Classical Music, Metropolitan Opera, Opera, Washington National Opera

Excuse Me While I Kiss the Sky

Reader Bill Westfall passes along this link to a story about a new research study that reports more than one quarter of classical music fans use cannabis and 12.3 per cent of opera buffs have tried magic mushrooms.  This, I suppose, is as opposed to the 100 per cent of Grateful Dead fans who do and have. 

The finding suggests an interesting topic:  Great Composers Who Were Stoners.  Discuss.

And speaking of discussion, get on over to the new, spiffed up Composers Forum page and weigh in on Rob Deemer’s question about how important a web presence is for an active composer’s career.

Meant to mention this a couple of days ago but the WaPo has a profile of William Friedkin, director of Sorcerer, indisputedly the worst movie ever made, who is directing Duke Bluebeard’s Castle at the Washington National Opera.

I am told by a reliable source that new Met manager Peter Gelb was once punched on the grounds of Tanglewood by Michael Steinberg, who was then the Boston Symphny’s program book annotator.  Anybody got details?  Pictures?

by Jerry Bowles
Metropolitan Opera, Opera

Flash: Cio-Cio San Now Working in Times Square

Gelb.jpgIf there were ever any doubt that Peter Gelb, the new director of the Metropolitan Opera, had big plans to turn the venerable company into a glitzier, more populist experience, there isn’t any more. 

The New York Times reports this morning that the Met will simulcast the opening night “Madama Butterfly” gala on September 25 on the Panasonic jumbo screen in Times Square. Traffic will be closed between Broadway between 42nd and 45th Streets to make room for 650 cushioned seats and standing room for the performance, which will be blared to the large tin can that is Times Square on giant speakers.  Goodbye amplification purists; hello power chords.

The Met also plans to broadcast the performance on a large screen in the Lincoln Center Plaza. Tickets are free but you will need one.  You’ll also get a look at another Gelb innovation–the celebrity red carpet where news personality Daljit Dhaliwal will conduct Joan Rivers-style interviews with such well-known opera lovers as Goldie Hawn, Sean Connery, Al Roker, the formerly fat weather man from the Today show, and Tony Soprano.   

The news comes on the heels of last week’s announcement that the Met will begin broadcasting live performances into movie theaters across the United States, Canada and Europe.

Gelb calls these initiatives “building bridges to the broader public.”  Color me skeptical but (snarky tone aside) I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.  The folks in the family circle (myself included) are beginning to look a little long in the tooth.

by Jerry Bowles
Composers

Let’s Hear it for Jeff Harrington

Daniel Wolf, who hangs around these parts from time to time, has written a terrific piece about our resident tech adviser Jeff Harrington who, in addition to knowing how to do a 301 redirect, is also a composer of some talent. Daniel applauds Jeff for being the first composer to put all of his bets on the web rather than the traditional ways composers try to get their works heard.

Daniel also has some nice things to say about Jeff’s work. Check it out.

And while we’re praising Jeff, now might be a good time to thank him for all he does to keep S21 up and running as our official, if unpaid, webmaster.

by Jerry Bowles
Housekeeping

Welcome to Sequenza21 3.0

Okay, we’re back and ready to ramble.  What we have here now is a web site that looks great but you don’t want to look in the closets.  The original Sequenza21 was just a collection of static html pages, S21 2.0 was the addition of dynamic pages using Blogger software to create separate blogs for the main page, the Composers Forum, the Calendar, and the CD Reviews.

S21 3.0 is the same four blogs recreated in WordPress.  I’ll be sending out today new user names and passwords to those of you who currently have access to the old pages.  The new WP posting interface is similar and you’ll quickly figure it out.

I’ll be sprucing up the place over the next few days, moving some of the old furniture over from the old place.  Everything that was here is still here; you may just have to use the search function to find it.

Back with more later.

by Jerry Bowles
Uncategorized

On the Transmigration of Souls

22.jpgWhat we know to be not possible,
  Though time after time foretold
By wild hermits, by shaman and sybil
  Gibbering in their trances,
Or revealed to a child in some chance rhyme
  Like will and kill, comes to pass
Before we realize it:  we are surprised
  At the ease and speed of our deed
And uneasy:  It is barely three,
  Mid-afternoon, yet the blood
Of our sacrifice is already
  Dry on the grass; we are not prepared
For silence so sudden and so soon;
The day is too hot, too bright, too still,
Too ever, the dead remains too nothing.
  What shall we do till nightfall? 

From Nones by W.H. Auden

 

by Jerry Bowles
Uncategorized

About the New Look

Here’s a piece of advice.  Never say to yourself on a Saturday morning, well, I think I’m just going to completely re-do the old web site over the weekend.  Dumb idea, but this is where I am so far. 

Consider it a work in progress and pass along any suggestions you might have.  Right now, the site is still a hybrid.  The only other page in WordPress right now is the Calendar page but for some reason, I was not able to import the old posts from Blogger properly so that’s a mess.  (Notice to Jeff H. and David T., I will be needing some technical assistance in getting the CD Reviews page and, especially, the Composers Forum imported to WP.  There is a way to keep the Haloscan quotes but it’s beyond my technical range.)  

I’ve wanted to switch from Blogger to WordPress for a long time now because it’s a lot neater piece of blogging software that has a lot of features that allow us to take advantage of the new “social” folksonomy software that’s out there.  And it looks a lot more professional and is easier to manage.

Over the next few days, I’ll be sending all of you who contribute an e-mail with your new password so you can post start posting.  I hope we can get everything up and functioning right this week.

Keep your fingers crossed.

by Jerry Bowles
Signings

Naxos Dreaming

If you happen to be around my local Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Triangle (which is what the real estate developers call the area around Lincoln Center these days), around 7 pm on Monday, you’ll want to stop in and visit with José Serebrier, his wife Carole Farley, and Ned Rorem who will be signing their latest releases which just happen to be on the Naxos label.

Serebrier’s recording of Rorem’s three symphonies at the time of the composer 80th birthday garnered three GRAMMY nominations and their latest collaboration, Rorem’s  Flute Concerto (world premiere), performed by Jeffrey Khaner, principal flutist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Violin Concerto with Philippe Quint and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Serebrier, is simply outstanding.   

Farley will be on hand to sign copies of her new DVD on VAI of the fully-staged operas  La Voix Humaine  by Francis Poulenc and The Telephone  by Gian-Carlo Menotti with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by busy José.

Meanwhile in another part of the forest, Glenn Freeman writes: 

Brief report from Bratislava, Slovakia.  OgreOgress productions is completing its first orchestral recording project. The repertoire is Alan Hovahenss’s Shambala, Janabar and Talin. The performers are the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Rerastislav Stur.  The musicians and conductor are first rate and the studio of the Slovak Philharmonic along with its recording technician, staff and equipment, are at the highest level. We are excited about the planned release of this recording on high resolution Audio DVD (96kHz/24bit) in the Spring of 2007. If you want this recording, or any of our future recordings, on CD then ask Naxos to release it in this format…we’ll work out a deal with them they  cannot refuse. 

Memo to Glenn:  Probably should have gone with José Serebrier.

by Jerry Bowles
Composers

The Bi-Coastal Jefferson Friedman

Jefferson Friedman, one of our favorites among the young turks out there, has a couple of nice gigs coming up next week.  On the 13th, 15th and 16th, the Chiara Quartet will be playing his sublime String Quartet No. 2 at Miller Theater, with choreography by Brian Reeder, as part of its  New Ballet Choreographers series.

And on Thursday night, Leonard Slatkin will lead the LAPhil at the Hollywood Bowl in Friedman’s The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly.  Something called Carmina Burana fills out the program.

The fact that Friedman mentions Sequenza21 rather prominently in his bio has absolutely nothing to do with his being featured here.

Couple of new calls for scores over in the  Sequenza21 Workspace.  Don’t forget to check there every few days.

by Jerry Bowles