Peter Grimes, Peter Grimes … November 6, 2007
Posted by Jeff in English, Opera, Theater.1 comment so far
One of the most popular posts on my non-blog is Dudley Moore’s witty parody of the vocal music of Benjamin Britten. Well, today we see and hear the real thing.
“And make our garden grow …” July 25, 2007
Posted by Jeff in English, Opera, Theater.add a comment
The auto-da-fe scene from the video of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, featuring Paul Groves as Candide, Kristin Chenoweth as Cunegonde, Sir Thomas Allen as Pangloss, Patti LuPone as the Old Lady, Michael McCormick as the Inquisitor and Stanford Olson as Vanderdendur, with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Marin Alsop and two choirs: the Westminster Symphonic Choir (blue shirts) and the Juilliard Undergraduate Workshop Choir (gold shirts).
“I am easily assimilated” July 21, 2007
Posted by Jeff in English, Musicals, Opera, Theater.add a comment
About a year before his death, Leonard Bernstein conducted an “all-star” version of Candide, with Jerry Hadley as Candide, June Anderson, as Cunegonde, and Adolph Green as Pangloss.
Opera of the week: Porgy and Bess January 26, 2007
Posted by Jeff in English, George Gershwin, Jazz, Music, Musicals, Opera, Theater.add a comment
This is by way of an answer to Ruth’s question about a good opera to introduce young people to the form. George Gershwin’s masterpiece is, of course, the great American opera, and arguably the best opera ever written in the English language.
Opera of the week: Eugene Onegin (in English) November 3, 2006
Posted by Jeff in English, Opera.1 comment so far
I’m not a big fan of operas translated into languages other than those the music was written for. But I admit that I’m so used to hearing great operas sung in Italian and French that I’ve grown used to the sound of the language. I’ve heard “Che gelida manina” so many times that even though I don’t speak a word of Italian, doesn’t mean you could transpose goggledygook into the text and not expect me to notice.
The best of all possible musicals? November 1, 2006
Posted by Jeff in English, Musicals, Opera, Theater.3 comments
On September 26, 1957, the biggest hit of Leonard Bernstein’s career opened on Broadway: West Side Story. Just nine months earlier, Candide had opened to a disappointing seventy-three-performance run. Who would have guessed that almost fifty years later, Candide would be performed more often in theaters and opera houses than West Side Story?
More from Candide September 3, 2006
Posted by Jeff in English, Musicals, Opera, Theater.add a comment
More from Candide September 3, 2006
Posted by Jeff in English, Musicals, Opera, Theater.comments closed
The best of all possible musicals? August 20, 2006
Posted by Jeff in English, Musicals, Opera, Theater.add a comment
“When I go out of door” August 2, 2006
Posted by Jeff in Dance, English, Opera, Theater.add a comment
From Gilbert & Sullivan’s Patience, staged by Opera Australia. Reginald Bunthorne, an aesthetic poet (Dennis Olson) has threatened Archibald Grosvenor, an idyllic poet (Anthony Warlow) with an evil curse unless he agrees to become a commonplace young man, so that Bunthorne can regain the eye of the local maidens. Of course, it all falls apart on Bunthorne, as the young ladies become commonplace to follow Grosvenor …
Subscribe to the non-blog by Email (courtesy Feedburner)
This is not my blog. 