I had a lot of s*)% to deal with yesterday and everything happened at the time I should have been heading for the Proms launch. By the time the sighs of relief had been breathed, 'Old Nick' would have finished his speech. So for the moment here's the report from today's Independent giving some of the highlights...which include an evening with the mind-boggling Nitin Sawhney, a Brass Day (billed as 'loud'), and a new composition by Rachel Portman about Hurricane Katrina (Portman is best known as an excellent film composer, and a refreshing change from the Anglo-German youngsters trying to be Berg a century too late).
There's also an evening with Michael Ball, of which Nick Kenyon apparently said "We are responding to what audiences want to hear". Cue yells about dumbing down. It's Nick's last season. Maybe he just doesn't care any more?
On the other hand, anyone who saw Michael Ball as Purcell in the Tony Palmer/John Osborne film England, My England, may stop and reflect that it's not such a bad idea. Maybe we ought to listen first and judge afterwards.
I'll pick out some suitably idiosyncratic JDCMB Proms (assuming there are some) once I've plundered the prospectus. Meanwhile, you can see the full listings of what's on.
2 comments:
A mystery. Yesterday I listened to Senator John McCain telling a television audience how all the troops in Iraq feel about the war. And now Nicholas Kenyon tells us who people want to appear at the Proms. How do they KNOW these things? Did Kenyon do a survey of the entire population? Was it a multiple choice sort of thing -- "Who would you most like to appear in the Proms: Ida Haendel, Evgeny Kissin, Michael Ball...?" Is there some kind of logic -- more people go to hear Lloyd Webber and Ball than Schubert and Gorne, therefore they want Ball at the Proms? Actually, people who like him want him in the West End, though no doubt they'd be happy enough to get an extra dose in the Albert Hall. I'd be quite happy if I walked into a West End theatre and found Lulu instead of Cats, but that's not going to happen.
This business comes in the same category as having Proms rock concerts to reach out to young people. You don't go to a tennis club to play golf, a butcher's shop to buy tofu, the Brompton Oratory in hopes of running into Richard Dawkins, and I do not for one second believe that people scan the Proms' schedule hoping to find Michael Ball. I must add a rider to this. I have only encountered ball once. One day in non-classical mode, I looked on Youtube for Barbara Cook, a singer I admire greatly. Three clips, one from a Royal Variety show in which she sang Rodgers and Hammerstein's "People Will Say We're in Love" -- with Michael Ball. I had no idea who he was, and less idea why Cook had been lumbered with him. Good voice, though not appealing to me, but, oh, the mannerisms. I shall check the Purcell performance, but it won't change my mind about Ball singing Lloyd Webber at the Proms.
In Michael Ball's recent interview in the Radio Times he rightly points out that some classical singers have sung ALW's work in their own right. So is it ok for classical singers to sing the work just not at the proms. The fact is ALW is one composer of the
hundreds in this genre that can be used for this performance and some of the worlds most enduring songs come from it.
"You don't go to a tennis club to play golf, a butcher's shop to buy tofu"
Exactly ! Michael Ball is our foremost musical theatre performer if this music is to be included in the Prom it should be a musical theatre performer who sings it. This performance comes in the middle of appearing in two different West End shows. I for one am looking forward to seeing what is included in the Prom concert.
looking at Youtube that clip with of "People will say we're in love" is ten years old for heavens sake.
At least as suggested by Miss Duchen listen to the performance and then judge it.
But even then I doubt some of those who have been most condesending would dare admit it even if they enjoyed it.
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