Rant of the Week

Obama's First Fake

 

I just read that the lovely little quartet that performed "Air and Simple Gifts" at Barack Obama's inauguration faked it.  You watched the lovely musicians, elegant, focused, rising to the occasion-- you thought.  But the music you heard came from a recording that had been made a few days earlier.   They finger-synched.  They had ear-pieces so they could hear the recording, and then they put on a performance, but the performance was not musical: it was acting.

I am always amazed at the rationales given for cheating.  The Chinese said that the little singer was not pretty enough to dance and the Olympics were too important to allow ugliness into the stadium.  The people in charge of the inauguration said it was too cold to play, and too important an event to take a chance something going wrong, and allow any musical uglinesses into the mall.  Even Pavarotti, at a performance in Italy a few years ago, cheated because he had a cold and didn't want to disappoint his fans.  Never mind the people who were disappointed to find out that even Pavarotti is a fake.

I hope most people immediately see through these lies.   When we watch a brilliant musician perform,  we are impressed precisely because it is difficult to do, and because of the dynamic connection between performer and audience responding to each other in the moment.  So someone who successfully performs, live, deserves our respect.  Others only want you to believe that they performed live.  They want the same applause and respect.  They bow and bow and bow-- what's the matter with you?  What do you mean "cheating"?  I just didn't want to disappoint my fans.

If it wasn't fakery of the highest order, why were they trying to make it look like they were performing live?  Why not just stand there and bow?

And why on earth, if they were so concerned about the cold, didn't they just perform live in the White House -- in the Oval Office-- and then broadcast it to the huge screens on the mall?  At a moment of crisis and change, demanding the highest level of inspiration for the American people, Obama's people cheated.  They pretended they could do something they didn't believe they could really do.  They put on a show loaded with symbolism meaning nothing.

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