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We Prefer the Gothic
(Based on a conversation with my editor at lunch
in which I do all the talking)
Are you as deeply disturbed as we are
Are you as deeply disturbed as we are
by this insidious “charmin’ fella” conductor movement?
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Indeed, we prefer the gothic, the antique, the conductor who must be hoisted on stage by an overwrought system of ropes, levers and pulleys.
Indeed, we prefer the gothic, the antique, the conductor who must be hoisted on stage by an overwrought system of ropes, levers and pulleys.
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And then, of course, there is the “Nosferatu effect,” which we really quite admire.
And then, of course, there is the “Nosferatu effect,” which we really quite admire.
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Your thoughts?
Vanx
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Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the San Francisco Symphony. (photo for SF Symphony by Kristen Loken)
James Levine conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra (photo by Michael Lutch for The Washington Post)
Christopher Eschenbach conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra (photo by Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times)
Ute Lemper with the Brooklyn Philharmonic (Photo by Rahav Segev for The New York Times)
April 26, 2006 at 3:13 pm
I only wish you had included
a conductor from the Midtown
Express. Those guys have style.
April 27, 2006 at 2:01 am
I’m going to spell this wrong but I wish you had a pic of Seiji Ozawa of the Boston Pops. He looked like the sweet guy when he entered and then halfway through the 1812 Overture you’d see the flute section backing away slowly. For that matter Arthur Fiedler really pioneered the odd pulley system conductor movement. Great conductor, though.
April 28, 2006 at 5:02 pm
I came back to tell you that i FINALLY just added you to my Blogroll and I hope that I will get over here more often with that help…(lol) I love this post! It is wonderfully funny and so true, too. And yet, I dearly loved Leonard Bernstein as a conductor and always loved him as a composer too. That series of lectures he did that is out on DVD The Young Peoples Concerts was one of THE GREAT Television happenings of those early years. Have you ever sen any of that? Fantastic! It is scary, btw, to think that Opera is not being recorded much anymore…What is that about??? Money. Greed. Etc.
April 28, 2006 at 5:33 pm
Ah–yes Naomi. I thought long and hard about Leonard Bernstein, and I decided that while he was certainly a charmer, he also had a bit of the Nosferatu about him.
April 29, 2006 at 3:55 am
I’m no expert but I prefer the ones who look like they are having a blast rather than getting stitches.