| BREAKING NEWS |
| Monday, 04 June 2007 | |
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Page 1 of 4 Dear All, I don't have Gockley and Runnicles direct email addresses. (If anyone else does, please post here.) But here's the mailing address:
LET'S ALL SHOW OUR SUPPORT FOR MS. BRIGGS. THIS IS NOT AN ISSUE TO SLEEP ON.
Correction: It has been brought to my attention that Donald Runnicles has been SFO’s music director for almost 20 years meaning he is not a new member of the administration. He is, in addition, the conductor of this present production of Don Giovanni. Pamela Rosenberg, who originally hired Ms. Briggs, is now the administrative director of the Berlin Philharmonic.
Who's talking about it? http://baybuzz.blogspot.com/2007/06/she-is-african-too.html  No. 23 : Here's what I say to those on the West Coast: DON'T SUPPORT THE SFO! We need our own opera companies, our own organizations. Then we won't feel like racial sting of discrimination. Even if it's NOT really racist, it feels like it to this community. Let's organize our own! It can be integrated but as long as we're in control, our own won't be discriminated against. But then I guess whites could say that they were discriminated against by OUR organization and they actually have the power to shut us down. We don't have the funds nor the power to shut down the SFO. Damn. Any other suggestions? No. 22 : Drama like this may happen all the time, but you have to think about the reason that it continues to happen. Maybe it's because the Black community doesn't band together to show that we won't accept the injustice. But we just let it slide and shake our heads muttering about how wrong it is. People, please realize that we're stronger in numbers. If you don't, this incident won't be the last. No. 21 : Situations like this are sadly not isolated.  I've recently been conversing with an established and well-known soprano (who shall remain nameless) about my implication of racism within the above SFO post. She has been the victim of a similar occurrence and claims that there are many other factors besides race (such as weight and age as exemplified in the tragic MET "clean up") that are more politically motivated than racial. (I often think about how Jennifer Hudson didn't win American Idol because perhaps "they" couldn't figure out how to promote her size and color and voice type or whatever. But who's laughing now?!) As is the case with the woman that replaced Ms. Briggs. Now to be fair, Ms. Briggs conceded that she didn't think the decision was racially-motivated (NYTimes article). We find out later that the Columbia Artists Management, Inc. (CAMI) promoters were pushing their choice to further this other woman's career and arranging it with SFO to make it look random hence the last second slip in. You read that correctly: the last second firing of Hope Briggs was apparently a ploy to promote Elza van den Heever, a new client of Matthew Epstein at CAMI. Can't you just see them promising to make her a "big star" and conspiring together behind closed doors with cigars, glasses of champagne and  C. Montgomery Burns style laughter? And poor Hope had no idea. It's awful when you're a pawn. But like I said in the original post, whatever the "cause," SFO knew about it and it's all REALLY shady. But that's just business, right? Nothing personal, right? No. 20 : This is an unfortunate affair and seemingly rather unfair...the San Francisco Opera is one of the world's finest and I can't see Ms. Briggs being hired unless she had all the requisites that were expected.....I am appalled. I lived in San Francisco during the Kurt Adler reign and attended many opera performances there..Adler encouraged young singers who qualified regardless of so-called racial background.....It is unfortunate that in this new century mankind as a whole has not risen above prejudices. No. 19 : point well taken. No. 18 : yeah... she did and said she thought it was fucked that they didn't give her proper notice that she was "on notice" and that race was not an issue. so perhaps one can make the argument that her *treatment* and not necessarily her firing were racially motivated... like they didn't want to tell her that she wasn't performing the way they wanted her to, because they thought she'd take it the wrong way (racist) in which case just because I'm black doesn't mean you have to think I'm going to think every criticism you have for me is vieled racism -OR- they felt that they could just make her "indisposed" and dispose of her because she's "nobody". just a black girl.. no big deal where they may have treated a white performer with more respect... but that's all conjecture too. I'm just looking at the different angles. |
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