Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much tired fish, having only gotten four hours of sleep, if that, listening to a marvelous whatever it is – Street Scene by Mr. Kurt Weill and Langston Hughes. I’d just listened to the cast album from 1947 the other night and loved it – and the mono sound was surprisingly vivid and excellent – and it made me want to hear the full version, which I have on the Decca CD conducted by John Mauceri. But which of the many boxes would it be in – so frustrating, but I lucked out and it and a bunch of other operas were in the first box I opened – all the Puccini operas, Street Scene, a couple of the Korngold operas (but not all), Herrmann’s Wuthering Heights, Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, Copland’s The Tender Land, Joplin’s Treemonisha, and a few others. I have to say, Street Scene is a wonderful piece – filled with amazing music by Weill – several of its songs are breathtakingly beautiful, and it’s also jazzy and bluesy at times. Mauceri clearly loves the score and the band is very good, as are the singers, but these kinds of recordings need either a producer who understands how to direct, or a conductor who does – neither person here has a clew and so the scenes are a little excruciating to listen to in terms of the shmacting that’s going in. Once they sing, it’s fine, and you can’t skip the dialogue stuff because there’s some incredible underscore. I wonder when the last time this was done in this country? There are two DVDs of the full show, one from Madrid and one from Germany, so I’d like to see one of those just to get a sense of how it plays on stage. As to this recording, it’s just odd at times – the beginning fifteen or twenty minutes are weirdly balanced – you can barely hear the dialogue and the band sounds like it’s FAR away – but after that the engineer seems to have made some adjustments and things are better. One wonders how it was recorded, in terms of how much mixing was involved and how many tracks were used – I wonder if it could be helped by remixing or even just remastering. Who knows? But I just love the music large and I’m enjoying it a lot. In fact, I’m moon-faced and starry-eyed. I also listened to another two CDs in the Decca Entartete series – Berthold Goldschmidt is the composer, and I like his music very much. Like most in this series, he, too, wrote operas and I’d like to hear them.
Yesterday was okay – only four hours of sleep and then she of the Evil Eye arrived. I called Hugo’s and ordered pasta papa and got there around 9:40 and they brought it out to the motor car, which I then parked. I’d brought a Diet Coke, a fork, and salt. It was, as always, great, and I managed to kill quite a bit of time there, thanks to a telephonic conversation regarding project two. The reaction from this person was okay but with several critiques. I think part of the problem that I’m going to have to address is making the concept, which is somewhat unique and interesting, very clear to the READER. Because I think he was confused as to what was really what and that’s because this project is like a Chinese box – you open one and there’s another, you open that, and there’s another, and on and on. So, I think I’ll make a few adjustments – not rewriting at this point but clarifying a few things for anyone who reads it. It’s not meant to be read, of course, it’s meant to be performed, but I just have to spell things out more so it’s absolutely clear as to what exactly is what.
After that, I moseyed on over to the mail place and picked up a couple of packages, then came home. I listened to music, did some work that needed doing, then had to go back to the mail place because there were a couple of other packages that they hadn’t gotten to yet – I got those and came home again. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched the new Warner Archive Blu and Ray of Mister Roberts, starring Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell, and Jack Lemmon, who won an Oscar for his performance. It’s unthinkable to me that Mr. Fonda wasn’t even nominated, same with Mr. Powell and Mr. Cagney – they’re all brilliant and just a sad reminder that we don’t have their like anymore – each unique, each with their own way of speaking. There apparently was much backstage drama as director John Ford was more irascible than usual – he was fired and replaced by Mervyn Le Roy, but the original stage director ended up reshooting several scenes at Mr. Fonda’s request (Fonda starred in the play on Broadway). But you’d never know that watching the film, which is seamless and wonderful – still very funny, still very touching, with wonderful characters. The photography by Winton Hoch is stunning and Franz Waxman’s score is tops, too. There are many classic moments throughout. The DVD was barely passable, so this is a very big step up from that – great color, image that’s just a little soft, but very nice, and the score sounds amazing in stereo. I was totally sucked in and this is a film I used to own in a dye transfer 16mm print that I ran over and over again.
Then I went to Gelson’s and got stuff for today and tomorrow’s meals. I had a little salad, some popcorn, and a midget baked potato for the evening repast. After that, it was more music and then Street Scene, which is still playing as I write these here notes.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I think one package may be arriving and if it does I’ll go gather it up, I’ll eat light – probably hot dogs or tuna sandwiches – and then I’ll start adjusting project two for clarity in the reading of it, and after that I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
This week should be relatively free, which I’m looking forward to. I’ll make book notes, we have a Zoom session for project one on Tuesday at five, but then it’s holiday time and I get to just relax and do whatever pleases me. The Darling Daughter won’t be here for obvious reasons, so I’ll just celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas all by my lonesome. I’ll try to be cheery, but it’s very annoying that for the first time in thirty-two years we have to miss the Do.
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, maybe pick up a package, eat, adjust project two, and 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, where I shall have a street scene and be moon-faced and starry-eyed.