Wednesday, June 21, 2006

A Show To Die For

Not going to go into great depth about Orpheus press. Go to this explanation in last summer's blog if you want to know why. I couldn't resist this photo, though, from the front page of yesterday's DC Examiner. Happily about as far from a typical Arts & Culture hit as you can get:)

If you want to know more about how the critics felt, go here, here, and here. More importantly, audiences have loved it, and we've been extremely proud of our artists and crew.

While I've Got Your Attention

The remaining seats for this weekends two Orpheus performances are selling well in the wake of press coverage, but you could probably still snag a few, especially for Friday.

And... there are good seats still available for our performances in "The Big House" (Filene Center) - a concert staging of Romeo et Juliette on July 22 and a new production of Figaro on August 18 & 19. I've talked to lots of folks this week whose attendance at Orpheus was their introduction to opera, and they loved the beautiful music, the high drama, and the amazing talent and commitment that these young professionals bring to the stage. Opera at the Filene Center is just as magical, and I have exponentially more seats to sell there (let's see... over 800% more.... wow, I wish I hadn't just done that math....).

The Pressure Is Off!

Thank heavens for this reassuring link. Read the whole thing or skim excerpts below. The guilt I carry around regarding the frequency and length of my posts has now been lifted. (I carry around plenty other varieties of guilt, just in case you're wondering.)

  • What matters most is whether you are reaching your target audience (which may be narrow and focused), not necessarily how many people read your posts.
  • Frequent posting is actually starting to have a negative impact on loyalty... With too many posts, you run the risk of losing loyal readers, overwhelmed by the clutter you generate. Readers will start to tune off if your blog takes up too much of their time
  • Frequent posting creates the equivalent of a blogging landfill... The pressure of the first months to write frequently certainly contributes to people abandoning their blogs.

If you're not persuaded, you need to visit Bloggers Anonymous.

Happy Birthday To Me

Today is the company day off for this week, and I'm taking advantage of it by spending the day at home. It's my birthday (woo-hoo!), and it's a sign of my lowered expectations that being able to spend it dealing with emails and phone calls on my porch rather than in the office is more than I could ever wish for. That, and the phone call I just received from my daughter in France, and the lovely dinner that the guys in my household are going to cook for me tonight. (They don't know it yet, but they will soon.)

3 comments:

Mike said...

Happy Birthday, Kim!

ACB said...

Happy Birthday!! Hope it was a good one.

Please give my regards to BF and MMcK, two of your sopranos and colleagues of mine.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday.
You must be pleased that Volpone will be produced at Opera Theater of St. Louis (mentioned in today's NY Times article on John Musto.) I loved that opera and can't wait for the rest of the country to get to know it.
The article also said he may be doing another commission for Wolf Trap. Great, and good luck. I can't wait.
If you accomplish nothing else at Wolf Trap, that one opera puts you in the world class of opera-company-bosses. Pat yourself on the back! And stop feeling guilty.