Comments on: Opera Australia: new panel is “cosmetic” http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/01/23/opera-australia-new-panel-is-cosmetic/ now with extra source Sat, 11 Feb 2012 22:41:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: eric http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/01/23/opera-australia-new-panel-is-cosmetic/#comment-13666 eric Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-13666 Dear Fiona, <br />Stop before it's too late. It's already too late. Just stop. <br />Your gratuitous, bitchy, personal evaluations have no special standing. You've made yourself look sillier, smaller-minded and meaner than you probably are. Complaining because you haven't been made more of a star doesn't give your opinions any value or you an standing. You've been on the wrong end of someone's judgments and you didn't like it. Tough. Your judgments aren't any more valuable or better than theirs. You want to be the director? Apply. <br />Oh, and by the way, it's TOE the line, not TOW the line. If you're going to bitch, get things right. Sloppiness like this suggests the rest of it is sloppy too. But better still, keep your bitching to your kitchen and your friends. I'm not interested, and I doubt your ideas about AO are half as valuable as you think they are. <br /> Dear Fiona,
Stop before it’s too late. It’s already too late. Just stop.
Your gratuitous, bitchy, personal evaluations have no special standing. You’ve made yourself look sillier, smaller-minded and meaner than you probably are. Complaining because you haven’t been made more of a star doesn’t give your opinions any value or you an standing. You’ve been on the wrong end of someone’s judgments and you didn’t like it. Tough. Your judgments aren’t any more valuable or better than theirs. You want to be the director? Apply.
Oh, and by the way, it’s TOE the line, not TOW the line. If you’re going to bitch, get things right. Sloppiness like this suggests the rest of it is sloppy too. But better still, keep your bitching to your kitchen and your friends. I’m not interested, and I doubt your ideas about AO are half as valuable as you think they are.

]]> By: Scotia http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/01/23/opera-australia-new-panel-is-cosmetic/#comment-13667 Scotia Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-13667 Oh seriously Fiona, it's time to shut up now. It's boring. Your broken record is boring and inaccurate.<br /><br />If you've been so hard done by by OA but still have a top voice, why aren't any of the state opera companies falling over themselves to hire you now? You're available, aren't you? Or are you too proud to work for OQ, VO, SOSA or WAO? To not be hired by one company might be sold as nepotism or a conspiracy, but five? Doesn't that tell you something?<br /><br />Next you'll be saying Adrian and Richard have gone out of their way to besmirch you with all these other managements. (And that they were on the grassy knoll when Kennedy was shot.) Oh seriously Fiona, it’s time to shut up now. It’s boring. Your broken record is boring and inaccurate.

If you’ve been so hard done by by OA but still have a top voice, why aren’t any of the state opera companies falling over themselves to hire you now? You’re available, aren’t you? Or are you too proud to work for OQ, VO, SOSA or WAO? To not be hired by one company might be sold as nepotism or a conspiracy, but five? Doesn’t that tell you something?

Next you’ll be saying Adrian and Richard have gone out of their way to besmirch you with all these other managements. (And that they were on the grassy knoll when Kennedy was shot.)

]]> By: Lolo http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/01/23/opera-australia-new-panel-is-cosmetic/#comment-13668 Lolo Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-13668 Joanna Hetherington seems to be doing well herself in terms of bile and vituperation (by the way does anyone except for indignant letter-writers ever use words like that?). Anyone who has seen first hand the environment within OA over the last few decades might not be quite so quick to lash out at Fiona and her supporters. Damaged workplaces damage people, and bullying can have a devastating and lasting effect. I feel for Fiona and can sympathise that she is trying to effect change, even if her methods seem a little desperate, bitter or clumsy. OA would do well to show some duty of care and bring her into the process in some capacity - as she points out, the opportunity is there for more open communication. Let's hope they're finally listening. Joanna Hetherington seems to be doing well herself in terms of bile and vituperation (by the way does anyone except for indignant letter-writers ever use words like that?). Anyone who has seen first hand the environment within OA over the last few decades might not be quite so quick to lash out at Fiona and her supporters. Damaged workplaces damage people, and bullying can have a devastating and lasting effect. I feel for Fiona and can sympathise that she is trying to effect change, even if her methods seem a little desperate, bitter or clumsy. OA would do well to show some duty of care and bring her into the process in some capacity - as she points out, the opportunity is there for more open communication. Let’s hope they’re finally listening.

]]> By: Joanna Hetherington http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/01/23/opera-australia-new-panel-is-cosmetic/#comment-13669 Joanna Hetherington Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-13669 Not another diatribe from the sore loser pen of Fiona Janes. <br />Her appalling emails and self serving press interviews reveal nothing about the fact that she and others of her supporters, are all Simone Young devotees from way back, and have carried on a pernicious and malevolent rear guard action as way of revenge for the sacking of Simone Young in 2003. <br />She and her partner returned to Australia on the back of Simone's promise of a full time future for them both with the company. Geoffrey Black, Bernadette Cullen, Kirsty Harms and others all believed that Simone would give them all a lovely, starry future, with leading roles, and plaudits forever and ever. But when it looked like her successor - the late Richard Hickox, was not interested in their burnt out voices, and widening bums, it looked like their futures were gone for good.<br />Their only alternative was to attack the O.A with as much bile and vituperation as they could muster, digging up every disenchanted opera devotee, ex singer or ex conductor they could find with a chip on their shoulder so they could blame everyone else but themselves.<br />Kosky's amazing interview needs to be read in the light of a very revealing interview he did in September last year, when he postured that the OA should be run by a single artistic director, responsible alone to the government, without the benefit of a board placing controls on him or her. This is why he abuses the OA - he wants to be that grand master of operatic arts - and is rather miffed that the OA has stopped mounting his genuinely distasteful and imitative productions.<br /><br />J. Hetherington Not another diatribe from the sore loser pen of Fiona Janes.
Her appalling emails and self serving press interviews reveal nothing about the fact that she and others of her supporters, are all Simone Young devotees from way back, and have carried on a pernicious and malevolent rear guard action as way of revenge for the sacking of Simone Young in 2003.
She and her partner returned to Australia on the back of Simone’s promise of a full time future for them both with the company. Geoffrey Black, Bernadette Cullen, Kirsty Harms and others all believed that Simone would give them all a lovely, starry future, with leading roles, and plaudits forever and ever. But when it looked like her successor - the late Richard Hickox, was not interested in their burnt out voices, and widening bums, it looked like their futures were gone for good.
Their only alternative was to attack the O.A with as much bile and vituperation as they could muster, digging up every disenchanted opera devotee, ex singer or ex conductor they could find with a chip on their shoulder so they could blame everyone else but themselves.
Kosky’s amazing interview needs to be read in the light of a very revealing interview he did in September last year, when he postured that the OA should be run by a single artistic director, responsible alone to the government, without the benefit of a board placing controls on him or her. This is why he abuses the OA - he wants to be that grand master of operatic arts - and is rather miffed that the OA has stopped mounting his genuinely distasteful and imitative productions.

J. Hetherington

]]> By: Rachel http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/01/23/opera-australia-new-panel-is-cosmetic/#comment-13670 Rachel Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-13670 I'm not sure Barry Kosky is a good authority on what constitutes good opera. His 'look how clever I am ' production of Turandot, which I thought showed profound contempt for both the audience and the performers, kept me away from the AO for years. I’m not sure Barry Kosky is a good authority on what constitutes good opera. His ‘look how clever I am ’ production of Turandot, which I thought showed profound contempt for both the audience and the performers, kept me away from the AO for years.

]]> By: Judith http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/01/23/opera-australia-new-panel-is-cosmetic/#comment-13671 Judith Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-13671 While many of us may be critical of OA for its lack of effort in renewing the artform (commissions, chamber works, studio performances etc a la Covent Garden), it is unfair to say that Adrian Collette has presided over financial ruin. Quite the reverse, I believe -- with the company returning healthy surpluses for the last few years and achieving high box office returns. While many of us may be critical of OA for its lack of effort in renewing the artform (commissions, chamber works, studio performances etc a la Covent Garden), it is unfair to say that Adrian Collette has presided over financial ruin. Quite the reverse, I believe — with the company returning healthy surpluses for the last few years and achieving high box office returns.

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