Well, dear reader, I do hate to keep sounding like a broken record, but I am so loving this journey through the musical world of Franz Schreker. And it’s nice that he’s having this resurgence, at least in terms of recordings. I think by now, most of his operas have been recorded and while he didn’t write a lot of concert music, all of it has been recorded and several times. The concert music is stunning and while I’m no huge fan of operas, I just love his stuff because the scoring is so gorgeous, and his operas never overstay their welcome. I’ve now heard four of them and they’re all terrific. Even some of the operas have multiple recordings. He was so under everyone’s radar for so long, despite his enormous popularity back when these were written – with major conductors like Klemperer giving the premiere performances. His tonal world is right up my proverbial alley, I must say. And if you’ve ever been up my proverbial alley you know what that tonal world is. I don’t follow along with a libretto because, in fact, very few of these sets have one, but I do read the synopsis either in the booklet or online. The one I’m listening to now is one of his last operas, written in 1929. The premiere production was cancelled due to Schreker being a Jew and it did not see a production until 1978. It’s more modern than his others, but still very enjoyable. It’s dedicated to Arnold Schoenberg. Earlier, I heard one of his most popular operas, Der Ferne Klang – a wacky plot (he wrote all his own librettos) – but filled with haunting and gorgeous music. I’m getting a couple more, too, and am looking forward to eventually getting everything. I’m not sure if all of them have been recorded, though. I have a couple of other operas to listen to, including two by Puccini – I have most of the major Puccini operas, but these are classic performances – Le Villi and a 1947 recording of La Boheme with Bidu Sayao and Richard Tucker. And I’m hoping to have the von Karajan Hansel and Gretel soon, along with that Met production, which was supposed to be here today but is running late, which means not until Friday at the earliest. I hate when these shipping companies do this and it happens way too often. Maybe I’ll make an opera out of Benjamin Kritzer – just think of all the arias – “What is it, fish?” “Look, I made a stool” and “You killed my vife!” I’m loving this idea.
Yesterday was all right. I only got six hours of sleep, and I’ve been having terrible phlegm problems, which all stem from allergies. I haven’t had a terrible attack, but they’re hovering, oh, yes, they’re hovering. Thankfully, I got some more Claritin-D last night so I won’t run out should it persist. I also have Mucinex-D, should I need to start breaking up the damn phlegm. Once up, I had to answer e-mails and then get ready for our eleven o’clock rehearsal. I arrived at the theater soon thereafter. The actors wanted to do a line-through, so we did that, and then we ran the whole thing and whilst doing so, I planned the shots needed for each sequence, and my assistant director, Bita, noted them in her script. So, we’ll follow that template but I’m sure other things may occur to me on the shoot date. But it’s good to have the plan and I’m keeping things very simple. I didn’t want to run it a second time because I want freshness and spontaneity. On the shoot date, we’ll run each sequence once so we can set the shot and light, then we’ll do it – one or two takes – I don’t think we’ll ever need more than that. We have two cameras, so I can knock off the master shot (no wide masters in this ever), and one of the close-ups in one set up, then we can just shoot the other close-up. It should work smoothly, at least that’s the hope.
After that, I stopped at the mail place and picked up some packages, then came right home. I ordered a roasted garlic chicken pizza from California Pizza Kitchen and that arrived a little while later and was great. Then I spent an hour finessing the commentary for the December Kritzerland, so that’s done now. I had other things which needed my attention and I never did get around to project two because the day got away from me. I did write the blurb for the flyer for the December show, so I should have that sometime soon. Then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a new UK Blu and Ray of a Japanese motion picture entitled Mothra, a story about Mothra. I’ve seen it only a couple of time, including when it came out and it’s fun in that kaiju way. There are several well-known Japanese actors in it, so that’s fun. And the Mothra itself is quite nice to look at. I watched the original Japanese version and spot-checked the English dub, which I think is slightly shorter, but with no American-shot scenes like Godzilla had. The good news is the transfer is quite nice – some of the transfers in the Criterion Godzilla set are right on the edge of being terrible, but Toho did the right thing on Mothra – some of the kaiju films, I must say, are right up my proverbial alley. Perhaps we need an opera of Mothra – I’m sure two female opera divas would kill to play the Peanuts.
After that, I spent some time doing fixes for another chart, got that just right, and sent it off to Richard Allen, who now has four of the ten songs of project one. And then, it was back to Schreker, who, in case you haven’t heard, is right up my proverbial alley.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’m determined to find somewhere that will do a Thanksgiving dinner delivery, but if not, I’ll mosey on over to Gelson’s and do whatever I need to do – get some hand-carved turkey, some stuffing, cranberries, and maybe even some yams. I was hoping Marie Callender’s was doing Thanksgiving dinner, but all you get when you call is a busy signal, and the delivery places say there’s no delivery from there until Friday. I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat something light, perhaps low-cal hot dogs will be the meal o’ the day, then I’ll hopefully get another chart, do whatever fixes, and then we’ll be halfway done. I did hear a bit of Richard’s orchestration for one of them and it was wonderful. I’ll probably have to do the Gelson’s run, although I know it will be horribly crowded there, and then I’ll work on project two, then watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is, of course, Thanksgiving, and I will have some kind of turkey no matter what, even if it’s a damn turkey sandwich from somewhere. Otherwise, I’ll just have a nice day and evening relaxing. Friday, I think I have to go get tested for Covid at a CVS – that could happen on Saturday instead, I’m just waiting to hear. The weekend should be pretty free, save for going over the shoot script once, and working on project two.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, seek out turkey, hopefully pick up packages, eat, hopefully get another chart, maybe do a Gelson’s run, work on project two, then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, which is, after all, right up my proverbial alley.