Tuesday, April 04, 2006

This Just In

Updates substantial and insubstantial from the opera blogosphere:

Parterre is the new Opera-L, by the look of it. Entries are logging up to 60 responses--holy cow! And, like Opera-L postings, some of them are long and informative, some are wildly irrelevant but interesting, and some merely meshuggeneh. We're wondering what La Cieca thought of Don P, but suspect her silence indicates that editor JJ is dishing it up at Gay City News.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...I don't think I'm going to anything for a while, probably 'til Lohengrin. If I blog at all, I suppose it's going to have to be gabbing about recordings, which I sometimes suspect is not that gripping. I did, after literally years of eyeing it at academy, finally plunk down for the 1962 Bohm Iphegenie with the amazing lineup of Borkh, Ludwig, and Berry. So far I'd say it's good blood&guts non PEP (oh wait, I mean HIP. PEP is post-exposure prophylaxis) Gluck, something to make the John Elliot Gardeners of the world go back to...gardening, I guess. Ewa Podles, in one interview, referred to early music conductors hilariously but not quite sensically as "pharmacists." Back to Rite-Aid with the lot of ye! I mean, yeah, you have your Minkowskis and your Jean(ne) Lamons [side note: there are definitely references to this musician as both Jean and Jeanne. Is this a transgender thing or just a de-Gallicization?] but there are also plenty of hangovers from the bloodless aesthetic of the 90's and who wants to sit through a Medea where nobody's allowed to emote?

With a silent 21 gun salute, I have taken the Chicago Canadienne out of the sidebar, as she has moved on from the 'sphere. And ACB of the concert is on a long-sounding hiatus--what's up with the mad attrition? Are we all burning out from the peculiar experience of having strangers look into our heads?

6 comments:

JSU said...
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JSU said...

Well, we loved your blogging too. I hope we love your singing more, and get to hear a lot of it here in NY!

Princess Alpenrose said...

Hey, Canadienne! Good to see you're lurking out there. Was thinking of you today, missing that "inside her head" experience. But again, and as always, respecting your decision. Nobody knows what's best for you better than you. Love from ariadne.

Okay, Maury, and everyone else who's getting wigged out about the "attrition", here's the scoop:

Bloggers instinctively abide by their Blog Mission Statement.

Mine, for instance, is pretty clear: Anyone who cares to read about what's going on in my head (that I share, which I promise is not everything!) or what's going on in my life as a Mom and/or as a Singer (again, I don't share everything!), during this transition time from "I'm just a Mom" to "I'm a Diva onstage in a real opera" is welcome to read it. What happens along the way, on my blog anyway, is not going to always be "pretty" or "get me cast in Role XYZ" or win me some namenlose "Miss Opera Congeniality of 2006". I talk about everything and anything I feel like, and, as one blogger put it, if you don't like it, well, "no likee, no clickee".

What happens once I get onstage in a significant role (and that could happen next month or next year) remains to be seen, however. At that point, I will have outlived the mission statement of my blog and I'll decide from there.

Don't think blogs have mission statements? Just look below the blog header or in the sidebar near the picture. ACB, for instance, blogs, in her own words, when she's on the road to keep connected to friends and family. So it's perfectly logical that she will blog more when she's ... back on the road.

Canadienne, perhaps, did not get enjoyment or find satisfaction in blogging, in fact, it seems, found it detrimental to her career. So the "diary" mission of her blog did not fit with her "Singer" identity, hence she stopped.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but knowing and stating clearly why you are blogging goes a long way to maintaining whatever boundaries you feel are necessary and getting what you want, need or like out of bloggging.

Personal PS from Ariadne: Believe it or not, some of us performers like having people look into their heads (again with appropriate boundaries)! It's not arrogance, it's actually the actor/being a character part ...

Anonymous said...

About Jean(ne) Lamon? Someone who knows her told me that after she moved from the US to Canada she changed her first name so that announcers, like that namenlos I-Pronounce-Everything-Perfectly woman on WQXR, would quit mispronouncing her name in the French way, making her sound like a man.

Maury D'annato said...

Hm. I'm thinking about this. Bloggers instinctively abide by their Blog Mission Statement.

I think I jokingly made one back when I passed around the opera blog meme. Probably I have a real one, if I thought about it. Truth is I blog because I'm a nearly compulsive writer with a job that frequently has excessive downtime. And the fact that some people have found the blog amusing has fueled it, of course.

As far as the blog's unspoken driving aesthetic, I'm just trying to be critical without being a dick and give lots of credit where due. I guess that's as close as I'm coming to a mission statement.

Aaron said...

I have to highly recommend Acis and Galatea, and not just because I'm in it. It's the perfect anti-lohengrin.