I wish we could stop the clock now, so we wouldn’t have to end; but I promise, I hope, this will not be the end, but only a hiatus. We’ll be back! Sometimes, you have to lose, or almost lose, what you have to appreciate it. -Marvin Hamlisch, at the final concert scheduled for Columbus [...]
Archive of entries posted on May 2008
This Just In
Calling all New Yorkers! I just received this email from my brother (and very fine bassoonist!) Timothy Emerson: Friends: Last night’s concert was a grand success. If you missed it, how about coming tonight! Come hear some wonderful chamber music in the beautiful Grace Church Chantry at Broadway and 10th Street! The show starts at [...]
C’mon Man, Make Up Your Mind!
I had blogged earlier about the “English horn player for Obama” (trying, as well, to give equal video time to other candidates). Well GUESS WHAT?!! The guy has changed his mind! I mean … really now … can’t he be consistent and stay with one thing? Geesh. Changes. Sigh. I’m not good with changes. (I [...]
Wondering
From Britain’s Got Talent: Classical music babes Escala, from London, won the public vote with a dramatic rendition of the James Bond theme Live And Let Die. (Read here) So my question: what makes them “classical”? I’m not saying they aren’t good (I didn’t listen to the whole thing). I will say they are sexy, [...]
Kudos to Caroline & Rebecca!
The sad news is I missed a triple play because I couldn’t see the Giants game BUT … I was at the SCU concert and Caroline and Rebecca did a fabulous job. Bravi tutti! :-) Congratulations on your upcoming graduation, Rebecca, and I hope you enjoy grad school and find a place for oboing!
Some Things Are So Baaaaaa-aaa-d
They are … um … good? Let me first apologize. Really.
Know Any Insects?
Read online: The tuba is the tree, the pair of cellos are the giraffe, the insects are the oboe, and the humans are silence. I can see how a tuba might play something that represents a tree, and the celli can be a giraffe, but c’mon now … they are hiring insects to be an [...]
Gian Carlo Menotti
Below is a lovely video of the composer of The Consul. You won’t hear selections from The Consul, but you will hear and see some of his popular Amahl and the Night Visitors.
The Consul
This isn’t the cast I saw and heard last night (there are two casts), but this clip is from last quarter’s concert, where they featured a portion of The Consul. It’s a beautiful section, and includes some playing by my oboe student, Becky Harris. (Lovely job!) Sadly it cuts off rather suddenly. Ah well. Maybe [...]
Long Day … Wonderful Performance!
I’m home from a very long day at UCSC. It began when I arrived to deal with a parking permit issue (I had the wrong license plate number on my latest purchased permit—yes, we do have to pay for parking!) at 8:45 AM. This means I left home at 8:00. I think we pulled into [...]
Happy Belated Birthday, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
(Born yesterday, 1925)
Gore Opera?
So I just read that “An Inconvenenient Truth” will be turned into an opera. At La Scala. I wonder if they’ll allow instruments made out of endangered species trees to be played. (My oboes are so old I think it’s okay … don’t you?) Hmmm. Looking at the endangered species list I’m not finding “my” [...]
Opera Kids!
Elementary school kids are singing an opera. And why not? Read about it here. I really like this idea. Kids and singing … sounds great to me. My brother and I used to sing “opera” as we made our mud pies and worked on a fort on the side of our house. I remember it [...]
Opening Night
Well, mine have never looked quite like this. But then this was in 1933, so there you go.
MQOD
You come in from Snodgrass, Iowa – I came from Tulsa, via Phoenix and Charlotte, N.C. – and San Francisco is a huge change from those cities. You get here, and there’s nobody stroking you and making sure that you’re going to be OK. They don’t have time. And of course, the bar is higher. [...]