Everything that is wrong in „Mozart in the Jungle“, Season 3 Episode 3 „My Heart Opens to Your Voice“
Just when you thought it was safe to watch TV again a new series of „Mozart in the Jungle“ arrives, our favorite show that apparently exists in a parallel dimension to our dimension, a dimension where classical music is incredibly popular, where the stars look good without photoshop and where the audience screams with joy every time a conductor enters a stage.
Season 3 is again loaded with the little inconsistencies and inaccuracies that we have come to love, as screenwriters try desperately to understand the world of classical music and very often get it…completely wrong!
Still, I love the show, and nitpicking these details is a lot of fun, as long as we don’t confuse „Mozart in the Jungle“ with any kind of reality. Here we go again:
1) What Rodrigo does in this rehearsal is completely useless – a conductor is not needed in solo correpetition sessions, the pianists work alone with the singers! And why is Hailey listening as well? What’s her role here? Assistants are only needed in orchestral rehearsals, to check balance of the instruments and stuff. Just about everything seems to be wrong in this scene….
2) 2:20 Rodrigo sings this part completely wrong! Conductors usually don’t have nice voices, but they normally get the notes right.
3) 2:30 That puppets of classical musicians are publicly sold in advance of their performance is a funny but completely ludicrous thought! There is a market for comic hero and film sculpts, but not for conductor figurines…
4) 3:30 Did you notice? This gap in the orchestra is only needed because the camera has to move through it, otherwise it makes no sense to separate the musicians like this. And the singer sings with the back to the orchestra, not towards the orchestra like here. Why would she sing in a different position than the performance position in a rehearsal?
5) Why does Hailey practice the oboe next to „La Fiamma“? So they are really having a lesbian affair then?
6) 5:00 Although the desperate situation of the musicians after the shutdowns is not unrealistic it seems weird that they suddenly feel completely disconnected from music and need to play with school kids to „feel it“ again. Usually orchestra musicians have lots of other activities going on – chamber music, ensembles, teaching…some of them even conduct or compose! And nobody prevents them from simply playing their instruments at home….
7) The gardening mayor with ample time on bis hands to give philosophy lessons is a really nice fantasy…but a fantasy nevertheless.
8) 13:00 And again musicians of the Venice conservatory are practicing in the hall instead of a room. It’s not that crowded there, come on!
9) 13:20 „Look at my city! You can hear them laughing!“ Who? The tourists and foreigners who mostly populate Venice? There are not that many real residents in Venice to produce a big laugh…
10) 15:20 Again: what is Pemberton actually DOING in the orchestra office? The orchestra is on strike, he is not hired anymore, there is nothing for him to do there….except for having sex with Bernadette Peters of course…
11) 18:00 Hayley actually conducts better than Rodrigo in this scene – and she is supposed to be his pupil here!
12) …but in the dream sequence she suddenly conducts the Sibelius in 3 instead of 2. Still – it looks much better than anything Bernal did portraying a conductor….
13) 21:30 So Erik has come all the way to Venice, but then he wants to change the subject when talking about the orchestra? Isn’t it understandable that Hailey wants to know from him what is going on?
Moritz Eggert
Komponist
