SERVING AND DESERVING STUFFED CLICHÉS

I'm watching TV. In the Danish context, that's bad. Especially if you watch bits and pieces that are supposed to enlighten you about this or that. I'm afraid to say that apart from one journalist who does gardening programs - and I hate gardening - everyone else is utterly incompetent. Tonight I'm watching Louise Wolff and Jens Blauenfeldt pose questions to the new, 'made in England' - that is, made by the public - star Poul Potts - who has just flown in straight from London to give a public appearance and sing the number that catapulted him to fame in the context of the English equivalent to the American Idol, Brits Got Talent. Louise is excruciatingly bad, going from one totally insignificant question to the next. After the cliché question: "what does it feel like when you see him, that is you, on the stage" (in bad English and worse accent), she moves randomly to the next out of context question: "were you mobbed in school?" I would change the channel if only I weren't on the floor doing my regular session of Iyengar yoga before dinner - so I concentrate on that.

The event sparks some thoughts apart from sheer indignation at the Danish journalists' stupidity. It occurs to me that it is completely unfair that Potts cashes in on an opera number, while thousands of talented and serious artists in the genre can declare themselves satisfied if they ever get to sing with the Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester as a consequence of winning a major competition that pays nothing compared to what Potts has just earned. Potts's newly found luck is due to the incompetence and ignorance of the jury that let him go ahead in the competition that otherwise caters to the needs of teenagers suffering from the urge to express themselves. Potts is enjoying his 5 minutes of fame and history due to the sentimental tears that were shed by the female member of the jury, when he first sang Nessun Dorma. The first rule of melodrama, cry at the right moment, provides Potts with unbeatable publicity. Never mind the motivation.

While Potts has a good voice - at least he stays in tune, which is something 99 percent of pop singers can't do - his technique is far from what it takes to call yourself an opera singer. But this subtle difference between voice and skill escapes the British judges. I suspect that what hits them as unusual, and therefore ensnaring is this fact nr 1 (voice in tune) along with fact nr 2: opera is capable of something pop music will never achieve. So Potts wins, because the judges are incompetent and the public has no critical sense. This perpetuation, if not of stupidity, then of mediocrity, can be seen in the Danish context, when at a national level, we are made to feel the excitement of our televised encounter with Potts in the same way that the two interviewed old ladies in their 60s experience it while waiting for Potts to materialize in the flesh (and less voice as it turned out, alas).

Where audiences are concerned, we all want to express ourselves in one way or another - this is part of our realization that life is short - but while some are satisfied with looking at the cake, others want to eat it too. Looking at the cake is however easy, as it involves no effort, while eating the cake involves training the palate so that you can taste different flavours. It would be good for gate keepers, such as judges in competitions, journalists, and the uneducated public to start listening to Pavarotti's Nessun Dorma, Mario del Monaco's Nessun Dorma, or Jussi Björling's Nessun Dorma, so that the rest of us would not fall asleep from boredom and from eating too much air. One has to remember that in music in general, and opera in particular 'seeing and then believing' goes first through the stomach and then the ears. Meanwhile, I hereby dis-kvellify the gushing hoi polloi.

Comments

Anonymous said…
With Pavarotti's passing last night I fear we are left with nothing but the sound of empty Potts and pans...
Camelia said…
Oh, dear! That is sad news indeed, on all accounts.
Anonymous said…
"As an art form, opera is a rare and remarkable creation. For me, it expresses aspects of the human drama that cannot be expressed in any other way, or certainly not as beautifully."

- Pavarotti
Anonymous said…
Despite the fact that Pavarotti was dying while you were criticising Potts, there is still plenty of evidence out there of the miraculous effect of good opera on people's health...

From Mario del Monaco's website:

"Irene Mayer, a young American blind woman from the state of Maryland, claimed that she was able to see when Mario was singing. But when Mario left the stage, the girl's apparent "vision" reverted back to complete darkness. During his singing she gave a detailed description of the tenor on the stage, indicating his position, how he was dressed along with a description of his acting.

The blind girl was able to see when Mario sang.

She first experienced this phenomenon when she attended a performance of Aida at the Metropolitan by Mario Del Monaco and at one point she cried out aloud, "I can see the tenor!" She was able to describe him in detail, but only when he sang on the stage. The phenomenon didn't occur listening to a recording or watching a videotape."

http://www.mariodelmonaco.net/
Anextraordinaryevent.html
Anonymous said…
But aren't you missing the point, that in a time of ever-more democratic media outlets (blogs, youtube, podcasts, and what-not), TV needs to undergo the same transformation and become a medium in which everyman can participate and succeed? Not just in the so-called talent-scouting shows, where the main enjoyment (if that is the right word) comes from seeing inept people performing inteptly for inept judges, but also more generally with inept journalists.

If people are only interested in media that are participatory to at least some extent, then TV journalists need to be equal with the viewers. Hence, ineptness becomes the new, participatory standard. The audience needs to be able to look at the screen and find themselves able to identify with the journalist, the judge, the performer and say "I can do that just as poorly!". Who wants to watch/hear Pavarotti, when there is not chance that I will ever be able to sing like him? Better to watch Potts, where the bar is far lower.

Resistance is futile, all hail ineptitude!

Oh, and welcome to the wonderful world of blogging :-)
Camelia said…
Steen, good point. In the context of the media, I agree that resistence is futile. My problem is with stupidity that generates stupidity in the name of imitation. If we can all imitate the lesser man, we're safe. My being appalled thus stems from 2 reactions: 1. people don't make any distinctions between levels of capability anymore; 2. they don't mind calling what they are doing at a lower level than some art deserves, art. Potts was introduced, not as the amateur he is, but as a new and rising opera star. Doh! Of course, those of us that still insist on going with the now dead Pavarotti, because at least formally he is much more interesting, we are merely called elitist. But then, so it goes...

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