a southern gal in the north

I guess David Gockley made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, because today KDFC and the San Francisco Opera announced an agreement to broadcast pre-recorded performances from the Opera:

Iron Tongue of Midnight: Changing His Tune.

February 15, 2007
Conductor Gustavo Dudamel, 26, is the product of a revolutionary musical training system Richard Morrison

If there’s one thing sure to make a critic as prickly as a hedgehog, it’s a record company proclaiming that a boy who’s hardly old enough to shave is the biggest thing to hit music since Beethoven. So you can imagine the reaction two years ago when high-and-mighty Deutsche Grammophon announced an exclusive contract with a 24-year-old conductor most critics had never heard of, let alone heard. What’s more, he came from Venezuela! “Here we go again,” was the general groan. “Another photogenic glamour-boy flogged to undiscerning punters, then cynically dumped.”

read the rest here

From NY Opera Fanatic comes this welcome news:

if you missed the Lyric Opera Of Chicago’s live broadcasts this season like I did, then you’re not very practical either. So there. Fortunately for the both of us, WFMT will re-broadcast the performances at their website beginning in May.

one hitch though, see below from WFMT

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Join today! Members of the WFMT Fine Arts Circle can subscribe to the 98.7WFMT Internet streaming service for only $60 for one year, 40% off non-member rates.

A knitter whom I respect admire and adore her designs has had a tragedy = the sudden death of her brother. 

Please send your prayers to Anne at KNITSPOT.  The family is asking for those so inclined to send donations to the following :

“send a contribution to the charity fund of St. Madeleine Sophie Church, 3500 Carman Road, Schenectady, NY 12303 or Christ Guild Society, c/o St. Madeleine Sophie Church.”

So from two weeks ago making a call to my former teacher to last night playing in the biweekly performance class – my head is spinning!   More on the events of the last two weeks at my music blog (see sidebar)

Tomorrow is DIE MEISTERSINGER.  Six GLORIOUS hours of Wagner with Levine at the helm and Morris essaying his glorious rendition of Hans Sachs … if I were Eva I would have a VERY hard time choosing between Walter and Sachs!

More performing arts events this week:

Sunday – the very last performance of THE VERTICAL HOUR.

Wednesday – JOURNEY”S END and then dinner after with Boyd Gaines (a friend of the family)

Thursday – the Prima of DIE AGYPTISCHE HELENA

(can you tell a generous relative is in town?)

Rostropovich Moves From Hospital to Sanatorium
By Matthew Westphal
March 7, 2007

The cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich has been released from a Moscow hospital and is now in a suburban sanatorium, where he is setting up a “portable office,” according to Russian news reports.

Natalia Dollezhal, the maestro’s Moscow spokesperson, told the Itar-Tass news agency that the great cellist and conductor is “recovering his strength in a sanatorium in Barvikha [outside the capital] and he feels well.”

She acknowledged for the first time that Rostropovich had surgery while in the hospital: “He underwent a complex operation on the liver, and now [doctors] have prescribed therapeutic exercise and walks in the fresh air.” (Though Dollezhal did not say so explicitly, the agency NEWSru reports that doctors removed a tumor.) The spokesperson also confirmed that the maestro’s wife, retired soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, has taken up residence alongside the maestro

Playbill

the scoop on various things:

1. visiting relative in town (of the mother species) is great but means lots of scheduled activities.  No complaints as this also means attending lovely concerts and nice restaurants (a treat for this money challenged time). 
2. getting used to the car and learning where things are to drive to… such as K-MART (big trip monday with the mom to stock up for her apt and i netted some great plastic bins to reorganize my food stuffs so those stupid pesky meal moths won’t ever infest again! and i can see what i have etc)  We drove into the city (as in NYC) on Sunday and parked at a garage i was not that happy with but when we checked out the $30 bill was reduced to $17 because we had gone to an event at Carnegie Hall – I will definitely be using that parking garage again – in fact tomorrow.
3. had a lot of fun (yeah! right!) shoveling snow off the car last Monday in the last snow storm of February and then shoveling a spot for my car and then shoveling the sidewalk etc. but I got a good spot right opposite the house for a few days and so it was worth it.
4. you know its actually really great to have a car and be able to run errands – on Saturday, for example, was able to stock up on my daily tea and get the size needles i need and get nice ham all in the same little village (up the road in case you are wondering) and I even found a parking spot on the main street too!
5. 

the scoop on various things:

1. visiting relative in town (of the mother species) is great but means lots of scheduled activities.  No complaints as this also means attending lovely concerts and nice restaurants (a treat for this money challenged time). 
2. Knitting is progressing on the Aran sweater – the back is ALMOST done – sorry no photos tonight too tired.  and the cold frigid  weather has just come back to give us a VERY WINDY MARCH beginning – its about 20 degrees right now with a wind chill of minus something so i might be able to actually wear it before the season ends.
3. although… new knitting is happening – a lace project of some kind for a family member so it has to stay under wraps for now. all will be revealed soon (as the event is nigh upon us)
4. getting used to the car and learning where things are to drive to… such as K-MART (big trip today with the mom to stock up for her apt and i netted some great plastic bins to reorganize my food stuffs so those stupid pesky meal moths won’t ever infest again! and i can see what i have etc)  We drove into the city (as in NYC) on Sunday and parked at a garage i was not that happy with but when we checked out the $30 bill was reduced to $17 because we had gone to an event at Carnegie Hall – I will definitely be using that parking garage again – in fact tomorrow.
5. had a lot of fun (yeah! right!) shoveling snow off the car last Monday in the last snow storm of February and then shoveling a spot for my car and then shoveling the sidewalk etc. but I got a good spot right opposite the house for a few days and so it was worth it.
6. you know its actually really great to have a car and be able to run errands – on Saturday, for example, was able to stock up on my daily tea and get the size needles i need and get nice ham all in the same little village (up the road in case you are wondering) and I even found a parking spot on the main street too!
7. ordered the new lace style book with that Katharine Hepburn cardigan in it – have been drooling over it since January one showed it last week and i have a few dollars left from Christmas gift money – so … waiting anxiously on that.
8. KNITTING CAMP Applications are on line on TUESDAY MARCH 6^th….. (and since I am nicely reminding you, please leave me a space too!)