From a Facebook post today:
"Music lovers will want to attend a free concert and fireworks display marking the 100th anniversary of the Melrose Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, Sept. 9, at Morelli Field, while sports fans and alums of Melrose High School can begin planning for the city’s first-ever Homecoming Weekend, which will include football, soccer, and field hockey games, plus a 5K fundraising run, during a busy Columbus Day weekend.
Mayor Robert Dolan announced the events at a press conference at City Hall Monday, June 12. The mayor did not hide his excitement.
“This is the greatest outdoor concert since Woodstock,” Dolan playfully said of the symphony celebration. “It’s going to be an event that people are going to be talking about until the 200th anniversary.”
The symphony will perform on a stage erected around the home plate area, with what the city hopes are thousands of residents sitting on blankets and lawn chairs on the field, and possibly spilling over into the football field and bleachers. The set list will feature crowd-pleasing tunes from John Williams, Henry Mancini, John Philip Souza, as well as Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, capped off with a fireworks grand finale."
For gawd's sake! "The mayor did not hide his excitement." Meaning no disrespect to MSO, which does the best it can, this is, to quote RD, "incredible." Sheesh. It's really beyond the pale to observe the parochial, limited, and ignorant take of RD and his ilk. This guy has obviously never attended a legitimately first-rate concert, despite living in this mecca of actually great musical institutions and venues all of his very narrow-minded life. Then again this is the town that stands in ovation if a performer so much as vaguely approaches any kind of baseline performance standard of acceptable or barely competent, especially if there has been enough alcohol served at intermission. It's all just the "greatest" as far as too many here are trigger-happy to report, which is a large part of why things get so bad and don't improve; too many feel they must proclaim it all to be tops as a defensive/offensive move because at some level they must know there is a baseline inadequacy they feel they must cover up with their gushing praise at all times. Listen to any public meeting along with the constant flow of PR excrement that Melrose officials simply cannot stop themselves from discharging, and it's apparent why nothing is ever addressed for what it is. Being simple and truthful (and even "negative" if the occasion calls for a realistic view) is ultimately positive and even patriotic if one cares about helping one's community be the best that it can be. Gushing in crazed and dishonest rhetoric is a true disservice, an insult to intelligence and an embarrassment.
oh man, what an idiot
That has to be one of the most ridiculous utterances from the mouth of someone who gets more ridiculous with each passing week. He has become like Trump in his insatiable need for adulation, along with his inability to express himself in realistic, honest and humble ways. Now everything has to be "incredible" starting with his view of himself. Next he'll be telling us that the "thousands" coming to his "Woodstock" amount to "the biggest crowd ever"!
play·ful·lyˈ plāf(ə)lē
adverb
in a light-hearted manner.
Bitter cranks gotta bitter crank.
HBS: "playful" from RD is typically done at the expense of others and is not really playful in any true sense. He is a mean-spirited bully lacking any behavioral filters or true respect for others and whose conduct in this regard is known all too well. In this case, RD is just displaying his pathetic ignorance. He never ever attends MSO concerts, so his words are particularly flatulent. (Next he will be proclaiming himself a Music Expert as he did when he called himself an "Education Expert.")
Some rererehashed pops tunes done at warp speed (not the fault of MSO) barely adequately with the accompaniment of mosquitoes and New England weather at a venue that is totally inappropriate (laughable, actually), in September no less, is just another example of Stupid with a capital S. But hey, sure, bring your flasks, drink lots of cheap booze, and convince yourselves you're at Tanglewood because you're a "true Melrosian"! No one that night jumping to the predictable and silly standing ovations will know the difference or care. But hey, enjoy Melrose's "greatest" concert ever. Bring pom-poms while you're at it. May as well just be a full-fledged sporting event. Cynical much? Yeah. Real deal, sadly. Could be offset with a more positive or even "playful" feel if real and honest and humble and actual quality were Things here.
That being said, MSO deserves much credit for surviving 100 years, which is indeed a credit to the community, in spite of itself (in these days). It does much with minimal resources. It has many wonderful people onstage and off working hard to keep it viable and enjoyable. It performs in a beautiful old hall for its regular season that has somehow managed to avoid the wrecking ball that has afflicted so many others, and that alone is genuinely praiseworthy.
MSO "does much with minimal resources. It has many wonderful people onstage and off working hard to keep it viable and enjoyable" and even musically/artistically meaningful sometimes (though not likely during that outdoor fiasco in September)!
Have attended a few times at Memorial Hall. Of course, they are not the London Philharmonic, but they are quite good. At Morelli Field though? I think not. Not the best acoustics!
Decent acoustics are just the first of many problems with this ill-conceived plan. September can be cold, rainy, etc. It can also be quite warm. But even with a tent and a constructed floor for the orchestra (if that is even in the plans, which would be minimum requirements for a professional orchestra--which MSO is not), this is just not an appropriate venue for an orchestra, let alone in September. There are already musicians who will not participate or subject their instruments to risk if the temperature or other weather conditions endanger their instrument or make it impossible to play well. Truly it's a foolish plan. Melrose really doesn't have an appropriate venue for a Boston Pops-style celebration, fireworks and all.
It is a nice concert to attend with family and friends.
More skunks showing up at another string talking about good things happening in Melrose. The City throws an outdoor concert for a 100 year anniversary of a great organization and all the MM whiners can do is find fault. OOO the acoutics, on no, it might rain, oh Dolan compared it to Woodstock...what a bunch of losers. The place will be sold out and it will be another great event in Melrose. Can't wait.
Mr Dolan was being fugurative you bunch of idiots. He can't even show enthusiasm for our orchestra
No it is because the city of Melrose is humiliated. The mayor is allowing the superintendent to leave with a pension. And Melrose will still be paying her legal fees this is not fair to the residents working hard.
Won't be "sold out" because it's a FREE concert.... Outdoors.... Foolishly planned, regardless of benign intent. Unless it's a band concert with impermeable instruments (as in Brass) and at a temperature that would pass muster for band instrumentalists, outdoor concerts do not get scheduled in September in New England generally, for reasons that should have been obvious to MSO planners. Outdoor concerts for classical music must be planned with flooring and overhead covering in order to protect wooden instruments, among other things. Apparently the silly backup plan is to move everything into the MVMMS auditorium if weather is not suitable. That is ridiculous, too. Jumbotrons in cafeteria perhaps? Fireworks? And do they really think they can pull off fireworks in such a dense neighborhood? Maybe a few lame sparklers over Ell Pond with ashes landing on people's roofs causing a fire hazard?
Whether the local idiots think it's "great" is inconsequential in the Real World because they always think anything and everything Melrose is The Best regardless of whether it's even passable or above a baseline of Dumb anyplace else.
RD has earned the criticism and then some. He is the skunk! And his apologists are every bit as ignorant and foolish as Trump's! Nope, not a hater, just a realistic and mature resident with Common Sense!
This MSO open-air concert is free to all and is the first such major outdoor concert held in Melrose. Plans include a special stage with professional loudspeakers to help amplify the music. It promises to be the event of the year! Bring you family, lawn chairs, blankets, and enjoy the 100th anniversary of one of the most prestigious organizations in Melrose.