Talk:Marie van Zandt

POV Challenge

The current article as of 2014 Apr 19 has a questionable POV bias, with such phrases as, "The Parisian press at the time rightly recognized her off-colour behaviour as typically American!" This completely uncited, sweeping generalization of Americans seems highly un-encyclopedic. For a more neutral treatment of the subject, please see the French version of the Wiki article: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_van_Zandt. As translated by Google: "Paralyzed by stage fright [2] diva remains voiceless. Forced to withdraw to a packed house, as whistles and boos..." and "[2] Some journalists rather evoke an excess of whiskey !" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.40.204.26 (talk) 15:49, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

Vandalism

Undid the vandalism by user 94.222.118.109 from Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany. If any Wikipedia admin is reading this, please ban user 94.222.118.109 from future edits.

Original: "Marie van Zandt who was only 21 signed a contract with the Opéra-Comique in 1880, making her debut as Mignon. It was the beginning of the glory. Léo Delibes composed his opera Lakmé for her, and she created the title role for its world premiere in 1883. Organized opposition at the Opéra-Comique was created at around this time in an attempt to discredit her; among the lies which were circulated was one suggesting that she appeared onstage while drunk. Nevertheless she assumed a successful career, and the Parisian beau monde praised her, as for example Baron Alphonse de Rothschild who used to reserve loges for his family and friends when she appeared on stage. She travelled all around Europe for tours."

After 94.222.118.109's vandalism: "Marie van Zandt who was only 21 signed a contract with the Opéra-Comique in 1880, making her debut as Mignon. It was the beginning of the glory. Léo Delibes composed his opera Lakmé for her, and she created the title role for its world premiere in 1883. Organized opposition at the Opéra-Comique was created at around this time in an attempt to discredit her; her impossibly arrogant and vulgar conduct certainly didn't help: She was too drunk to sing at the premiere of Le Barbier de Séville on Nov. 8, 1884, staggering around the stage with dishevelled hair after having imbibed copious amounts of absinth in her dressing-room to gain some Dutch courage, slurring her melody and speech, until a courageous colleague ended the sad farce by carrying her off the stage; a young singer who happened to be in the audience had to stand in to save the performance. The Parisian press at the time rightly recognized her off-colour behaviour as typically American! Nevertheless she assumed a successful career for a short while, and the Parisian beau monde praised her, as for example Baron Alphonse de Rothschild who used to reserve loges for his family and friends when she appeared on stage. She travelled all around Europe for tours, quickly overstaying her welcome everywhere she went, and usually not invited back."

That edit may have been misguided, and was certainly unreferenced, but it was not vandalism. Maproom (talk) 14:44, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

According to Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vandalism

Vandalism is any addition, removal, or change of content, in a deliberate attempt to compromise the integrity of Wikipedia. Examples of typical vandalism are adding irrelevant obscenities and crude humor to a page, illegitimately blanking pages, and inserting obvious nonsense into a page. Abusive creation or usage of user accounts and IP addresses may also constitute vandalism.

Statements such as "her off-colour behaviour as typically American!" seems like obvious nonsense. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 104.55.5.57 (talk) 15:42, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

My guess is that it was copied from some (unreferenced, and maybe unreliable) source. The language does not sound modern. Maproom (talk) 15:51, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

In my experience, copy and paste usually leads to a new paragraph, or a big chunk of text inserted into an existing paragraph. In this instance, the German user selectively added biased POV at many different points, even appending to existing sentences. That is uncommon for copy and paste. If the language didn't sound natural to a modern audience, then consider English is a non-native language for this German user. As much as I appreciate you giving someone the benefit of doubt, the edits speak for themselves. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 104.55.5.57 (talk) 21:09, 13 March 2015 (UTC)