Lame - part 2

The saga continues….

Continuing the discussion of Lameness in metro Atlanta’s Classical Music realm, let’s discuss the critics. (This is always fun.) They either set the tone or report on it, so they are very important in the scheme of things.

Unfortunately, there is really only one critic in Atlanta. Pierre Ruhe of the AJC. Creative Loafing has several people, who masquerade as classical music critics, but they don’t get around very much and hey, it’s Creative Loafing. How serious can you take a publication that advertises vaginal laser surgery? Maybe that advertiser should advertise on the ASO’s new building.

So, Pierre Ruhe. He is young with wiry red hair and very tall, but I won’t be critical of that. The opinion of many performers is that he often gives back handed compliments and is rather biased for the smaller organizations. I am not sure of his criteria, but I have seen shows by the Atlanta Opera and Capital City Opera that vastly differed in quality that he has reviewed. If I had not gone to each performance, I would have thought Capital City was phenomenal, world-class, and the best thing since sliced bread. On the other hand, I would have thought that the Atlanta Opera was a small community group. As I discussed in the last posting, I don’t feel that money makes the organization, but it can help. CCO, when it had an orchestra, was small and played fairly well. The AO orchestra is large and plays very well together. Maybe the AO interpretations are lame, but let’s also compare apples to apples.

Mr. Ruhe always seems to go with the flow with the ASO. He basically likes it all and never really gives any constructive feedback on the performances. I get so bored with the same template reviews that I often skim them.

He likes anything at Spivey Hall. Yeah, it is a great hall, but it is really in the middle of nowhere. Therefore, who cares?

He seemed to think Michael O’Neal and his paying singers are great. The Dekalb Symphony is great, even though it’s leader is dead. Atlanta Baroque is great, but needs leadership. Atlanta Chamber Players is great. He won’t go to the AGMC possibly in fear of being hit on? The Atlanta composers? Almost every group is great and could be a little better. Snooze.

The only real drama exists with his wrangling of the opera groups in town. The reviews of Americolor Opera Alliance are always poor even though they might possibly be the most innovative opera group in town. Granted, they are a vanity organization that only performs the works written by the founder, but at least they are doing some cool stuff. They seem to have balls and that is commendable.

Mr. Ruhe pretty much single-handedly took down William Fred Scott from his golden throne that he built at the Atlanta Opera. Granted, many of Fred’s productions were lame….very lame, but he did build more than anyone else. For all of his shortcomings, he made more headway than anyone before or since. Pierre was brutal in his handling of Fred. I think that was a war of egos that resulted in the near bankruptcy of that group. Ah, the politics of the arts. What a sordid tale. Now, I think the AO has a real snake in charge of the group. Wait until the new smell leaves that new Cobb county theater. Wait and see if that group doesn’t really start to smell bad to the entire arts community. Just read the comments that follow any of Pierre’s articles to see how truly upset people are with the changes. Not all change is good or smart. Now, the AJC is laden with Pierre’s articles about every damn brick laid at the new Cobb theater and the comments of AO about how straight it is laid. Speaking of laid, it is the arts community that is really getting screwed here. Pierre seems to be saving face by promoting the hell out of this group since his coup with Fred was successful.

With the little Capital City group, Pierre seems to have only reviewed since they got a new music director several years back. When that guy got fed up and left, Pierre blasted him and kicked him in the ass as he left. CCO vanity organization is about 9.5 on the lame scale.

My theory is that there is going to be some mass reorganization of the opera scene in town, possibly from a brand new group, but who cares?

Pierre Ruhe is probably a solid 10. his reviews are generic at best. He is a great fit here in Atlanta where lameness abounds in classical music. I feel that he does a great disservice to the arts in Atlanta and keeps the low level of expectations as the bar. Lame!