I noticed a couple articles in the local papers this week that I thought might be of interest to this audience.
Is anybody listening? American opera faces crossroads as audiences for performing arts slide
In part one of a two-part series, Post arts writer Anne Midgette examines the state of contemporary American opera. She explores opera companies’ sometimes competing goals of pleasing current patrons, attracting a new, younger audience, staging new and creative works, and still managing to turn a profit.
The overall mood of the article is optimistic – more and more high quality operas are being written and performed (or underperformed) – though she notes that most of the performing arts have seen their audiences shrink in recent years, opera not excepted.
Part two will be published next Sunday.
Terry Huff’s Lost Soul
The cover story of this week’s City Paper regards the great and mysterious DC sweet soul singer, Terry Huff, who put out one amazing album – 1976’s The Lonely One – before quickly fading into obscurity.
Ted Scheinman tracks down Huff and many others close to him, and provides the best (really, one of the only) profiles of his entire career, from his early 45s with Andy and the Marglows, to his stint as an MPD detective, to his big regional hit, “I Destroyed Your Love” (below), and the self-destructive tendencies that led to his downfall.
An intriguing portrait of an enigmatic local musician.
AU Music Library News 