PR Mistakes
I'm late in discussing this by the NY Times recently did a story about Erika Sunnegardh, who after making her opera debut at 40, substituted for Karita Mattila on the recent broadcast of Fidelio. The link on the Times site is not active, but there is a brief writeup on PlaybillArts.com about her story.
The ending, of course is not "42nd Street." Jonathan Friend, artistic administrator at the Met tried to lower expectations (much to the horror, I'm sure, of the PR department). But according to Anthony Tommasini's review (and dare I suggest my own ears), she gave a respectable if not stellar performance. Tommasini reports on a mistake in Abscheulicher, which to my mind is the conductor's fault as much as hers.
My dismay comes not from Ms. Sunnegardh's story, but in the end the Met PR department or her agent, whoever was responsible, did her longterm career more damage than good. She'll be remembered for both the situation of her debut and the result. Impossibly high standards were set for this, and while she did not fail, she did not live up to the "fairy-tale ending" that I'm sure some hoped.
Don't they learn? Back in the earlier part of the century that Met pre-publicized one Mabel Garrison, who was purported to be the next star. She did not live up to expectations and left the roster after an undistinguished career. Most recently two tenors were victims of the pre-publicity machine: Robert Alagna and Salvatore Licitra. Alagna's Met debut was publicized with the help of his record company and then he got sick and was less than impressive. The hoopla surrounding Pavarotti's aborted finale built up expectation for Licitra, that, as good as he might have been, could never have fulfilled it.
Of course the great debut stories came from the unheralded: Kirsten Flagstad, Astrid Varnay, Birgit Nilsson.
I certainly wish Ms. Sunnegardh well and think there is a great talent there. But the publicity machine should have waited unitl after the broadcast, thus lessening the pressure and setting more realistic expectations. And she still has one more performance to sing.
Nobody asked me, but those are just my thoughts.
The ending, of course is not "42nd Street." Jonathan Friend, artistic administrator at the Met tried to lower expectations (much to the horror, I'm sure, of the PR department). But according to Anthony Tommasini's review (and dare I suggest my own ears), she gave a respectable if not stellar performance. Tommasini reports on a mistake in Abscheulicher, which to my mind is the conductor's fault as much as hers.
My dismay comes not from Ms. Sunnegardh's story, but in the end the Met PR department or her agent, whoever was responsible, did her longterm career more damage than good. She'll be remembered for both the situation of her debut and the result. Impossibly high standards were set for this, and while she did not fail, she did not live up to the "fairy-tale ending" that I'm sure some hoped.
Don't they learn? Back in the earlier part of the century that Met pre-publicized one Mabel Garrison, who was purported to be the next star. She did not live up to expectations and left the roster after an undistinguished career. Most recently two tenors were victims of the pre-publicity machine: Robert Alagna and Salvatore Licitra. Alagna's Met debut was publicized with the help of his record company and then he got sick and was less than impressive. The hoopla surrounding Pavarotti's aborted finale built up expectation for Licitra, that, as good as he might have been, could never have fulfilled it.
Of course the great debut stories came from the unheralded: Kirsten Flagstad, Astrid Varnay, Birgit Nilsson.
I certainly wish Ms. Sunnegardh well and think there is a great talent there. But the publicity machine should have waited unitl after the broadcast, thus lessening the pressure and setting more realistic expectations. And she still has one more performance to sing.
Nobody asked me, but those are just my thoughts.
posted by Rich Russell at
11:14 PM
1 Comments:
the conductor's fault? no conductor in the world can stop a singer who jumps pages ahead in the music. he doesn't know it's gonna happen until after it has happened.
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