Tony Awards Sunday night

[bostonman]

In the case of Voigt, she simply didn't work with the concept that the director had and "working with her" would have completely changed what he wanted to do. So they dumped her.

 

And what I think is interesting about that is for those many people that feel that opera is about singers, singers, and only singers, this kind of thing does turn that view on its head. Once upon a time, I think, it was about the singers - not that the show shouldn't also look good and have thought-out, specific staging, but the singers were the raison d'etre. In such a world, Voight might have stayed and the director might have been the one that was replaced. But in our day of regietheatre (literally, as "director's theatre" AND/OR pejoratively as opera ruled by imposed "konzept" instead of honoring some semblance of the original setting/story/text/etc), the director stays, the singers are disposable. To this we've come...

 

That is, of course, unless the truth here is that Voight was doing her best Kathleen Battle imitation, etc...in which case, they were in their right to let her go. There is, IMO, never ever ever ever any excuse for so-called "prima donna" behavior, even when in this case, that was her character in the Prologue of Ariadne, lol.

[actor61]

And what I think is interesting about that is for those many people that feel that opera is about singers, singers, and only singers, this kind of thing does turn that view on its head. Once upon a time, I think, it was about the singers - not that the show shouldn't also look good and have thought-out, specific staging, but the singers were the raison d'etre. In such a world, Voight might have stayed and the director might have been the one that was replaced. But in our day of regietheatre (literally, as "director's theatre" AND/OR pejoratively as opera ruled by imposed "konzept" instead of honoring some semblance of the original setting/story/text/etc), the director stays, the singers are disposable. To this we've come...

 

That is, of course, unless the truth here is that Voight was doing her best Kathleen Battle imitation, etc...in which case, they were in their right to let her go. There is, IMO, never ever ever ever any excuse for so-called "prima donna" behavior, even when in this case, that was her character in the Prologue of Ariadne, lol.

 

Speaking of Kathleen Battle, I have no idea if the following is true, but it's a delicious story: According to legend, La Battle was seated in the back of a limo and the air conditioning was too cold. She called her manager to call the limo driver to ask him to turn it down, and then to call her back to let her know that it had been done.

[bostonman]

Speaking of Kathleen Battle, I have no idea if the following is true, but it's a delicious story: According to legend, La Battle was seated in the back of a limo and the air conditioning was too cold. She called her manager to call the limo driver to ask him to turn it down, and then to call her back to let her know that it had been done.

 

I wonder if she'd say she was saving "la voce" by having a quick phone conversation instead of yelling up to the driver? (Pretty ridiculous, of course, but that's the making of a diva...)

[MrMiniver]

And what I think is interesting about that is for those many people that feel that opera is about singers, singers, and only singers, this kind of thing does turn that view on its head. Once upon a time, I think, it was about the singers - not that the show shouldn't also look good and have thought-out, specific staging, but the singers were the raison d'etre. In such a world, Voight might have stayed and the director might have been the one that was replaced. But in our day of regietheatre (literally, as "director's theatre" AND/OR pejoratively as opera ruled by imposed "konzept" instead of honoring some semblance of the original setting/story/text/etc), the director stays, the singers are disposable. To this we've come...

 

That is, of course, unless the truth here is that Voight was doing her best Kathleen Battle imitation, etc...in which case, they were in their right to let her go. There is, IMO, never ever ever ever any excuse for so-called "prima donna" behavior, even when in this case, that was her character in the Prologue of Ariadne, lol.

 

No, she's not Battle by any stretch of the imagination. She just couldn't do the job. Oh, and it's "Voigt" not "Voight" by the way.

 

And for me, opera is not just about the voice. I want a complete theatrical experience. Without that, I'm plain bored.

[MrMiniver]

Speaking of Kathleen Battle, I have no idea if the following is true, but it's a delicious story: According to legend, La Battle was seated in the back of a limo and the air conditioning was too cold. She called her manager to call the limo driver to ask him to turn it down, and then to call her back to let her know that it had been done.

 

 

It's a true story but, unfortunately, it's not about Battle. It's another famous diva of a "certain age." But Battle is a trip. I hosted her in my home when she appeared in a concert venue in NC about 15 years ago. It was a nightmare. She got offended at a local store, was refusing to go on until she got an apology and I got a list of "requirements" before she arrived including that I had to have a Japanese coffee press. She is a BITCH. I couldn't wait for her to leave.

[bostonman]

No, she's not Battle by any stretch of the imagination. She just couldn't do the job. Oh, and it's "Voigt" not "Voight" by the way.

 

And for me, opera is not just about the voice. I want a complete theatrical experience. Without that, I'm plain bored.

 

Oops - did I have Debbie confused with Jon, lol?

 

For all our debating out here, I'm glad we agree about opera being more than just a vocal display.

[bostonman]

It's a true story but, unfortunately, it's not about Battle. It's another famous diva of a "certain age." But Battle is a trip. I hosted her in my home when she appeared in a concert venue in NC about 15 years ago. It was a nightmare. She got offended at a local store, was refusing to go on until she got an apology and I got a list of "requirements" before she arrived including that I had to have a Japanese coffee press. She is a BITCH. I couldn't wait for her to leave.

 

I know that diva-ism often comes from insecurity, a certain need for attention, etc - but sometimes you just gotta wonder what makes these people do it.

 

And - understood that singers, athletes, and anyone else with careers that involve extreme care of certain parts of their bodies (hell, we're talking on an escort site lol) might indeed need certain things provided for them when they travel - a singer needing a humidifier I could understand, for instance, but a Japanese coffee press?? There's a Starbucks down the street, bitch, deal with it...

[actor61]

It's a true story but, unfortunately, it's not about Battle. It's another famous diva of a "certain age." But Battle is a trip. I hosted her in my home when she appeared in a concert venue in NC about 15 years ago. It was a nightmare. She got offended at a local store, was refusing to go on until she got an apology and I got a list of "requirements" before she arrived including that I had to have a Japanese coffee press. She is a BITCH. I couldn't wait for her to leave.

 

Do you think her reputation is what has prevented her from receiving honors, such as a Kennedy Center tribute? Does she work anymore?

[MrMiniver]

Oops - did I have Debbie confused with Jon, lol?

 

For all our debating out here, I'm glad we agree about opera being more than just a vocal display.

 

Oh, yes, I have NO way of discussing opera with canary fanciers ... we all know who they are ... you come back from a performance of Butterfly and the first thing they ask is ... did she hit the high note at the end of her entrance? They lose me right there. Who the f*** cares? That's not what it's all about!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MrMiniver]

Do you think her reputation is what has prevented her from receiving honors, such as a Kennedy Center tribute? Does she work anymore?

 

What keeps her from getting that kind of honor is that SHE DOESN'T DESERVE it ... although, to be honest, lately that hasn't prevented everyone from Letterman to Oprah to Mehta to Led Zeppelin from getting honored. That show has mostly become a joke.

 

She never stepped foot on an opera stage again after being fired from the MET but she did loads of concerts ... I think she still is doing them.

[MrMiniver]

I know that diva-ism often comes from insecurity, a certain need for attention, etc - but sometimes you just gotta wonder what makes these people do it.

 

And - understood that singers, athletes, and anyone else with careers that involve extreme care of certain parts of their bodies (hell, we're talking on an escort site lol) might indeed need certain things provided for them when they travel - a singer needing a humidifier I could understand, for instance, but a Japanese coffee press?? There's a Starbucks down the street, bitch, deal with it...

 

We didn't have a Starbucks down the street as we were in the mountains but I had an espresso machine and a French coffee press but no .... it had to be a Japanese one. My partner retreated to the bedroom and said, in an equally diva-ish way, "I'm not coming out until that gorgon has left the building!"

 

It was all too much for words. I felt like I was in a Fellini film ... and not in a good way ... she perceived racism everywhere .. which is what led to the incident with the clerk at a local store whose major crime was SHE HAD NO IDEA WHO BATTLE WAS.

 

I should write a book. I could fill 3 chapters just with Kathy Battle stories.

 

In fairness, her main problem was not insecurity in so much as she was coddled. She was told from an early age that she was this goddess and unfortunately she didn't have the ego or psyche to really handle it. It's sort of like Diana. She was messed up way before she met Charles but then when she got into that situation it just made her brand of "crazy" all that much worse. That's what happened with Battle. No one ever told her no, and in large part I blame James Levine. Oh, boy, he just wouldn't face the situation that she had become a monster and so she became a bigger monster. That story of Vaness on the road with Battle when Vaness wanted to kill her .... that was the beginning of the end.

 

It's very sad in a way because she had a lovely voice although I do think her talent was really limited (think of how few roles she actually sang often). And by the time it got too much for people they could afford to get rid of her because she was getting too old to keep playing the ingenue.

 

Businesses like opera and the theater and film can really spit you out when they're done with you. Battle didn't know how to handle that.

[bostonman]

Oh, yes, I have NO way of discussing opera with canary fanciers ... we all know who they are ... you come back from a performance of Butterfly and the first thing they ask is ... did she hit the high note at the end of her entrance? They lose me right there. Who the f*** cares? That's not what it's all about!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The defining moment for me, as a young musician and budding opera buff, was in my early teens, seeing a local Rigoletto with one of my mother's friends who was an opera buff and an aspiring producer. I remember after the soprano sang "Caro Nome," I remarked to him how much I loved her performance - and he responded, "eh - she's only vocalizing." At the time I didn't really understand what he meant, and I felt like it would be dumb to ask (I was just a kid, lol). But after thinking about it, I got it. She may have been singing all the notes just fine, but he felt there was nothing going on behind it. Nothing that those runs and trills were expressing - no sense that this music was meant to be the depiction of a young girl's realization of first love. Just singing. (Now, of course, the soprano might have disagreed with this critique - but clearly to my opera companion this felt too much "by the numbers" and not a real outward expression of emotion.)

 

Now, as a musical director and vocal coach, I find I tend to tell that story fairly often. Especially when I have a theatre student working on a riffy pop-oriented song, etc, or when I get to coach the occasional opera aria. Those riffs and runs, let alone ALL the music - have to be part of the expression of the emotional moment - not just showy vocalizing.

 

Now, do I love it if the evening's Cio-Cio-San does nail that high Db on her entrance? Damn right I do. But when I really love it is when I can tell it's about this young Japanese girl making a bold statement as she's about to defy the world around her to marry this unknown American lieutenant, not a gesture of "see, I can hit the high note."

 

(Oh, and if she decides not to sing the Db, that's fine too. The music is still perfectly wonderful without it.)

[bostonman]

the clerk at a local store whose major crime was SHE HAD NO IDEA WHO BATTLE WAS.

 

Yup. Been there, and at times I've been luckily able to avoid it. In the early 90's, as I was just starting to get a foot in the professional Boston theatre scene, I was hired to be the musical director sub for the then very-long-running sitdown production of Nunsense. The first performance I played was with Alice Ghostley as the Reverend Mother - she was a sweetheart. I also played a few times for the wonderful Pat Carroll in the same role. Then, Lainie Kazan was going to come on board for a short engagement. I wasn't playing the show when they were rehearsing with her, but I remember hearing a good many diva stories - I was also sharing an apartment with one of the women in the cast at the time. Then I got the good news/bad news - the musical director let me know she didn't think I'd be able to sub in while Kazan was doing the role, because she thought something like that would just push Kazan over the edge. So, I was off the gig for a while - but frankly, I was kinda glad not to have to deal with that.

 

A few years before that, I had the incredible privilege to work with Maryann Plunkett in the development of a new musical (she had just recently won the Tony for Me And My Girl, and though this new project ultimately didn't get picked up, it was a great summer of trying it out). I was just a few years out of college, and admittedly starstruck. The first time I met her, in the dining hall of this idyllic Maine summerstock theatre, I was taken aback that she was just so wonderfully down-home, not a "star" at all. In fact, she often seemed to shy away from her celebrity - I remember asking her a few times about her experiences playing Dot in Sunday In The Park on Broadway - and although she did tell some fun stories, it always sounded like she was trying to minimize the experience a bit - that just because she had done all this work on Broadway, she was no more "entitled" than anyone else. (And boy, I don't think I've ever seen anyone dive into a role with quite the joy that she did that summer. The work is what turned her on, not the fame.) The complete opposite of what you said about Battle. I tend to think that when Plunkett walks into a store, she's probably just fine if no one gives her special treatment.

[actor61]

Yup. Been there, and at times I've been luckily able to avoid it. In the early 90's, as I was just starting to get a foot in the professional Boston theatre scene, I was hired to be the musical director sub for the then very-long-running sitdown production of Nunsense. The first performance I played was with Alice Ghostley as the Reverend Mother - she was a sweetheart. I also played a few times for the wonderful Pat Carroll in the same role. Then, Lainie Kazan was going to come on board for a short engagement. I wasn't playing the show when they were rehearsing with her, but I remember hearing a good many diva stories - I was also sharing an apartment with one of the women in the cast at the time. Then I got the good news/bad news - the musical director let me know she didn't think I'd be able to sub in while Kazan was doing the role, because she thought something like that would just push Kazan over the edge. So, I was off the gig for a while - but frankly, I was kinda glad not to have to deal with that.

 

A few years before that, I had the incredible privilege to work with Maryann Plunkett in the development of a new musical (she had just recently won the Tony for Me And My Girl, and though this new project ultimately didn't get picked up, it was a great summer of trying it out). I was just a few years out of college, and admittedly starstruck. The first time I met her, in the dining hall of this idyllic Maine summerstock theatre, I was taken aback that she was just so wonderfully down-home, not a "star" at all. In fact, she often seemed to shy away from her celebrity - I remember asking her a few times about her experiences playing Dot in Sunday In The Park on Broadway - and although she did tell some fun stories, it always sounded like she was trying to minimize the experience a bit - that just because she had done all this work on Broadway, she was no more "entitled" than anyone else. (And boy, I don't think I've ever seen anyone dive into a role with quite the joy that she did that summer. The work is what turned her on, not the fame.) The complete opposite of what you said about Battle. I tend to think that when Plunkett walks into a store, she's probably just fine if no one gives her special treatment.

 

Many, many years ago I was in the ensemble of a local production of "Funny Girl" starring Lainie Kazan. I'm still scarred! If you look up the term "bitch diva" in a showbiz dictionary, you'll find her headshot. I have never witnessed such disgusting, disrespectful, rude, ugly behavior on or off a stage in my entire life in the theatre. Every time I see her being funny on a talk show, my only thought is "How have so many people been so fooled by this monster for this long?"