As my friends and readers of this blog know I am a classical arts aficionado. I was raised in SPAC as my father was director of Fire Safety until his death in 1975.During those magical summers as long as I behaved, I had the run of the house. I bounced on George Balanchine lap at pool parties and watched Eugene Ormandy conduct from the front row {I was much more adorable as a child than I ever was as an adult}. I have a deep love of SPAC. That is why the mismanagement of Marcia White infuriates me.
Years ago for those who remember, the New York City Opera had a short run at SPAC. That is before the idiot Herb Chesbrough eliminated them. I still remember summer evening on the lawn, enthralled by magical performances. I seem to share those memories with Public Safety Commissioner” toothy” Christian Mathiesen. So we do have at least one thing in common and I must say his deputy would make a great Brynhildr, better known to Americans as Broom Hilda in Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Yes that is the “Fat lady who sings",but let’s get to the heart of this story.
Once City Opera was terminated Saratoga became an operatic black hole. In 1998 the Lake George Opera moved to the 500-seat Spa Little Theater on the grounds of Saratoga Spa State Park. They have become a wonderful regional Opera company that has simply been a delight to watch. Last year they officially changed their name to Saratoga Opera
Operating independently from SPAC, Marcia White has treated them as the red haired step brother she never liked. This year is the unkindest cut of all. Saratoga Opera only has 10 performances a year. To survive they must practically sell out all 10 performances.
Bone headed Marcia has scheduled many NYC ballet performances to conflict with Opera performances, but that was just a minor inconvenience compared to what she has done this year.
Perhaps hoping to destroy the independent Opera, she has scheduled the widely popular Phish directly opposite three of the Opera’s ten performances.
On Friday July 5 Phish takes the stage at 7:30, Saratoga Opera a stones throw away puts on the masterpiece of Italian opera, Rigoletto at 8.
On Saturday Phish at 7:30 the Opera at 8, this time the Mighty Casey, which brings the nostalgic era of America in thirties to life through a musical and dramatic setting of the quintessential American poem “Casey at the Bat".
Sunday is a little better with the Opera at 2:00, with Trial by Jury/Le 66. Twin operetta’s by England’s Gilbert and Sullivan and France’s Offenbach, which will feature the 2012 Opera Saratoga Apprentice Artist performers.Phish again takes the stage at 8.
Now I know many of you are saying “what’s the big deal”?
Well Phish is best known for its fan culture. With fans flocking to venues hours before they open, the concert is the centerpiece of an event that includes a temporary community in the parking lot, complete with "Shakedown Street": at times a garment district, art district, food court and illegal drug district that fans simply call “the pharmacy”. For many, one concert is simply a prelude to the next as the community follows the band around the country.The State Police will set up road blocks around SPAC. Route 9, Route 50 and the Ave of Pines will be impassable for hours before and hours after the concert, not to mention the poor souls who booked a wedding at the Hall of Springs at the same time.
Let me paint a picture for you. A bride and her family who spent upwards of $25,000 for daddies little girl on her big day will be heartbroken. Most guests will be hours late for the reception if they make it at all. The area around the Opera and the Hall of Springs will be an open air drug market. The patrons of the Opera will have no chance to make it to the show at all. The performance will be a disaster playing to an almost empty house for a SOLD OUT show.
So whose fault is this clusterfuck?
Marcia White, President & Executive Director of SPAC. You know the nurse who makes $300,000 a year.
She signed the contract with Live Nation, she owns it.
So I call on Public Safety Commissioner” toothy” Christian Mathiesen DO SOMETHING. You spout off about Caroline being “out of control and dangerous” GO TO A FUCKING PHISH CONCERT. You want mayhem? You want Chaos?
Will you as the highest ranking law enforcement officer in Saratoga Springs guarantee that public roads will be open? Will you as such an officer tolerate the blatant and flagrant use of illegal drugs in many cases by children? Pick up the phone and call Marcia White to your fucking office and read her the riot act. We are counting on you to save the OPERA and Saratoga Springs itself.
I will be at the City Council pre agenda meeting tomorrow and the actual meeting Tuesday night. I will have a completely new NXIVM story later this week
This is also the soft start of my spring fund raising drive. This will be it, till after the summer. So if you could give just a little. The PayPal button is on top and I’m always in Uncommon Grounds. I have no advertisers and without you this wouldn’t be possible. I’m writing more and more and the stores keep on coming and I do try to keep up and be timely.
God willing I will be able to continue to bring my videos and tails of cults and governments to you my readers. Love me; hate me you do read me.
So please give so me, the wife and Bruno the dog all live to fight and write another day.
GOOD NIGHT AND THANK YOU ALL
21 comments:
Bravo John on the exposé of Marcia's Black Heart and the challenge to Commissioner "Caroline" Mathiesen. All eyes of the common schmo should be focused on Spa Park on the Phish Weekend.
I don't advocate for ANY busting of chops, but JT you are 3000% right in your "request" that The Park be accessible and open to one and all.
Are you listening Commissioner Mathiesen? This will be THE MOMENT for SSPD and Public Safety. Please don't ignore the Voters you serve. After all-- Is it safe yet?
Thanks for your interesting perspective, John. Having attended many a Phish show, I can confirm that the illegal drug use is, indeed, often fragrant.
JT,hpoefully as we move along,you'll do a piece or expose' on this "Shill" Pat Kane and the real reasons he's trying to run Scott Johnson out of city hall,I'll be of assistance as usual.
1. Not one red cent of taxpayer money should ever go to paying for "the arts".
2. State Police should bring in a couple hundred drug sniffing dogs and arrest every single damn drug user and put them away for a long time. Get rid of the drugs, you get rid of the crap, the crowds, the noise, and all the scum!
JT,rumors are rumors I know..but..why hasn't Pat Kane come clean and tell his following and fellow cult members about his personal and legal problems with Scott Johnson..can you shed some light on that..it might go a long way in explaining why he (mr. kane) is so hell bent on destroying a successful Mayor.
...And it is july 4th weekend so the park would be packed anyway.
Mr. "Hell Bent" Kane failed to unseat the Mayor in November. Pat Kane yielded and crumbled to the will of The People at the ballot box. End of "Kane v Johnson."
JT is now turning to Charter Change, a much bigger horse of a brighter different color. But it too will be "settled" by the will of The People at the ballot box. "The People" include myself among their 2300.
A Vote. It's that simple, even for a litigious attorney.
Let me start by making it clear I agree that Marcia White has a done a horrible job managing both the venue and resources at SPAC. However, even if she was gone, and there was a competent replacement, i wouldn't expect them to prevent Live Nation from bring in a band like Phish who is consistently a strong draw at the gate, especially in this area, where they have local ties.
I too enjoy SPAC's classical schedule, and all of the other things our State Park offers, but I have accepted that to have access to things, without seeing my tax bill or admission price skyrocket, I have to be willing to find something else to do the few the days a summer that these major events come, and generate the revenue necessary to pay the bills.
Phish and the Dave Matthews Band ARE going to take over the park the weekends they are here, the same way the track takes over the city for 6 weeks in the summer, and the Victorian Street walk takes over Broadway on a Thursday night every winter, but those two weekends seem a small price to pay for the benefits that the revenue will offer to local residents the other 50 weekends a year they can use it. Nothing is free in this world.
While the young lady with her wedding reception at the Hall of Springs might not be happy to find out there is a concert next door to her "big day", she also shouldn't act SHOCKED that a concert is happening at the large amphitheater directly next to the venue she booked, at the time of year when SPAC schedules most of their Live Nation events, so as not to interrupt the classical schedule later in the summer.
It's also hard to find tears for the Saratoga Opera. If you want to ride the coat tails of the NYC Ballet and Philadelphia Orchestra, you shouldn't be so upset that once in a while you're going to be inconvenienced by the money makers that keep them here. Their problem probably could have been avoided by better communication from Marcia White. I can't imagine the Saratoga Opera would expect SPAC to be blacked out for THEIR schedule, but being kept in the loop of tenative SPAC dates would allow the Saratoga Opera to schedule around SPAC events.
At least the people on drugs at a Phish concert aren't driving 35 ton firetrucks at high speeds. Sounds like SPAC might be safer then Broadway that weekend.
Loved the Judge Dredd reference in the earlier part of this work.. "You want mayhem? You want chaos?" All you need is Armand Assante yellin' 'em.
I heard of one bride who never could get to her own Hall of Springs wedding because of a Phish concert. This is an absolute night mare for everyone. No one will be able to fight their way to the opera. This is really really really bad. Maybe Mr. E. Stewart Jones will step up. I believe he supports both venues and is on the Board. I am so happy you noticed this.
Mayor Keehan had more lawsuits during her run as Mayor Kile....and you sat quite like a good little plebe and she tired to change things from order to chaos...you represent the will of the minority 6yrs ago we voted on this change and it was pounded into the ground by over 2300 votes and now the same band of drunks are causing troubles again and you're wrong kile it is kane vs.Johnson for the 4th time in 6yrs...I think your man kane likes to lose..so be it!
Y'all must be new here. When it comes to the Charter Debate, our man JT will tell you the new Charter is the child of THE Anti-Christ, Brent Wilkes. And in the coming months, we will see at least FIVE spectacular exposés on the Dark Force that is Wilkes. Believe me, John's been "loadin' up for Bear" on this one... and when he's finished ripping the flesh from Brent, there won't be enough meat left to bait a fish hook.
Yea neighbor I'm new blood moved up here from down south..Newburgh way, we had a city manager down there who bankrupted our town and after checking things out on the old webber this seems to be endemic with this city manager style,be ready Mr>2300hundred you could lose your break(I should say we)on your assessment=being in the 1% has it's draw backs...I'll probably leave town neighbor--but you would just mosey on over to the stonequist where they have a manager,kinda like who you;re looking for....always aces for you kile.
JT,
We agree...and then disagree.
We agree that the whole 'SPAC thing' is a mess.
Board/Management's decision to toss the keys to Live Nation was, in essence, an admission that they do not have the talent in-house to do it themselves.
The end-result of this is the loss of the huge money to SPAC's coffers and the less-than-enlightened special events programming as per Live Nation's "lowest common denominator" and "dinosuar rock" philosophies. Yanni, Beach Boys and Nickelback? I just threw up in my mouth...
Combine all that with the $8 beers, the security presence that resembles entering Checkpoint Charlie in Cold War Berlinm the $10 parking fees and the general paraonoic aura that engulfs the park on concert days ---- and you start ti understand why SPAC has lost its standing in the live music community; both the fan and the indiustry segments.
We disagree, however, on what you seem to be offering as the solution.
You are suggesting that the security detail gets even MORE agressive? Such a move will ven make the situation (and the venue's reputation) decline even further.
The various police agencies should have one primary mission when it comes to SPAC special event nights: to get cars into the park as quickly and efficiently as possible, and then get them out in the same manner at the conclusion of the shows.
Stopping cars for inspection flies against that mission. So does the deployment of the thug patrols throughout the picnic areas.
If your stated goal of allowing parallel non-SPAC events (weddings, opera) do their thing on the same nites as the big SPAC shows are being staged, then the answer is LESS of the Gestapo tactics, not more.
Why are you giving them cover to do the opposite?
You and I were around back when SPAC was actually an enjoyable experience. It now looks like a war zone. It needs to change or it will go the way of the Starlight Music Thater in Latham. At one time, that was a successful venue itself.
Go look at it now:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/altuwa/3539829052/
RM
The logical thing to do when the boys come to town (that would be The Phish from Vermont) would be to have Opera traffic enter the Park thru the Rte 9 entrance down by PJ's and PHish Concert Traffic limited to Avenue of the Pines entrance and Rte 50. The logistics could easily be worked out. One lane could be coned for OPera so those folks can get to their venue un-impeded
Emails should and could be sent out to all concertgoers be it Opera/Phish/wedding attendees with rules of the road, directions to parking lots. Bethel Woods did this last year when Phish played there for the first time. (I still have mine).
If I recall two years ago when Phish last played there were wedding attendees dancing to the music on the porch.
The drugs/nitrous mafia that follow the jamband scene is a small blemish on what otherwise is a pretty cool community. Take it from someone who has been shaking on Shakedown Street for more then half my 51 years.
What I'm suggesting is that Saratoga Opera leave the umbrella of SPAC and go out on its own.
Think Skidmore's Zankel.
I want the Hall of Springs to offer refunds and discounts if they fuck up weddings. I don't care if the Brides family signed a waiver. I doubt anyone told them of the implications if Phish is playing opposite their wedding.
I don't want more security at SPAC either.
I want the Dentist to lighten up on Caroline St bar owners and pick on SPAC for a change
What did SPAC offer the former Lake George Opera Company other then a bigger venue? Does the venue need to be outdoors? The EGG has pretty good sound but is inside. Unfortunately the choices for outside venues in this area are slim to none other then SPAC.
Summer 2010 - I want to show my newly engaged daughter and her fiance the Hall of Springs during a wedding to let her see why I think a wedding there is a terrible idea. We arrive around 8 PM - wedding in full swing/Phish concert, surprise to us,totally delighting new fiance. After proving my point - the wedding music was so deafening due to the horrendous acoustics of that beautiful building, no one could talk - my son-in-law bought a ticket and stayed for the rest of the show. The wedding party was in no way affected by the noise of the Phish concert because their music was so loud. I had absolutely no problem driving up to the Hall of Springs/parking/checking out the wedding. Not sure I see what you think the problem is...
When Michael Kaiser spoke at Skidmore last month, how many people came to this talk to criticize Marcia White, other than myself? Yeah, the Skidmore folks asked me to "wrap it up", but I still asked the key question:
"In your opinion, Mr. Kaiser, would hiring the Philadelphia Orchestra to play film soundtracks and perform for trapeze acts actually create a large, long-term audience for serious classical music without those gimmicks?"
Kaiser's answer: Basically, no, those gimmicks don't work.
MW spoke at Russell Sage College in Troy two weeks ago. Did anyone show up to ask her tough questions? No -- except me, and I kept my mouth shut.
Don Drewecki
For the record, it's Opera Saratoga, not Saratoga Opera...
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