Good morning Larry.
Good morning, Michael! And good morning, all! I have to work on an arrangement for Elaine Stritch and the New York City Gay Men's Chorus this morning before I make another go at the Mario Frangoulis charts.
DRGeorge, I love your new avatar. Thank you. I thought your Carmen Miranda was a great Halloween avatar, but looking at it constantly, I couldn't take anything you wrote seriously. However, I'm curious: do you have photos of yourself in other performances?
It's been my observation that commercials are a nice income for actors if they can land a good national one. I'm not sure if they particularly care what the work is if they're paid well for it. Jason Graae's Western Union voiceover "Everybody needs some money some time" brought him several years of good income. I used to call Rebecca the Tylenol Queen for her commercial, and I'm happy to see my friends are employed.
Ron Raines was paid a good sum to make a commercial in Japan, in which he sang quite nicely, but was it worthy of him? I loved Alice Playten's Alka Seltzer commercials but was it worthy of her? If I were John Lithgow, I'd be embarassed by the pitchy singing, and tacky design, writing and staging of the spot. Encores! THE APPLE TREE might have been worthy of Ms Chenowith's talents, but I'm sure OldNavy made her agent a deal her agent couldn't resist.
TOD: I've always preferred vocal over instrumental, so a lot of my favorite pieces are vocal, but let's see what stacks up. I know I'll miss something I love:
SYMPHONIC:
Respighi: Botticelli Pictures, Ancient airs & Dances, The Birds
Ravel: Piani concerti, Valses Nobles et sentimentales
Dvorak: cello concerto, Symphony No. 8
Smetena: Ma Vlast
Tchaikovsky: The Three Big Ballets
Elgar: cello concerto, Enigma Variations, Cockaigne Overture
Copland: Billy the Kid, Appalachian Spring, Rodeo
Handel: Water Music, Royal Fireworks Music
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique
Saint-Saens: organ concerto, the tone poems
Stravinsky: the ballets
Bernstein: Fancy Free, Divertimento
Gershwin: Piano concerto in F
SYMPHPONIC VOCAL:
Ravel: Scheherazade
Berlioz: L'Enfance du Christ, Les Nuits d'Ete
Dvorak: The Specter's Bride, Stabat Mater
Copland: Old American Songs
Britten: Les Illuminations, Serenade for Tenor Horn & Strings, Spring Symphony
Handel: Messiah
Bach: Christmas Oratorio
Bernstein: Songbook
Mozart: Requiem, Masses
Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms
Poulenc: Gloria
CHAMBER:
Bach: Brandenburg Concerti
Ravel: Introduction and Allegro for Harp, etc.
Borodin: String Quartets
A lot of Mozart, Beethoven, Dvorak
OPERA:
Britten: Peter Grimes, Albert Herring, The Beggar's Opera, Midsummer Night's Dream
Mozart: Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro
Bizet: Carmen
Beethoven: Fidelio
Verdi: Falstaff, La Traviata, Il Trovatore, Rigoletto
Offenbach: Tales of Hoffmann
Menotti: The Telephone, The Medium, Amahl and the Night Visitors
Puccini: Turandot, La Boheme, Il Trittico, Tosca
Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
Dvorak: Rusalka
Smetena: The Bartered Bride
Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress, Oedipus
Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel
Rossini: The Barber of Seville
Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin, Pique Dame
Ravel: L'Enfant et les sortileges
Saint-Saens: Samson and Delila
And that's enough!