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Classical music: The timing and political climate could not be more relevant for seeing the Madison Opera’s production of “Fellow Travelers” this Friday night and Sunday afternoon

February 6, 2020
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By Jacob Stockinger

You might recall from a previous blog posting that this weekend, the Madison Opera will present its production of the 2016 opera “Fellow Travelers.”

(A preview from the Minnesota Opera’s production, which featured the same sets and many of the same singers at the Madison Opera’s production, can be seen in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

Performances are this Friday night, Feb. 7, at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoon, Feb. 9, at 2:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center.

Here is a link to more background and details about American history, the production, the cast and tickets.

https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2020/01/14/classical-music-background-discussions-lectures-and-documentaries-lead-up-to-madison-operas-production-of-the-new-lgbtq-themed-opera-fellow-travelers-on-feb-7-and-9/

Today, all The Ear wants to do is to point out how timely this story about the “Lavender Scare” of purging and punishing gays during the Red Scare, anti-Communist witch hunt of McCarthyism in the late 1940s and 1950s.

The opera’s story is about a young man (below) who supports Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin and then finds himself romantically and sexually attracted to another man who works in the State Department, one of McCarthy’s favorite targets.

He then has to deal with hypocrisy, with the contradictions between his personal life and his political beliefs as he goes from being victimizer to victim.

The political climate for such a work exploring fear and prejudice couldn’t be more relevant .

A lot of the credit for that can go directly to President Donald Trump (below), the master of “Fake News.”

Trump is a right-wing fear-monger and name-smearer, constantly raging against “radical left-wing Democrats.” He has even called Sen. Bernie Sanders — a Democratic candidate for president — a “Communist,” even though Sanders describes himself as a democratic Socialist along the lines of Western European socialists.

It is also no secret that in addition to such unfair and insulting name-calling, Trump and his homophobic supporters – including Vice President Mike Pence and Christian Fundamentalists – are looking to roll back the civil rights and human rights of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer.

And they want to do so even at a time when an openly gay man who is married, Pete Buttigieg, is running for president and seems to have just won the Iowa caucuses.

Moreover, there is a direct link between McCarthyism and the homophobia of the Liar-in-Chief.

Remember that McCarthy’ lawyer was a closeted and self-hating gay man named Roy Cohn (below right, with McCarthy). There is some evidence that McCarthy himself was secretly homosexual too.

After the humiliating end of the Army-McCarthy hearings and the premature death of McCarthy, Cohn went into private practice in New York City.

And that is where Cohn became the lawyer – and a role model of thuggish public behavior — for a young real estate developer named Donald Trump (below left, with Roy Cohn).

Such partisan times as the present seem to call for and inspire didactic art – better called “message art.” The Ear hasn’t seen the opera yet, so he can’t say how well it fits the bill.

But at first glance, the opera sure seems to fit the times we live in and the personalities of many of those who determine such a disturbing political and social climate. As The Nation magazine put it, “Trumpism is the New McCarthyism.”

In short, the opera’s plot seems both pertinent and realistic, one that could take place in today’s Washington, D.C.

The Ear is anxious to find out more and to make up his own mind, including about the music to be sung by the cast and played by the Madison Symphony Orchestra under conductor John DeMain.

He also hopes many of you will see the opera, and then leave your reactions and comments here, be they positive or negative.

The Ear wants to hear.

Posted in Classical music
Tags: #Anti-Communist, #Army-McCarthy, #BernieSanders, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CapitolTheater, #ChristianFundamentalist, #ChristianReligion, #CivilRights, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FakeNews, #FellowTravelers, #Fridaynight, #HomeWebsite, #HumanRights, #IowaCaucauses, #JacobStockinger, #JohnDeMain, #LavenderScare, #LGBTQrights, #LivingComposer, #MadisonOpera, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #McCarthyEra, #MessageArt, #MIkePence, #MinnesotaOpera, #NewMusic, #NewYorkCity, #OperaPlot, #OvertureCenter, #PersonalLife, #PeteButtigieg, #PoliticalBeliefs, #PresidentDonaldTrump, #PresidentTrump, #RedScare, #RoleModel, #RoyCohn, #SociallyRelevant, #StateDepartment, #Sundayafternoon, #The1950s, #TheEar, #TheNation, #USArmy, #VicePresident, #VocalMusic, #WesternEurope, #WitchHunt, #YouTubevideo, 1940s, 1950s, American, anti-Communism, Army, Art, Arts, attract, audience, background, behavior, belief, Bernie Sanders, bisexual, blog, candidate, Capitol Theater, cast, choral music, Christian, Christian Fundamentalist, civil, civil rights, Classical music, climate, closeted, colleagues, comment, Communism, composer, Concert, conductor, contradiction, D.C., death, Democratic, describe, details, determine, didactic, didacticism, disturbing, do, Donald Trump, evidence, Facebook, fake news, fear, Fellow Travelers, forward, Friday night, fundamentalist, gay, heartings, homophobia, homosexual, Homosexuality, human, human rights, humiliation, hypocrisy, hypocritical, Iowa, Iowa caucuses, Jacob Stockinger, John DeMain, Lavender Scare, lawyer, left-wing, lesbian, LGBT rights, LGBTQ, liar, life, like, link, Living composer, Madison, Madison Opera, Madison Symphony Orchestra, magazine, man, married, McCarthyism, message, message art, Mike Pence, mind, Minnesota Opera, Music, name, name-calling, negative, new, New Music, New York City, online, open, opera, Orchestra, Overture Center, Overture Center for the Arts, partisan, People, performer, personal, personal life, personalities, personality, pertinent, Pete Buttigieg, plot, political beliefs, Politics, positive, possible, post, posting, practice, premature, President, President Donald Trump, President of the United States, President Trump, preview, private, production, public, punish, punishment, purge, queer, radical, reaction, realistic, recall, recognize, Red Scare, relevant, Republican, Republican Party, right, rights, role model, Romantic, Roy Cohn, see, self-hating, senator, sets, sex, share, singer, smear, social, socialist, State Department, story, sung, supporter, tag, The Ear, The Nation, thug, tickets, time, timely, today, transgender, Trump, Trumpism, U.S. Senator, unfair, United States, vice president, victim, victimizer, vocal music, want, Washington, Website, weekend, Western Europe, Western European, win, Wisconsin, witch hunt, works, young, YouTube

Classical music: Background discussions, lectures and documentaries lead up to Madison Opera’s production of the LGBTQ-themed, McCarthy-era opera “Fellow Travelers” on Feb. 7 and 9

January 14, 2020
1 Comment

By Jacob Stockinger

The Madison Opera continues its foray into 21st-century operas with Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers on Friday night, Feb. 7, at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoon, Feb. 9, at 2:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater at the Overture Center.

(Production photos below are by Dan Norman of the Minnesota Opera production, which is being encored in Madison. You can see and hear a preview of the Minnesota Opera production in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

The acclaimed 2016 opera is set in 1950s Washington, D.C. The “Lavender Scare,” in which suspected homosexuals saw their livelihoods and lives destroyed, has enveloped the U.S. government. (Below are Andres Acosta as Timothy Laughlin and Sidney Outlaw as Tommy McIntyre.)

Against this backdrop, Timothy Laughlin, a recent college graduate and an ardent supporter of Wisconsin’s anti-Communist Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy, meets Hawkins Fuller, a State Department official.

The two men (below, Acosta on the right) embark on a relationship, tangled in a web of fear and necessary deceit. Their friends and colleagues fill out a story of individuals grappling with their beliefs and emotions.

With a libretto by Greg Pierce that is based on Thomas Mallon’s 2007 novel, Fellow Travelers was praised as “a near-perfect example of fast-flowing musical drama” by The New York Times and tells of the very human consequences of prejudice and fear, with compassion, nuance and incredible beauty.

The opera will be sung in English with projected text.

The performance will last approximately 2 hours 25 minutes, including one intermission.

For more information, go to: www.madisonopera.org/FellowTravelers

Tickets are $26 to $118 with discounts available for students and groups. Go to the Overture Center box office at 201 State Street or call it at (608) 258-4141 or go online to www.MadisonOpera.org/Tickets

“When I saw Fellow Travelers, I knew before it was over that I would be producing it in Madison,” says Madison’s Opera’s General Director Kathryn Smith (below in a photo by James Gill). “I fell in love with the haunting music and the well-drawn characters, and the emotional impact at the end was even more powerful than I had anticipated. I am truly looking forward to sharing this modern masterpiece with our community.”

Peter Rothstein (below) directs this production in his Madison Opera debut. Rothstein, who received his MFA from the UW-Madison, directed Fellow Travelers for Minnesota Opera in 2018.

The Twin City Arts Reader called his production “equal parts sweeping love affair and tragic circumstance. To some, the events will feel comfortably distant for this doomed period romance. For others, they will seem all too real and possible in this day and age. It’s a powerful combination.”

Making his Madison Opera debut as Timothy Laughlin is Andres Acosta (below), who performed this role to acclaim at the Minnesota Opera.

Ben Edquist (below), who debuted at Opera in the Park this past summer, sings Hawkins Fuller.

Adriana Zabala (below, of Florencia en el Amazonas) returns as Mary Johnson, who works with Hawkins and is a friend and voice of conscience for him and Timothy.

Returning to Madison Opera are Sidney Outlaw (below top, of Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet) as Tommy McIntyre, a political insider, and Alan Dunbar (below bottom, in a photo by Roy Hellman, of Mozart’s The Magic Flute) in multiple roles, including Senator Joseph McCarthy and a government interrogator who puts Hawkins through a lie detector test.

Andrew Wilkowske (below) debuts in several roles, including Senator Potter and General Arlie.

Filling out the cast is Madison Opera Studio Artist Emily Secor (below top) as Miss Lightfoot, who works in Hawkins’ office; soprano Cassandra Vasta (below bottom) as Lucy, whomHawkins marries; and Madison Opera Studio Artist Stephen Hobe in five different roles.

John DeMain (below, in a photo by Greg Anderson) conducts, with the Madison Symphony Orchestra in the pit.

Madison Opera’s production of “Fellow Travelers” is sponsored by: Fran Klos; Sally and Mike Miley; David Flanders and Susan Ecroyd; John Lemke and Pamela Oliver; Sharyn and Carl Stumpf; and Dane Arts. Community events are sponsored by The Capital Times.

RELATED EVENTS

In addition to the two performances, Madison Opera offers several events to allow deeper exploration of the opera and its historical background.

They include a free discussion of the “Wisconsin Dimension” of this period in history at the Madison Central Library and a free showing of The Lavender Scare documentary at PBS Wisconsin (formerly Wisconsin Public Television).

OPERA NOVICE: WELCOME TO THE 21st CENTURY

This Friday, Jan. 17, 6-7 p.m. FREE and open to the public at the Madison Opera Center (below), 335 West Mifflin Street

New to opera? Not sure how you feel about modern opera? Come to the Madison Opera Center for a short, fun and informative evening, led by General Director Kathryn Smith.

Learn about some of the new American operas that are shaping the operatic landscape in the 21st century, including Fellow Travelers. Studio Artist Stephen Hobe (below) will sing an aria from Fellow Travelers, and there will be plenty of time for questions. It’s the perfect jump-start for the opera-curious.

FELLOW TRAVELERS: THE WISCONSIN DIMENSION

This Sunday, Jan. 19, 3–4:30 p.m.; FREE and open to the public at the Madison Central Library, 201 West Mifflin Street

Join us for a discussion of how the Lavender Scare and its fallout was felt in Wisconsin, led by R. Richard Wagner (below top), activist and author of We’ve Been Here All Along: Wisconsin’s Early Gay History (below middle), and Susan Zaeske (below bottom), a UW-Madison campus leader in the arts and humanities who has taught an experiential-learning course on LGBTQ history.

THE LAVENDER SCARE– Documentary Screening

Friday, Jan. 24, 7 p.m.; FREE and open to the public at PBS Wisconsin, 821 University Avenue

PBS Wisconsin (formerly Wisconsin Public Television) presents a screening of The Lavender Scare, the first documentary film to tell the little-known story of an unrelenting campaign by the federal government to identify and fire all employees suspected of being homosexual.

Narrated by Glenn Close, the film was praised as “a gripping, nimbly assembled documentary… vivid, disturbing and rousing” by the Los Angeles Times. The screening will be followed by a discussion.

OPERA UP CLOSE: FELLOW TRAVELERS

Sunday, Feb. 2, 1-3 p.m.; FREE for full-season subscribers; $10 for two-show subscribers; and $20 for non-subscribers; at the Madison Opera Center, 335 West Mifflin Street

Join the Madison Opera for a multimedia behind-the-scenes preview of Fellow Travelers. General Director Kathryn Smith will discuss many aspects of the opera, including the historical events that provide the story’s backdrop, the novel on which it is based, and how this 2016 opera swiftly spread across the country.

Principal artists, stage director Peter Rothstein, and conductor John DeMain will participate in a roundtable discussion about Madison’s production and their own takes on this acclaimed 2016 work.

PRE-OPERA TALKS

Friday, February 7, 2020, 7 p.m. and Sunday, February 9, 2020, 1:30 p.m. FREE to ticket holders at the Wisconsin Studio in the Overture Center

Join General Director Kathryn Smith one hour prior to performances for an entertaining and informative talk about Fellow Travelers.

Posted in Classical music
Tags: #21stCentury, #AdrianaZabala, #AlanDunbar, #AndresAcosta, #AndrewWilkowske, #Anti-Communist, #ArtisticDirector, #BenEdquist, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BoxOffice, #CapitolTheater, #CassandraVasta, #CastList, #CharlesGounod, #CollegeGraduate, #ContemporaryOpera, #CriticalAcclaim, #DaneArts, #EmilySecor, #EmotionalImpact, #EnglishLanguage, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #Fast-Paced, #FellowTravelers, #FlorenciaenelAmazonas, #Fridaynight, #GayHistory, #GeneralDirector, #GlennClose, #GregorySpears, #GregPierce, #JacobStockinger, #JohnDeMain, #JosephMcCarthy, #KathrynSmith, #LavenderScare, #LGBTQrights, #LieDetector, #LivingComposer, #LoveAffair, #MadisonCentralLibrary, #MadisonOpera, #MadisonOperaCenter, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #McCarthyEra, #MinnesotaOpera, #ModernOpera, #MusicalDrama, #NewMusic, #OperaCast, #OperaInThePark, #OperaLibretto, #OperaMusic, #OvertureCenter, #PBSWisconsin, #PeriodRomance, #PersonalRelationship, #PeterRothstein, #R.RichardWager, #RedScare, #RomeoandJuliet, #SeniorCitizen, #SidneyOutlaw, #StageDirector, #StateDepartment, #StephenHobe, #Sundayafternoon, #SusanZaeske, #The1950s, #TheCapitalTmes, #TheEar, #TheLavenderScare, #TheMagicFlute, #TheNewYorkTImes, #ThePit, #TheU.S., #ThomasMallon, #TwinCities, #TwinCitiesArtsReader, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UWProfessor, #VocalMusic, #We'veBeenHereAllAlong, #WisconsinPublicTelevision, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YouTubevideo, 1950s, 21st century, acclaim, Adriana Zabala, age, Alan Dunbar, Andres Acosta, Andrew Wilkowske, anti-Communism, ardent, Artistic director, Arts, backdrop, background, beauty, belief, Ben Edquist, bisexual, blog, Book, box office, Campus, Capitol Theater, Cassandra Vasta, cast, characters, Charles Gounod, circumstances, Classical music, classicalmusic, colleague, college, Communism, Communist, community, compassion, composer, Concert, conduct, conductor, conscience, consequences, contemporary opera, course, D.C., Dane Arts, day, debut, deceit, destroy, direct, discount, discussion, distant, documentary, doom, embark, Emily Secor, emotion, emotional, encored, English, entertaining, era, event, experimental, Facebook, fast, fast-flowing, fear, Fellow Travelers, Florencia en el Amazonas, foray, forward, free, Friday night, friend, gay, gay history, General director, Glenn Close, Gounod, graduate, Greg Pierce, Gregory Spears, group, haunting, historical, History, homophobe, homophobia, homosexual, Homosexuality, human, humanities, impact, individuals, information, intermission, interrogator, Jacob Stockinger, John DeMain, Joseph McCarthy, Kathryn Smith, Lavender Scare, learning, lecture, lesbian, LGBT, LGBTQ, library, libretto, lie detector, like, link, live, livelihood, Living composer, Love, love affair, Madison, Madison Opera, Madison Opera Center, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Marriage, marry, masterpiece, McCarthyism, men, MFA, Minnesota Opera, modern, modern opera, Mozart, Music, musical drama, narrator, New Music, novel, nuance, official, online, opera, Opera in the Park, Orchestra, Overture Center, PBS, PBS Wisconsin, period romance, personal relationship, Peter Rothstein, photo, possible, post, posting, powerful, Prejudice, produce, production, professor, public, queer, R. Richard Wagner, reader, real, Red Scare, relationship, Republican, Republican Party, role, Romance, Romeo and Juliet, screening, senator, senior, senior citizen, share, showing, Sidney Outlaw, sing, sponsor, stage director, State Department, Stephen Hobe, story, Sunday afternoon, sung, supertitles, supporter, surtitles, Susan Zaeske, suspect, symphony, tag, talk, Television, test, text, The Capital Times, The Ear, The Lavender Scare, The Magic Flute, The New York Times, the pit, Thomas Mallon, tickets, tragedy, Tragic, transgender, TV, Twin Cities, Twin Cities Arts Reader, U.S., United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW, UW-Madison, video, vocal music, voice, Washington, We've Been Here All Along, web, weekend, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Public Television, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, work, WPT, YouTube

Classical music: Here is a love story, Steinway-style, that benefits UW-Madison students

March 28, 2017
1 Comment

By Jacob Stockinger

Take a Steinway vintage Model M baby grand piano from 1927.

Add in the love of music as well as the love between a husband-father and wife, and then between a mother and daughter (below, on the left is mother Julia Monteros Wooster and on the right is daughter Mariah Wooster-Lehman).

Finish it off with some rebuilding and repairing, and the desire to make a generous gift to a university under siege from budget cuts dictated by an anti-intellectual governor, Scott Walker, and the Republican state legislature.

What you end up with is a love story, Steinway-style, that took place at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music. (And this piano is already in use in a practice room, 1268, of the George L. Mosse Humanities Building.)

It doesn’t need much introduction. The photos and the words, simple but eloquent and moving, written by the daughter, do the work.

The only thing to add is that The Ear recalls reading a new story that owning pianos in the home has become less popular nationwide. A lot of pianos even get junked or thrown out in the garbage, let alone neglected until they fall into disrepair and can’t be used any more.

So maybe there are more such pianos, with or without the love story, out there to benefit students and staff at the UW-Madison.

If so, leave a message in the COMMENTS section or call (608) 263-5615.

Here is a link to the story:

http://www.music.wisc.edu/love-story-steinway-piano/

Enjoy!

Classical music: Does Mozart’s opera “Don Giovanni” reveal anything about Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump”?

October 29, 2016
1 Comment

By Jacob Stockinger

For generations, the conquests of the legendary Don Juan were treated as seductions.

But were they really rape?

The question is important in considering the masterpiece opera “ Don Giovanni” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

One blog writer for slate.com – Bonnie Gordon, who teaches a class on music and gender at the University of Virginia — draws a link between the charismatic historic nobleman and the current charges of “womanizing” and allegations of sexual assault made against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (below).

She doesn’t bring up whether the same discussion applies to former Democratic President Bill Clinton, but it doesn’t seem a stretch.

She raises questions about what is sexual assault, seduction and rape – and how the definitions of a “rape culture” have changed over time and depending on whether it comes from a man’s or a woman’s point of view.

She pegged her essay to LAST weekend’s broadcast performance of the opera by “Live From the Met in HD” with Simon Keenlyside in the title role. In the YouTube video at the bottom, with English subtitles, Don Juan’s servant Leporello sings an aria about his master’s thousands of “conquests.”

But despite the week that has passed since the broadcast of the production, to The Ear the essay still seems relevant as the national election approaches.

Here is a link to that essay:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/10/21/what_don_giovanni_an_opera_about_a_charismatic_rapist_can_teach_us_about.html

What do you think about the essay and its main argument or point?

The Ear wants to hear.

Classical music: What piece of classical music best embodies Donald Trump?

August 27, 2016
15 Comments

By Jacob Stockinger

Today The Ear has a simple question:

What piece of classical music best embodies Donald Trump (below), the Republican nominee for president of the United States?

Maybe an aria — by either a villain or a hero — from an opera by Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini or Richard Wagner?

Maybe an instrumental piece?

Maybe a song?

Think about it.

Listen to some choices.

And let us know what you think with a COMMENT and a link to a YouTube performance.

The Ear wants to hear.

Tomorrow it is Hillary Clinton‘s turn.

Here is some classical music for voting in a presidential and Congressional election and waiting for the results.

November 6, 2012
1 Comment

ALERT: This Friday night at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, UW cellist Parry Karp (below), who also plays in the Pro Arte String Quartet, will perform a FREE concert. He will perform with pianists brother Christopher Karp and father Howard Karp. The program features “Angélus! Prière aux anges gardiens” from Third Year of “Years of Pilgrimage” by Franz Liszt; the WORLD PREMIERE of MADISON-BORN AND UW-MADISON-EDUCATED COMPOSER Nils Bultmann’s Suite for Solo Cello, an homage to J.S. Bach‘s Solo Cello Suite No. 1; “Lasst mich allein,” Op. 82, No. 1, by Dvorak; Sonata in D major for Piano and Cello, Op. 102, No. 2, by Beethoven; Hungarian Rhapsody No. 5 “Héroïde-Élégiaque” by Liszt; and the Sonata in F minor for Piano and Clarinet, Op. 120, No. 1, by Johannes Brahms and transcribed by Parry Karp.

By Jacob Stockinger

Well, it’s too bad, isn’t it, that we don’t have the American equivalent of British ceremonial music for coronations and other major public events.

After all, today happens only once every four years.

It is Presidential Election Day in the U.S. with the entire world watching whether incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama (below top) wins reelection or whether Republican Party challenger Mitt Romney (below bottom) successfully unseats him – to say nothing of how the US Senate and House end up going.

Such an event would seem to invite music.

But although Baroque composer George Frideric Handel (below) wrote such occasional or ceremonial works as the “Water Musick” and the “Royal Fireworks Musick,” he apparently never got around to penning “Election Musick.”

Of course, democratic elections were not very common when he was composing music back around the 18^th century in Germany, Italy and England.

But recently NPR’s outstanding classical music blog “Deceptive Cadence” feature a couple of entries that are pertinent to the special day and event.

One post featured music and the reader quiz about the relevant issue of POLITICS, even with kings and royalty portrayed in opera:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2012/10/23/163497857/the-politicians-in-opera-puzzler

The other posting, using a lot of opera, focused on THE WHITE HOUSE and its parallels in art and opera:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2012/10/30/163953503/how-is-the-white-house-like-the-opera-house

As for me, I don’t really know what music to choose.

But it should be something American, don’t you think?

The pundits and polls say the presidential race is tight, as are many others, and we will all be awaiting word, uplifting or depressing, about the winners. So The Ear thinks that the oh-so-Yankee mysterious and haunting piece “The Unanswered Question” by Charles Ives (below) is a fine choice (see at bottom).

But if you can think of other appropriate classical music – NOT Sousa marches, patriotic songs, doggerel jingles or campaign songs, please –– than please leave a message and a link n the COMMENT section.

Have a good Election Day and don’t forget to get out and vote.

Then listen for word of the winners — and to the beauty of Ives.

Posted in Classical music
Tags: Années de pèlerinage, Barack Obama, Cadence (music), Charles Ives, Democratic Party (United States), Election, Electoral College, George Frideric Handel, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 5, Johannes Brahms, Mitt Romney, NPR, Parry Karp, President, Republican Party, Republicans, United States

Classical music news: U.S. House and Senate — plus President Obama — cut back on funding for the arts and humanities, even as Congress grows richer while we get poorer.

December 29, 2011
5 Comments

By Jacob Stockinger

Well, guess what?

SURPRISE!!!!!

The U.S. House of Representatives (below) and the U.S Senate – both of which have been so-o-o-o popular and so in tune with the American public lately – last week passed a bill to cut back on the arts and humanities (specifically, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities) even though those organizations might benefit their own constituents and their own children.

Instead the House and Senate have favored a time-honored historical group that is more conservative and less adventurous about new and contemporary culture: The Smithsonian Institution (below). And it looks like President Obama will sign the bill into law as a compromise measure.

That venerable historical institution of course benefits the city of Washington, D.C. — the very area where the Congressmen and Congresswomen spend so much time dithering in inertia.

Well, they need some place to go unwind and to pretend to be cultured, don’t they?

Do you think it has to do with the anti-intellectualism and pseudo-populism of the Republican Party and the Tea Party?

Good question.

Do you think it has to with federal debt and spending, so many will no doubt say?

Or do you think maybe those same groups see independent or critical thinking skills or art and beauty as dangerous to their agenda and underlying ideology?

Certainly The Smithsonian seems a safer and less creative choice, although no one can deny it is certainly a deserving institution with great many valuable artifacts and exhibitions. (See the photo os its interior below.) And the new Museum of African American History is sure to add to its reputation.

But don’t these cuts also reek of the same know-nothing, take no prisoners partisanship that leads the House majority party to want to defund public radio and public television?

More good questions – especially for a Congress that, as we learned this week, has seen its net worth increase a lot while the average net worth of most Americans has declined.

Read all about it the citizen-politician wealth gap right here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45793299/ns/politics-the_new_york_times/t/economic-downturn-took-detour-capitol-hill/#.TvtHRJjH1UQ

http://nation.foxnews.com/congress/2011/12/27/members-congress-net-worth-tripled-over-last-25-years-us-family-struggles

And here are links to read all about it the budget cuts to the arts and humanities:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/12/federal-budget-arts-spending-nea-neh-smithsonian.html

Read it and then let me know what you think.

The Ear wants to hear.

Posted in Classical music
Tags: Congress, House, Member of Congress, Net worth, Republican Party, Republicans, Smithsonian Institution, United States, United States Congress, United States House of Representatives, Washington

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