It must be a slow news day in Cincinatti

The Paavo Järvi saga continues: Mr. Järvi has entered a plea of not guilty in an Ohio court.  But let’s go to the videotape and be the judges for ourselves: 

 Also, reader challenge: WHAT IS HE LISTENING TO?  You only get to hear it for like 4 seconds at the start of the video.

It gives me a certain satisfaction to see that there are no fewer than 8 pages of reader comments on this story at cincinatti.com (linked above), the only problem being that so many of the commentators have a real attitude problem, seeing Järvi as some elitist trying to skirt the law.  Why can’t fun little classical music scandals without it being some kind of social commentary?  Where’s our Amy Winehouse or Britney Spears?

Woe is me.

gossip

How often do we get two (2) legitimate items of gossip from the world of classical music?

1) Paavo Järvi, of the Estonian dynasty, charged with DUI.

2) Rufus Wainwright’s opera REJECTED! (Actually, from the description, I’m really looking forward to it.)

West Side Story

(My apologies that MTT isn’t familiar with the tempo of this cha-cha)

So, the latest iteration of “West Side Story” finally opened on Broadway and is pulling in a cool million/week.  I saw this show in DC during out-of-town tryouts.  You can tell from the reactions that the critics see this as a way to define themselves.  As far as I’m concerned Terry Teachout hits the nail on the head.

One really must wonder what the point of Mr. Laurents’ alterations is.  Why the Spanish?  For realism?  Um, I kind of thought this was a musical we were talking about.  If you want realism, make a documentary — chances are you won’t see street gangs singing and dancing through the streets of Manhattan.

Perhpas we should leave the translating to the Takarazuka Revue:

I feel pretty

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Brand new head shots, courtesy of Rick Mitchell Photography.  Mr. Mitchell is a great guy and very easy to work with.  He found my approach very interesting — that is, he is used to working with actors, for whom a head shot really can make the difference between getting an audition and not.  I, on the other hand, only need these photos for publicity purposes, so they just have to look good.  Which they do.  See?

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