Manny Laureano

Joe,

While I'm also very much a free market guy I think there's a flaw with the example you gave and Wilmer's point is a good one.

If a show is created with an acordianist or pianist as the sole musical source, fine, that's the way the composer thought it should be and there's integity to that. I don't like AT ALL when large Broadway show houses scale the orchestra down from what was originally intended.

The typical show-goer doesn't have the discriminating ears that most of us here do. That's just a fact. the producers count on that to get away with synthesizers and such to pick up the slack when they dump whole sections. At home, I am training my kids to look for the difference betwen commercials or soundtracks that use synths and such. I say "Listen really carefully... listen to the timbre and articulations, it's fake. That's not a real string section. Can you hear why?" They're getting pretty good at it.

I recently wanted to take my kids to a Nutcracker performance and my first question was "Is there a live orchestra?" I was told there was a small group but most of it was from recording. I found a three man show called "Triple Espresso" and we spent our money there instead. The music? One pianist as the show was originally designed to have.

I pine for the old days of the appropriate sized orchestra in the pit. I would be willing to pay higher prices but I am sorry to say that the public is not as educated as we wish they would be and not so principled to not attend a largely synthesized show.

ML