New blog feature

Posted on February 18, 2007 by sogalitno

A Calendar of Webcasts – the link is in the top of the sidebar.  This is something I created a few years back; it has now been revised and updated to include SIRIUS and the new BBC Radio 3 programming.  Each calendar entry is a link to the website with the current programming information.

Included are:

  • BBC Radio 3
  • Sirius Metropolitan Opera Channel
  • VOX XM Satellite Radio Channel 
    biweekly updates will be posted here as they are not posted to the website
  • Boston Symphony Orchestra Live webcasts
  • Various radio station’s weekly opera programs
  • some music talk shows

Enjoy!

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Grapes of Wrath on PHC

Posted on February 17, 2007 by sogalitno

This week on A Prairie Home Companion it’s a reunion of the “Neale Diamond Trio“, as guitarists Phil Heywood and Dan Neale sidle up next to our own Pat Donohue to compare manicures and guitar licks in a finger-picking free for all. We’re also happy to have master vocalists Prudence Johnson and Vern Sutton on board to give Garrison a few tips. We’ve also nabbed several cast members from the Minnesota Opera’s production of The Grapes of Wrath going on just down the street. Guy Noir will be working the stage door and a new case for Presidents’ Day, and sitting in with the Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band, Minnesota Jazzman Butch Thompson and the Manhattan Maestro, Andy Stein. International sound effects superstar Tom Keith joins Sue Scott and Tim Russell as the Royal Academy of Radio Acting, and of course, there’s always news from Lake Wobegon as the ice fishing gets interesting over a long holiday weekend. Join us this Saturday for the latest.

You can listen to the show at the website…Prairie Home Companion

Photos of the production here

 

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BBC R3: Notable New Programs on Sundays

Posted on February 17, 2007 by sogalitno

BBC Radio 3

Saturday Feb17 started the first week of the new program schedule for the BBC Radio 3 – here are my picks for Sunday’s schedule.  Sunday’s complete schedule

Performing Britten: Paul Bunyan – 15:00-16:00 (Radio 3)

Series focusing on the operas of Benjamin Britten. John Evans talks to singers, conductors and directors about performances and recordings with which they are closely associated, and about the problems and pleasures of performing Britten.

American director Francesca Zambello discusses the operetta Paul Bunyan, Britten’s first attempt at a stage work, written in America in the early 1940s in collaboration with WH Auden.

The Truth about Love

Derek JacobiJuliet Stevenson
Sir Derek Jacobi (reader) Juliet Stevenson (reader)

Readings include some of the great love poetry – Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress, Philip Larkin’s Arundel Tomb and Auden’s Lullaby and Oh Tell Me the Truth about Love.  Music related to the theme includes Britten’s Auden settings, Elgar’s Salut d’amour, madrigals by De Rore and Dufay and Wagner’s Prelude to Tristan and Isolde.

Next Sunday – Sophie Okonedo and Kenneth Cranham read a selection of poetry and prose around the theme of two great cities, from Samuel Johnson, Wordsworth and Verlaine to George Orwell and Fleur Adcock. The programme includes music by Gibbons, Noel Coward, Elgar, Pierre Boulez and Yves Montand.

Iain BurnsideIain Burnside

Iain Burnside presents a morning of music interspersed with intelligent comment.  This programme is on the theme of Landscapes, to coincide with the opening of a major new Renoir exhibition at the National Gallery. Guest is Alan Rusbridger, pianist and editor of The Guardian.   Music includes pieces by Messaien, Vaughan Williams, Ibert, Debussy and Haydn.

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Saturday at the Met

Posted on February 17, 2007 by sogalitno

Its a BRILLANT SUNNY windy cold day here in the Hudson River Valley – and there are THREE great operas on today!  A FABULOUS JENUFA with two divas singing their hearts out – Ms Mattila and Ms. Silja!  Not to be missed – record it, whatever you do – you HAVE to hear this SEARING portrait of love and loss and redemption!

 <img alt="Jenufa‘s Last Act” src=”http://metoperafamily.org/_post/images/207ononline/Jenufahdl22107.jpg&#8221; border=1>
When the villagers threaten Kostelnicka, Jenufa forgives her and asks that the guilty woman be given time to make her own peace with God. (Mattila, Deborah Polaski as Kostelnicka, Kim Begley as Laca)
© Beatriz Schiller 2007

130 pm The Toll Brothers–Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network
JENUFA
Music by Leos Janácek
Libretto by the composer, after a play by Gabriela Preissová

Just announced – COHOST Ira Siff

Intermission #1: Backstage Pass – Annie Bergen live Backstage with Jorma Silvasti and A taped interview with Karita Mattila and Anja Silja

Intermission #2: Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera Quiz Moderator: Marilyn Horne
Panel: Robert Marx, Christopher Purdy, Phillip Gainsley

Synopsis


Jenufa dances with Steva. (Karita Mattila, Christopher Ventris as Steva)
© Beatriz Schiller 2007

And then settle back at 6 pm with the 1956 rebroadcast of the only CALLAS taped live MET opera – Lucia di Lammermoor – Callas puts to rest all those rumours floating around all these fifty years about the decline of her voice at this point of her career – listen for a lesson in coloratura and character!  (The rest of the cast isn’t as good but hey, that’s not what you are going to listen for anyway right?)

https://i0.wp.com/img457.imageshack.us/img457/9505/gc2126pz.jpg

Sirius 6:00 PM Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor

Metropolitan Opera House
December 8, 1956 Matinee Broadcast

Lucia...................Maria Callas
Edgardo.................Giuseppe Campora
Enrico..................Enzo Sordello
Raimondo................Nicola Moscona
Normanno................James McCracken
Alisa...................Thelma Votipka
Arturo..................Paul Franke
Dance...................Zebra Nevins
Dance...................Bruce Marks

Conductor...............Fausto Cleva

Rebroadcast on Sirius Metropolitan Opera Radio

And THEN if you are still able to pay attention:

 
ERNANI .  As a friend wrote: “This is largely the same time frame as the Met DVD. Pavarotti is unusually good, and Levine is pretty crackling. “

https://i0.wp.com/www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Dec05/Verdi_Ernani_4757008.jpgSirius 9:00 PM Verdi: Ernani

Metropolitan Opera House
December 17, 1983 Matinee, Broadcast / Telecast

Ernani..................Luciano Pavarotti
Elvira..................Leona Mitchell
Don Carlo...............Sherrill Milnes
Don Ruy Gomez de Silva..Ruggero Raimondi
Giovanna................Jean Kraft
Don Riccardo............Charles Anthony
Jago....................Richard Vernon

Conductor...............James Levine

This performance was broadcast and telecast live to Europe. It was televised later in the United States.   Rebroadcast on Sirius Metropolitan Opera Radio

Posted in Met Opera, Opera, Radio, Satellite Radio | Leave a comment

A call to Arms!

Posted on February 17, 2007 by sogalitno

yarnharlot-pink

 Yarn Harlot – alias Stephanie Pearl-McPhee – has issued a call to knitters in the NYC area to attend the opening event in the media launch of her new book … salient facts here:

In any case, Jayme-the-wonder-publicist and I have come up with an idea. The new book comes out soon and since it's a book about knitting as a destination and the community of knitters that populate it, we thought that this would be an excellent time to make a point. We would like to show the media and the muggles exactly how many knitters there are, how seriously we take it, and exactly how large a demographic they are ticking of when they discount our numbers and our buying power by ignoring the things that we tell them. Essentially, I don't care if they think we are stupid. I don't care if they think Sock Clubs are stupid, and I will still sleep at night if they laugh at us. I just want them not to openly mock us and impede our attempts at commerce or community. To that end, we would like to invite you to a Really Big Book Launch. The shock the muggles night event will be March 22nd in New York City at FIT, The Fashion Institute of Technology. (They have a Knitting Laboratory.) It'll be in the Haft Auditorium, which is in the C building on 27th street just off of 7th avenue. It's really easy to get there.
It will be 6pm or later.

I'll talk of course, but that's not the point of the evening. The point of the evening is to get a whole whack of knitters into one room, then invite the media to come and see. Straighten them out on the world of possibilities, provide all of us with a moment that we can point to and say "See? Do you see what I mean?" An evening of proof. (Apparently The Knitting Olympics and Knitters Without Borders did not provide the world with this proof.) Now. The auditorium holds 750 people. This means that I could really, really be humiliated here (that's the only part I don't like. The image of me and the media in this huge auditorium while I try to explain that there really, really are a lot of knitters, I swear it.) but I don't think that that's going to be the case.

Read on here for more pithy information as to why, wherefore, etc.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Butterflies!

Posted on February 16, 2007 by sogalitno
From IONARTS:
 
Save the Butterflies!
Contributed by Mark on Wednesday, February 14, 2007 | Link to this article



Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst, The Explosion – Exalted (2006, Gagosian Gallery)
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas (84 inches in diameter)

Bad boy British artist Damien Hirst's latest exhibit of butterfly paintings, Superstition, will open simultaneously at Gagosian Gallery, in London and also in L.A. These are real butterflies; the images are incredible. He was apparently inspired by stained glass windows: poor butterflies! See more images at supertouch.


Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Come to an exhibit

Posted on February 16, 2007 by sogalitno
My Brother-in-law, John Lawson has an exhibition opening Friday Feb 16th.
And the Gallery is owned by a cousin, Michel Allen .  (We are ubiquitous we Southerners !)
Come one Come all!
 


"Local Color" Southern color photography and Alex Katz prints
Opening Reception: Friday, February 16th from 6 – 8
Exhibtion dates: February 16 – March 7, 2007
 
Allen Gallery
547 West 27th Street
5th floor, Chelsea
New York
hours: Wednesday – Saturday 11 – 5 or by appointment
Posted in Current Affairs | Leave a comment

AN, RF and ASvO

Posted on February 16, 2007 by sogalitno

Three Singers
Contributed by Charles T. Downey on Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Available at Amazon:
available at AmazonWhat Netrebko lacks in real ultra-high power singing and agile fioriture makes roles like her Violetta and Elvira less satisfying musically. However, the repertoire she sings on her new album of Russian songs and arias is much better suited to her strengths, dramatic and slow lines, hushed singing, and swells on held notes. That she is singing in her native language only makes things better for her, and in the liner notes Netrebko makes a lot out of coming home to St. Petersburg to make this recording in the Mariinsky Theater with Valery Gergiev. (It has not gone unnoticed, however, that in the middle of the recording sessions for the Russian Album, in March 2006, Netrebko applied for and received Austrian citizenship.)

[snip]

Speaking of La Fleming, it is the accepted Ionarts wisdom that she available at Amazonis better on stage, in character (as in the marvelous Capriccio I saw her in in Paris), than in her persona of “America’s favorite soprano.” In her latest CD, Homage, she pays tribute to divas past with selections from repertory they sang notably, mostly drawn from the years 1870 to 1920, not coincidentally the type of music for which Fleming’s voice is best suited. Her selection of pieces, guided by the best possible sources, is outstanding, and yet on a number of tracks, her idiosyncrasies are intolerable, at least for this listener.

[snip]

available at AmazonWhile we are discussing the recovery of obscure national repertory, it is a good time to mention that Deutsche Grammophon will re-release (on March 13) the marvelous Grieg recital disc made by mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter in 1993 (“a must for any collector,” according to Gramophone). Recorded with her frequent collaborator Bengt Forsberg, who like von Otter is Swedish, this CD is a superb survey of the Norwegian master’s songs. Grieg lived in a time shortly after Norway had finally gained independence from Denmark, and academics were arguing about how to achieve linguistic independence by rescuing what they could of the mostly vanished Norwegian language, which had been officially replaced by Danish.

ionarts.

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Futral triumphs!

Posted on February 15, 2007 by sogalitno

 

Based just on the first act which is just ending – clean singing – pitch perfect – gorgeous bel canto line and diction to dictate by… this girl’s got it!

I am not even bothering to watch the TV  tonight (you know  – the other one is singing it)

off to log on to La Cieca’s chat room.

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Chat with La Cieca tonight

Posted on February 15, 2007 by sogalitno

Southern Gal has participated in a few of these – they are always entertaining, always a lively group of opera fans appear and write amazing and interesting comments!   Try it – you may like it!

Compare and contrast the bel canto stylings of Elizabeth Futral and Anna Netrebko tonight when La Cieca hosts yet another of her live chats here on parterre.com.

The live Met/Sirius broadcast of Bellini’s I puritani featuring Futral begins at 7:30 Eastern and the taped PBS telecast with Netrebko begins at 9:00. That’s here in New York on good old Channel 13. Don’t forget to check your local listings.

Anyway, La Cieca will open up the Duelling Elviras Chat Room at 7:15 for the frenzied festivities.

La Cieca

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