Good morning, all! I slept very late: 8:30, and I've just finished reading the encyclopediacs of posts from yesterday. I don't believe it's the computer that's causing grammatical and spelling errors, of which I can be occasionally guilty, but the general dumbing down of America: I was a tv series the other night in which a character incorrectly used the nominative case when he meant to use the objective; editors in every position in the media, from books to radio, seem to be illiterate these days. I won't even jump into the PRINCESSES fray! Rather Bruce Coughlin than I.
End of soapbox.
DRGeorge, thank you for the WUTHERING HEIGHTS update; I look forward to hearing the rest of the score only because I liked the duet so much. I knew RUSALKA for years only from her Song to the Moon, but I figured if the rest of the score were as good, it must be a great opera. Now that I know the piece, I have to say the Song to the Moon is the best portion of it, but Dvorak was no slouch as a composer and the opera has many wonderful moments. I hope I feel the same about WUTHERING HEIGHTS.
TOD: Never liked Lena Horne much; she generally never sings the notes the composer wrote. Perhaps this was true only at the late stages of her career, but I nearly passed out the first time I heard her sing "Push De Button" on one pitch. However, I would have paid anything to see BK's Julie in SHOWBOAT.
Arlen songs: My Shining Hour (absolute fave)
Push De Button
Blues in the Night
All of THE WIZARD OF OZ
It's Only a Paper Moon
A Sleepin' Bee
I'm working on an Arlen show for the Chicago Humanities Festival this November, LIFE BEGINS AT 8:40, which introduced "You're a Builder Upper." but I love "Weekend Cruise" (Will you love me on Monday morning as you did on Friday night?).