Saltnote Stageworks got a bad review from the Washington Post. Now, as a singer I am finding that professionalism dictates that I don’t have anything good to say I shouldn’t say anything at all. (Not that this advice is well followed). But I have seen that some of the best artists here at Saltnote Stageworks are polite, hard working and don’t gossip.
However, I am writing this blog to my family who deserve to read the reviews, good or ill, of my performances and to the people whose family or friends are in those performances, or who may want to attend a future year of Saltnote Stageworks. And to fulfill that responsibility I should report what else is being said.
Here is the initial critical review from the Washington Post done before the program even started.
Here is a much more flattering, and complete, article from the local newspaper South Maryland News.
Inspirational Quote
Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Bad reviews can only comment on the festival but they cannot determine the experience of the festival, I hope.
Your numerous quotes by Mark Twain are indeed inspiring (although I do not consent to all of them), and I like you quoting from German classics (it was Schiller some days ago, and it is Goethe now), but the English translation of this quote here is, in my opinion, weak and inadequate.
“For the whole” is merely the opposite of the original “zum Dasein des Einzelnen”; Goethe does not mean to simply lack something but to abandon it; and “quirks” does not belong to the kind of English that Goethe would have used.
Thus a better translation could be: “Certain flaws are necessary for the existence of the individual. It would be displeasing for us if old friends abandoned certain peculiarities.” –Elective Affinities, from Ottilie’s Diary, 1809
The German original is: “Gewisse Mängel sind notwendig zum Dasein des Einzelnen. Es würde uns unangenehm sein, wenn alte Freunde gewisse Eigenheiten ablegten.”
–Die Wahlverwandtschaften, Aus Ottiliens Tagebuche, 1809