Ron Raines just called me to tell me that he'd heard that an old friend of mine, from the Houston Grand Opera BABES IN TOYLAND, whom I saw last week, has been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease. This is most distressing.
I also spent part of my afternoon listenng to the new release of the 1930 version of STRIKE UP THE BAND. My late friend Russell Warner's work is very good, and the recording is such an improvement over the old Roxbury recording of the original 1927 version. I think it's primarily because Bill Brohn's orchestrations on the 1991(?) recording sound nothing like a 1920s show. They're lovely but sound like they were written the day before he began scoring THE SECRET GARDEN, smacking much more of 1990 and 1927.