Here is the first annual Best-of Publicity and Marketing list! I thought about prizes, and it’s really only
fitting to go meta and make free marketing the prize. So I will ask the
boss man if winners can advertise on this blog one week at a
time. In some cases it won’t be applicable/doable, but…you get the
idea.
Best Publicity Move
Jeremy Denk interviews Sarah Palin.
Best Review
Ron Rosenbaum walks out of The Metropolitan Opera.
Best Artist Interview
Angela Gheorghiu goes nuts in Opera News.
Best Feature Story
Mark Swed refuses to talk dirty about “elitism” in The Los Angeles Times.
Best Album Art
Nico Muhly, Mothertongue (Brassland), for being literal:
Best Advertisement
Pink’s hot dog stand in LA serves up Dudamel Dogs.
Best New (in 2008) Music Blog
Mark Adamo Online
Best Overall Classical Music Coverage in a Blog or Newspaper
The one-two punch of Opera Chic and Parterre Box.
Overall Best Moment in Publicity and Marketing in 2008
The Washington Post actually hires a classical music critic: Anne Midgette takes over for Tim Page.
Woot woot! Congratulations!
Aside: The New York Philharmonic goes to Pyongyang deserves a mention somewhere on this list. I had forgotten that happened in 2008, actually – as did you readers, apparently – until I read Steve Smith’s Time Out NY round-up.
There was a week or so where that news was everywhere: I remember
sitting at a bar and totally freaking out when I saw mention of it on
the CNN news ticker! In my lifetime, at least, I can’t recall a symphony
orchestra receiving that level and amount of national press. Well done.
That ‘review’ by Ron Rosenbaum was total bullshit. After reading it, it was obvious that he knows nothing about music or opera.
I suppose I should have voted. But I have no problem with the other winners. I loved Denk’s blog.
Kyle:
Right on. Who could possibly be lame enough to buy into Rosenbaum’s pretentious twaddle?
I attended Dr. Atomic at the Met, I know a great deal about opera (have seen 494 different operatic works in live performance as of this writing), have reviewed opera and theater for many years, used to work at the Met – and Ron Rosenbaum was absolutely on the money about that load of self-congratulatory undramatic crapola. I enjoyed his piece on Dr. A tremendously, and am SO pleased this award brought it to my attention.
P.S. Yes, Ron, your Sid & Nancy piece, which I remember reading at the time, would make a terrific opera. Don’t let Peter Sellars write the libretto.
What Kyle and Meg said. There are plenty of legitimate complaints about the libretto to “Doctor Atomic,” but Rosenbaum missed all of them in his version of “Look at me! Look at me! I’m the little boy who sees the Emperor Without Clothes!” He seems to be part of the contingent who will never forgive Adams for writing “Klinghoffer,” which he has probably never heard or seen.
I’m going to add my voice to the chorus dissing Ron Rosenbaum’s review. On rereading, it’s even more disgusting now than when I first came across it. First he drops a megaton payload of names for no good reason, then he revives the tiresome “Emperor’s New Clothes” cliché of arts criticism, then he—I didn’t even notice this the first time—can’t tell that the lines of poetry he’s complaining about are obviously quotations from Rukeyser (did his library card expire? Did he break his google?). He also fails to even notice the music, which I think is the whole reason most people even go to the opera, and which (he uncharitably pretends not to realize) is the reason most critics loved the piece even if they hated the libretto. Not impressed.
Er—kudos to everybody else, though! Love Swed, love Parterre, love Adamo.
Hahahaha wow, already regretting the comment I just submitted, which was a bit unfair and inaccurate. Shouldna reread that Rosenbaum review—it got my blood up, all over again—and DEFINITELY shouldna hit “Submit” before previewing and/or taking a deep, cleansing breath.