Opera stars singing popular music doesn't always work. The tone of the voice and training of the singer simply aren't the proper fit. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is a tremendous soprano. But back in the 1980s, she released a couple of albums that I refer to as Kiri Te Kanawa Mangles Broadway. (Popular as the "dream cast" recording of West Side Story was that she appeared in, I found it dismal.) There have been other opera/pop debacles through the years, though when paired with the right songs, a few come across wonderfully. (One of my favorites is Samuel Ramey Singis Rodgers & Hammerstein.) Yesterday, we had two opera stars singing Broadway, with Marilyn Horne and Fredericka Von Stade, and they nailed "Bosom Buddies" from Mame like a gem. From what appears to be the same broadcast, here's another time they got it right. The musical Candide, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics primarily by Richard Wilbur, lends itself to opera singers, and a wonderful multi-disk CD was released in 1988. Beyond the richness of the full score, the final song, "Make Our Garden Grow," is a soaring paean that's gorgeous when any of the performers have a solid voice, but when those performers are not only opera singers, but legends, it becomes ethereal. Here are (take a seat if you're an opera lover...) -- Renee Fleming, Elizabeth Futral, Marilyn Horne, Frederica von Stade, Jerry Hadley (the 'Candide' of that aforementioned CD), Samuel Ramey, and Dwayne Croft -- and a full opera chorus singing the finale from Candide. This comes from A Celebration of the American Musical performed at Avery Fisher Hall in April, 1997. And this is how you do "Make Our Garden Grow." It's also one of those times when you just know that a 3-inch desktop speaker doesn't do this justice, and being there in the auditorium must have been other-worldly.
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Erin Andrews is a sideline interviewer for ESPN. I find her personable, professional, though a bit lightweight. She became part of a news story a few years back when some slug intruded on her private life, but she admirably got past that and has had a solid, respectable career. and is even doing TV commercials these days for Probiotics, a product I still don't have a clue what it is. After the recent All Star game, she did an interview with the National League's starting pitcher Adam Wainwright who earlier in the evening had started a firestorm on Twitter by commenting during an interview that he might have thrown an easy pitch to the New York Yankee's Derek Jeter who will be retiring at the end of the season. Ms. Andrews asked Wainwright a few questions about the incident, he apologized and tried to put things in perspective, and that was it. She didn't ask anything particularly probing, but then it was an All Star game. And she ended with a flip comment, "Don't you just love social media?" To which Wainwright responded, "No." It wasn't social media that started the controversy, so the question was a bit unnecessary and off-base, though Twitter did take the small matter and set it afire, making her quip at least understandable. What was also set afire was Kirk Minihane who appears on the Dennis and Callahan Morning Show on Boston radio. And on Wednesday -- a week after the interview -- he had a melt-down and went on a rant. If you are offended by crass language, avert your eyes. What a bitch! I hate her! What a gutless bitch! Seriously, go away. Drop dead. I mean, seriously what the hell is wrong with her? First of all, follow up. Second of all, the guy admitted he did it. He admitted it. He told reporters he threw a couple of pipe bombs. How is that social media’s fault? I hate her. I seriously hate her so much. Social media is the reason she has a big house! Shut up. Shut up. I shouldn’t call her a bitch, I’m sure she’s a nice person.” Another host chimed in, "She's probably a bitch." And in the subsequent continuation, words like "bimbo" and "bubblehead" were tossed in.
Eventually Mr. Minihane calmed down from his hissy fit and had the good sense to comment, "I'm gonna get in trouble for this." Yeah, probably. Though "trouble" tends to suggest just a verbal reprimand, suspension or maybe loss of pay. Or any combination of the above therein. Mr. Minihane however might also start being more concerned about, at best, being put on probation, or worse, released from his employment. I'm not suggesting that action -- I'm suggesting that that possibility is likely already being discussed by his bosses. Yes, yes, I understand that everyone has the right to say what they want. I understand, too, that radio is licensed because frequencies are limited, and stations are required to broadcast in the "public interest, convenience and necessity." And I know that radio stations -- all radio stations -- are always extremely concerned about what is said and what language is used over their airwaves. And all business are wary about what its employees say in public to customers when on the job, and have the right to deal with however they see fit. Free speech at work is not the same as being a drunk stumbling around the street corner at 2 AM howling to the moon and then vomiting. Although in Mr. Minihane's case, the comparison is strangely apt. I also suspect that when there are male sportscasters who Kirk Minihane doesn't like he criticizes them, perhaps harshly (though I don't know), but I'll bet cash money he doesn't spew a string of fighting-words vitriol that are the male equivalent of "bitch," "gutless bitch," "drop head," "bitch," "bimbo." But there's more here, too, than whether a small-minded Kirk Minihane is in trouble or will be suspended or fired. I don't want to draw lines to connect dots that may not be there. I don't know Kirk Minihane's politics. He might just be a total misogynist in the most basic of terms. Or radio's version of an uncaring Internet troll who likes to lob grenades simply to get a reaction. Or a swaggering hypocritical cowardly bully who's willing to sashay around, alone in front of a microphone and yell hate that he would likely never dream of saying to a person's face. But I do know that when you have a political party today creating its war on women, demeaning them with laws for forced transvaginal probes and claims of legitimate rape, and popular hosts like Rush Limbaugh feeling free to minimalize women "and call them sluts," and much more, it all just helps create a landscape where I suspect there are people who feel protected to act as neanderthal as possible, where "bitch" and "slut" and "drop dead bimbo" are acceptable, knowing that that's the tenor of the times that comes from some leadership. And when you extend that horizon to additionally allow for calling the President of the United States a Nazi un-American subhuman mongrel, and it's done so with acceptance and without consequence, why should the little Kirk Minihanes of the world think twice about going on their radio show and degrading women folk in as humiliating way as they can. Yet even Kirk Minihane, bullying his way around the big cool macho broadcast booth, eventually grasped that, y'know, "I shouldn't call her a bitch" and "I'm going to get in trouble for this." This isn't about political correctness or the word police -- phrases the heathen like to cravenly lob in self-defense when caught acting in a way they know their mothers would slap them silly if they dared say any of that in front of her. It isn't about what a person "should" or "shouldn't" say. It's about a perspective where people themselves think certain things are okay to say. If you want to go on a rant and call someone demeaning, galling, debilitating words intending to humiliate, that's your choice. But at least have the honesty to know that it is, in fact, demeaning, galling, debilitating and intended to humiliate. To think that it's "okay" says nothing about your intended target and everything about you. I've never found photo bombing as adorable as some do. To me, sticking your head in someone else's photograph is more rude, selfish, and risks ruining another person's keepsake than it is a hoot. I'm seen a few photo bombs that were funny, but that's "few" as in "few and far between" and not be worth the win/loss ratio. Worse to me may be video bombing, which goes back decades, most notably the still-classic situation where a TV reporter is doing a street report and people crush among themselves to jump and down and shout in order to be able to say "I was on TV!!!" as if that will now give meaning to their lives. I've always even found it a little be bit more sad than annoying, though I also place some blame on TV for it, as well. Most on-the-street reports are well-justified, but many are done purely to get attention, so when you do get it you sort of have to take some responsibility. (A leader in this is ESPN's NCAA football gameday coverage, which is more videobomb circus than sports coverage.) But there's been a more recent kind of video bombing for which TV is blameless -- on-location interviews, for instance. And I find little that's charming when I'm trying to watch something substantive, and then some egomaniac with a childhood need for attention decides it would be meaningful and such a hoot to get on camera. It is neither. Which brings us to this wonderful piece from Pat Tomasulo of WGN-TV in Chicago. Tomasulo has a feature on the news called "The Pat-Down," and he decided to deal with video bombing, and turn the tables a bit. What Tomasulo did was go to a local mall and pretend to be doing a live broadcast during the news. In fact, he was just with a video camera. And when someone who video bomb him, he'd turn the tables on them -- calling them over and saying that as long as they clearly want to be on TV, how about coming on TV with him for his live broadcast. And then. he asked them the most awkward, inappropriate questions he could think of. It's not all hilarious, must much of it is quite funny, but mainly I just love the concept. These were initially aired in 2012, as a two-part series, but it ended up being so popular that he did others. Here's the first one. Yesterday, I had a video of Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur reuniting to recreate their classic performance of "Bosom Buddies" from Mame. As I noted at the there, simple as the song appears, it requires a great deal of subtlety and comic timing. But more than that, given that the song is about two very longtime friends, it requires the two performers to have a sense of history. The song is, of course, fine without it (it's a funny song) -- but it loses it's richness and texture. When done in the context of the musical, you get that sense of history from the characters. Outside the show, though, two singers stuck together, it just doesn't come across the same. There was a wonderful tribute to composer Jerry Herman done at the Hollywood Bowl (first-aired on PBS and now available on DVD), and they put two perfectly fine singers on stage, and the number was...nice, but that was sort of it. I've seen a number of other actresses team up to perform it, but (for me) it always just misses. And then I came across this version. What we have here are two of the great American opera singers -- the legendary Marilyn Horne and the tremendous Frederica Von Stade. And they do have a long, very real, personal history together. Jackie and Flicka, as they're known by their nicknames (which is used in the performance here). To which is added the awareness that the world of opera is know for its dramatic rivalries. So, though you know it's just a song, you also know they're having great fun with their long past as actual friends and real-world competitors. There is a sub-text here that most performances don't and can't have. It just adds to the texture and fun. Down even to their exit from the stage. Opera singers don't always do a great job with popular songs. Their voices aren't of quite the right tone. But Marilyn Horne and Frederica Von Stade knock this song out of the park. It comes from A Celebration of the American Musical Theater, done at Avery Fisher Hall in 1997. This, too, is how it's done. The Coeur d'Alene Tribe had a concert scheduled at their casino in Idaho on August 4. The planned performer was Ted Nugent. "Was" being the operative term, because the tribe cancelled the concert, for reasons it said were the performer's "racist and hate-filled remarks." The tribe also made clear that it had booked Mr. Nugent without knowing his "racist attitudes and views." Ted Nugent, you will recall, is the guy who has been investigated by the FBI for making statements against the president which were seen as potentially threatening, and who once called President Obama a "subhuman mongrel," before sort of apologizing for it in his own way. And who likes to get attention by saying things on stage as racist and hate-infested as one could imagine, provided one chose to have a racist and hate-infested imagination. If the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, though, could only make one employment change, I'm not sure it should have been to cancel Ted Nugent. After all, it's anyone's right to listen to a performer despite his or her racist and hate-filled remarks. No, I think a better choice might have been to fire the person who books acts for the casino. I mean, seriously, how could someone whose job it is to book entertainment for their stage overlook the news headlines Ted Nugent has made for the past two years?? I'm not saying everyone should know. I'm not even saying that an entertainment booker should inherently know every controversial performer. But -- if your actual job is to book talent, and you have decided to consider hiring Ted Nugent for a show, how in the world could you possibly miss the controversy surrounding Ted Nugent? Most especially because venues go out of their way to avoid controversy at all costs. Most have morals clauses in contracts. They want to know. They want to protect themselves. Casinos today are catering to families. They really want to avoid controversy. How hard is it to find out about Ted Nugent? This isn't hyperbole. I mean, literally, how hard is it to find out? And so I did a test. To test my question, went to Google and typed in "Ted Nugent controversy." I think that's a reasonable and incredibly easy search term if I was booking talent and wanted to find out if there was anything controversial about an artist. The first result was about the Coeur d'Alene Tribe cancelling Ted Nugent, so we can discount that. The second entry was his Wikipedia page, which is basic for just about everyone in the world, so we can skip past that. And here is what came next on the result page -- As I said, if I was in charge of hiring at the C'oeur d'Alene Casino, I might consider at the very least re-assigning my booker.
In fairness, Tribe officials all might have known from the very first, and simply didn't mind signing a hate-filled racist to entertain their fellow Indians and the general public. Only after word got out what they'd done, and they all got slammed and had outraged phone calls did they then concoct the flim-flam that "We had no idea that Ted Nugent was controversial." Of course, if that's the case then they might be too stupid to be Tribe officials, and members might want to re-consider who's representing them. I have no idea which of these scenarios is correct. I can make a fair case for either. I'm only sorry that Ted Nugent won't be performing. It would have been nice to see what he would have come up with surrounded by Indians. This is one of a pair of videos upcoming, but the one to start with. One of the audience-pleasing numbers from the musical, Mame, by Jerry Herman was when the two pros, Angela Lansbury and Beatrice Arthur teamed up (as Mame and her friend Vera) to sing the comically scathing song, "Bosom Buddies." It remains one of the great shames that when Hollywood made the movie version, Angela Lansbury wasn't cast, and passed over for Lucille Ball. She had her occasional moments and did better than some people thought would be the case, but ultimately it was far too stilted a performance for character who's a free spirit. And Lansbury's stage performance is iconic. (Bea Arthur, though, did get to recreate her performance as Vera Charles in the film.) Years later, audiences got to see why, at least for one number. The two women together again recreated the "Bosom Buddies" song on the Tony Awards -- years after they had since each become TV stars in their own rights. The performance comes complete too even with the original choreography -- and a great deal, still, of audience-pleasing charm. There's a great deal of subtlety and comic timing required for the number -- I've seen a number of other actresses team up to perform it, and while it's a fun song, the other version miss the richness. This is how it's done |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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