Comments on: Wait, But Is Renee Fleming Gonna Ruin It For Everyone By Making Us Look Like Sellouts?

By: Who The Hell Stole Vijay Iyer’s Watch At The Stone? « Sound Directions

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:58:29 +0000

[...] many important questions about the ‘burgeoning’ indie classical movement, including is it all over now? No word on what the album cover is going to look like yet though you are encouraged to speculate [...]

By: Brendan

Brendan — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:49:14 +0000

It’s pop-opera star in reverse. I am cautiously optimistic, but I have a nagging feeling that this is going to end up next to Michael Bolton’s opera album.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:27:48 +0000

@Mike hahaha, touché! Thanks for the comment, also. I’m not pre-judging the product or the artist or where the artist is coming from discipline-wise. Nor have I made any judgements about crossover projects by any of the artists you mentioned. I do have something in the queue that goes to that point, however. Stay tuned for that.

What I think is interesting is that this whole indie/alt- classical movement has been sort of an underground thing that the kids have been doing and now a big time star on a major label (‘The Man’) from a different generation has picked up on this trend. Is that going to matter to the indie-classicists? Will the movement shift if this trend is perceived to have gone ‘mainstream’? Cuz nothing takes the allure out of alt quite like having that culture appropriated to a mass market.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:05:34 +0000

Hum … let’s see – Itzak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, the London Symphony, Leonard Bernstein, John Adams, Michael Daugherty, John Williams, Keith Lockhardt – even Marin Alsop – and many more move back and forth across the “line” that seperates classical and popular music – no problem. I’ve even heard of a classically trained saxophonist who performs while a colleague is spinning lps back and forth on a turntable – and that’s all cool. But let an OPERA SINGER try something that breaks the rules, and brickbats come out 4 months before the album hits the streets. Can you say “double standard”? Either the album will stink and find a place in the cut-out bins next to “Classically Barbara” or, by jove, maybe she’s “got it”! Maybe we could wait to hear the music before we decide?

By: Trevor Hunter

Trevor Hunter — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:57:35 +0000

I was FREAKING OUT about this. It’s amazing in all the worst ways.

My enthusiasm for this train wreck was sadly somewhat diminished when I realized that the original Mars Volta song, rather being their usual insane fare, is actually something my mom might like.