Arts in America

[antigop]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-rivera/arts-in-america_b_1436149.html

Why am I home right now, staring out the window, attempting to be a brilliant writer instead of wailing my guts out somewhere in an opera? Well, one reason is that I was supposed to have a gig this spring with San Antonio Opera -- I was going to sing Rosina in a production of the Barber of Seville. Except San Antonio Opera filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and no longer exists as of a few weeks ago. Too bad for opera lovers in San Antonio, and too bad for opera singers who were supposed to make their living singing there. So instead of singing, I'm sitting in my apartment thinking about how a lack of arts funding in the U.S. really really stinks for someone like me.

I don't like to disparage the U.S. -- I really do like it here and choose to make it my home, even though I have almost moved to Italy, France, or Germany about 16 times per country. But in the last three years, almost 70% of my income has come from my gigs abroad, and so I spend a lot of time contemplating why there seems to be so many more opportunities for artists (opera singers, particularly) outside the U.S than here at home (this is not to discount the fabulous network of regional opera companies that have developed here over the years - but there are currently more singers than there are jobs here, and a lot of very talented, but out of work artists). I've had more encounters than I care to recount with seemingly cultured, educated Americans who have thrown questions at me like, "You're an opera singer? Is that like Phantom of the Opera?" or "An Opera Singer?!?! Aren't you too skinny to be an Opera Singer?" compared with the dozens of conversations I've had with Italian taxi drivers and fruit sellers, and Austrian shopkeepers and maitre d's about what repertoire the opera company in town has planned for this year, or what type of mezzo soprano I am, or whether I prefer Mozart or Verdi. Now, this is not the fault of those Americans asking me those less than informed questions (I could have easily been one of them had my path not steered me towards singing) - the problem is that not only is our country young, and our history doesn't intertwine with our cultural heritage for the past bunch of centuries, but we are also not brought up to believe (as they are in other countries) that arts and culture are a human right, one that we all deserve and are entitled to.

[murielm99]

1. I get it.

My daughter is a classically trained musician. She plays the flute, but earns her living doing other things. She does have gigs here, but she has performed in Germany and Italy. I have wondered many time why she has stayed in the U.S.

[antigop]

2. Thanks, muriel. Those of us involved in the arts get it. Sadly, a lot of people don't. n/t

[rrneck]

3. It's hard to make a living in this country

without telling people what they want to hear.

It's tough peddling broccoli in front of a sweet shop.

[murielm99]

4. My daughter plays in a lot of

pops concerts. Sometimes that is a way to introduce people to orchestras. Also, they will come to hear familiar classical works. It is a place to start.

[rrneck]

5. As long as it's just a start.

A lot of artists spend entire careers paying dues and never see a return on their investment.

At times it seems like asking a peace activist to work in the arms industry to get a shot at being heard someday. Or not.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

6. The Metropolitan Opera used to have all-American casts.

In the fifties and sixties. Most of them born in New York City, like Richard Tucker and Robert Merrill.

Richard Tucker and Robert Merrill singing the duet Au Fond du Temple Sant (At the back of the holy temple) from Bizet's opera "The Pearl Fishers". The bounce off the back wall of the last note resonating is stunning!!!