...dozens of people who have come up to me after the show and thanked me for giving them back their Holiday Spirit. I guess you can't ask for a nicer compliment than that.
Italian soprano Tebaldi dies
From correspondents in Rome
December 19, 2004
THE Italian soprano Renata Tebaldi, considered one of the greatest divas in the post World War II era and a rival to Maria Callas, died today at the age of 82, her doctor said.
The singer, who had been ill for some time, died overnight in her home in San Marino, the doctor Niksa Simetovic said. She would have turned 83 in February.
Born in Pesaro, central Italy, she had her major breakthrough in 1946 when she auditioned for Arturo Toscanini for the concert which marked the reopening of Milan's La Scala after the war.
She sang the "Prayer" from Rossini's biblical opera "Moses" as well as the soprano part in Verdi's "Te Deum."
The concert put her on the international map and she went on to make her American debut as Aida in San Francisco, followed soon after by a performance at New York's Metropolitan as Desdemona, where she became a regular - appearing as Mimi in Puccini's "La Boheme", Cio-Cio-San in "Madame Butterfly", the title role in "Tosca", and Violetta in a special staging of Verdi's "La Traviata" created for her.
Hijacking Joke Causes Terror Scare
Saturday, December 18, 2004
CANBERRA, Australia — An Italian tourist aboard a flight from Sydney to Vienna caused an international security alert when he sent a joke text message from his cell phone to his wife claiming his plane had been hijacked by terrorists, the Australian government confirmed Sunday.
The man, Antonio Casale, 35, sent the message to his wife from Kuala Lumpur during a refueling stop on a Lauda Air flight from Sydney last Sunday night, Sydney's Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported.
Transport Minister John Anderson's spokesman confirmed the newspaper report.
Casale claimed terrorists were in control of the plane and were taking the passengers to an unknown destination.
His distressed wife contacted Italian police, who immediately contacted the Italian embassy in Canberra, who in turn contacted Australian Federal Police.
The pilot was reportedly contacted while in flight by counterterrorism negotiators , who found him oblivious to any hijacking attempt.
"The Italian police picked up on it, then the Italian embassy, the Australian Federal Police came in on it and it was quite a big operation," Anderson's spokesman said on condition of anonymity.
"Federal police and other authorities over here have got enough on their plate without having to worry about stupidity like this as well," he added.
The Sunday Telegraph reported Casale was taken aside by the plane's captain and detained by police when the plane landed in Vienna.
He was questioned by police and later released without charge.
THE Italian soprano Renata Tebaldi, considered one of the greatest divas in the post World War II era and a rival to Maria Callas, died today at the age of 82, her doctor said.
Quote from: JoseSPiano on Yesterday at 09:05:46pm
Btw, my Ford Escort Wagon - blue - is 11 years and 4 months. And it's about to hit 200,007 miles! And it still gets about 35mph! Sometimes more if the moon is right!
TCB inquires:
Jose -- Aren't you required to drive faster than that on the Beltway?
Does anyone happen to have a stereo copy of Baker Street that they'd be willing to copy for me?? I'd greatly be grateful! ;D
THE Italian soprano Renata Tebaldi, considered one of the greatest divas in the post World War II era and a rival to Maria Callas, died today at the age of 82, her doctor said.
I knew the name only from the Terrence McNally play the Lisbon Traviatta. Where the character of Mendy (wonderfully played by Nathan Lane) tries to score a botleg copy of Callas' Lisbon Taviatta by pretending to be Tebaldi's secretary by saying that she was leaving tomorrow to do her first Violetta in years and everyone is tellling her to listen to Callas' Lisbon Traviatta
Well, Jose - we wait with baited breath for the answer.
der Brucer (who had Jose as a passanger as we speeded through the cities of our fair Capital)
Good morning, all! 10:35 am EST and it's quite gray outside. Perhaps we're getting snow today? I've got a fershluganeh ear infection this morning and I am not happy about it; my right ear aches, keeps closing up with draining fluid, and I fear this means a trip tomorrow to the idiot "care giver" who misdiagnosed my abscess in July and put me into six months of hell. The rules of my moronic HMO, which just raised their rates this months, are that my "care giver" has to refer me to an ENT physician. I hate this crap!
I have to deal today with final shopping; I have one brother and Father to shop for and no ideas for either of them! Oh, the quandary!
I was sure I did, DR George, and then I just walked back to the LPs and checked: my copy of BAKER STREET is mono! I'm so sorry. :(
One of the more memorable moments in LA Theater this past year.
Most brazen use of a TelePrompTer: Val Kilmer. "Let my people, um ... LINE!"
DR BK loves Howl's Moving Castle a lot.
DR BK loves Cotton White Underpants a lot, too.
Well, I have a question, a simple but hard question.
Which do you prefer in reality, BK???
Another voice for the Heavenly Choir:(Above courtesy of the Sydney Sunday Telegraph (http://www.sundaytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,9353,11737002-1702,00.html))
der Brucer
Does anyone happen to have a stereo copy of Baker Street that they'd be willing to copy for me?? I'd greatly be grateful! ;D
I was sure I did, DR George, and then I just walked back to the LPs and checked: my copy of BAKER STREET is mono! I'm so sorry. :(
My BAKER STREET is Monaural as well.
It's called a bowler hat - I have no wife.
my fear is that Scotti is still around somewhere. Someone please tell me I'm wrong!
I have Baker Street in Stereo, George. Email me.
JMK step back from the camera!! I meant to tell you that yesterday!
Somebody please tell my true love that I don't want 7 swans. I don't even want one swan....So NO SWANS, true love. And while we're at it, just return the geese to the geese boutique. I'm really not big on birds.You could always send 'em over to the butcher, and have 'em prepped for a gorgeous Christmas dinner! Goose breasts are yummilicious, amd I'm sure swans are good eats, too!
JRand54, I'm not a musical performer and I love Sweeny Todd. It is my favourite musical of all time.
There used to be a great used record store on Melrose right down the block from the Paramount gate (where Frances met Leif, supposedly) called A-1 Record Finders that had an amazing selection of still-sealed OCRs...Oh, just a short walk from where Griffs used to be... 8)
No comments (except JMK's) on Renata Scott?
Well, there are two opera singers getting confused here, one an Italian tenor from the first half of the 20th Century whose surname was Scotti, and whose family may still run a wonderful Italian restaurant in Cincinnati, not far from the public library, I recall.
Then there's the great Renata Scotto, who's vibrato by the time she left the Met was wide enough to send several ships through it. Miss Scotto is now directing opera, and she was known to be a diva, but my friend Neal Bickford never missed one of her performances at the Met. We used to tease him about her failing vocal powers (her Christmas album was rather painful), but Neal adored her.
When he was last hospitalized with AIDS, around the mid-1980s as I recall, Miss Scotto was notified through friends of friends that he was dying and she called him to send her love and regards. He died a very happy man, thanks to her, and I will always value her kindness. By the way, I think her recordings of TOSCA and MADAMA BUTTERFLY are second only to those of La Callas herself, and that's about as high as a diva can climb.
The Butterflys of Miss Victoria de Los Angeles (recorded) and Miss Dorothy Kirsten (seen live--even at an age well beyond the character's fifteen years and, alas, unrecorded) would be the most memorable ones in my book.
I just saw that the Christopher Plummer CYRANO is coming out on CD in March, 2005, and that cheers me up a bit. I like a lot of Michael Lewis' score, I love Leigh Beery - now Mrs Jonathan Tunick - and her definitive "You Have Made Me Love," and I like the orchestrations of Phillip Lang. Good news indeed (a SWEENEY TODD reference).I'll ditto that!
Cotton white underpants, always.As I expected!
Hisaka, are the flowers in your photo from your garden?
(Speaking of which, I've got a pork roast to get in the oven, before you-know-who starts getting that "feed me" look in his eyes!)
Can anyone tell me some good places to buy laptops online. It's a gift. ANd all I know is it needs to have 512 MB ram, Windows HP professional, and celeron wireless monitor. Is this even possible for under $500.
Hewlett-Packard Pavilion Notebook with Intel® Celeron® M Processor 330
Product Features
15" XGA TFT display with 1024 x 768 resolution
60.0GB hard drive (4200 rpm)
Intel® Extreme Graphics 2 with shared video memory; built-in Altec Lansing speakers
2 high-speed USB 2.0 ports for fast digital video, audio and data transfer
Built-in Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200BG network connection (802.11b/g); 10/100Base-T Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector; high-speed 56K modem
Weighs 6.7 lbs. and measures just 1.7" thin for portable power; lithium-ion battery and AC adapter
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 (SP2) operating system preinstalled; software package included with Apple® iTunes, RecordNow!, Muvee autoProducer and more
How was the Handel last evening? How much did they do?
It's actually called When You're Waiting for Love, and it's also been recorded by Debbie Gravitte, as well as been sung by Alet Taylor and Michelle Nicastro (others have done it but I don't remember who).
Very nice car, MBARNUM. The color is great. How can you afford that car, did a certain magazine finally pay you for those articles they publishes?
The Gay Men's Chorus concert was real swell, too. This was their annual holiday concert and they handled the serious pieces (some in very impressive arrangements) very well, and they were quite joyful in the popular and campy songs. As usual, several of the numbers were choreographed, some of them quite hysterically. All around, the concerts by this group are amongst the most enjoyable to be seen and heard by any group in any venue in the Los Angeles area, which is saying a great deal, indeed.
An incomplete MESSIAH? What were the missing numbers, pray tell?
Did the soprano do "Rejoice Greatly" and if so, did she do the original 12/8 and longer version or the rewrite?
Must get some food down my hungry maw.Don't forget to eat some yourself!
FEED ME! Must be pig, must be roasted, must have roasted potatoes and carrots!And roasted garlic and plum sauce. Yeah, yeah, I know, I heard you the first time.
der hungry Brucer
Cut from Part I:
The people that walked in darkness
For unto us a child is born [The most surprising--and unkindest--cut of all]
How did the dinner go, td?
For all the DR who are writers out there.Let's rephrase this a little, with one small emphasis.
I am wondering what your work habits are.
Do you write the entire script and then go back and rewrite?
Do you write a section of the story, then rewrite it and then continue and repeat the process until the end?
Do you allow others to read what you have done as a work in progress or you wait until it is complete before someone else reads it?
Do you work with an editor or a dramaturge (sp?)?
DRJAY - Was it the lovely Marilyn Horne who did some of the singing on the PORGY AND BESS soundtrack? Or am I dreaming that? Or was it the CARMEN JONES soundtrack? Hmmmmmmmmm....
DRJOSE...did the clerk also give you a telephone number?
I honestly can't think of an ice cream dance. Sorry. :-\