frank martin--->lulz
4 hours ago
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Dear OC
Unless I am seriously mistaken, I believe the French say bleu, blanc, rouge and not the other way around. Vive la France.
Artist Fund
The San Francisco Opera has a great singers fund. I will donate $1000 to this fund if you bring Jonas Kaufmann here. Not Carmen. I've seen that. Meistersinger would be fun.
Met Player
I have begun to look into the Met Player, found on the Metropolitan Opera web site. I realize that this puts me way behind the curve.
It's cheaper than buying a lot of DVDs and cheaper than attending the HD broadcasts which generally run about $20.00. For 1 week it is free, so you need to plan ahead to watch a lot of stuff. After that it's $4 to $5 a pop. You would launch these and watch them on your computer.
The currently available repertoire is 68 operas. (I am ignoring the audio.) The choices are mainstream so far, and include all the HD broadcasts to date, including the ones I missed the first time they played. I don't notice Garanca's Cenerentola. They are showing the Bartoli version instead.
Eugene Onegin, Fidelio, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, I Puritani and Francesca da Rimini I own on DVD. I like all five of them and love Fidelio, Onegin and Francesca da Rimini.
I'm pretty sure without conducting extensive research that I also have 18 more of these performances on VHS. Or maybe more. I have Aidas by both Price and Millo. I have Susannas with both Battle and Bartoli. I have The Ring cycle with James Morris and Tristan with Ben Heppner. I have some of Pavarotti's best work ever in Trovatore and Ernani. I have Freni's Fedora and Ramey's Don Giovanni. Don't miss Les Troyens with Domingo, Troyanos and Norman. These are all wonderful. They are selecting the cream.
Does that leave much of interest? Now that I no longer hate Simon Boccanegra I would be interested to see the Milnes version. In 1984 he would have been at his peak.
It is somewhat surprising to see 5 performances by Renata Scotto in this list, but only one Freni, I think. If I'm wrong then kick me. Perhaps Scotto is viewed more strongly in retrospect. Her performances are some of the oldest included here. She does both Mimi and Musetta as well as Francesca, Manon Lescaut and Louisa Miller. I suspect that Gelb likes her. I like her, too, but not more than Freni. I might like to see some of these.
I would love to see Tatiana Troyanos as Santuza and Pavarotti as Nemorino. I would certainly like to see Taymor's Magic Flute. Domingo's Queen of Spades might also be interesting.
To really arouse my imagination they will have to dig a little deeper into their catalog. I apologize for being a philistine and not being interested in the audio.
It's cheaper than buying a lot of DVDs and cheaper than attending the HD broadcasts which generally run about $20.00. For 1 week it is free, so you need to plan ahead to watch a lot of stuff. After that it's $4 to $5 a pop. You would launch these and watch them on your computer.
The currently available repertoire is 68 operas. (I am ignoring the audio.) The choices are mainstream so far, and include all the HD broadcasts to date, including the ones I missed the first time they played. I don't notice Garanca's Cenerentola. They are showing the Bartoli version instead.
Eugene Onegin, Fidelio, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, I Puritani and Francesca da Rimini I own on DVD. I like all five of them and love Fidelio, Onegin and Francesca da Rimini.
I'm pretty sure without conducting extensive research that I also have 18 more of these performances on VHS. Or maybe more. I have Aidas by both Price and Millo. I have Susannas with both Battle and Bartoli. I have The Ring cycle with James Morris and Tristan with Ben Heppner. I have some of Pavarotti's best work ever in Trovatore and Ernani. I have Freni's Fedora and Ramey's Don Giovanni. Don't miss Les Troyens with Domingo, Troyanos and Norman. These are all wonderful. They are selecting the cream.
Does that leave much of interest? Now that I no longer hate Simon Boccanegra I would be interested to see the Milnes version. In 1984 he would have been at his peak.
It is somewhat surprising to see 5 performances by Renata Scotto in this list, but only one Freni, I think. If I'm wrong then kick me. Perhaps Scotto is viewed more strongly in retrospect. Her performances are some of the oldest included here. She does both Mimi and Musetta as well as Francesca, Manon Lescaut and Louisa Miller. I suspect that Gelb likes her. I like her, too, but not more than Freni. I might like to see some of these.
I would love to see Tatiana Troyanos as Santuza and Pavarotti as Nemorino. I would certainly like to see Taymor's Magic Flute. Domingo's Queen of Spades might also be interesting.
To really arouse my imagination they will have to dig a little deeper into their catalog. I apologize for being a philistine and not being interested in the audio.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Misc
Gert linked to something rather amusing--fans of Katherine Jenkins purport to think that Joyce DeDonato's broken leg is a publicity stunt. We here in America are not required to worry about Katherine Jenkins.
On her website Joyce shows other people performing in wheel chairs in addition to herself.
In October Cecilia Bartoli will be releasing something named SACRIFICIUM. I have no idea what this might be. In the fall she is appearing in Spain with Il Giardino Armonico, the group she performed with on her Vivaldi recording. My son likes them quite a lot. I like them, too. They are far more idiosyncratic than the average original instruments group. For me idiosyncratic is good.
On her website Joyce shows other people performing in wheel chairs in addition to herself.
In October Cecilia Bartoli will be releasing something named SACRIFICIUM. I have no idea what this might be. In the fall she is appearing in Spain with Il Giardino Armonico, the group she performed with on her Vivaldi recording. My son likes them quite a lot. I like them, too. They are far more idiosyncratic than the average original instruments group. For me idiosyncratic is good.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
French Connection
I have been to Ohio to visit my son, and while driving around we listened to a little Pierre Boulez--someone I'm not that familiar with. It was fun to get home and watch the movie The French Connection (1971). The score is by Don Ellis (1934-1978) and bore a lot of resemblance to Boulez. This is the late period of modernism, soon to be swept away by minimalism. I was surprised to find that it actually sounded very old fashioned.
Music in airplanes
I brought along my iPod on a recent trip east and listened to a lot of music with the roar of the airplane in the background. I was shocked to hear grossly out of tune notes I had never heard before. Hmmm. Is this related to Glenn Gould's comment about practicing with the vacuum going?
We will not name names. Partly because we cannot remember what they were and don't have an airplane handy.
We will not name names. Partly because we cannot remember what they were and don't have an airplane handy.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Insomnia
I'm lying awake wondering about the influence of David Gockley on the recent Porgy and Bess.
First blogpost from iPhone.
First blogpost from iPhone.
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