It would be nice if the Met Live in HD Broadcasts which are offered here in
Canada through the Silver City theatres were a little more adventurous as to
offer operas by Berg and other. They did offer some rather exciting fare in
past years but this year have reverted to almost exclusively 19th century
Italian. Britten's work was presented as we Berlioz' Faust and also Dr.
Atomic. Although the home stage is offering Berg's Lulu, Richard Strauss's
Elektra, etc., the screen is graced with the more mainstream Der
Rosenkavalier.
John Herbert Cunningham
Host, Speaking of Poets, Sundays 4:30-5:00 p.m. on CKUW 95.9 FM, the
University of Winnipeg's community radio station.
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Ken Wolman
Sent: October-16-09 3:10 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: moron tries to brighten up romantic poetry
Mark Weiss wrote:
> Reminded me of this:
>
> Years ago my mother had a subscription to the opera. She didn't care
> for much after Puccini and offered me her seat for a performance of
> Wozzeck, one of my absolute favorites, long stretches of which are
> wordless. Except that the lack of words from the stage was more than
> offset by the chatter of those around me. Seems that they interpreted
> non-singing as silence, needing to be filled.
Clatter, coughing, wheezing, sneezing, and gasping. It seems as though
every New York with an upper respiratory infection attends the opera on
Saturdays and sits close to the microphones.
I attended a performance of Poulenc's *Dialogs of the Carmelites* about
five years ago. Yes, mesmerizing. Except that during one of the softly
sung dramatic passes in the last act, some technodoofus left on his or
her cell phone. It rang rather loudly. I don't know the fate of the
miscreant. I DO hope it involved bludgeoning the fool with the offending
instrument.
And then there's what Brian Dennehy did to a theater patron about 10
years ago....
Ken
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Ken Wolman
http://awfulrowing.wordpress.com
http://opensalon.com/blog/kenneth_wolman
http://wearethecure.org/friends/cids-memory-p-394.html
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