In a word, it was wonderful (a word that the poet Richard has never used in a poem, apparently). First a word for the assistant conductor, whom I discovered when I read the Additional Credits list. It was Kensho Watanabe, one of the hosts of the Classical Gabfest podcast. Nice to see a friendly name … Continue reading The Hours After
Opera
The Hours Before
Today the Philadelphia Orchestra is unveiling the world premiere of the Kevin Puts opera The Hours, based upon the novel and movie of the same name. OK, actually the world premiere was on Friday evening, but today’s performance is the second. So there. I greatly enjoyed the Kevin Puts opera Silent Night, when the Opera Company Philadelphia … Continue reading The Hours Before
Silent Night at Opera Philadelphia
Just want to add a quick note that I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday's matinee performance of the opera Silent Night. I attended the pre-performance lecture, which was helpful, as it filled in a lot of details of the plot that I had missed when watching the movie. But it was the performance itself that really grabbed … Continue reading Silent Night at Opera Philadelphia
It’s Christmas! How About a Little Truce?
Suppose Prince Charles of the UK were assassinated while he was traveling in South Korea. Would you consider that a justification for the US going to war with, say, Japan? No? And yet in essence that's what precipitated the First World War, or The Great War, as it was called. Archduke Ferdinand of Austria … Continue reading It’s Christmas! How About a Little Truce?