oboeinsight

The opera was slower tonight. I’m not sure why, but I really hope it’s not because someone read a review saying some parts were too fast (but the same review also said some parts were too slow). Not only were the quicker tempi works slower in some spots, but there were a few slower parts that were even slower tonight. Maybe people were just in a sluggish place.

I’m exhausted. Slower makes it much more difficult.

Still, I always love Mozart. Always will.

After waking up this morning I decided to sit in bed and see if I could finish A Thousand Splendid Suns (i didn’t … I’m not a speed reader these days). I never read a book in the morning; I usually get up, make my latté, check email, and eventually get my breakfast (when I remember). But I’m at the end of the book, and I really want to know how it ends! I was wearing my computer/reading glasses. (They are also my music glasses and, in fact, that’s what I originally got them for; they were a life saver, believe me! I can see music perfectly, the conductor is a bit of a blur, but I can see beat patterns just fine. I just can’t see the glares. ;-)

Only trouble is, now my eyes can’t focus on anything. Hmmm. I read most frequently at night, before going to sleep, so maybe this problem is always there and I just haven’t noticed it. (My dreams are always in focus.) But I feel like I’m seeing things underwater.

Ever so slowly I think my eyes are adjusting, but I have a feeling this isn’t they way things are supposed to work. I wonder.

It might just be that I slept wrong, though; years and years ago (before children, which might give you an idea of how long ago; our oldest is 25) I must have slept in such a way that altered the shape of my eyes for a short time. I have horrendous vision. It’s so bad I don’t even get out of bed without putting on my glasses. But that particular day I woke up, looked across the room, and could see the print quite clearly on the wedding sampler my mom had made us. You can’t know how startling it is to be able to see clearly after wearing glasses since 5th grade! Dan suggested I just sit there and enjoy the perfect (at least it appeared that way to me) vision. Of course it didn’t last, but it was really something to experience good vision for that brief time.

Ramble ramble … vision is gradually improving. Whew!

Then listen to the most unwanted music. Includes the predictable harp lick, accordian (WordPress says I’m misspelling that?), harmonica, clip-clops a la Grofé, a bit of tuba hip hop opera … moving to bagpipes eventually. All most of this could be lovely, I’m sure. But it isn’t.

Well, maybe you won’t want to listen. But I’ve listened to a few minutes and, yes, it’s not wanted. But in some ways it’s so unwanted I start to like it. I’m twisted that way.

Update
I’m not sure what happened; somehow the URL was switched out to something else. Hmm. I think I’m the only one who can do that, so I must have blown it somehow. It’s a mystery, though.

Anyway, it should be correct now.

Apparently we have our alternative music too:

Flutist Cory Maxfield and oboist Charlotte Bell perform the Salt Lake City premiere of “Cats in the Kitchen,” an alternative classical work by Phillip Bimstein.

I used to laugh when people would say, “I like alternative music.”

Alternative to what?

But now I see we have our own little alternative choice. This is news to me.

(Found here.)

Any subject is good for opera if the composer feels it so intently he must sing it out.

-Gian Carlo Menotti

(I coached, with wonderful help from Sara Hancock—thanks, Sara!—, some of the orchestra members who will be playing in The Consul. UCSC will be putting this opera on at the end of the quarter. Click here for info.)

UCSC … doesn’t this make you envious? I teach here!

50 Cent isn’t happy with Alicia Keyes. Now I confess I know very little about either of them, other than their names. But now I know 50 Cent doesn’t like “that classical music s—” … well, he doesn’t like it IF Keyes doesn’t like what he’s doing.

I just have to share (I’m a giving sort). So read on:

“I don’t like Alicia Keys no more though … the same reason why I said that I don’t like Oprah Winfrey,” 50 Cent toldThe Showbuzz. “I’m prejudice(d). I don’t like people who don’t like me. If you don’t like the content that I write because of my experiences; I am being who I am when I am writing it. I fall into that ‘label’ as far as you considering artists creating ‘Gangsta music,’ we fall into that.

“If she don’t like that, (then) I don’t like that classical music s— she be doing. At some point she’s playing some s— that don’t relate to me. … We listen to it and try to figure out why people actually enjoy it. I am trying to enjoy it. That statement changes my perception of Alicia Keys totally. But the magazine is standing behind it, which means they probably have a tape of her in conversation saying it. It’s just not really a bright comment anyway.”

(RTWT)

Just FYI: if you don’t like oboe, I don’t like you. So there.