Friday, February 10, 2006

Jessye Deserves Better

Jessyenorman
This may be the first piece of straight personal opinion I have offered on this blog. Typically I like to be in the observer role and hope that all of you (hint) would offer your take on the topics presented. I'm sure that give and take will happen at some point, but today I have a bone to pick:



Maybe you all have better things to worry about, but was anyone else disgusted by the way the Grammy Awards ceremony handled the Lifetime Achievement Award for Jessye Norman? Maybe fifteen seconds (ten?) of her singing was shown with no context, no real description of her achievements and a few more precious tele-seconds were given up for Ms. Norman to wave from the audience? When the Oscars or the Golden Globes give a Lifetime Achievement Award (or their equivalent) they take a little time to make the honor seem real and to help the audience understand something about that lifetime's-worth of achievement. Not surprisingly, Ms. Norman was gracious, as far as one could tell from the glimpse we were shown. And the audience was polite, too. I'm sure the Grammy people more or less did right by her at the more or less ghetto-ized Grammy Salute to Classical Music held at L.A.'s Biltmore Hotel (I hope that is where the actual award was presented). What transpired during the national television audience seemed more an indignity than an honor.



2 comments:

  1. I didn't watch the Grammys so I'm responding on a purely philosophical level. Part of the reason I don't watch the Grammys anymore is because of the lack of attention that's given to classical music, although I realize that that lack of attention is directly proportional to the interest of the viewing public (which raises another issue entirely but one which I don't have time to go into here, and that of course is the aging of the classical music audience and the lack of formation of an audience to replace it). That said, you're exactly right. When Anthony Hopkins was given the Cecil B. DeMille Award or whatever it is at the Golden Globes, the audience was provided with a retrospective of his life and career.
    The lack of attention given to classical music then becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy of sorts. A retrospective of Jessye Norman's accomplishments might give some viewer somewhere the incentive to say, hey, she sounds interesting - think I'll download some of her music. Instead, the short glimpse that the audience is given provides just enough time to go grab a Coke from the fridge. Another classical music audience member lost.
    That's my two cents.

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  2. I come not to praise the Academy, but I do want to give them a fair shake. The Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to Jessye and the six other honorees the evening prior to the telecast, at a special ceremony. Each of the honorees got a video tribute. Not all were present, but those who were got to speak, Jessye included.
    As for the telecast, I don't think any of the other honorees--David Bowie, Cream, Merle Haggard, Richard Pryor, the Weavers, and the truly legendary Robert Johnson--got any additional telecast time, so I feel comfortable knowing that it wasn't a classical snub. I do think it's sad, though, that the telecast audience didn't get to see any of the video tributes.
    Also, the Salute to Classical Music was an entirely separate event on a different day. There were also Salutes to Jazz and Gospel Music--again, individual events--each with its own set of honorees.
    More on this on my blog later, but for now I think it's useful to consider that when it comes to lack of telecast coverage, classical musicians are most decidedly not the only ones being kept from the stage.

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