TOSCA'S REVENGE

By


In the wake of all of the disgusting allegations of sexual harassment and abuse against so many powerful men in the entertainment and music industries (to say nothing of our representatives in Congress and so-called president), I feel compelled to say something about how these revelations have affected my life. Granted I have been a musician for all of my life, and there were the occasional college professors who thought that they could pressure me to come to their homes to "discuss" my grade. Then there was the total stranger who followed me on the street in Philadelphia, and decided to follow me into the vestibule of an apartment house and feel me up (until I thought to scream). And then there was the man in Prague who gave me the wrong directions so that I ended up in an isolated wooded area, where he followed me and put his hands on me (until I fought him off).

Luckily I never auditioned for James Levine, the former music director of the Metropolitan Opera, and he would not have been interested in me if I had auditioned because I don’t have a penis. But I have auditioned for many conductors who were visibly annoyed because I did not flirt with them or pretend to be interested in them romantically. I was young and naïve, and had no idea that this was what was needed to get a job. I just focused on perfecting my craft, and truly believed that if I was good enough, I would be hired. Yes, there were some conductors who were impressed with my work and hired me to perform with their orchestras, and I am truly grateful for their support and their faith in me. Some of them really went out on a limb with their symphony boards to hire a black woman who wasn’t just singing.

James Levine conducting the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

When I read the lurid details of the alleged crimes committed by James Levine, I was almost nauseous – not only because of the confessions of how the victims’ lives have been ruined, but also because of the arrogance of Levine to think that he could use his power and position to surround himself with his victims via hiring them. He even placed a 17-year-old whom he was molesting in the coveted position as “first chair” surpassing other older, more experienced players. The Ravinia Festival Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra were simply Levine's playgrounds where he wielded supreme power. He wasn’t thinking about the quality of the music he was producing. Already a multi-millionaire, all he cared about was his own arousal, and his need to force his underlings to bow to his will.

I am disgusted! The Met has paid millions of dollars in out-of-court settlements to the families of these young men as hush money, money that should have gone toward better sets and costumes, or to compensate musicians in the pit and on stage, or to help lower the exorbitant ticket prices. But no. The CEO and the Metropolitan Opera Board preferred to pay-off Levine’s victims, to keep him in place as music director so that he could continue to victimize more young men.

Peter Gelb, CEO of the Metropolitan Opera

 It was reported that Levine was scheduled to conduct a New Year’s Eve performance of “Tosca” this year, but now that he has been fired, the Met needs to find a replacement. The story of Tosca is the ultimate tale of sexual harassment and vengeance. As fate would have it, I just began working on the orchestral score as piano reduction of “Tosca” with a soprano, which we plan to perform in Italy next year. In fact, the night we had our first rehearsal was the night when news of this scandal broke in the media. Keep in mind that while I was a student in the master’s program at Juilliard, I also completed the coursework for the conductors’ program because by that point, it had become clear to me that the conductors made the decisions as to who was hired, and what repertoire was performed. After graduating, I continued my work as conducting apprentice under Kurt Masur with the New York Philharmonic, and later with L’Orchestre National de France. Leonard Bernstein performed as a pianist as well as a conductor, so why shouldn’t I be able to do the same? Boy was I naïve!

Maestro Kurt Masur
I have also known that most African-American classical musicians need to make a splash in Europe before they are embraced here in the US (our own country!), ergo our plan to take these performances abroad. Soprano Lowri Marie, a former Fisk Jubilee Singer who was a student there when I was a child, has recently been studying in the Adult Education program at Juilliard.

Leonard Bernstein
She has been called “the new Leontyne Price,” and at 65 years of age, her story is truly remarkable. When she hits that high B-flat in “Vissi d’arte,” it feels like she’s about to blow the roof off of the house! Lowri Marie is currently working with retired Metropolitan Opera star and vocal coach Brenda Boozer, whose studio happens to be in the guest house of the Rockefeller Estate in Upstate New York. The grounds of the estate are so vast that we couldn’t even see the main house from the guest house. The landlord, who is Nelson Rockefeller’s daughter, has become very interested in Lowri as an artist. Just the thought of being able to enjoy her support is most inspiring. To be a classical artist in the United States, with minimal government support, one can see why so many musicians are vulnerable to the likes of a James Levine. How else are they going to be able to feed their families?

Soprano Lowri Marie

So keep your eyes and ears open for news of this new endeavor. Chances are that I will be able to conduct “Tosca” at La Scala in Milan before it happens at the Metropolitan Opera.


INFEMNITY Productions is documenting the preparation for this concert tour, and we look forward to the completion of a short film following my work with Lowri Marie.






Teatro alla Scala

Nina Kennedy is a concert pianist, orchestral conductor, and award-winning filmmaker. She holds a master’s degree from the Juilliard School. Her memoir, "Practicing for Love," is a 2021 Lambda Literary Award Finalist.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Khatia Buniatishvili: Beyoncé of Piano?

By
Image
Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili April Gibson and Nina Kennedy both contributed to this article to share their respective insights and opinions. April grew up listening to Hip Hop, Pop,  R&B,  and Hair Bands. Nina, herself a classical pianist, grew up listening to jazz and R&B, as well as symphonies and opera. Nina: While living in Paris I got in the habit of watching the news channel “France24,” and was delighted to find that I continued having access to France24 here in Manhattan. Now that most American news channels have become The Trump Show, I became more dependent on France24 to be able to hear some authentic international news. One day this summer while going about my business with the TV on, I heard the news anchor announce a feature story on “The Beyonc é  of the Piano.” I stopped what I was doing to sit down and watch. The subject of this segment was world-renowned Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili, who has been referred to as "The B
Read more

Where Was James Baldwin's Boyfriend?

By
Image
James Baldwin As we are nearing the end of Black History Month, I find myself reading and listening to the words of James Baldwin. He became one of the most articulate voices of the Civil Rights Movement, yet it is hard to find any description or discussion - in his own words - of his life as a gay man. One could guess that he describes some of his gay life in the novel Giovanni's Room , which can easily be dismissed as a work of fiction. We know that he met the man who became the love of his life, Lucien Happersberger, in Paris in 1949, when Lucien was 17 and James was 25. The fact that Lucien was white could have served as proof that, at least in Baldwin's mind, black men and white men could love each other. But unfortunately, Baldwin chose to remain in the closet, using references to "... my wife" and "... my woman, my children..." in his interviews. The truth is, the most significant woman in his life was his mother, and the children he referred to were
Read more

Don Shirley, "Green Book," and Me

By
Image
I finally got the chance to sit down and watch the Oscar-winning film Green Book , on the life of African American concert pianist Don Shirley . As I had written in an earlier blog ( "Ebony and Ivory: A Dissonant Truth" ), I had visited with Dr. Shirley in his apartment above Carnegie Hall when my parents were in New York with the Fisk Jubilee Singers. The film gave a very accurate depiction of his home and the extravagant, ostentatious décor. The Real Don Shirley in his home Don Shirley was praised early in his life as a genius, a wunderkind whose forte was the traditional classical repertoire. Composer Igor Stravinsky said of him: "His virtuosity is worthy of Gods." But his record label forced him to play jazz, and sent him on tour with a jazz trio. In an interview, Shirley said that his record label wanted him to appear in overalls with a red bandana around his neck on the album cover. He refused. In my own book I have written about facing racism as an African Am
Read more

Anne Gamble Kennedy (Not to be found on Wikipedia!)

By
Image
Since Wikipedia refuses to publish this article because they claim, "The subject's references do not adequately show the subject's notability," I am publishing it myself. I'd like to see any of those editors try to survive as a Black female in the American South during the 1940s and 50s. Anne Gamble's accomplishments are notable as HELL! Anne Gamble Kennedy From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Anne Gamble Kennedy  (25 September 1920 – 11 June 2001) was an American classical  pianist , piano professor, and accompanist for the  Fisk Jubilee Singers  of  Nashville, Tennessee . Anne Gamble Kennedy Contents      1 Early life 2 Career 3 Selected discography 4 Notes Early life Anne Lucille Gamble was born in  Charleston, West Virginia  to Dr.  Henry Floyd Gamble  and the former Nina Hortense Clinton of Zanesville, Ohio. She was the younger of two children born to that union. She also had two older step-siblings, Katherine Lee
Read more

Bradley Cooper's "Maestro": Ho-Hum! Another Movie About White People

By
Image
  Granted, most Hollywood films about American celebrities of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s are going to be about white people. But in a film about Leonard Bernstein, there were several opportunities to tell the story about Lenny marching with Martin Luther King in Selma, Alabama, or Lenny introducing young André  Watts to the world concert stage, or even Lenny conducting Marian Anderson with the Israel Philharmonic. But no. The producers of Maestro chose to ignore the existence of African Americans, except when Bernstein's wife, Felicia (portrayed by Carey Mulligan), needed a nurse more than an hour and forty-five minutes into the film. At the very end, Bernstein directs his drunken, romantic attention toward a young black male conducting student, whom he had just instructed in a conducting master class. I suppose this young conducting student represented the future of classical music. But for a people who had been so discriminated against after the Second World War that young Bernstei
Read more

Juilliard Covers Its Ass

By
Image
On April 23rd, I received an email from the Juilliard Alumni Association director. In it was an email from the president of the school addressing an issue concerning a workshop conducted by the Drama Division. Evidently, the Drama Division invited a guest lecturer who conducted a workshop on the African American experience during slavery. In the words of President Woetzel to students, faculty, and staff:       "I write to you to address a September 2020 Drama Division workshop that has impacted our school community. While I am s haring a message below that was sent to the drama community by Evan Yionoulis, dean and director of the Drama Division, I believe it is important for our school community to hear directly from me.      To live our values requires an acknowledgment of mistakes we have made. To that end, I want to state unequivocally that this workshop was ill-conceived and should not have occurred in the manner that it did. I extend a heartfelt apology to the individuals wh
Read more

Love, Like Music: A Review of Nina Kennedy's "Practicing for Love: A Memoir" by Dean and Petra Aldrich

By
Image
Love, Like Music A joint review by Dean and Petra Aldrich of Practicing for Love , Nina Kennedy’s richly detailed and frank memoir. “For those in the world of classical music, Kennedy’s book is a winner. Her musical talent and technical achievements are obvious to anyone familiar with the works in her repertoire. Moreover, her descriptions of the challenges she faced as a Black woman in classical music provide essential, timely, and pointed critiques of the field. Musicians, composers, conductors – take note!” - Dean Aldrich, father, trained concert pianist, teacher of music and history, and graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music in piano performance and music education (Bachelor and Master degrees). “Kennedy’s memoir provides fascinating and essential insights into lesbian history and the experiences of lesbians in New York City in the 1980s and 1990s. Truly, the value of this opportunity to see such a pivotal period in LGBTQ+ history through Black and lesbian
Read more

The Fisk Jubilee Singers at the Kennedy Center

By
Image
Matthew Kennedy directing the Fisk Jubilee Singers of 1971-72 Again for posterity (since all of the articles appearing in this blog can be found online in perpetuity), here is the review of the Fisk Jubilee Singers' concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. as it appeared in Down Beat Magazine in 1972. It is listed in the Down Beat magazine archives . 
Read more