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Fox's Glee: Music (and drama) in the schools. |
Curiosity led me to watch Fox Television’s preview of the fall series Glee that aired in May. It’s about a high school performance choir made up of misfits -- their description, not mine -- who are also talented students. The plot line at one point described it as a Glee Club, thereby justifying the series name, but before you know it they’re all about the performance. Before long it’s all about the performance and less about the choir.
Glee aired immediately after American Idol. As television program strategies go, it was like airing new episodes after a Super Bowl. It was the place to be seen.
I admit I’ve only watched bits of American Idol. It has never intrigued me; I never like to watch people fail miserably or succeed miserably either. However, the Gong Show did pique my interest when I was one of those misfit high school kids who sang and danced in local productions of "The Music Man" and "Hello Dolly."
I recently came across a program in a box of my mother’s keepsakes that allowed me to feel a little smugger against these musical knife-fights.
My mom and dad met at Ohio Wesleyan University around 1951. He was a biology major with the goal of med school; she was planning for a nursing career. He had transferred from George Washington University in D.C.; she was the daughter of a country doctor from Holmes County, Ohio.
Dad graduated in 1953. Before he did, his fraternity participated in a songfest.
Yes, my dad was in a glee club, and they were in a competitive musical contest! Dad was a Delt (Delta Tau Delta—founded at Bethany College). He played baseball for OWU until he blew out his ankle. Socially, he was no misfit.
That got me to thinking. I knew there were glee clubs, but contests? Of course there were; just listen to Wagner.
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Wagner -- the new Idol judge? |
Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg
is nothing more than Bavarian Idol repeats performed for over 140-odd years. A guild of singers holds a contest, and the winner gets the girl. Full of intrigue and humor, it is Wagner’s only comedy among his mature operas. After all, what could be funnier than a singing knight winning the girl with a song written by a shoe maker? It has Fox written all over it. There is probably a Simon Cowell character in it somewhere.
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Simon Cowell does not approve. |
Even the contest that conveniently allowed the Von Trapp Family singers use as a cover for their escape—if you believe Hollywood, lives on as the Salzburger Festspiele in Salzburg, Austria every year since 1920.
Why are we so fascinated by “reality TV,” when high schools, colleges, orchestras, and choruses can provide us with the same pageantry and talent of a songfest in our own communities? Support your local songfest this year.