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Classical Music
Janelle Gelfand on the classical music scene


Janelle's pen has taken her to Japan, China, Carnegie Hall, Europe (twice), East and West Coasts, and Florida. In fact, Janelle was the first Enquirer reporter to report from Europe via e-mail -- in 1995.

Janelle began writing for the Cincinnati Enquirer as a stringer in 1991 while writing a Ph.D. dissertation in musicology at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She joined the Enquirer staff in 1993.

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she graduated from Stanford University, Janelle has lived in Cincinnati for more than 30 years. In her free time, this pianist plays chamber music with her circle of musical friends in Cincinnati.

She covers the Cincinnati Symphony, May Festival and Cincinnati Opera, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, chamber music ensembles, and as many recitals and events at CCM and NKU as possible.

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Monday, March 26, 2007

When a tempest in a teapot hits CNN


During my vacation last week, it seems the Cincinnati Pops got into a heap 'o trouble with them good ol' boys down south. A not-so-friendly dispute is being aired, courtesy of former one-term Georgia Congressman Ben "Cooter" Jones, from coast-to-coast on TV, radio, the Associated Press and throughout the blogosphere, that contends (take your pick):

a) The Cincinnati Pops contracted a "Dukes of Hazzard"-themed show with actor/crooners John Schneider and Tom Wopat, scheduled for a summer pops concert, then canceled it.
b) No such show was ever contracted or scheduled.
c) The show would/would not feature the famous (or infamous) General Lee with a Confederate flag enblazoned on the roof.
d) Jessica Simpson would make a guest appearance as Daisy Duke.

Okay, I made up the last one. But already, the Pops version of "Messopotamia" has become fodder for CNN, Bill O'Reilly, this week's issue of Entertainment Weekly, Playbill, bloggers, op ed page editorials and today a guest column by Cooter himself.

I'm confused about a lot of things, including why did Mr. Jones choose to wage his campaign in the national media?

It got me thinking about all of the true works of art regularly seen on stages that one might deem offensive today -- to African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, Jews, Moslems, women, the disabled, and others --and I came up with a whole lot of standard operatic and symphonic fare.

But whoa-- is "Dukes of Hazzard" art? Granted the Pops has strayed afar from its origins as "lite classics" ... Putting aside all charges about political correctness, why is this ilk suitable for symphonic treatment??


2 Comments:

at 3/27/2007 04:06:00 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

It certianly is a tempest in a teapot.

 
at 3/27/2007 04:20:00 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

What struck me about thing was-not again. Not the Confederate flag thing, but the "Duke boys". How many times do we have to see them either singularly or together with the Pops? This would have been at least the third or fourth time they have appeared alone or as a pair with the orchestra. Perhaps it's even more.
My thoughts went back to an interview with eric Kunzel that appeared in the Enquirer several years ago when he said he liked performing with artists he is familiar with. A truer statement has never been spoken because we keep seeing the same ones. It has manifested itself with some of the stalest programing one could imagine in recent years. How many times do we have to see cloggers,the continuous loop of local college choral groups, or the guy who hangs from the rigging in sheets, or the "Singing in the Rain" routine with the same people which was done twice last year with the same people? Dave Burbeck is great and it was great when Ella Fitzgerald and Cab Calloway came when they were alive to see more than once, but there has to be limit at some point.
I think the greater problem was not the "stars and bars", but some unimaginative programing that takes us back to the "Duke Boys". It's the "stars" we are picking and not the ones we are "baring" that is the issue.

 
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