Opera Chic

Marin Alsop's Thanksgiving

The Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra volunteered.

Tim Smith reports.

Marin Alsop: Five More Years

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra wants more Marin Alsop, please, reports Tim Smith.

Marin Alsop's Yummiest Release

Continuing the culinary theme as of late...The 2008 Conductors Guild Annual Conference for Conductors was held this past January in Baltimore, Maryland, and the online images are your mix of predictable panels and symposia. One image caught our eye, tho'...a gigantic, meticulously decorated cake to honor their 2008 Theodore Thomas Award winner, Marin Alsop. That is like the kewlest cake evar. Stacks of Alsop discs? Even an edible baton? Ive been in the room when cakes are eaten and ive eaten cakes and ive watched cakes getting eaten, but this cake takes the cake.

CSI: Beethoven. Seriously.

Coming soon: David Caruso as Mozart, William Petersen as Beethoven, Gary Sinise as Schonberg.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra music director Marin Alsop figured out a way to combine her interest in CSI TV shows with the BSO's Beethoven-filled season, resulting in a program that fuses medical diagnoses, theatrical impersonation, slide projections and, oh yeah, some music, too.

The idea is to probe into the lingering mysteries of the composer's tragic deafness and questions about the cause or causes of his death, bringing the iconic genius and his longtime suffering closer to home. Part I of CSI: Beethoven, given last night at Meyehoff Symphony Hall (Part II is tonight), certainly revealed plenty of thoughtful planning, not to mention dashes of welcome humor.

File under, wtf

(in the image above: Untitled (Christ's Last Day) VI, 2007, by Julian Schnabel, @ Gagosian Gallery L.A.)

Marin Alsop: Be Cool, Or Else

Opera Chic is a total supporter of any kind of effort to disprove that silly notion that classical music is for dorks while the cool kids listen to and play anything else; OC is also a fan of Marin Alsop because she has a good beat and she decided she wanted to be conductor after she saw Lenny on the podium (and frankly, who wouldn't), and we *heart* Lenny so much that we're OK with all his fans on general principle. 

Many brave men and women are actively involved in a worldwide effort to make classical music cool like Fonzie, the way it used to be; Alsop's one of them (of us?) -- so go Marin go.

"Like making your grandparents hip. I think it is hip, though, that's the weird thing. Look at how hip art is now, at least in my opinion. Opera is pretty hip now, how did that happen? I never expected opera to get hip. It isn't because opera has changed. But the packaging certainly has changed.

"I hope that in 10 years — I hope much sooner — there will be a culture of joy here. That sounds awfully trite in a way, but I think what we do is a joyous and profound experience. People need to be connected with that."

Haylls yea.

Marin Alsop In Da House; Baltimore's All Shook Up

Marin "Boyz Club My A$$" Alsop, as Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's incoming music director just announced her inaugural season: the cycle of Beethoven's symphonies, and major works by 11 living composers (5 of whom -- John Adams, Tan "I Need A Triple Espresso NOW" Dun, James MacMillan, Thomas Ades and HK Gruber -- will also conduct their own works).