Friday, January 27, 2006

Blogging

I must say I really love it here. London is such a great city. Maybe they will keep me on.

I'm not the person to review musicals. My taste is too sophisticated. It's all good, but I always want more. More, please. I would prefer Lion King as an opera. This is completely doable.

Since I have only one CD with me, I went to Piccadilly Circus to shop for records and came out with a marvelous assortment:

Susan Graham singing the Songs of Ned Rorem. I have trouble taking Ned Rorem seriously, but Susan may be just the woman for him. He's the guy that wrote the famous diary. Maybe my problem has to do with how Alice B. Toklas always wrote about him. To her he was just an annoying nobody.

The complete operas of Rachmaninov, which turns out to include Maria Guleghina, Anne Sofie von Otter, Sergei Leiferkus and Sergei Larin.

Duets and Arias with Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu. I need to see if they are as hot as they think they are.

I looked at what was available for Yvonne Kenny (Sarah, try not to get too excited), and it was all in English. I decided to pick something that actually is in English and am listening now to Make Believe, Classic Songs of Broadway. This is all songs from the Golden Age of Broadway. I'm from the golden age, too, so it's just the recording for me. Her vibrato is a tad too operatic, but her English is perfect, and emotionally she completely gets this style. I could picture this woman singing these songs, the greatest possible compliment as far as I am concerned. What is this style? American elegance, too good for Sarah Brightman, but naive and simple at the same time. I could listen to this.

I have nothing to play them on but this computer, so I went back to the office.

I almost flew to Salzburg because Cecilia is singing there, but there were no tickets and how silly do I really want to get? (Pretty silly, if the truth were told.)
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2 comments:

Paul said...

This is a somewhat sad week for me since, for seven of the past eight years, I've spent the fourth week of every January in London, attending a trade show at Earl's Court. If my business venture had gotten its start-up funding as expected, I'd be there today. It's a great city and the best place in the world to experience culture in all its myriad forms. Glad to see you're enjoying your stay (how could one not?) and good luck with the project.

Anonymous said...

Too late. Just her name on somebody else's blog (for a change)...I'm happy.