For the first time in my life, I attended a symphonic concert that dispensed with the new composition right before the intermission. It is usually placed there to trap the audience that would otherwise come late or leave early to miss it. Nothing against new music, but let’s just say that it has not stood the test of time and is not beloved by audiences.
The concert was by the local symphony. It is an exceptional group but not famous enough to be recorded by any label. I’ve got a deep musical education and l played in symphonies for years, but my own ear cannot really discern dramatic differences in quality from one professional symphony to another. They are all wonderful.
Two weeks ago, the focus was Mozart. Tonight it is Beethoven. We need to hear all this music again in a live setting just as a reminder that the human spirit is not dead yet.
And last night, I attended a local presentation of Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale,” a story beloved by audiences but sidelined by the scholars for its purple range of emotion, tragedy, comedy, and implausible deployment of magic at critical plot twists. To my amazement, there was nothing particularly weird about the performance. The actors were not cross-dressed in urban wear and not reveling in gestures designed to elicit mental double entendres. No, it was staged as a period piece in Victorian clothing, a perfectly respectable interpretation.
Why the sudden turn away from pointlessly edgy woke symbolism and audience-offending muck? Because they need the audiences back. All local arts institutions are facing severe financial deficits after three years of closures and vicious mask and vaccine mandates. Here we are in 2023 and they discover that many of their once-faithful customer base has lost interest or moved out of town.
In my own view, this is the time to support them. We need art. It is both a sign of and support for civilization itself. Millions of Americans have changed residency in the last several years. People find themselves in new towns in new states. Have you checked out the local arts scene? There is one very likely. It can be players, ballets, symphonies and chamber music, jazz improv at a local club, or a showing at a local gallery. It could even be a recital by piano students. All arts need customers, patrons, and donors. We should all do our part.
There is some myth out there that if you are going to the symphony or a musical, it should be in the big city and require some huge outing in order to get the best of the best. That’s complete rubbish. Your local groups can be vastly more interesting to attend. Yes, there might be more mistakes but that’s real life. The anodyne arts experiences of recorded music have acculturated everyone against real life.
Years ago, I attended a senior recital of some graduates in music performance for voice. It lasted two hours with a break. I heard some of the most wonderful performances of music from all time periods, some I knew and lots I did not. But it was a tremendous blast and all the more so because these graduates were nervous and had real stresses to overcome. It was then that I realized that the joy in experiencing art is not really about flawless performances. It’s about the magic of performance itself.
Among many truly egregious and morally evil policies of the lockdown years was to shut down the arts. There should have been protests all over the country and world most especially by the artists themselves. Instead, they all went silent. Government told the artists that they were doing the right thing for their community by shutting up, staying home, and getting on the government dole. These fools believed them.
The costs of the lockdowns on art have been astronomical. We’ll never be able to calculate it. The “scientists” who were put in charge of the pandemic response didn’t care in the slightest bit about art and music any more than they care about your kid’s education or your desire to attend public worship services. Everyone had to put everything ahead of the priority to fear COVID and defer to the technocrats and their ridiculous advice for staying safe.
A mark of a despot is one who shuts down the arts, especially dancing and music. They want to drain the joy out of life. It worked. And the musicians were tricked into believing the hooey. And this is decades after movies like “Footloose” lampooned puritans who want to shut down the arts. The new puritans became the Covidians who condemned anything fun or interesting on grounds that it was spreading disease. Totally amazing.
Lockdown fiasco aside, what we see in the post-lockdown period is a wonderful revival of local art, music, theater, and other performing arts. There could be a venue close to your own home that needs you to be there as a ticket buyer and supporter. It’s something we can all do to make the world a better place.
And whatever things about the arts scene that bugged you in the past—aggressive assaults on your ears, preachy pronouncements from the woke handbook, offensive dabbling in anti-bourgeois sentiment—might not be there this time. All venues are newly awake to the need to appeal to the regular public with actual entertainment. This is a blessed opportunity, then, for a genuine reset.
If you agree, let’s make it happen this weekend and every one that follows. Turn off the digital nonsense they tried to force you to use permanently and experience something real and live in your own community.
