Campbell Vertesi

Uh oh...

I've been working a lot with CSS lately, designing sites for various University of Cincinnati projects.  And I'm starting to think I want a new design for this site.  Any suggestions?  Influences you think I should have?  Things that would be incredibly cool?  This is a change in visual layout, but the same content will be here... though I'm happy to take suggestions for new content too, if you guys want a forum or something.   

One of the CCM classes must have had a session on artist websites today, because I found a worksheet sitting in the lounge. It had all sorts of interesting advice on building your website, including explanations of dynamic versus static sites, what sort of expenses to expect and that sort of thing.  (I noted that they recommended having separate design and hosting, which cuts my hosting service out of the picture... fools!)

One of the comments was on blogging on your site.  Keep it professional, they said.  No behind the scenes, backstage stuff.  No casual talk on your blog: keep it professional, and reserved.

Obviously I don't operate that way with my own website, but I thought I'd open the floor to comments from other singers.  What's your take?  Does "professional" necessarily mean "remote" and "formal"?  Do you prefer a website with just announcements and some kind of formal personality, or one with a casual - dare I say "vernacular" - feel? 

I just completed a photo shoot with a group of friends from Miami University... I really enjoy this photography stuff!  With their permission, I'll post some sample shots for you all.  

It's reminded me of a good side income I've neglected - photos, and for that matter, artist websites.  Here I've set up an entire webserver to make it easy for me to design and host websites for other artists, and I haven't been pushing it at all!

So, I'm announcing a deal.  My normal rates for headshots are already quite cheap ($40 for each one you use) - but starting today, promo shots are $10 for each one you use, so long as you let me design and host your website for you.  (Design is $50, hosting is $20/mo).  So for less than what you would pay a photographer for a single headshot, you get a headshot, a series of promotional shots, and a website.  Sound like a good deal? 

The Lucrezia Project (whose website I designed) is being performed this weekend.  If you haven’t already, check out the website (now with information!).  If you’ve seen the site already, check out the webcast of the performance… and if you really want to get into it, there’s also a webcast of the round-table discussion (in which I was a panelist!) that preceded tonight’s performance.  

Note: As of this moment, those stream links don't seem to be working.  It’s not my fault though, and I can only hope that they get fixed by the time you read this. 

The UK’s Guardian newspaper, long a strong online presence, has recently revamped their website in a good way.  Music reviews and news now has separate sections for classical, jazz and crap.  Oh sorry, I meant everything else.  Classical, jazz and each style of pop pablum each get their own individual sections.

This as opposed to the New York Times way of doing things, with anything vaguely musical on the same page.  Opera beside rap exhibits beside a review of a country music concert.  Which makes GREAT sense….

Anyways, I highly recommend you check out the Guardian’s new classical section.  It looks good, it smells good… it must be good!

Here it is! The post I've been waiting to - um, post!!  May I present the Lucrezia Project!

Next month, CCM is producing The Lucrezia Project - a sort of modified version of Respighi's opera Lucrezia.  I know next to nothing about the way the show itself is being modified- my involvement is with a novel way to approach thematic development in an opera. And this is an opera about Honor Killing.  Go on, read the wikipedia link.  It will help make this whole thing make sense.

 You see traditionally, the director does days of painstaking research in developing a serious, deep theme for their presentation of an opera.  They analyze characters, they break down scenes into their subtle implications - in short, they wrack their brains over this stuff.  Then they try to impart this theme to their acting singers, who skimp on the studying, and try to fake their way through a character that somehow (hopefully) supports the director's concept.  Finally, the audience arrives, and is perplexed at what the hell is going on in the first place, and why on earth did they use such odd lighting??  Theatre sure is funny!

This is the natural life cycle for an opera with a concept.  But perhaps not The Lucrezia Project.  The idea behind this production is to let the audience in on the development and thematic issues right from the start, using the internet.  I built a website that incorporates directors' blogs with discussion forums, and areas for the public to watch the performers grow their characters.  On this site, people can discuss the moral implications of Honor Killing - especially in the context of the modern world, as Eastern and Western civilization collide and intermingle.  How do you take the right to dictate another culture's morality?  Is the growing monoculture of our increasingly globalized world a Good thing?  What can or should be done for girls who seek asylum from their own families? (see, I told you to read the Wikipedia link.  Now go back and do it)

All of this will go on in a public forum - along with cast comments, directors' notes, and the whole playbuilding process around this incredibly contentious issue (dammit! Read the friggin' Wikipedia link already!).  The whole project culminates in a podcast/videocast of the production, and a series of interviews with the artists about their experience in the project.  Of ccourse the show is open to the public as well, and UC students get in free.

Can you say "badass"?  Can you say "New Media"?  Finally, you can have an audience that really understands the directoral vision.  Finally, a crowd that knows your character as well as you do!  At last, the audience will know more and have thought more about the theme than they did in the 5 minutes between reading the program notes and the curtain call.  This has the potential to take the thinking in theatre into a virtual discussion - and vice versa.

The down side - this project is limited to participation from UC students only.  Outsiders (we call you guys "normies") can spectate, but not post.  Feel free to write on your own blogs I guess, and submit the link on the contact page.  Your thoughts will likely be included in the discussion. At least post a link in MY comments.

Oh, and the shameless plug - I designed the site!  This is the exciting project I've been doing at work for the last month, and it's finally in production.  My supervisor Ellen Davis and I have worked on the Lucrezia Project tirelessly for weeks, and we really hope this participatory theatre concept takes off.  I did the visual design though. :)

So head on over and take a look!  I don't know if the forums or all of the content is up quite yet, but I'm not waiting any longer.  This time tomorrow I'll be posting from California, and I should have all sorts of other, interesting stuff to write about!