People keep asking me at musical events whether I have a business card. So I created one.
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Category Archives: Uncategorized
Two Cultures – alive and well
As part of yesterday’s Koerner Hall concert yesterday there was a panel discussion between the President of the RCM, the Artistic Director of the ARC Ensemble and the Director of Koerner Hall. Unsurprisingly the President at one point made a pitch about the value of the arts in education and deprecated the cuts that have been made in that area by various governments. Fair enough. That’s his job and, anyway, I agree with him. What did raise my hackles was his contrasting the “creative” arts with “drilling” (his word) in maths and science.
As some of my readers may know, mathematics was once my field and it, and theoretical physics, remain important interests. Now it’s quite possible, likely even, that someone running a conservatory never got far enough in mathematics to experience just how deeply creative it can be but there’s no excuse for not knowing it can be. Some of the most subtle and beautiful ideas can only be understood mathematically. And here’s the irony. It’s just like music. You have to do a hell of a lot of grunt work to get to the point where you can do beautiful mathematics just as even the best musicians still have to practice and play scales. This is probably true of anything where deep skill is involved. That apparently effortless blind back of the hand pass of Richie McCaw’s comes from hours on the training field as much as from brilliance.
</rant>
Heaneygone
Saddened by the news of the death of the great Seamus Heaney, I took some time out from opera last night to listen to the man reading his translation of Beowulf. Some scholars may disparage the freedom of the translation but I love it. I own, I think, four different translations of Beowulf and the Heaney is much my favourite.
Spreading the goodness
When I learned that Sir Thomas Allen was going to be singing at the COC I decided that I really ought to try and get something organised for/by Durham alumni/ae in Toronto. Step 1 is now complete. There will be a party of 11 (so far!) at the opening night of Cosi to see Sir Tom’s Don Alfonso. We’ll see what else we can manage… For me, this will be the second time I have seen him live; the first being in 1975! Got a great price on the tickets too.
Subtitles
Pretty much all opera video recordings have sub-titles. Some, usually older, recordings just have hard coded English subs but most have selectable subs in half a dozen or so languages. They almost always include English French and German but the others seem to be pretty much a crap shoot. Does anyone, maybe who works in the business, know how they are chosen? Italian and Spanish are quite common. Usually the native language of the house in which the recording is made features and so I have recordings with Danish, Dutch, Catalan and Flemish subs though my Helsinki L’Amour de Loin lacks Finnish and there’s no Norwegian on my Oslo La Bohème. Even more oddly there’s no Italian on the La Scala Peter Grimes even though the text within the DVD is all in Italian. Asian languages are totally random though Chinese, Korean and Japanese all show up from time to time. Enquiring minds want to know.
All the Grimes that’s fit to print
It will come as no secret to regular readers that I am something of a Peter Grimes completist. Until recently this blog was probably the only place one could find detailed reviews of all the available video recordings of that great work. Now the recent La Scala production has been released on Blu-ray and I am no longer complete. Fear not though, the disk is in the mail as they say and the divine order will shortly be restored.
In other Grimes news, the Aldeburgh Festival is staging the work on the beach. The estimable Chris Gillett, Horace Adams both there and at La Scala, is blogging about it in his usual inimitable style. In some ways I really wish I could go but I know that coast. Even on a good day the wind will freeze one’s soft bits off. Definitely a challenging place to perform or even watch opera. It’s also just off the A12 and I still have the after effects of 24 stitches on my face from a rather unfortunate encounter on that highway in my youth. I shall patiently await Ben Heppner, Alan Held, Ileana Montalbetti et al at the Four Seasons Centre in the fall.
An unusual idea
My attention has been drawn to a most unusual project. A group of people are trying to write a bel canto opera based on a Sherlock Holmes fanfic. I’m not really sure what I think of the idea of fanfic, which I have avoided to date, though I must note that persons I consider almost entirely sane are quite committed to the genre.
For the curious, the details are here.
Live from Oslo
I’m just back from being in the audience for a live event that featured Stefan Herheim, in Oslo, and Atom Egoyan, in Toronto, discussing and answering questions about their respective productions of Strauss’ Salome. It was set up with a live satellite link between the two cities which worked rather well. The event also featured two rather dry academic presentations about the productions and productions of Salome in general. This bit went on for nearly an hour and a half and reminded me of why one takes notes at university. It’s because if you don’t this stuff goes in one ear and out the other.
Herheim and Egoyan
This Sunday afternoon (in Toronto) and evening (in Oslo) Brent Bambury of the CBC will interview Atom Egoyan (in Toronto) and Stefan Herheim (in Oslo) about their respective approaches to Richard Strauss’ Salome. The Egoyan version is just finishing up a run at COC (my impressions here) while Herheim’s version, previously seen in Salzburg, opens at Den Norske Opera & Ballett on Saturday. There will be live audiences in both cities connected by videolink. Details for Toronto are under the cut.
Shiny!
The latest edition of Opera Canada is out and I have an article in it. This is not exactly my first foray into print but it is the first time I’ve published anything about opera. (Previous articles have appeared in various political and business journals and the current WIP is aimed at the Journal of Oncology Practice). Anyway, my piece is a review of a semi-staged performance of Handel’s Orlando. The real reason to buy the thing though is Lydia Perović’s (She of Definitely the Opera) article on the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra.
Click on the thumbnail for my article.
operaramblings 