Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to an absolutely delightful one-act opera by Malcolm Arnold, his only foray into that musical genre. It’s called The Dancing Master and it was written for the BBC, but it was too risqué for them, and so it remained shelved until it was finally recorded a few years ago. And I have to tell you, it’s a tuneful and wonderful thing to hear. It’s in Arnold’s classic musical style and as it heads to the finale, I was completely entranced by it, entranced, I tell you and I tell you, entranced. It’s very well performed here, and the sound is really excellent. What a discovery. And I have to say, there are certain passages that are very Sondheim-like. And prior to that, I’d listened to Laurence Rosenthal’s scores to A Raisin in the Sun and Requiem for a Heavyweight. I’d looked for it for thirty minutes the other day and couldn’t find it. Yesterday, I walked into the garage, looking for something to watch and my eye went right to a pile of Intrada CDs and there it was – and believe me, I’d looked at that pile twice the other day. Both scores are wonderful. There’s not very much of Requiem, sadly. These are from Rosenthal’s personal tapes, and he clearly didn’t have all the Requiem music. And it doesn’t sound very good. A Raisin in the Sun fares much better. And now that the opera has just finished, I’m listening to Alan Silvestri’s score to Contact, which I like very much. Prior to all that, I did watch a motion picture on Blu and Ray, a Twilight Time release I’d never gotten around to watching, entitled La Moglie piu Bella (The Most Beautiful Wife), an Eyetalian motion picture based on a real fourteen-year-old girl who was kidnapped and violated by some mafia guy, something that apparently was a “thing” until this young girl, rather than marrying him, as was expected, instead turned him in to the police. It caused a huge uproar at the time. I enjoyed it for what it was, and Ornella Muti is very good as the girl. Interestingly, she five years after the film, she married the actor who played her abductor/attacker. She’s still around and has made several American films as well as Eyetalian. The transfer is very good. The director, Damiano Damiani is still with us, and he’s directed some interesting films.
Yesterday was brief due to the fact that I didn’t fall asleep until almost six in the morning and not arising until two. Once up, I answered a lot of e-mails, then I went and picked up a little package, stopped at the good Gelson’s and got some ribs, a little mac-and-cheese, after which I came home and ate some of the ribs and the mac-and-cheese – both were very good. Then I had some telephonic conversations.
After that, I watched the movie and some interviews with the director, editor, and cameraman. Then it was another telephonic conversation, and then I listened to the Malcolm Arnold opera and now I’ve made contact with Contact.
I have something to talk about in these here notes, but I think I’ll save it for tomorrow’s notes, as it will be long, but it’s been on my mind for a few weeks now and so I thought it might make interesting reading – it has to do with my books.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven at the latest, as I have a noon lunch engagement not too far from the home environment. After that, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, then I’ll buckle down, Winsocki, and do a show order and write commentary. I’ve also begun figuring out the Group Rep cabaret, which isn’t easy – at all. I’ll probably have a salad for lunch, so I may need a small snack later, and then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same – writing commentary, planning the Group Rep cabaret, shipping Indiegogo stuff and Tonight’s the Night CDs, and having our first Kritzerland rehearsal. Ticket sales are doing okay – I’m not exactly sure how many they can sell at 60% of capacity, but I think were two-thirds of the way there now, so hopefully we’ll sell the final third in the next week. We do know some folks like to wait until the absolute last minute. I’ll see our replacement actress on Thursday night. We have our second rehearsal on Sunday, our stumble-through on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday we do our show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven at the latest, have a noon o’clock lunch engagement, hopefully pick up packages, do a show order, write commentary, keep working on the Group Rep cabaret show, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Of all my books, which would you most like to see made into a film and how would you cast it? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, realizing I don’t really have a title for these here notes so I’ll just have to be clever with something like Untitled.