Whatever It Takes - Part I

It will be interesting to see if the advertising for next week's ASO concert series works (I'm assuming those in charge of that department know how to track the effectiveness of their efforts). The selling point that has been chosen is Scheherazade (although I'm more interested in hearing Michael Gandolfi's clarinet concerto, to be premiered by Laura Ardan). The ad (check out picture below) features a sultry, pouty model wrapped in what looks like a red bedsheet and clutching what appears to be a chef's knife (Wusthof would be my guess). I'm still laughing at the enlarged postcard version that just came in the mail.

Exactly what sort of audience do they think this will attract and what expectations would that audience have? And where does the knife come in? Wasn't it the sultan that was going to kill Scheherazade until she started telling the 1,001 stories?

Let's hope no one shows up thinking it's the ballet version...

Seriously, it's an unfortunate choice from another perspective - given the recent and on-going debates about violence in our society and the means that create it - that the organization opted for an extremely literal rendering to plug the concert. Using sex to market classical music is increasingly considered de rigeur - OK, fine. But they could have stopped there. And saved the money on the knife.