Opera Chic

Anne Midgette's Chances of Being Elected Mayor of Santa Fe Approaching Zero

Anne Midgette's letter from Santa Fe:

Shots were fired again Saturday night, opening the world premiere of the opera "The Letter." But they sounded a little flimsy, as if fired from a cap gun.

***

But in adhering to the rules of opera -- we must have arias and ensembles -- Moravec and librettist Teachout repeatedly show a tin ear for the exigencies of drama. The arias keep obtruding at inopportune moments to spell out things that don't need spelling out ("What have I done? I've killed him. He is gone forever"). They bring the action to a screeching halt.

And Moravec's music, though adroitly written, stays behind the words, supporting the action rather than dictating it. The arias hardly emerge, and the music proceeds one phrase at a time.

The good news for the Letter posse is that she didn't like Traviata that much, either.

Terry Teachout Rips A Big One

Terry Teachout, who's not horrified by the classic Broadway audience habit of giving random ovations to stars simply for showing up (a bad habit that Met audiences, mostly content to clap their hands even for the most mediocre performances, have duly co-opted), argues in the Wall Street Journal that:

When in doubt, wait—then let ’er rip. You’ll be glad you did.

In short, it's theater- and opera-going as buildup of gaseous appreciation; criticism as flatulence.

Terry Teachout: "Serious arts journalism" to move to the web. ORLY?

The bad news is that the Washington Post is shutting down Book World, their excellent Sunday section, moving some reviews to other parts of the paper, and taking everything else from Book World online (the staff had already been cut in the past anyway, so at least no layoffs were needed at this time).

The worse news is that someone who should really know better thinks this is a good thing.

Terry Teachout, drama critic for the Wall Street Journal (and librettist for Paul Moravec's opera "The Letter", that premieres in Santa Fe next summer) thinks this "means nothing" to him because he reads all newspapers online anyway:

"I've said it before, but it's worth repeating: it is the destiny of serious arts journalism to migrate to the Web. This includes newspaper arts journalism. Most younger readers--as well as a considerable number of older ones, myself among them--have already made that leap. Why tear your hair because the Washington Post has decided to bow to the inevitable? The point is that the Post is still covering books, and the paper's decision to continue to publish an online version of Book World strikes me as enlightened, so long as the online "magazine" is edited and designed in such a way as to retain a visual and stylistic identity of its own."

The problem here, obviously, is that for someone who's been in journalism since before Opera Chic was born, Teachout seems to forget that publishers -- including his bosses at News Corp. -- still take the (very costly) trouble of printing the Wall Street Journal on (very costly to purchase, print, and deliver to your door or local newsstand) paper not because they're nostalgics of the good old days of Hemingway, but because they cannot charge advertisers nearly as much for their website's ads. Because most newspapers content online is still 100% free -- remember Times Select?

Print survives, among other reasons, because of the very real issue of ad revenue (if Teachout really thinks paper is 100% obsolete, he's free to resign from the WSJ, move all his content to www.terryteachout.com and try to make a living only over his website's ad revenue -- OC is not exactly holding her breath that he'll try that anytime soon). Perez Hilton doesn't need print and can indeed make a nice living out of the web. A dude who writes about plays and books? Not so much.

The problem here, again, is not that the Washington Post is trying very generously to give Book World the great chance to become cool, a 100% online entity, while instead the rest of the paper remains lamely attached to grody paper and stinky ink. The problem is that they're dumping coverage about books the way other papers are firing their music and film and theater critics left and right -- the Washington Post takes Book World online because -- literally, and so sadly -- arts coverage is not worth the paper it's printed on.

The -- very expensive -- newsprint remains in use for "hard news" (whatever that means nowadays). Arts? Whatever. Make the staff as lean, young and inexpensive as possible, then move the content online where column inches cost nothing.

So, "the destiny of serious arts journalism to migrate to the Web" thing, as TT writes? Yeah, but that's actually part of the problem. It's migrating now because it's expendable. Because those of us who like it will probably look for it online anyway. And because serious book lovers -- just like operagoers -- are a shrinking, aging, not-that-relevant-anymore section of the public anyway (when in doubt, compare Junot Diaz's -- or John Updike's -- sales to The Dark Night's box office; or Rene Pape's record sales (and digital downloads) to Leona Lewis's or Kanye's.

Terry Teachout On "The Letter"

Terry Teachout gives a sneak peek into next summer's The Letter, that he wrote for Paul Moravec and will be unleashed at Santa Fe Opera 2009:

Taking his cue from the fact that Paul Moravec and I have lately taken to calling The Letter an "opera noir," Mark Tiarks, the Santa Fe Opera's head of planning and marketing, wrote the following blurb for this year's souvenir program:

(...)

That's a knowing and clever school-of-Chandler pastiche, and I was pleased to see it on the poster announcing the Santa Fe Opera's 2009 season. On the other hand, I wouldn't want anyone to get the idea that The Letter is, in the oft-quoted phrase with which Joseph Kerman amusingly (and wrongly) dismissed Tosca, a "shabby little shocker."

Whatevs, Max Steiner's score wasn't half bad either.