a southern gal in the north

A Tribute to Régine Crespin
Monday 3:00 pm ET

The opera world mourns the recent death of the great French soprano Régine Crespin, who imbued her uniquely beautiful performances with her magnificent tone, incomparable style, and subtle interpretations. Join us on Metropolitan Opera Radio as we celebrate her life and career this week with a February 1979 performance of Jules Massenet’s opera Werther, in which Ms. Crespin portrays Charlotte, one of her most noted French roles.

Sirius Broadcast of WERTHER
Broadcast of 2/3/1979-Bonynge; Kraus, Crespin, Carlson, Battle

Rebroadcast: Wed,, July 18th @ 9 am ET & Sat., July 21st @ 9 pm ET

Bee Fields Shawl by Anne Hanson
shown here in Wooly Wonka Fibers custom-dyed laceweight merino, colorway,
Tupelo Gold. kit available starting sunday, july 15

You know you want one too!

After my trip to Scotland (see here ) I have been inspired to create a shawl based on the Thistle of which I saw many on our hardiest birding excursion to Handa Island.

On the far left is “botanical” drawing from Wikipedia; on the right is my photo from Handa Island.

“The common name Cotton thistle derives from the cotton-like hairs on the leaves; the name Scotch thistle comes from a legend that the plant's thorny thickets helped protect Scotland from the Vikings. Oral folklore holds that as Vikings attempted to sneak up at night to attack and raid Scottish villages, they were stuck by the thistles' thorns and cried out in pain, alerting the townsfolk to the attack and allowing them to fight back and drive back the invaders. Following this the Thistle was adopted as the floral emblem of Scotland.”

from Wikipedia

So last night at our first weekly knitting (more later) I started to swatch (but first made a mess of one ball) and finished later (watching NIGHT SHIFT – a new spinoff of General Hospital – now don’t judge me!)

Thistle Lace swatch on size 4 with Elann Baby Cashmere color 1575
Based on the pattern in Scotch Thistle Lace Stole by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer

You are seeing two repetitions of the pattern – see the two flowers on either side on their long stems. I want a shawl and not a stole and so have compressed the pattern to a smaller motif for repeating.  

I checked on Elann and of course this color is not available and I only have about 6 balls of it so I rooted in the stash and found this

Elann Peruvian Pure Alpaca in a gorgeous purple  (#1742). and I have 30 balls !

So I will reswatch and see how it is – I think I will like it though – because I want a little thicker, heavier shawl than the cashmere anyway.  more to come.

At the Proms that is. 

230 pm EDT; 730 pm London 

Listen Online at BBC Radio 3

Listen Again for seven days at Radio 3

First Night programme:

Walton  Overture ‘Portsmouth Point’ (6 mins)
Elgar  Concerto for Cello in E minor (28 mins)
Interval
Beethoven  Symphony No.9 in D minor, ‘Choral’ (70 mins)

Paul Watkins cello
Maria Haan soprano
Patricia Bardon mezzo-soprano
Paul Groves tenor
René Pape bass
Philharmonia Chorus
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Jirí Belohlávek conductor

Proms Guide
Below are links to more information than you ever wanted to know but need to enjoy this year’s Proms.

The official Site  BBC PROMS

From Jessica Duchen: 

“… a substantial piece about the forthcoming programme without grumbling about the Royal Albert Hall’s acoustics, sightlines or temperature, and trying very hard to be enthusiastic since there is some great stuff to be heard. The Independent is running daily ‘Promcasts’, previewing every concert.”

The Times Special Section

Times Picks (my highlights)  –
The Prom Most LIkely To…

. . . BE SHEER MURDER

The bloody deeds of Macbeth and wife, turned into opera by Verdi, are part of a Shakespearean theme running through the season. With the stunning Vladimir Jurowski conducting Glyndebourne forces it should be an impassioned night (July 24).

You might also try Richard Strauss’s take on Macbeth, done as an orchestral tone-poem, is played by the Hallé (July 27). Another operatic figure behaving badly, in Bar-tók’s sizzling psychodrama Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, arrives at the Proms on Aug 20.

. . . INDUCE CONTEMPLATION OF THINGS ETERNAL

Bach’s cantatas are sublime expressions of faith, and these days the heartland of Bach performance is . . . Japan! That may be your impression, anyway, after hearing Masa-aki Suzuki’s Bach Collegium Japan perform three cantatas and a short Bach mass (Aug 7, late night).

You might also try Götter-dämmerung is pretty eternal too. But aching calves or numb bums will surely be forgotten when Christine Brewer and John Tomlinson are in full cry (Aug 12).

. . . RAVISH EAR AND EYE

From cleaner to diva, Anna Netrebko has soared into the top rank of operatic stars, and it is pointless to pretend that her catwalk looks haven’t played a part. But the Russian delivers the vocal and dramatic goods too, as the Last Night audience will discover when she sings the sleepwalking scene from Bellini’s La sonnambula Sep 8).

You might also try No less gorgeous, the American diva Renée Fleming sings Berg and Korngold (Aug 6); while Debo-rah Voigt, another great American soprano, will doubtless chew all available scenery in the last scene of Strauss’s bloodcrazed Salome (Sept 1).

Simon Callow remembers
Kenyon’s final season
 

‘You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.’   – Atticus Finch  (To Kill A Mockingbird)

My heart grieves for Mr. Hadley and his close friends and family.  A horrific tragedy.  It is heartbreaking that he was in such despair.

 Current News

From the New York Times
July 11, 2007
A Senator’s Moral High Ground Gets a Little Shaky
By ADAM NOSSITER
NEW ORLEANS, July 10 — From the beginning of his political career 16 years ago, Senator David Vitter has been known for efforts to plant himself on the moral high ground, challenging the ethics of other Louisiana politicians, decrying same-sex marriage and depicting himself as a clean-as-a-whistle champion of family values.

“I’m a conservative who opposes radically redefining marriage, the most important social institution in human history,” Mr. Vitter, a 46-year-old Republican, wrote in a letter last year to The Times-Picayune, the New Orleans daily.

That self-created image, a political winner here since 1991, when Mr. Vitter joined the Louisiana House, took a tumble Monday with the disclosure that his phone number was among those on a list of client numbers kept by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called D.C. Madam, who is accused of running a prostitution ring in Washington.

Mr. Vitter admitted Monday night to a “very serious sin in my past,” and talk radio and coffee shops here buzzed all day Tuesday with the front-page news, even as the senator remained out of sight. But the fallout was far bigger than local: his admission is also a blow to the presidential campaign of Rudolph W. Giuliani, for whom he is Southern campaign chairman.

Mr. Vitter, an uncompromising foe of abortion, same-sex marriage and the immigration compromise that died in the Senate in June, was supposed to be Mr. Giuliani’s ambassador to a region with large numbers of social conservatives suspicious of the candidate’s moderate views. His viability in that role is now in doubt with his acknowledgment that his number was already in the phone records of Pamela Martin & Associates before he ran for the Senate in 2004.

The woman at the head of the company, Ms. Palfrey, contends that it was a legitimate escort service before being shut down last year. Federal prosecutors say it was a prostitution ring, and a State Department official, Randall L. Tobias, resigned in April with the disclosure that he had been a client.

more here

Ravelry isn't ready yet! We've got a little group of guinea pigs who have been helping us out.

Wow. *So many* people volunteered to be beta testers. We are going down the list and inviting more people every day, but we just aren't ready for all of you (we really wish we were).

 

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Jerry Hadley as Jay Gatsby and Dawn Upshaw as Daisy Buchanan in the Metropolitan Opera production of “The Great Gatsby” in 2002.

July 11, 2007
Operatic Tenor Is Brain Damaged
By DANIEL J. WAKIN

Jerry Hadley, a major American operatic tenor whose career had waned in recent years, apparently shot himself in the head with an air rifle at his home in upstate New York early Tuesday morning and was seriously injured, the police have said.

Mr. Hadley, 55, suffered brain damage and is on life support, State Police Sgt. Gerry Salmon said today. Mr. Hadley was wounded inside his house in Clinton Corners, near Poughkeepsie, Sergeant Salmon said, adding that the case was being investigated as an attempted suicide.

Mr. Hadley was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, Sergeant Salmon said. “The CAT scan and other X-rays they took at the time show some pretty severe brain injury,” the sergeant added. “They do not expect him to recover.”

Mr. Hadley appeared to be having difficulties in the last few years. In May 2006, he was arrested on drunken-driving charges while sitting in a parked car on Riverside Drive in Manhattan, but prosecutors later dropped the case.

In recent months, he had been talking about reviving his career with a move into character roles, according to Neil Funkhouser, an artists’ manager.

“He always seemed to me to be one of the most upbeat, positive people that I knew,” Mr. Funkhouser said. “This comes as a total shock to me. There was nothing that would indicate to me that something like this would happen.”

Others, however, said Mr. Hadley seemed to be in distress, including financial problems, according to the police.

“I know he’s been in really bad trouble,” said the composer John Harbison. “He’s been very depressed.”  

more => Operatic Tenor Is Brain Damaged – New York Times.

Friday July 13th
The First Night of the Proms
Time: 7.30pm – c9.50pm (230 pm EDT)

Broadcast on BBC TWO. Elgar’s Cello Concerto recorded for broadcast on BBC ONE.
Live on BBC Radio 3. Available as audio on demand for the following week.

Launching our celebration of Proms Firsts – premieres given at the Proms since the BBC became associated with them 80 years ago – Walton’s roistering Portsmouth Point overture (given its London premiere at the BBC’s first Proms season in 1927) is the prelude to Elgar’s timeless Cello Concerto, in the year of his 150th anniversary. Beethoven’s life-affirming ‘Choral’ Symphony was unheard last year owing to fire at the Royal Albert Hall, and so makes a historic first appearance at a First Night, as well as being heard again with contrasting forces later in the season (see Prom 62).

Walton       Overture ‘Portsmouth Point’ (6 mins)
Elgar      Concerto for Cello in E minor (28 mins)

Interval

Beethoven     Symphony No.9 in D minor, ‘Choral’ (70 mins)

Paul Watkins cello
Maria Haan soprano
Patricia Bardon mezzo-soprano
Paul Groves tenor
René Pape bass
Philharmonia Chorus
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Jir(í Be(lohlávek conductor