Good morning, all! I slept late, much later than I intended, so I guess I needed the rest. I do remember that my last dream was about Goodspeed, although I have no idea what the musical was and I have no idea who any of the musical staff were. Half the dream seemed to be about tracking down a missing staff person and preparing for an orchestra rehearsal, the other half seemed to be about Emily Loesser and me waiting for a bus into a city to do some shopping.
I didn't get to the laundry as I had intened this morning, but now it's too late to begin it. I have to go through the orchestra piano book for WHERE'S CHARLEY? today with the full scores and check for errors. Later, I may stop down at the laundromat and see how heavy the crowd is.
I, too, love the Dawn Upshaw recording of "Knoxville: Summer of 1915," a perfect synthesis of material and singer. I think a lot has to do with the purity of her voice. Leontyne Price, a Samuel Barber favorite, sounds too mature and plummy, and other singers, trying to sound pure and innocent, end up sounding arch and affected. I think the entire album, with the exception of the "Mirabai Songs," quite wonderful. The Menotti aria goes a long way to restore him to a higher tier of composers than current opinion has placed him, and the Stravinsky scene from THE RAKE'S PROGRESS is one of my favorite moments in opera.
More coffee.