New Moon Rising

I suppose the merger of XM and Sirius would be a good thing, but only if it means that subscribers gain new stations instead of losing old favorites. I can tell you this, though. If these two satellite services merge and Sirius listeners lose Met Opera Radio (Sirius 85), then there will be bloodshed in the streets. I'm not kidding, and I wrote the FCC and told them so too. If Met Opera Radio disappears, there will be such an outcry, such a panic in the streets of America, that it'll make Baghdad look like Mayberry RFD.

In other words, I'm kinda fond of that station, and I'd hate to lose it. I don't know what the listenership is, though I suspect that satellite radio hasn't really made it into the mainstream yet, but I can't imagine life on earth without Sirius 85. I do know that the Met's other big initiative, the live Saturday matinee broadcasts to movie theaters around the world, has been a huge success, and, in fact, the showings have been selling out and special encore performances have been added to accommodate the demand. Which only goes to show that despite the predictions, opera is not going away anytime soon. After 5 centuries, it's still a hit.

In fact, that's what I'm going to talk about tonight. A few weeks ago on one of the Live from the Met broadcasts (on Sirius 85) they had the president of the American Symphony Orchestra League on for an intermission interview. His name is Henry Fogel, and I think the most amazing thing about him is his record and CD collection, which, if I remember correctly, contains over 20,000 CD's (you can search his collection over at Henry's Records). Now I did the math on that and I calculated that if you started from zero and bought 1 CD a week, it would take you around 400 years to amass 20,000 CD's, which means, I suppose, that he must buy his CD's by the truckload. He probably has a special loading dock out back where he offloads them.

Anyways, back to my point, during that interview Fogel alluded to the fact that following years of decling audience numbers which appear to have bottomed out around the year 2000, the Symphony Orchestras in this country have actually seen a gradual but steady increase in their audience over the past few years . Let me repeat that: growing audience numbers for the symphony and sold-out movie theaters for the Met Opera simulcasts. What's going on here?

Add to that some anecdotal evidence like the recent Opera San Jose review that reported increasing numbers of young audience members (it's from the Feb 13 San Jose Mercury News and you'll need to pay money if you want to read it), or this review from the Arizona Republic which talks of "a greater-than-usual number of younger faces" for a recent Baiba Skride concert, and it seems we might have the beginnings of a trend here.

Or is it just a coincidence?

I think it's more than just a coincidence. One of the side benefits of being a Sirius subscriber is that I get to hear all kinds of music, and I think I'm starting to understand the complaints I hear from some of the younger and "hipper" folks about music these days. Asked why record sales continue to go down, many say it isn't because of file sharing, it's because the music sucks. Now I've been listening to popular music my entire life, and I can even remember when New Wave was actually "New" (that was before they started calling it 'Indie'), and I have to agree. A lot of what they call Rock 'n Roll these days does suck, and it seems like most of the new, creative energy is going into hip-hop and rap. That's just my totally unqualified observation, but I think there's some evidence that Rock 'n Roll ain't what it used to be, and even if it is, sometimes people get tired of popular culture and want something more.

If that's the case, then it only seems natural that classical/opera should siphon off some of that audience. Not a lot, mind you, but enough to breathe some new life into the ol' gal. Anyways, that might be one reason for some of the new faces. It's also possible that people like Josh Groban and Andre Rieu are indeed creating new interest in classical music, and that audiences raised on the crossover stuff might gravitate to the real thing.

Maybe...

I kind of doubt it. A more likely cause is the celebrity factor, and all the sexy new stars that the classical labels are pushing out there. I've talked about some of the females in this blog, but there are the male stars as well. Daniel Hope, Renaud Capucon, Nikolaj Znaider, etc..., as if tall, dark and handsome have anything to do with playing the violin. Hmmph!! I personally don't see what all the fuss is about, but I understand from some of the ladies that this Znaider fella (he's the one on the right, Capucon's on the left), in particular, is what they call a "hunk", and who knows, maybe that's enough to get them down to the symphony hall. If so, then bring 'em on. Hell, if it's Gidon Kremer in a speedo that they want, then go ahead and give it to them. Come for the beefcake and stay for the music, it's all the same to me.

Or something like that.

The bottom line, though, is that classical music is not ready for the museum just yet. There still an audience out there, and with a few new ones being added to the mix, we may be in store for a bit of a mini renaissance. That would be great, and in the meantime I've got about 19,900 more CD's to buy if I'm ever going to catch up with this Fogel fella.