The New York Times has reported on the recent OBF mess here. Also Bob Hicks of the Oregon Arts Watch has written his thoughts on the matter here. The Eugene Register-Guard has printed an astute opinion piece here. Music insider Norman Lebrecht has issued his thoughts on Slipped Disc here.
Thanks to Mark Mandel and Bob Priest for forwarding some of these links.
Excellent, James, thanx for linking up most of the essential articles addressing this eine kleine craziness.
ReplyDeleteI would urge readers to also read The Telegraph article in-full as there additional thoughts that Mobley shares as to what racism is & who is most qualified to make the call when its ugly mug surfaces.
As for the OBF & U of O peeps responsible for this having turned into an international scandal, I suggest you air all the gory details of this sad story ASAP - before you are buried under a just avalanche of growing public outrage.
I dunno. It still sounds to me like a tussle between the artistic-integrity and bottom-line factions, with the latter "winning" by enlisting on their side a newbie high-up UO administrator, who just arrived from Maryland or Michigan, Lebrecht can't seem to decide.
ReplyDeleteIf so, maybe what the UO is trying most desperately to do, with one eye cocked over its shoulder at the Oregon legislature, is pretend they are a focused organization spending money wisely. In that case the ugliest band-aid may seem preferable to admitting what actually happened. International ridicule is tolerable as long as the local pols don't notice or care.
Or, maybe things got to the point where the newbie or someone in the direct chain from him to OBF told Halls he'd better start including some Rilling-style Bach performances, and Halls blew up at them. It's interesting that none of the examples of guest curators given by Janelle McCoy have anything to do with historically-informed performance.