Archive for the ‘Music’ Category

Jobs and the NEA

Monday, September 5th, 2011

Yesterday I heard an interview on WRR about the Irving(Texas) Lyric Stage.

They have been doing “concert productions” of old musicals. These performances go back to the original scoring and staging of the musical. The main differences between these productions and the originals is that the Lyric Stage productions lack sets, costumes and acting–think an oratorio. The main difference between this productions and most current revivals of these musicals is that they involve a lot more musicians. If you go to most revivals of the old musicals, the pit orchestra has been greatly reduced and there are fewer singers on the stage. To make up for the fewer performers, amplification is used.

What the Irving productions involve are more gigs for professional musicians–in other words jobs.

This began in the 2007-2008 season with a concert revival of Carousel. Hiring professional musicians and actors for such a productions is enormously expensive. How did the Lyric Stage manage to pay for it? They received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). We know that the Tea Party and Republicans want to do away with the NEA because it is wasteful federal spending.

The Lyric Stage has continued these productions: The King and I in 2008-2009, Showboat in 2009-2010 and My Fair Lady in 2010-2011. Kismet is in the current season. But note this–the Lyric Stage no longer receives NEA grants to fund these productions. The first production funded by NEA so impressed local philanthropists that now they are funded with local money. So the NEA grant created employment opportunities in 2007-2008. But those employment opportunities have continued even though the NEA funding has ended!

I have written about another example. Back in the Great Depression the Works Progress Administration (WPA) paid workers to construct a zoo in San Antonio. WPA is history now–long gone having ended before WWII. But the San Antonio Zoo is still there. I visited it a few years ago. I saw crowds of visitors. There were people working there too: various zoo keepers and concession operators. There were also construction workers expanding and updating the facilities. The old WPA program is still creating jobs.

Public works programs can create jobs. They can also produce jobs long after the original government funding has disappeared. Public works are investments in our future.

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Surprise!

Saturday, October 16th, 2010

Last year the Texas Ballet Company decided that because of serious budget shortfalls they would stop using a real orchestra in the pits and use recorded music instead. I’ve forgotten exactly how much they would save doing this. Some thing like$500,000, if I recall correctly. They argued that it was important to keep the dancers–after all, you can’t really have ballet with dancers. But they also claimed that no orchestra musicians would lose their jobs because what the Texas Ballet Company did was contract with the Fort Worth Symphony for the orchestra, and the musicians would keep their jobs. Somehow, that did not compute with me. Somebody was out a bunch of money to my thinking.

And so today the other shoe dropped. In the Dallas Morning News this morning there was a comment from a music critic about the strange thing that happened at a recent Fort Worth Symphony Concert. In the middle of tuning, the orchestra stood and remained silent for a minute. Had someone died? Well no. It was a protest of sorts. It seems that the local musicians’ union is deadlocked in negotiations with the Fort Worth Symphony. And they have no contract.

The issue is this the symphony wants to “shorten the season” because of lack of funds. This essentially is a paycut of over 17%! Times are tough. According to the orchestra management, their revenues have dropped by $819,000. Why? Well, there’s the recession. And a decline in ticket sales. Oh, and among other things no money coming in from the Texas Ballet Theater.

So it may be that no musicians will lose their jobs. But those who stay will apparently take a big, big cut in pay. Surprise! Surprise!

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The Dallas Opera’s Upcoming Season

Friday, May 14th, 2010

I just renewed my subscription to the 2010-11 season of the Dallas Opera. It will be their second season in the new Winspear Opera House in the Arts District of Dallas, next to the Myerson. And what a season they have planned. They managed to schedule three of my top favorites: Don Giovanni, Rigoletto and Boris Godunov. (They are also doing Donizetti’s Anna Bolena and Gounod’s Romeo and Juliette.)

I won’t have much to say now about the Mozart or the Verdi, other than I have always enjoyed performances of these two having seen both on several occasions. They are, after all, war horses and opera fans have frequent opportunities to see them both. The Fort Worth Opera doing Don Giovanni this month.

But performances of Boris Godunov are far and few between. I only have seen a live performance once in my life—over 50 years ago. That was with the now defunct San Antonio Symphony’s Opera Festival before the death of the then conductor, Victor Alessandro. And I fell in love with the work. But my little secret is that Boris was sung by none other than the late Boris Christoff, the Russian bass; this was his “signature role.” And marvelous he was!

When I mention that Boris is one of my favorite operas, those knowledgeable ask me whether I prefer the Rimsky-Korsakov revision or Mussorgsky’s original. Of course back in the dark ages when I first encountered this opera, what I heard was the Rimsky-Korsakov revision, and that was the only version which Christoff sang.

Since then the “authentic music” movement have replaced that version with the original score. The argument runs that the “mistakes” and “crudities” which Rimsky-Korsakov “corrected” are what Mussorgsky actually intended.

I started out with Christoff doing the Rimsky-Korsakov version and have it also on CD where he does all the bass roles. So you have the curious effect of him having a “conversation” with himself. I also have DVDs with the original Mussorgsky version. All I can say, is that I enjoy them both. And I am sure I will enjoy the Dallas Opera’s production regardless of which they do—although I’m pretty sure they will do the “original” version.

There are a number of great moments in the opera. But I think the most powerful moment is when Boris is dying and giving his fatherly advice to his son. It in some ways reminds me of another bass aria, when Wotan is saying farewell to Brünnhilde in the closing scene of Die Walküre. I don’t particularly care for the rest of that opera, but that scene makes up for the rest.

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