(no subject)
I really like Wreck-It Ralph. The first time I saw it, I enjoyed the movie but I came away feeling like the second half went off in a direction that didn't work. I had been expecting a very different movie and the way things played out didn't match with my expectations from the trailer. Then I had some time to let the movie settle in and I watched it again. It's a great movie. Everything that happens is set up throughout the movie so that nothing feels yanked out of the writers' butts. There are also tons of clever details that you miss the first time around like the way the game worlds are fleshed out. Even the annoying character is annoying because she bugs Ralph. As Ralph starts to like her more, she gets toned down and is much less irritating. The overall story is a hero's journey for Ralph and although it seems at first to step away from that, on further viewing you realize that the plot actually never wavers. The only reason I didn't like this movie all that much at first were my own mistaken expectations.
And that, kidlets, brings us to the latest post that has opera singers up in arms. I am at a total loss as to why so many people are so invested in discrediting this woman. They all insist that she is bitter and wrong. Firstly, this is one person's experience and it is pretty clear that she had to deal with some unexpected problems along the way. I'm somewhat amazed that people are so eager to attack the writer but no one is questioning the bad advice she apparently got. Why is no one questioning the weird stuff she was told or wondering where it was coming from? Are the writer's problems really all her own fault for not magically knowing how opera works before she even started? Bear in mind, this is coming from me and I will be the first person to say that a person graduating in 2009 has ample access to online resources and help that could put them on the right track... but are those right?
The writer of the article is upset and angry because opera was not what she expected it to be. Does she have some valid reasons to be angry? Absolutely. This is someone from a small town who looked to classical music as a way out to something grander and more exciting. She was told not to work a mundane job and to take cabs and that was what she wanted to hear and wanted to believe. She wanted opera to be something where you get a scholarship to go to Europe in the summer. Her advisers and mentors encouraged her to believe these things. When you want to believe, believing is very very easy. Meanwhile, her parents helped her believe that all of this was real by taking on load debt without clearly explaining that they expected the writer to pay back these loans. She got an ugly wake-up call when she graduated and discovered that the glamorous world of opera isn't so glamorous after all.
Meanwhile, the people who are so angry with this woman apparently have some similar illusions. They insist that a career in the arts is all about being better than everyone else who wants the same thing. You just have to do the "right" things. The writer is just mad because she did things wrong or she just isn't good enough. Yeah, keep telling yourselves that, kids. You're making promises to yourself that the world will not keep. Is it really so important to believe that you're better than other people?
Look, careers in the arts are really hard. Opera is harder than most because we don't have the support of a union and we work for companies that are losing money on every production no matter how good we are or how much audience support we can bring in. The sad reality is that a singer who can bring in a huge donation through family or the person they're sleeping with or whoever is worth more to an opera company than the very best singer who auditions. That's just the way the numbers play out for us. That doesn't mean we can't keep on doing what we're doing. That doesn't mean that it's all bad. It just means that the business of opera is not what you expected it to be. That's all. If you think of opera within the greater context of a life in music, you can argue that there might even be some good in there somewhere. Being forced to think of yourself as an artist rather than just as singer is not a bad thing and it might bring more to the performance when opera is part of your musical life.
And it gives you the power to pursue opera and music in your own way. You don't have to worry about being better than everyone else. You just have to be the best possible you. You have to find your passion and create art because you want that art to exist not because you really wanted to never take the subway or to tell yourself that you were better or that you did everything right.
Whenever I have an emotional response to something, I have to ask myself is this about the media I'm consuming or is this about me? Am I really all that invested in how much an opera audition costs or is there something else going on? Am I trying to discredit information in order to protect something that I believe in? Truth be told, I have no idea how the writer of that post is getting her numbers and they don't match with my experience. I've seen auditions cost a lot less and a lot more but that's not a big deal. If you're trying to explain things to someone who has no experience in the weird world of opera, maybe those numbers represent an average that outsiders can understand. Or maybe they're wrong. Who knows. The only thing I can say for certain is that it sucks to find out that there's no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but I'm okay with that because how many people get to walk along a rainbow?
And that, kidlets, brings us to the latest post that has opera singers up in arms. I am at a total loss as to why so many people are so invested in discrediting this woman. They all insist that she is bitter and wrong. Firstly, this is one person's experience and it is pretty clear that she had to deal with some unexpected problems along the way. I'm somewhat amazed that people are so eager to attack the writer but no one is questioning the bad advice she apparently got. Why is no one questioning the weird stuff she was told or wondering where it was coming from? Are the writer's problems really all her own fault for not magically knowing how opera works before she even started? Bear in mind, this is coming from me and I will be the first person to say that a person graduating in 2009 has ample access to online resources and help that could put them on the right track... but are those right?
The writer of the article is upset and angry because opera was not what she expected it to be. Does she have some valid reasons to be angry? Absolutely. This is someone from a small town who looked to classical music as a way out to something grander and more exciting. She was told not to work a mundane job and to take cabs and that was what she wanted to hear and wanted to believe. She wanted opera to be something where you get a scholarship to go to Europe in the summer. Her advisers and mentors encouraged her to believe these things. When you want to believe, believing is very very easy. Meanwhile, her parents helped her believe that all of this was real by taking on load debt without clearly explaining that they expected the writer to pay back these loans. She got an ugly wake-up call when she graduated and discovered that the glamorous world of opera isn't so glamorous after all.
Meanwhile, the people who are so angry with this woman apparently have some similar illusions. They insist that a career in the arts is all about being better than everyone else who wants the same thing. You just have to do the "right" things. The writer is just mad because she did things wrong or she just isn't good enough. Yeah, keep telling yourselves that, kids. You're making promises to yourself that the world will not keep. Is it really so important to believe that you're better than other people?
Look, careers in the arts are really hard. Opera is harder than most because we don't have the support of a union and we work for companies that are losing money on every production no matter how good we are or how much audience support we can bring in. The sad reality is that a singer who can bring in a huge donation through family or the person they're sleeping with or whoever is worth more to an opera company than the very best singer who auditions. That's just the way the numbers play out for us. That doesn't mean we can't keep on doing what we're doing. That doesn't mean that it's all bad. It just means that the business of opera is not what you expected it to be. That's all. If you think of opera within the greater context of a life in music, you can argue that there might even be some good in there somewhere. Being forced to think of yourself as an artist rather than just as singer is not a bad thing and it might bring more to the performance when opera is part of your musical life.
And it gives you the power to pursue opera and music in your own way. You don't have to worry about being better than everyone else. You just have to be the best possible you. You have to find your passion and create art because you want that art to exist not because you really wanted to never take the subway or to tell yourself that you were better or that you did everything right.
Whenever I have an emotional response to something, I have to ask myself is this about the media I'm consuming or is this about me? Am I really all that invested in how much an opera audition costs or is there something else going on? Am I trying to discredit information in order to protect something that I believe in? Truth be told, I have no idea how the writer of that post is getting her numbers and they don't match with my experience. I've seen auditions cost a lot less and a lot more but that's not a big deal. If you're trying to explain things to someone who has no experience in the weird world of opera, maybe those numbers represent an average that outsiders can understand. Or maybe they're wrong. Who knows. The only thing I can say for certain is that it sucks to find out that there's no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but I'm okay with that because how many people get to walk along a rainbow?