Hi, Susan!
I sent Karen a private message that explained the counter-tenor, whom we'll call
"David Yorkshire" and his wife were very liberal folk stuck in a most
conservative Southern US parish. The couple had 2 young sons, both of whom were
breast fed. I noted the wife's voice DID improve, by the way.
Both singers sat in my church choir alto section and when the wife nursed a HUGE
handkerchief was placed over her and baby and nobody could see the action going
on! Single or married with children, I can see both sides of the coin here. It
was a bit distracting, but because of their vocal contribution to the choir it
didn't phase me one iota! (I kept reminding myself that Madame Schumann-Heink
did this offstage at the Met around the turn of the century, too!) These two
singers have since, by the way, divorced, moved to different states and more
liberal parishes. He still sings counter-tenor and she still sings alto! There
is alot of unfortunate homophobia directed at the counter-tenor classification,
I believe, to a greater degree than any other vocal classification and this is
unfortunate. I can think of nothing worse than being a counter-tenor singing to
an ocean of Bubbas!
In choral settings we deal with all manner of distractions that are "memorable"
for decades to us! This one was one of MANY!! I had an alto who had epileptic
seizures in church services and rehearsals. I had an unknown singer who
blistered the varnish off of a choir loft pew in a heavily miked choir loft
during the Pastor's prayer RIGHT at the END of a sentence! I once had a
mezzo-soprano soloist crack up laughing at a funeral she was singing for. She
saw a floral wreath with a toy telephone "off the hook" on it that read "Jesus
Has Called"!! I forgave her. The family DIDN'T!!
Not since 1982, tho, have I had open nursing in my Choir Loft!
Ed
SMSchneider <smschneider23@r...> wrote:Dearest Karen,
Please know I write this with love, admiration and bemusement, and some
ambivalence on my part about whether or not I agree with you!!)
You don't have any kids, do you?
Susan (a militant public breastfeeder who was aware of the etiquette issues
and felt a little awkward but did it anyway)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Karen Mercedes" <dalila@R...>
To: "Edward Norton" <belcantist2003@y...>
Cc: <vocalist-temporary@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, January 13, 2003 8:10 AM
Subject: [vocalist] OFF: Public breast-feeding (was: Did Somebody Mention
Counter-Tenors???!!!)
> Sorry, folks. I don't care how "natural" or "beneficial" breast-feeding
> is, in modern American society it is STILL bad manners for a woman to
> expose her breast in public places (the exception being the erotic
> entertainment venues - which are in and of themselves etiquette
> minefields). Far too many private functions are now seen as perfectly okay
> to perform in public view, much to the dismay of those of us who wax
> nostalgic over the comforting discreetness of the etiquette of past
> generations (borne out of what has become an almost extinct sense of
> consideration for the sensibilities of others). Whipping out
> one's tit and shoving it into a baby's mouth simply is not an activity
> that most strangers - and even friends of the mother - really care to be
> exposed to in public places. The mother really should stop thinking solely
> of her own convenience, and instead think more of the offense she might
> cause by her action. The whole premise of a system of etiquette is NOT to
> challenge the rights of other people to be offended by certain unmannerly
> acts, but instead to provide a code of minimal acceptable conduct that is
> designed so that no-one really has to ponder whether a given action will
> possibly offend others. Militant public breast-feeding is unmannerly pure
> and simple. And attempting to turn it into a campaign of sorts seems like
> a very thinly veiled attempt by the offending mother to divert attention
> from her own laziness in not simply standing up and moving to a place that
> is PRIVATE before feeding her baby. If this means having to interrupt a
> dinner-table conversation for 15 minutes, so be it. Part of parenthood, as
> any parent will tell you, is relearning how to manage time, prepare for
> contingencies, and charmingly apologise for the interruptions that one's
> children inevitably cause to one's social life and own convenience.
>
> Karen Mercedes
> http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
> ________________________________
> One must be something if one
> wishes to put on appearances.
> - Ludwig von Beethoven
>
>
>
>
>
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