COMMUNAL AFFAIRS

Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to one of the most exquisitely composed operas ever written, Mr. Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly.  I believe it was this very opera that was my first exposure to that curious world, and my memory is that it was while I was in grammar school and involved a field trip downtown, most likely to the Ambassador Auditorium I should think – might have even been the Wilshire Ebell – the memory is very vague except for having been there and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the entire opera but excerpts for the young audience.  I don’t think it would have been in junior high school because I don’t ever recall taking a field trip in junior high.  And perhaps because of the vague memory, Madame Butterfly was the first standard repertoire opera I ever purchased on LP, in 1974.  Prior to that, my only opera purchases were Robert Ward’s The Crucible and Jack Beeson’s one-act opera of William Saroyan’s Hello, Out There, and both were purchased because I knew the plays.  The version I purchased in 1974 was a new recording by Herbert von Karajan, starring Mirella Freni, Luciano Pavarotti, and Crista Ludwig.  I enjoyed it very much.  Then, in the CD era, very early on, I bought the first CD release of it, but was surprised at how ordinary the sound itself was – unpleasant and nothing like I remembered from the LP set.  But it led me to all the other Puccini operas and I mostly loved them all, buying whatever version happened to catch my eye.  I haven’t revisited that original CD box set since then, not once.  So, the only other time I’ve heard Madame Butterfly was the amazing-sounding RCA Living Stereo SACD release of the Leontyne Price version with Leinsdorf conducting.  That original three-channel sound blew me away – couldn’t believe it, really.  But as much as I like Leontyne Price, I kept remembering Freni.  And so, a few years ago, Decca began remastering these classic recordings for the third time, issuing them in really incredible packaging (no jewel cases – more like a small book with pockets for the CDs), mastered as they always should have been – to match that warm analogue sound of the original tapes – and these new masterings include a Blu-ray Audio disc, too.  That’s how I’ve been hearing the marvelous Richard Strauss operas and a few others, and it’s been wonderful.  So, I snagged a used copy of the Madame Butterfly one and the minute I put it on I knew it was perfection.  Everything about it – the conductor, the band (the Vienna Philharmonic) and the incredible cast – was perfection and most of all the sound was absolutely incredible – stunning, really.  And I haven’t even played the Blu-ray Audio disc, which I’m sure sounds even better.  I’ve heard other Butterflys over the years with incredible singers, but no other Butterfly gets to me like Freni – don’t know why, other than she not only sings it brilliantly, but she ACTS it brilliantly.  Oh, and then there’s the music, that gorgeous, luscious, radiant, ravishing, thrilling music, every note of it.  If you love this opera and have never heard this recording, it comes highly recommended by the likes of me, but only in this new version.

Yesterday was a perfectly okay day.  I got nine hours of sleep, answered e-mails, picked up some packages, came home, pre-heated the oven then heated up the last of the Regina pizzas, the plain cheese version.  That was ready ten minutes later and I enjoyed it.  I do love their pizza, but they do get minus points because they simply don’t use enough sauce – it’s mostly cheeses and, for me, pizza is made by the sauce.  It’s there, but really not much at all.  Dino’s takes the sauce prize in LA – but there are a few other jernts around here that do well, and I still have to try a few that are on my to try list, which I call my to try list.

After that, I did some work on project two, slowly mushing forth, and I’m now determined to finish it by next Friday or thereabouts.  I heard a new orchestration for project one, which was superb, and I just had to make one little chord adjustment and that one’s set.  That’s six of the ten orchestrations done and I’m hoping he can finish the other four in the next few days.

After that, I did a bit more work on project two, shaved, showered, and then sat on my couch like so much fish and watched act one of the LA Opera production of Walter Braunfels’ The Birds, which I enjoyed very much, although I’m not a fan of the director – Darko Tresnjak – who, for me, is a bit of the Emperor’s New Clothes.  He did Gentleman’s Guide to Murder, which I enjoyed but didn’t think was all that cleverly directed, and he did Anastasia, the Broadway version, which I saw a video of and hated.  As with these types, he tries to meld Broadway and opera.  I found the set not so interesting, nice costumes, decent cast, but his staging is just nothing that that’s interesting, at least for me.  I’ll finish it up after the Kritzerland show tonight.

Then I watched the Group Rep holiday playlets.  It was fine – but if they’re going to keep this up, they need to have a seminar with potential directors, because just putting a camera in arbitrary places, running the playlet in its entirety, and them moving the cameras to more arbitrary places is not directing for the camera, and a knowledge of film language, no matter how rudimentary, is really necessary.  It was definitely a step up from their other virtual things, however, so that’s good.  I’m happy with our playlet by Doug – it looked fine, sounded fine, and Marshall Harvey did a great job of editing it.  And the little music cues I wrote seemed to work fine.  The cast, led by Hartley Powers, did a great job of it.

Afterwards, there was a Zoom party, which I attended for a short time.  The rest you know.

Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, but mostly I’ll relax until it’s time for the Kritzerland show – our annual holiday show, show number 111.  We do hope you’ll join us as it airs rather than after the fact – we just love having everyone there while it’s happening so you can leave your comments, which makes it a very communal affair and one simply cannot have enough communal affairs, can one?  Especially during a pandemic.  Here are the direct links to the Facebook and YouTube Live pages.

Aren’t those lovely links?  I think we can have communal affairs on those links, and I think those affairs on those links can be torrid, and they we can call them hot links.  We don’t allow groaning here on haineshisway.com.  After our show, I’m thinking about pasta from somewhere fun.  And then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.

Next week is hopefully finishing up project two, shipping out the last two releases, which we got a couple of days ago, and deciding whether we’ll have two more releases this year.  And then we head into the real holiday weeks.

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, relax, do our Kritzerland show, eat, then watch, listen, and relax.  Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them.  So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping you’ll all show up to watch our show live so we can have that communal affair.