Hello and welcome back to the Texapolitan Opera Roadshow, coming to you from the land of country music, big hair, wild women~ in other words, my own personal heaven~ Nashville Tennessee. In between taking in amazing sets at The Station Inn, Layla’s, Tootsie’s, Robert’s, rehearsing Pag, buying the most outrageous cowboy shirts I could find, dodging goo goo cluster and yahoo beer, i somehow found time to sit down with one of the most interesting and innovative people in our industry, John Hoomes of Nashville Opera. John is an out of the box kind of guy, like so far out of the box, he’s moved into a alternate universe where boxes don’t exist and we all have health care and income equality… I think we might have inadvertently launched a new movement in opera similar to what’s been shouted on the streets of Austin for decades, Keep Opera Weird, don’t worry, I’m already designing the T-Shirt. John also let me in on, what is in my opinion the most innovative marketing idea that’s ever occurred in our business, you’ll know what I mean when you hear it.
As always you can find the show on Facebook, Twitter (@mazerthehazer) or you can email me at mazerthehazer@gmail.com I always love to hear feedback, it’s really been crucial in the evolution of the show, and I am always looking for new guests and ideas.
So, here we go, from Music City USA, John Hoomes of Nashville Opera on The TORS.
Dean and Mike’s adventures
Who am I in the town where everyone dresses like me
Keep Opera Weird
Asian cinematic sensibility and opera
Dead or Alive
The craziest dramatic curveball you’ve ever seen
Pre-show and End-show silence
Blurring constraints of the 4th wall
The coolest ending of Vesti la giubba you’ve ever seen
8:20 SPOILER ALERT
You can never really be sure if Allan Glassman is not actually going to kill Liz Caballero
The Susannah years
What does it all mean?
forcing people to have opinions, that’s direction
removing petty judgement by virtue of interesting production and direction
the term ‘Opera’ is just too cliche
what we do is really bizarre
stuffy uptight classical music types
learning from Television
Cartoons teach you what you need to know about timing in Rossini
creating unease in the audience as a dramatic device
“Sir, there are NO BUTTONS and ZINGERS IN MOZART.” – bullshit
If i can listen to my opera in my car and be entertained, then its a great piece
Ignore the text first, gauge the emotion in the music, and then see how the text lines up with the music
The placid lake visualization
The storyboard is complete in my head before I even start working with singers
Ross Allen, Mad Genius of Opera
A. Blocking and Traffic B. Motivation C. Backstory and minor details
you gotta start with A, if everything goes to hell, at least you have a show
I have the attention span of a gnat
Crickets
Viva la mamma! and the huge misstep
Sad trombone
performing for the stage vs performing for stage
you gotta play the audience you have
The most innovative marketing idea you’ve ever heard…DVD commentary and a free ticket for patrons coming for a 2nd performance
“The end of the world as we know it” -Best review, ever~ especially coming from Opera digest
Flying under the radar
Elmer Gantry gets a Grammy nod
The Fall of the House of Usher~ gothic extravaganza
@dean anthony, @valerideout,
Nashville is a place of NEW music
Nobody here is scared of new music
a cacophony of thought
Country Music is 3 chords and the truth
Surrender Road by Marcus Hummon
Maybe we have something here
you need to take my music and process it and understand what I did artistically?
WHAT DID HE SAY??
You’re obviously not from our world
“The moment you hear something I write, it becomes a part of your heart, and you can’t wait to hear it again” -Marcus Hummon, song-writer and composer
our business needs more of that
The Ultimate Spaghetti Western Opera
