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[KevinH]

Page 3!

[ChasSmith]

I think my first Bartok recording was Ormandy's conducting "The Miraculous Mandarin."

A few firsts here, too. It was my own first recording of the "Mandarin", and likewise my own gateway piece to Bartok. And what made that happen was its being the first piece I played in an orchestra, which in itself was a life changer.

I had other recordings over the years, and the one I liked most along with Ormandy's was Dorati conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. But the Ormandy is great. In my own personal experience, it always ranked right up there with his "Carmina Burana" as being the first and forever favorites of those twentieth century pieces.

[ChasSmith]

In 1951 or 52, when Rudolf Bing became manager of the Metropolitan Opera, he decided to program Die Fledermaus in an English version by Garson Kanin and Howard Dietz.  Kanin was also hired to direct it and Fritz Reiner would conduct.  In the Act Two party at Prince Orlofsky's, Kanin asked some of the chorus to sing part of the Act Two finale  while sitting on cushions on the floor.  Reiner threw a fit and insisted they must stand to sing.  Several hours later, Reiner was dismissed and Eugene Ormandy was brought in to conduct the performances.  The chorus sat on cushions.

Ormandy is also the conductor on the Columbia recording of the production, which is one of my favorites. When I got my LP set in 1963 or so, Columbia had hidden it away with most of its monaural Metropolitan Opera recordings.  In the 1970s it was reissued on their budget label with a new cover.

That's a great story about Reiner and Ormandy. I remember discovering those recordings in the school library's listening room. The reissues on the Odyssey label were being released about the time I was out of school and moving to California, and I bought them at Phil Harris. Later I began seeing the originals, and I eventually replaced my reissues with them. My Fledermaus is in the larger record box as pictured there, as is, I believe my Rake's Progress.

I have never in my life come across the Columbia recording of the Met's The Rake's Progress.  Outside the US, Naxos released the recording on CD and I got a copy from Amazon.co.uk.

Wow, no kidding? I guess that once the Stravinsky stereo-era version was released, they had no interest in revisiting the mono one, which is pretty much what happened with all of his previous mono recordings.

What's great about the copy I eventually found is that it's signed by Mack Harrell on the inside program notes, and its previous owner had also kept the concurrent 1953 issue of Opera News along with it.

[Jane]

Isn’t this guy a cutie?

Yes

[Jane]

DR TCB do you have an N95 mask?

Nope.

Oh well.  I think it worked better in the morning than when I wore my surgical mask to walk in and out of Costco.

[Jane]

Congratulations Jane on your milestone.

Thanks.

[Jane]

Is Tumwater very smokey?

This morning the air quality is 188.

[Jane]

It is the same in Puyallup.

[bk]

Any feelings on the Ormandy Bluebeard's Castle?  I like Dorati a lot, but I found his Mandarin a bit strident in a way the Ormandy is not. 

[Jane]

Here the air quality is 303.

[ChasSmith]

I first saw THE STEPFATHER on cable TV. My memory of it has always tied in with something else I was doing over the Memorial Day weekend in 1987. But its listing in IMDb is curious. They show an LA release date of January 1987, a NYC one in May, then what I guess might be a general release one in June. Well, maybe my memory placement of it is wrong. On the other hand, interesting things would occasionally happen in those early years of cable.

Anyway, I've always meant to watch it again but that is still my only time to have seen it. I have no memory of the music, crappy or otherwise, but I was thrilled and chilled by that sucker and I've never forgotten it. When a remake happened, I had no interest whatever in seeing it. I do need to revisit the original sometime.

[Ginny]

Saturday afternoon greetings!  I spent the morning being in 2 places at once.  Actually, I was on 2 Zooms at once - an AAUW state meeting on my computer and a SCAD survivors meet-up on my iPad.  I kind of like Zooming, but this was a bit much.

[ChasSmith]

Any feelings on the Ormandy Bluebeard's Castle?  I like Dorati a lot, but I found his Mandarin a bit strident in a way the Ormandy is not.

I liked the Ormandy but it's something I haven't listened to in years. I only have that and the Istvan Kertesz one on London. I know I had several at one point and weeded them out, so these must have been my clear favorites. The Met did it (I'm thinking late '80s?), and I liked what I heard on the broadcast, but I've never watched a production.

[elmore3003]

Any feelings on the Ormandy Bluebeard's Castle?  I like Dorati a lot, but I found his Mandarin a bit strident in a way the Ormandy is not. 

Bluebeard's Castle is one of those off-the-norm operas I have never heard.

[elmore3003]

TOD
Dementia 13
Pretty Poison

[elmore3003]

I must pay some bills.

[Jane]

Saturday afternoon greetings!  I spent the morning being in 2 places at once.  Actually, I was on 2 Zooms at once - an AAUW state meeting on my computer and a SCAD survivors meet-up on my iPad.  I kind of like Zooming, but this was a bit much.

That is definitely a bit too much

[bk]

Back from some matzoh brei at Jerry's Deli, picking up nothing from the mail place, getting food for later, since I only had about 300 calories, and now back home and making sure everyone is ready for tomorrow's show.

[Jane]

I wore my N95 mask but took it off for the last 20 minutes of our 5.5 mile walk.  In the last couple of days we have seen a few people wear what appear to be gas masks.

[Jrand73]

Well Ear Readers this opera talk is awfully highbrow for a cornfed hayseed such as myself.

I enjoy it, but it just points up how much I DON'T know and how many things I haven't eard in my long, long life.

Maybe I spent to much time listening to Annette Funicello records.

[Jeanne]

Hello, everyone.

[Jeanne]

Today I passed a milestone: I was permitted to remove some of the bandages and take a shower. Yay!

[Jeanne]

I'm still very tired, though, and have scrapped the few plans I had for today. I'm taking it easy.

[Jeanne]

I looked at the Netflix description for The Stepfather. My God! It may be a fine film, but it certainly sounds terrible in the description. I'll pass.

[Jeanne]

Saturday afternoon greetings!  I spent the morning being in 2 places at once.  Actually, I was on 2 Zooms at once - an AAUW state meeting on my computer and a SCAD survivors meet-up on my iPad.  I kind of like Zooming, but this was a bit much.

I would love to be able to be in two places at once. Even briefly.

[bk]

Listened to a bit of the Ormandy Bluebeard's Castle and liked what I heard - the CD is super cheap and sounds great, so I ordered it.  Now playing: Ormandy does Scheherazade - one of the most beautiful-sounding recordings I've ever heard in my life.

[Jeanne]

I've really had it with our horrible mail delivery. It wasn't good to start with and it's gone downhill since Covid. There may be some good reasons for that -- people off sick, cutbacks, etc -- but it's now laughable. Earlier this week the USPS lost one of my Amazon packages. I'd been monitoring the tracking notices. The last update was last Tuesday, then nothing. Amazon has said they'll give me a refund and I'll reorder. OK, that's doable. But yesterday the USPS said they delivered my face masks from Hawaii, yet they weren't in my mailbox. I'm hoping that one of my neighbors received them and will give them to me. How do you get a refund when the carrier insists that they were delivered? Ugh!

[Jeanne]

Now I can say: looking forward to tomorrow's Kritzerland show.

(Spellcheck is objecting to the word "Kritzerland". After all these years you'd think it would put the word in its list. It doesn't learn.)

[Jeanne]

I'm ready for a nap. First I'll have some lunch.

TTFN.

[bk]

They always say the Philadelphia Orchestra was all about the string sound - unmatched by any other orchestra - but I gotta tell you, their brass section is unbelievable.  The playing is breathtaking.