Emma Shapplin crashes and burns in Haifa

November 10, 2009 - 10:07 PM by David

Emma+ShapplinUsually, when touring musical acts make their way to Israel, they rise to the occasion and put on a stellar show. Just look at Paul McCartney, Faith No More, Leonard Cohen – despite the lofty price tags, they delivered with consumately professional concerts that left audiences thrilled.

But there’s another kind of concert thrill – the train wreck. Even more surprising is the train conductor in this case – French pop soprano Emma Shapplin, who launched a world tour last week with two shows, in Haifa and Tel Aviv.

Now we’re not talking about someone who you’d expect to be erratic, like grungy Pete Doherty. Shapplin has a distinguished track record of dazzling performances featuring spine-tingling vocals. Her 2003 show in Caesarea was so outstanding that she released it as a live album and DVD.

However, she’s had a few years between albums, and when I talked to her a few weeks ago, she seemed somewhat hesitant about rushing out to perform her new album Macadam Flower ahead of time.

“When we received the offer to do these two shows, I thought, ‘well, it’s a bit premature. The album isn’t finished yet, we haven’t started rehearsing,’” she said.

It turns out that Shapplin’s apprehensions were well justified. According to a review in The Jerusalem Post of the first night’s show by my colleague, Amanda Borschel-Dan, Shappelin was like a deer in the headlights.

Aside from obvious technical difficulties with microphones, etc., Shapplin was confused, forgetting words and musical phrases, once to the point of restarting a number twice and waving away the accompanist who was playing “a different arrangement… why did Shapplin decide to perform a series of classical soprano arias when she was obviously under-prepared?

While the concert-goers were justifiably unsatisfied with the performance, I found myself thinking that it was refreshing to see someone screw up in public. We’re so conditioned to perfection that any blemishes are considered to be horrible miscues and an affront to art. On the contrary, false starts, flubbed cues, and unreached notes are performance art at its most riveting.

Shapplin may have had an off night, or maybe she’s fallen off of her pedestal and is just showing her humanity. Rather than booing her, audiences should be embracing her flaws as well as her talent.

Tags: , , , , , • Category: A New Reality, General, Music, Pop Culture 

Comments

3 Comments on Emma Shapplin crashes and burns in Haifa

  1. Lisa on Tue, Nov 10th 2009 11:13 PM

    2. One of my all-time favorite concerts was when I saw Fiona Apple perform in New York City when I was in high school back in 2000. There were technical difficulties, including her not hearing herself, and she freaked out and started cursing out the media and stuff. While trying to sing the third song she gave up and went backstage never to return the rest of the evening. Sounds like Shapplin has a lot more class.

  2. David-Joe on Wed, Nov 11th 2009 4:48 AM

    3. Its because she has never kicked Israel. If she had rejected Israel and then returned like all the has beens over the recent past, she would have been serenaded.

    Its a form of guilt. Like the dratted Israeli “filmmakers” that are parading around NYC – very chic to attack Israel in movies – and especially in a city such as New York which has become a centre of anti-Israel attitudes.

    And of course Israel is acting stupid by saying nothing or looking utterly bumbling and guilty while the Arabs whip our backsides with their propaganda.

    The late great State of Israel. Too true – so sad – so utterly afraid to stand up for itself properly.

  3. Raine Marcus on Fri, Nov 20th 2009 10:02 PM

    4. You guys should try anti-Israel/anti/semitiic propaganda emanating from the UK at present; it’s not try to say that Israel is not doing anything about it.. There are huge departments, divisions and organisations (community and state) dedicated to just that – stemming the anti-whatever it is. Trouble is, it doesn’t work. It’s problematic.

    But I’m still sure what anti-semitism has to do with Emma Shapplin’s performance(s). Nothing, I would say. Either she was good or she wasn’t.

    BTW: She first became popular around ten years ago in Israel; the publisher and then editor of Ma’ariv Ofer Nimrodi invited her to perform at his wedding after the release of her very popular album (can’t remember its name, but I have two copies). Then she was excellent, apparently.

    S

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