RIP, Omar? Did someone pass away or is this supposed to be funny? I don't understand.
Anyway, it was good to hear Dough again, and I really enjoyed Oliver's corner this week. It was very informative and such a nice change of pace after several weeks of Don Giovanni. To be honest, I never cared much for Don Giovanni, but hearing about it so much over the past weeks did help me gain a better appreciation for it. After Puccini I'm looking forward to Cosi (if you still want to go right back to Mozart). ;)
<rant> The perception is that the NEA is throwing money away at people who (should) already have it or don't need it. While I can't argue that need, the total sum of the grant is a rather paltry amount of NEA spending. If you trust the NEA's expenditure for opera over the years with their annual appropriations over the years, it seems they spend on average 3% of the budget on opera. I'm sure it is less today than in the past, but I don't want to delve into the 2010 proposed NEA budget. Perhaps it is merely a third of that now, say 1%. (Anywhere from $4.5 to $1.5 million per year.) The recipients get $25K each which is 0.08% of the total budget or anywhere from 2.7% to 8.0% of the NEA opera budget. It seems like a lot of money, but it is rather small.
Consider the bird lady who is giving the Met $7.5 million. And City Opera at it's gala raised $2 million. Either of those are definitely more money than the NEA will dedicate to opera all next year, but the NEA has to spread it around to hundreds of groups too. And what media will the NEA get for the smaller sums of money it distributes to people who are unknown? Near zero. But the news exposure the NEA gets by giving awards to people who are relatively known may spur interest in opera, increase attendance, and help donations. I'm sure that's their hope.
Rarely mentioned, are the decent things the NEA does for opera. Such as supporting National Opera Week with Opera America, which (ahem) was not mentioned in a certain opera podcast I listen to. And buried in one article, Adams mentioned at the award ceremony "a $2,500 NEA grant he had gotten as a young composer that enabled him to write his first orchestral piece, which in turn led to his commission for "Harmonium," the stunning choral work that put him on the map." Do you think there was a single article written about that small grant back then? Or any of the small grants today? My point is that these NEA Opera awards are nowhere as bad as the rather pointless Birgit Nilsson award. </rant>
Verdi: Attila (Bonus CD)
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 10:11PM
Reader Comments (4)
RIP, Omar? Did someone pass away or is this supposed to be funny? I don't understand.
Anyway, it was good to hear Dough again, and I really enjoyed Oliver's corner this week. It was very informative and such a nice change of pace after several weeks of Don Giovanni. To be honest, I never cared much for Don Giovanni, but hearing about it so much over the past weeks did help me gain a better appreciation for it. After Puccini I'm looking forward to Cosi (if you still want to go right back to Mozart). ;)
Omar the camel was a long time resident at Castleton Farms...the festival I've sung at a few times.
Just found out he died last week...thought I'd throw up our interview.
(This belongs in a thread for episode 96)
<rant>
The perception is that the NEA is throwing money away at people who (should) already have it or don't need it. While I can't argue that need, the total sum of the grant is a rather paltry amount of NEA spending. If you trust the NEA's expenditure for opera over the years with their annual appropriations over the years, it seems they spend on average 3% of the budget on opera. I'm sure it is less today than in the past, but I don't want to delve into the 2010 proposed NEA budget. Perhaps it is merely a third of that now, say 1%. (Anywhere from $4.5 to $1.5 million per year.) The recipients get $25K each which is 0.08% of the total budget or anywhere from 2.7% to 8.0% of the NEA opera budget. It seems like a lot of money, but it is rather small.
Consider the bird lady who is giving the Met $7.5 million. And City Opera at it's gala raised $2 million. Either of those are definitely more money than the NEA will dedicate to opera all next year, but the NEA has to spread it around to hundreds of groups too. And what media will the NEA get for the smaller sums of money it distributes to people who are unknown? Near zero. But the news exposure the NEA gets by giving awards to people who are relatively known may spur interest in opera, increase attendance, and help donations. I'm sure that's their hope.
Rarely mentioned, are the decent things the NEA does for opera. Such as supporting National Opera Week with Opera America, which (ahem) was not mentioned in a certain opera podcast I listen to. And buried in one article, Adams mentioned at the award ceremony "a $2,500 NEA grant he had gotten as a young composer that enabled him to write his first orchestral piece, which in turn led to his commission for "Harmonium," the stunning choral work that put him on the map." Do you think there was a single article written about that small grant back then? Or any of the small grants today? My point is that these NEA Opera awards are nowhere as bad as the rather pointless Birgit Nilsson award.
</rant>
I like Terry's rant.