Opera Chic is very moved by the swift show of solidarity that she's received today by readers, bloggers and classical music websites after receiving a cease-and-desist order from la Scala's legal office, requesting that Opera Chic change her website's logo because it supposedly creates confusion in the readers minds with La Scala's own official website and she also to take down from the site all and every photograph taken inside La Scala (grainy and blurry and low-resolution as they are, it doesn't matter). La Scala's legal counsel has also prohibited Opera Chic to use any kind of promotional material that la Scala herself freely gives to print and electronic media.
The New Yorker's critic Alex Ross has just weighed in, with his usual fairness, and his gentle words move us deeply.
Reader Montano sends us a delightful link from the awesome Le Monde de la Musique:
Le théâtre dirigé par Stéphane Lissner ne paraît pas pourtant apprécier le sens de l’humour d’Opera Chic : il a demandé par e-mail à l’auteur du blog de changer son logo, qui détourne celui de la Scala, ainsi que toutes les photos prises clandestinement dans le théâtre pendant les spectacles. Si, légalement, la Scala est en droit d’exiger ces changements, on peut se poser des questions sur son sens de l’humour : comment un simple blog peut-il être si dangereux pour une institution aussi solide ? On n’ose pas imaginer les raisons qui poussent la Scala à agir ainsi : ferait-elle payer à Opera Chic ses révélations sur l’ « affaire Alagna » ou sur les changements exigés par Stéphane Lissner au metteur en scène Robert Carsen pour rendre le Candide de Bernstein plus inoffensif politiquement ?
Seriously, why would such a solid opera house worry about a simple blog?
Thanks to our readers and to the following bloggers who have generously shown support.
Among them:
Our sister-in-solidarity, NYC opera blogger extraordinaire La Cieca, feels our pain (also having been recently herself on the receiving-end of blog censorship)...and we ♥ ♥ her tags!
Our dear Jessica Duchen, a sweetest friend and music critic for The Independent weighs in from London on the "sense of humour failure".
Thanks for the solidarietà to the funniest/smartest ragazza romana, Giorgia of Opéra Bouffe, Photoshop genius and Pappano fetishist who joins the pro-OperaChic fray! Grazie grazie!
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Update: Ciao to our friends amantes de la Lirica of La Tertulia del Foyer, who show their solidarity by posting our sadly former logo, the one COPYRIGHTED BY TEATRO ALLA SCALA who was clearly confusing readers as to which site was the official Scala one, Opera Chic's (with the cartoons) or teatroallascala.org
(adding to the confusion: Opera Chic's site is actually up more than la Scala's very own is, and our Italian is actually less appalling than their English /snark).
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The impressively erudite and incredibly funny Intermezzo blog, kindly mentions us and adds a genius Photoshop of our former logo.
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The hidalgo of opera blogs, gtl torn t, the Alfredo Kraus of the Internet world who gives us the skinny on all things del Gran Teatre Del Liceu, has kindly joined our supporters. The gtl own logo, funnily enough, is a photo taken inside the Liceu.
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The sweetly merciless blog On An Overgrown Path craftily compares our situation with the plight of blogging censorship in Iran. We <3 it.
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A love letter of a post -- in French!!! -- from Le klariscope, that invaluable Encyclopaedia of Paris culture, made this lonely girl's day.
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Greece joins the team! Freaky Opera I Love shows her solidarity!
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Boring Like A Drill, the driller killer of all things boring, sends us a nice shoutout from London. Cheers, mate!
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More bloggy solidarity: On Classical Music.