Jay Hunter Morris as Siegfried against the paper-mache dragon Dear friends and readers, We saw the re-play last night. We enjoyed it: I only feel asleep briefly during one of the interminable conversations setting forth what happened before the opera opened (why then have two previous? because, Jim told me, this was written before the [...]
Archive for the ‘Musical’ Category
Siegfried: the HD version with Jay Hunter Morris as eager boy who knows no fear
Posted in 20th century culture, Film adaptations, Met HDOperas, modern art, Movies, Music, Musical, opera, political novels/films, politics, Theater, tagged Bryn Terfel, Deborah Voigt, HD opera, Jay Hunter, Siegfried, the Met, Wagner on May 17, 2012 | 5 Comments »
The Met HD Wagner’s Gotterdammerung
Posted in 19th century novels, 20th century culture, Met HDOperas, Movies, museums, Musical, novels of sensibility, opera, Theater, tagged gotterdammerung, HD Met opera, Wagner on February 12, 2012 | 7 Comments »
Brunnhilde (Deborah Voight) and Siegfried (Jay Hunter Morris) Dear friends and readers, Well, we saw this opera yesterday — all 5 hours and 50 minutes of it. Some of that was intermission — 2 of about 25 minutes each. A few scattered thoughts and notes: I just was overwhelmed — totally won over — when [...]
An historically faithful (!) Don Giovanni on HD at the movies
Posted in 18th century, Costume drama, film studies, later 17th century, Met HDOperas, mozart, Music, Musical, opera, painting, Theater, Uncategorized, tagged HD opera on October 30, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Don Giovanni brooding (Mariusz Kwiecien) I must say that I have seen nobody on stage who has been a more interesting Character than that compound of Cruelty & Lust — Jane Austen, on a pantomime-burlesque, Don Juan, or the Libertine Destroyed, adapted from Thomas Shadwell’s Libertine, 15 Sept 1813 Dear friends and readers, I am [...]
Capital Fringe Festival: Gallantry; The Many Women of Troy; Seven Sopranos
Posted in 20th century culture, Music, Musical, opera, Plays, politics, satire, Theater, women's art, tagged Capital Fringe, Gallantry, Many Women of Troy, Seven Sopranos on July 15, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Dr Gregg (James Rogers) in Gallantry: A Soap Opera Dear friends and readers, Since I wrote about Pandora at Studio, we’ve been to three Capital Fringe events. All well done. Each time finding ourselves in a world of intelligent modern people with good taste, all ages, black and white, coming together to enjoy absorbing forms [...]
Curious Women and Misunderstood Men at Wolf Trap
Posted in 18th century, feminism, mozart, Music, Musical, opera, Plays, Theater, tagged goldoni, wolf trap on June 18, 2011 | 3 Comments »
The curious women: Marcy Stonikas as Rosaura, Florindo’s girlfriend; Ashlyn Rust as Eleonora, Lelio’s wife; Lindsay Ammann as Beatrice, Ottavio’s wife Dear friends and readers, Tonight was our first of four nights at Wolf Trap this summer. We brought a picnic supper from Whole Foods, a bottle of Riesling white wine and ate out on [...]
Verdi’s Don Carlos at the Met: reactionary cruelties exposed (Das Rheingold & Boris Godunov in comments section)
Posted in Costume drama, Met HDOperas, Musical, opera, politics, Theater, tagged HD opera, Pushkin, Schiller, verdi, Wagner on December 12, 2010 | 8 Comments »
Elisabetta (Marina Poplavskaya) and Don Carlos (Roberto Alagna) Dear friends and readers, I thought I’d write a new kind of blog on Verdi’s Don Carlos as performed at the Metropolitan Opera, NYC, and screened on HD screens around the world. I want to tell others how moving I at least found it — the actor-singers [...]
The Beatles Tune, “When I’m 64 pleasantly ringing in my ears …”
Posted in Austen, Autobiographical, Musical, tagged Fanny Price, Isle of Wight on November 29, 2010 | 6 Comments »
The Isle of Wight, Alum Bay, UK Dear friends and readers, My 64th birthday! Who’d have thunk it? I never thought to last this long and really it’s an accomplishment. Millions have died much much younger. It takes nerve. And since yesterday (a couple of days now) I’ve had the Beatles’s famous jaunty tune , [...]
A quietly jeering noir musical: riordan & helicopter’s improbable frequency
Posted in 20th century culture, Musical, Plays, tagged improbable frequencies, Irish theatre, mrs thatcher, nanna ingvarsson on October 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Improbable Frequency Dear friends and readers, Tonight Jim, Izzy and I drove to a nearly empty snazzy-looking (all glass and very prettily shaped and decorated within) building where we and about 30 other people waited half an hour to be escorted up to a higher floor to watch a performance of arthur riordan and bell [...]
Summer Music — & tiny kittens amid the Pemberley splendor of the Castleton grounds
Posted in 20th century culture, cats, Music, Musical, Plays, Poetry, Theater, tagged Capitol Fringe, castleton, il trittico, lonny smith, maris wicker, master pedro's puppet show, opera. lorin maazel, padrevia, puccini on July 26, 2010 | 3 Comments »
One of the puppets: the muslim abductor of Melisendra (also represented a puppet, a lovely romance lady in a medieval-like pink dress), from Master Pedro’s Puppet Show (at Castleton festival) Lonny Smith, Maris Wicker, Love Noir: the music of Lenny, Kurt and Harold (cabaret at Capitol Fringe) Dear friends and readers, I’ve got five summer [...]
Capital Fringe Festival: ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore & Medea
Posted in feminism, Musical, Plays, Seasonal, Theater, women's poetry, women's art, tagged Capitol Fringe, Greek tragedy, Jacobean tragedy, lysistrata, Medea on July 21, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Medea (Melissa Fenton), Euripides’s Medea, Englished Annabella (Jessica Shearer Wilson), ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore Dear Friends and Readers, We know it’s summer. Weeks of 90 plus degree heat, many days “feeling like” over 100 (because of high humidity), a glaring sun that burns my skin if I am so foolish as to get into [...]
