Anticipation

This morning's Wall Street Journal reports that symphonies nationwide are declaring bankruptcy.  To entice the next generation of concert-goers, who lean more towards rap and hip-hop than Mozart and Brahms, a few of the music directors are resorting to "flashy programming" like the Detroit Symphony's upcoming Kid Rock performance in May.  Such shenanigans suggest that perhaps local symphonies are going the way of the dinosaur; based on what we saw here in Portland last weekend, it might be best just to let them go. 

For more than two months, my husband and I had been looking forward to hearing the Portland Symphony perform the music of Queen. Having purchased the tickets on a cold day in January, I noted the date on our kitchen calendar in bright red ink. It made me happy to see it there--looming in the distance, a beacon lighting up the gloom of February and March. April would eventually come, bringing great music to warm our frozen souls. Finally, last Saturday night, it was time. 

A hush came over the audience at the Merrill Auditorium as the house lights dimmed. "Why are there guitars onstage," I whispered to Mitch. He shushed me, shrugging. In less than five minutes we knew why. We had been duped. The dream was over.  Instead of enjoying orchestral thrills and symphonic chills, we were horrified at the chaos unfolding onstage: A franchised pre-fab “total rock concert experience” starring a third-rate lounge singer trying desperately to summon his inner Freddie Mercury was not what we had paid $125 for, but it was what we got. Truly stunned, in the deepest sense of the word, we sat, mouths agape, transfixed by the antics of the over-the-hill has-been (if he ever was) "vocalist" and his noisy band as they tried to rally the white-haired bobble heads in the audience to get down and get funky.  A surprising number of patrons did as instructed and waved their arms overhead during the song, "We Are the Champions." Inspired by the lyrics, we fled within minutes and drove off in search of a pizza and a fresh carrot to dangle in front of our noses.