While shopping for DVD players with my girlfriend we started talking about American Idol. We're both closeted Karaoke afficionadoes, and she was excited to discover that there is an "American Idol" version of the video game Karaoke. She confessed guiltily to wanting to play it; I have to confess, we share that dark and secret passion. It's hard to confess, but I hear there are special clubs for people like us...
Anyway, finding this article this morning about the Metropolitan Opera Auditions brought it to mind:
“If you can type your application, you can sing for us,” said Darren Keith Woods, the general director of the Fort Worth Opera and, on Feb. 3, one of three judges at the Philadelphia district round of an event that has been called the “American Idol” of the opera world. The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions offer tremendous exposure and, for up to five winners, prizes of $15,000.
Somehow I doubt that there's an acerbic Simon involved, and the rest of America doesn't get to vote...but one wonders if they did open it up like that, would it increase the exposure and popularity of Opera?
Probably not. There's not much excitement or public humiliation with criteria as nice as this:
“I don’t think about how do we fix this,” Mr. Rutenberg said. “I go in listening for decent rhythm, singing in tune, starting a phrase with intention and ending it with intention. If we’re lucky enough to get a performance on top of it, so much the better.”
Still...I guess I need to take a closer look at the current Idol. For my Girlfriend's sake, of course.
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