Propaganda

several years ago at an audition for a very famous Maestro I handed him a packet of materials before I sang. He said “ahhh...here is the propaganda...” He could not have been more right. Everything in that packet was positive. I always think about that moment and smile. Go to any singer website and you will find positive after positive reviews. I assure you we get bad ones too. In fact sometimes the bad one can be quoted to sound positive in a way. You are not going to be everyones favorite and often times we get 10 great reviews and 1 terrible one. You wonder if everyone was at the same performance. So to this end I renamed my reviews page “propaganda” because you will only find the positive stuff about me there. For the most part I do get good reviews. Generally reviewers will concentrate on the tenor and soprano and leave their words for the bass for the end. When its a new production in Germany 90% of the article is on the production leaving a bit at the end for the performers. So to prove that we do get bad reviews too I will qoute one here:

This review came from a website called Ionarts.com and the reviewer goes by JFL. The review is in reference to the Aida we did last summer in München.

“Christian Van Horn’s King was unmusical in his haphazard approximation of low notes, but...he improved with time.”

I framed this review and put it on my wall. I have never been called unmusical before and it made me laugh. Like I said you can’t please everyone and some listeners will just think you are “unmusical”.

So I now feel like I have shared some honesty here. Like I said, generally reviewers are kind to me but on occasion some will come and bring me back to reality. I assure you EVERY singer at some point has had a bad review. I will leave all the good reviews on my Propaganda page and continue to call it that. The Bad ones will just remain framed on my wall...