be more willing to shell out my hard-earned cash.

[Pickad]

tempestrata, I hate that young people have to be "lured" into classical music. It's like tricking a little kid to go to the dentist. If it's not their thing, they should just go listen to Rap music or whatever it is that they like better. It's just amazing to me that everyone DOESN'T listen to classical. Personally, it's the only genre I can stomach.

[LD]

That video was ultra nauseating. The least they could have done was show him talking about something intelligent he plans to do during his tenure, however, long that may be.

The last video of Anna Netrebko posted here had her looking more than a size 8, closer to 12. Not that there's anything wrong with that (Jerry Seinfeld, et.al.)

[titus]

OC, could you please explain how is Italy a "undeniably sexist, racist country, by US standards"? Which are those standards?
Do they have a KKK in Italy? Or maybe they have, or had until recently, segregation laws?
Do they fingerprint foreigners at airports?
Do they ask for your race when applying for college?
And if Italy were such an "undeniably sexist, racist country", how could they hire an asian female conductor as Music Director of one of their orchestras?
And you, being an enlightened American woman, why do you live in such "undeniably sexist, racist, backwards-a$$" country?

[Kevin Edmund Youkilis 4 MVP]

The LAPhil ads are so condescending it hurts. And most Americans probably think he's Mexican anyway.

[Linda Smith]

The marketing people think they have to bring the arts to the level of current popular culture in order to attract "new" audiences. It's a shame, but it is happening with art museums as well as classical music institutions.
During a month long stay in Italy several years ago, I didn't find it any more sexist or racist than Baltimore, MD USA!

[alejandra]

That is one disturbing video...

[Prompter1980]

Pickad, I'm young and classical music and opera is one of the many types of music I love, but I agree that using words like 'lured' is getting annoying. Using words like that seems to be done in order to throw jabs at how classical music is "boring" and needs constant revitalizing, but in actuality, what it really does is paint those new audiences as vapid brainwashed sheep.

[El Cajon]

A year ago Obama was being hailed by some as a new Messiah. This year it's Duda. Wonder who will be the Annointed One in 2010? C'mon La Phil, get real. Gustavo is a better-than-average conductor. But he is a long way from becoming legendary.

As for Baltimore being a racist, sexist city, a reminder that the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is led by "a gay Jewish conductor", who also happens to be a woman.

[Soubrette]

brava.

[persnikitty]

of COURSE opera chic loves Gustavo

[Warren]

Way to lay it out, OC. Unfortunately, sycophantic behavior has become far worse in our culture (than it used to be), and not just ours. Why are we so insecure? Hyper-prevalent sycophancy is a very unhealthy cultural sign.

Zany goofiness and colorful over-ecstatic gushing cheer have their place, to be sure, but all this clowning gives me a certain foreboding. I can't see Dudamel extracting the solemn, grinding chords of Siegfried's funeral music out of his vibrant new orchestra while he's jumping around gaily like this poster-boy latin super-puppet they're making him out to be, nor the strains of the slow movement of Beethoven's 7th. The dark grandeur of such great music is coming from a different sort of place, I'm afraid. I picture Klemperer's grim countenance, or Furtwangler's frowning, forlorn buzzard-ish shamanism.

Dudamel has got the talent, but this Lear-like fawning deference is going to undo him, think smiling jello pudding with a dash of sprightly (not good).

[Barbara]

Wait. This is LA we're discussing, right? Try to get a grip.
You're making me want to go down and have a look. Which is the idea.

[Linda Smith]

To El Cajon above,

My point (perhaps too subtle in tone), was not that Baltimore (where I've lived most of my life) is "racist" or "sexist" but that these things are to be found everywhere, though they may manifest themselves in different ways. Yes, we have a "gay jewish conductor who also happens to be a woman" but I'd like to add that her appointment was met with some resistance from members of the orchestra. I wonder how much of that was due to sexism? It's difficult to say but the fact that Ms. Alsop is the first woman to be appointed conductor of a major American orchestra would seem to suggest this. America has a long way to go in this regard.

[Warren]

Ida Lopes, it has to do with that humongous statue looming over Rio, in solemnic pain & opprobrium at her sins, in the foreground---it's the Messiah. I'll go out on a limb and say OC is doing image/word play with her title for this blog post 'Marketing the Messiah'.

[El Cajon]

So Joann Faletta is chopped liver? The BSO may be slightly more "major league" than the Buffalo Philharmonic but I think many people feel Ms. Faletta's appointment was more groundbreaking than was Alsop's coming to Baltimore. As for the resistance from the BSO, yes. Was it sexist? Quien sabe? Alsop has most definitely struck a good rapport with the BSO and Baltimore is no more racist or sexist, etc. than most other blue-collar cities in the U.S. Find me another city where John Waters would be an icon. Ok, maybe Pittsburgh....

Getting back to O.C.'s Duda post, which we've been commenting on, classical music is now just another "product" to be marketed. Youthful, attractive media-savvy celebs are an ever more important part of this machine, which chews these folks up and spits them out (c.f. Villazon). Will the CSO feel the need to have a concert at Grant Park with fireworks to welcome Muti when he becomes its MD next year? Given Muti's temperment, I don't think so. Olympics in Chicago? Who cares! They got Muti and, as O.C. might say, "you don't".

P.S. Has anyone else noted how O.C.'s posts have evolved. She's so on the cusp of the big, big time.

[Diva in Training]

Linda--the reason Ms. Alsop was met with some resistance from members of the orchestra is because they were still looking at possible contenders (or so they thought) when the announcement came that the position had been filled, much to the surprise (and perhaps dismay) of the orchestra. Sexism had nothing to do with it. In fact, "reverse" sexism might be have been one of the reasons that she was hired...it certainly garnered a great deal of attention from the media.

[Bec]

just forget the hype. He is cool, he is young, he is the future. And he is definitely gonna make it!