My distaste for confrontation has me wishing this whole sorry business would just go away, but my urge to catalogue is winning out. Here's the latest swathe of articles in this exhausting saga.
October 2008 "La Travesty" — Gideon Haigh, The Monthly [subscription only, but a bit of creative Googling will get you the whole story.]
October 2008 Letter to the Editor of The Monthly from opera patron Minnie Kent Biggs.
9.10.08 "Conductor calls for inquiry into Opera Australia" — Robin Usher, The Age. Richard Divall, the other other other Richard of Australian opera, enters the fray, adding nothing very new except his own personal grievances.
11.10.08 "Singer calls for operatic shift to Melbourne" — Robin Usher, The Age. Bruce Martin (he of the "bleating goat" allegations against Chandos) says move HQ to Melbourne. I say don't you dare.
12.10.08 "Oz opera revolts at being 'packed with Poms'" — Paul Ham, Times Online, UK. Perhaps I haven't been reading closely enough (likely) but this was the first I knew of the "33 employees – 11 of whom remained anonymous – [who] sent letters to Opera Australia supporting Janes".
October 2008 Letter to the Editor of The Monthly from Opera Australia CEO, Adrian Collette.
16.10.08 "Legal battle sees opera bequest frittered away" — Michael Shmith, The Age. Long running issue resurrected, the dispute over Melva Thompson's bequest to the Victoria State Opera, which subsequently merged with Opera Australia. Includes details of Adrian Collette's interview with the reprehensible Alan Jones.
16.10.08 "Opera Australia is a house of strife" — Michael Shmith again, WA Today. More of the same, really, but an opinion piece this time.
18.10.08 "Opera legacy's fraught finale" — Gideon Haigh again, The Age. More on the legacy.
18.10.08 "Chorus of controversy, not in the same key" — The Age. Editorial summary of all the above, effectively.
18.10.08 "How to lose $2m without really trying" — Gideon Haigh yet again, The Age. Seven page article about everything. If I might pick at one trival point: Lady Primrose Potter, "doyen [sic] of Melbourne's arts patrons" didn't like Carmen. Why? Pamela Helen Stephen. And why didn't she approve of Pamela? Was it because she couldn't sing the music properly? No. Apparently, it was because of her hair:
"Carmen with flaming red hair?" she says. "Well, it was ridiculous."
OK. Point #1 — black hair is not a prerequisite for Carmen. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Marilyn Horne. Point #2 — she wears a wig.
That's it, for now at least. Please let it be over soon.
An excellent resource on this feud- makes it easier to follow from afar. The whole thing sounds a bit ridiculous from an ocean's distance.
Posted by: Ian | Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 06:28 AM
Sounds a bit ridiculous from here too, quite frankly.
Posted by: Sarah | Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 11:32 PM
Great Coverage. What a ridiculous food!
Posted by: Don | Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 12:05 PM