Opera Cabal is growing and expanding. At an organizational meeting at the Hungarian Pastry Shop on 111 & Amsterdam, the New York faction of Opera Cabal officially took shape tonight.
It's all terribly exciting.
There may be some new authors to the blog in coming days, namely the new core of directors: Vicky Chow, Amelia Lukas, & Steve Menotti.
Huzzah and huzzah. More to follow, I'm sure.
(n.)
10.10.2008
Opera Cabal: too crazy? Definitely. Yes.
As proof positive of Nick's theories detailed below as points A. and B., I hereby submit my director's summary of the aborted New York production, upon receipt of which I received notice of having been fired from the production.
"In rendering this Cantata what we need is an account in which Apollo and his cohort constitute a social scene that is young and libidinally transparent, à la Hollywood glamour..."
[Notice here, my use of the British spelling, "glamour," which meets very criteria of pretentious game-talk according to section XIX.a.ii. in the Chicago Manual of Style under the heading "Talking the Talk: More Pretentious Than Thou in Scholastic Writing."]
"The message at stake is of youth, youth culture, and the manufacturing and management of desire."
[Ah-ha! That was so smart, I bet you thought I stole it--I did, from a working dramaturg. So there.]
"Paradoxically..."
[The very essence fast academic talk: the ability to cut quickly to the paradox.]
"while we (the audience) recognize that such a scene thrives in a tabloid/popular/vulgar register we nevertheless experience Apollo's upper-crust in-crowd..."
[N.B.: a hyphenated noun and its modifying adjective in the very same sentence? Get out!!]
"...as elite, inaccessible, hence enviable. In a self-preserving gesture..."
[Hyphenated adjectives, need I remind you = awesome.]
"...this social echelon's own aesthetic inclinations are (predictably) characterized by a hypocritical aversion to anything arising from an egregiously popular/smut/mass-commercial world (hence Pan's music is experienced as devoid of content; Midas is framed as envoy to the aesthetically deaf). My argument will be for the basic transparency and recognizability of this hypocrisy while making no claims either for the coherence or defensibility of this posture, or for Pan's/Midas's."
[Need I say more? "Echelon," "smut," "envoy to the aesthetically deaf"?! Come, on: this is brilliant stuff.]
Too cool for New York? I believe I rest my case.
-m.
"In rendering this Cantata what we need is an account in which Apollo and his cohort constitute a social scene that is young and libidinally transparent, à la Hollywood glamour..."
[Notice here, my use of the British spelling, "glamour," which meets very criteria of pretentious game-talk according to section XIX.a.ii. in the Chicago Manual of Style under the heading "Talking the Talk: More Pretentious Than Thou in Scholastic Writing."]
"The message at stake is of youth, youth culture, and the manufacturing and management of desire."
[Ah-ha! That was so smart, I bet you thought I stole it--I did, from a working dramaturg. So there.]
"Paradoxically..."
[The very essence fast academic talk: the ability to cut quickly to the paradox.]
"while we (the audience) recognize that such a scene thrives in a tabloid/popular/vulgar register we nevertheless experience Apollo's upper-crust in-crowd..."
[N.B.: a hyphenated noun and its modifying adjective in the very same sentence? Get out!!]
"...as elite, inaccessible, hence enviable. In a self-preserving gesture..."
[Hyphenated adjectives, need I remind you = awesome.]
"...this social echelon's own aesthetic inclinations are (predictably) characterized by a hypocritical aversion to anything arising from an egregiously popular/smut/mass-commercial world (hence Pan's music is experienced as devoid of content; Midas is framed as envoy to the aesthetically deaf). My argument will be for the basic transparency and recognizability of this hypocrisy while making no claims either for the coherence or defensibility of this posture, or for Pan's/Midas's."
[Need I say more? "Echelon," "smut," "envoy to the aesthetically deaf"?! Come, on: this is brilliant stuff.]
Too cool for New York? I believe I rest my case.
-m.
10.09.2008
Fractured Atlas / Opera Cabal gets FIRED!
Nick is this week's featured artist on the Fractured Atlas blog.
***
Some of the more astute among you may have noticed that a couple of weeks ago we were advertising an upcoming show at Columbia University, namely a staging of Bach's Cantata 201, and the still more astute among you may have further noticed that said announcement is no longer up on the blog.
As it turns out, Opera Cabal got fired!
We had been in dialogue with the powers that be over at Columbia for some months about the project. In September, things started to ramp up in preparation; meetings were held, budgets were drafted, burned, and redrawn, new orchestrations were tossed about, Majel even met with a couple of professional drag queens to consult on the role of Apollo.
Then suddenly, and very unceremoniously, I found out by way of Majel one afternoon that at a meeting earlier in the day (at which neither Majel nor I was present), my involvement with the project had been terminated. A couple of days later, Majel got the axe.
We have some theories, which we will propagate here:
1.) Opera Cabal's work is just too cutting edge for hardcore Bach lovers.
2.) I'm terrible at the esoteric/nonsensical dropping of unfounded citation of obscure sources of legend chit-chat game favored by contemporary academics, and my general confusion in the midst of things, combined with my desire to discuss actual logistics (apparently interpreted as humorlessness, and perhaps even hostility) was unnerving for the academics involved.
3.) Majel drank un-sparkling water at our first meeting with the powers that be.
Win some, lose some.
(n.)
***
Some of the more astute among you may have noticed that a couple of weeks ago we were advertising an upcoming show at Columbia University, namely a staging of Bach's Cantata 201, and the still more astute among you may have further noticed that said announcement is no longer up on the blog.
As it turns out, Opera Cabal got fired!
We had been in dialogue with the powers that be over at Columbia for some months about the project. In September, things started to ramp up in preparation; meetings were held, budgets were drafted, burned, and redrawn, new orchestrations were tossed about, Majel even met with a couple of professional drag queens to consult on the role of Apollo.
Then suddenly, and very unceremoniously, I found out by way of Majel one afternoon that at a meeting earlier in the day (at which neither Majel nor I was present), my involvement with the project had been terminated. A couple of days later, Majel got the axe.
We have some theories, which we will propagate here:
1.) Opera Cabal's work is just too cutting edge for hardcore Bach lovers.
2.) I'm terrible at the esoteric/nonsensical dropping of unfounded citation of obscure sources of legend chit-chat game favored by contemporary academics, and my general confusion in the midst of things, combined with my desire to discuss actual logistics (apparently interpreted as humorlessness, and perhaps even hostility) was unnerving for the academics involved.
3.) Majel drank un-sparkling water at our first meeting with the powers that be.
Win some, lose some.
(n.)
10.02.2008
Lipstick on a Pig
Sarah Palin needs to run back to her ice floes and Iron Dog races. Let's just enjoy the thought of that...
"Lipstick on a Pig"
Written & directed by David Bashwiner, performed by David Bashwiner, Majel Connery, Richard Whaling and an unknown party; video and editing by Ben Kolak.
"Lipstick on a Pig"
Written & directed by David Bashwiner, performed by David Bashwiner, Majel Connery, Richard Whaling and an unknown party; video and editing by Ben Kolak.
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