People take their music very seriously, as I‘ve found out over the years.
I was looking at a big name singer on YouTube recently. There was a long list of comments on the performance, mostly positive, but a listener with a code name of Ity2k84 wasn’t impressed with this singing superstar.
“I trained classically for 12 years and am teaching now. She's not that good. She irritates me,” is the first comment from Ity2k84.
A reply comes back: “ Ity2k84 where, prey tell, have you sung darling? I'm dying to hear!! I must say I'm terrified by the fact that you actually teach singing if you find a singer like Norman insufficient....'studying classically for 12 years'...please you're probably either a pretentious 18-year-old student at a mediocre music school, or an annoying amateur singer who thinks he knows much more and is much better than he really is.”
Ity2k84 isn’t having any of this and comes straight back with, “I don't know what F***ING Pinocchio told her she's good. She is the worst I've heard. Her quality and timbre is just sickening. I just got a stomach virus listening to 3 of her songs.”
Now you probably think these comments are about some rapper or maybe Britney Spears or Amy Winehouse. But no, Ity2k84 is getting all worked up over Jessye Norman, the black American Soprano.
Poor old Ity2k84 seems to be alone in not liking the performance. It’s reported that a Tokyo audience applauded for 47 minutes, and, not to be outdone an audience in Salzburg, Austria applauded for 55 minutes. Very sore on the hands, I’d imagine.
The song she’s singing is “Sanctus” by Charles Gounod, taken from Gounod’s ’Messe Solonnelle de Sainte Cecile’, a work that I’m sure most readers are familiar with.
For all Gounod fans there’s a chance to hear it performed by over 100 singers and musicians down in Graiguenamanagh in a couple of weeks time. It’s all part of the annual Duiske Concert series in the wonderful 800-year-old Duiske Abbey. I’ve been involved in the organising for the first time this year, and I’ve been finding out as much as possible about the various artists and the music they will be performing, hence the YouTube viewing.
The concerts have been running for 18 years with a mix of classical and Irish traditional acts. Since 1991 more than 130 concerts have been held featuring acts as diverse as The Chieftains, Ronan Tynan, Paul Brady and The Vienna Boys Choir.
Our meetings have been held in the chairman’s, Sean Hardie’s house down in Skeough. They’ve all been good-natured gatherings where we’ve managed to put the programme together and get through vast quantities of coffee and carrot cake. As Sean says, “I can’t remember a single row in twenty years; what I do remember is the laughter, the generosity and the commitment of the men and women (OK, mostly women ) who made and make this season happen.”
Sean says the country was going through tough times when the late Father Swayne first came up with the idea of a concert series. “It wasn’t that different twenty years ago when Monsignor Swayne took a look out of his window at the fog of gloom and doom hanging over this valley and wondered what could be done. That’s how all this started - not as a distraction from our economic woes, but as a reminder that there are other ways to lift the spirits when the money runs out; not least the timeless wonder of great music and the pleasures of things shared.”
The concerts have survived everything that the various recessions and Celtic Tiger boom has thrown at them and the doors of Duiske Abbey will open for the first of this year’s concerts next Wednesday, November 12 with Mairead Buicke and will continue on Wednesday Nov 19 with the Mater Dei Choir, followed by Trio di Parma on the 26th before the finale with Tread on Friday Nov 28. Full details of the performers are on the website, www.duiskeconcerts.ie
Try it, and just like me, you might like it.
Good morning
Mr President
The votes are in at this stage and, as I’m writing before the results are out, I will have to presume that Barack Obama is the new president of the United States. A fresh start for the United States then, but no such luck on this side of the Atlantic. We’ve gone from Bertie, the Teflon Taoiseach to Cowan the invisible Taoiseach. Things don’t look much better with Gordon Brown in charge across the water. Where is our Barack Obama? He or she is keeping themselves well hidden from sight, so come on, don’t be shy, your country needs you and it doesn’t matter what political party you're in.
I’m beginning to sound like Grassroots, but it’s hard to get away from politics during all the current problems. By the way, I’ve said it before, but it’s been again suggested to me that I’ve written some of the Grassroots columns. Not so, but I’ll get a team of private detectives on the case. Who knows what names will come up, it could turn into Kilkenny’s own version of Watergate.
