Thursday, February 13, 2014

What Shall We Do With a Drunken Bieber?

Another too-rich-too-famous-too-soon child star goes off the rails, and what do we do about it? We laugh, gawk, point our fingers, shake our heads. Whatever, we say. It's not our problem. He's not my kid. Then we buy more CDs, download more songs.

I was raised in the world of classical music. My parents were quite strict about it. Music from the likes of Bieber would never have been permitted. I had never heard music by the Beatles, the Bee-Gees, or Simon and Garfunkel until well into my teens.  This had two major affects on me.  The first is that I was found to be irredeemably odd by my peers (which, although a bitter pill at age 14 has proven to be no great loss as I've matured).  The second is that I have little tolerance for privileged performer antics, on stage or off.  When my best friend told me about the Ozzy Osbourne concert she attended, I couldn't believe it was legal.  After all, I had never seen Itzahk Perlman smash his violin on the stage or Vladimir Horowitz bite off the head of a bat before playing the Tchaikovsky piano concerto.

Which is not to say that classical music hasn't had its share of musical morons, misfits, and malcontents.  Beethoven was an infamous curmudgeon.  Wagner was a spoiled, amoral, anti-Semite.  Jean Baptist Lully had such a bad temper he stabbed himself in the foot with his lead conducting baton and hastened his own demise.  The virtuosic Paganini was a gambler and notorious womanizer. The list goes on.  The difference here is that all these musicians are quite dead.  We never have been and never will be bombarded 24/7 with breathless reports of the latest indiscretion followed by wild-haired mugshots.  Their problems and peccadilloes were not quite so public.

Perhaps the classical world met their Bieber in Kathleen Battle. Battle is a fine lyric soprano.  She was a rising star in the 80's and 90's, performing all over the world, winning Grammys.  She was a Diva in the most negative sense of the word.  Reports began to surface of her abusive behavior towards fellow performers.  She was unprofessional, difficult, and demanding. She threw temper tantrums backstage.  She was THE STAR, don't you know?  Finally the manager at the Met Opera in New York City called foul and fired her, cancelling future contracts as well. This was the kiss of death to her stage career. While continuing to sing in other venues,  Ms. Battle never worked in opera again.

What can Battle teach us about the Bieb?  I have a radical idea. Let's fire him!  We, the decent people of America, refuse to financially support Justin Bieber another day. Let's stop the watching, the reading, the buying, and see what happens. My childhood dentist had a bumper sticker that read, "Ignore your teeth and they go away." What would happen if we ignored young starlets as they crash and burn?  Maybe it would allow them to return to their insignificant spot in the universe.  Maybe they could get the help they need.  If so, then it's the kindest thing we can do.

What shall we do with a drunken Bieber?

Bieber who?

The Bieb

The Battle

         

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