Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[bk]

Well, you've read the notes, the notes were spoken as in I has, and now it is time for you to post until the spoken cows come home.

[bk]

And the word of the day is: COHESIVE!

[bk]

And now - Dino at the piano.

[singdaw]

Congratulations to DR TCB on the nomination recognition.

[singdaw]

Since we've been talking of box sets of late, I pulled out my Howard Hanson box. Some glorious stuff there.

[singdaw]

Yesterday was J.S. Bach day in the notes. I forgot to post then that I have the Bach 333: The New Complete Edition, which contains 223 discs and which will take some time to get through in its entirety.

[singdaw]

There are, I believe, at least 3 different versions of each of the Passions.

[singdaw]

I read that Zoom is suspending its 40-minute limit for meetings for free account holders for Thanksgiving Day. A very nice gesture.

[elmore3003]

Good morning, all!

[elmore3003]

Someone should bind Trump's tweeting hand behind his back with cohesive tape.  And his mouth, too.

[elmore3003]

BK, I don't know if you have ever seen this 1954 stop motion film adaptation of Hansel and Gretel, but I recommend it highly.  It was made in a studio in NYC, produced by Michael Myerberg, producer of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, conducted by the great Franz Allers.
The cast includes:
Constance Brigham (a mermaid in Leonard Bernstein's Peter Pan) as both Hansel and Gretel;
Mildred Dunnock (Death of A Salesman) as the Mother;
Frank Rogier (Menotti's The Medium and The Telephone) as the Father;
Delbert Anderson (Wonderful Town) as the Sandman;
Anna Russell as a very campy, funny witxh, Rosina Rubylips.

The score is abridged to around 80 minutes, and the film is delightful.  I still laugh and appreciate the beauty of its designs.
http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=503

[elmore3003]

And that is how, at the age of eight, I learned what camp is, courtesy of the late great Anna Russell. I blame her doe the rest of my life.

[elmore3003]

I also think Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel is the greatest Wagner opera ever written.  It's composed by a disciple of Wagner, who assisted on the premiere of Parsifal, it's brief, and never outstays its welcome, as many of Wagner's interminable operas are want to do, and I believe the premiere of the opera was conducted by Gustav Mahler, whose symphonies our BK has been listening to/.

[Druxy]

We're starting to watch the new seasons of our favorite TV shows:

NCIS
THE F.B.I.
CHICAGO MED, FIRE & P.D.

Maybe it's just me, or maybe it's the COVID, but they all seem sort of dull this season.

[elmore3003]

I may have to drag out that DVD and watch it again this week.  The Met used to produce it every Christmas season, and their production was quite lovely.  I do have a hard time watching two grown women pretending to be children, but the Met cast is good, and Rosaliond Elias os a wonderful witch.

[Druxy]

Yesterday, I got what looks like an interesting book.

It's called THE BIG GOODBYE, and it's about the making of CHINATOWN.

I'll probably start reading it this weekend.

[elmore3003]

This German film uses a good opera cast, and I love the witch, who emerges from the gingerbread house as a motherly type who progresses into an evil, ugly villain.  The film catches the evil in the morality tale very nicely.  The Met version is much more gemütlich and charming, but I like them both.

As far as CDs, I prefer the von Karajan with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and the Einhorn with Anna Moffo and Christa Ludwig's epic witch.

[elmore3003]

I did not venture out to the pharmacy yesterday, so I may do it today.  I could wait till tomorrow, since the temperature is supposed to go back up into the 60s . . . decisions, decisions!

[elmore3003]

DR singdaw, that shepherd's pie recipe looks dreadful.  I bet Judy added a few pills as well.

[elmore3003]

It's time for kitty cleanup.

[elmore3003]

The Radio City Christmas Tree has been set up for decoration, and they discovered that an owl was a stowaway in the tree;s trip to Manhattan.

[ChasSmith]

Good morning, all.

[ChasSmith]

No, I did not know about the Klemperer/Klemperer connection.

I also didn’t know that Dad Klemperer had been conductor of the L.A. Philharmonic in the 1930s.

[ChasSmith]

I also see that I should bring a little Hänsel und Gretel back into my life, since I’ve more or less ignored it for many years.

I might still have the 1950s Met recording on Odyssey (that would be the English version?), but that’s probably all I’ve got here. DR Elmore’s links look great and I shall do something about this, this very season.

[elmore3003]

I also see that I should bring a little Hänsel und Gretel back into my life, since I’ve more or less ignored it for many years.

I might still have the 1950s Met recording on Odyssey (that would be the English version?), but that’s probably all I’ve got here. DR Elmore’s links look great and I shall do something about this, this very season.

There are at least three English recordings:
  The Met recording with Max Rudolf conducting for Columbia Records.
  The Sadlers Well Opera on EMI.
  The Chandos Opera in English recording conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras

[elmore3003]

BK, I think you might enjoy these two 20th century operas.

Weinberger was a Catholic who fled to the USA to escape the Nazis, and Schwanda the Bagpiper was a huge success internationally in the 1920s and 30s.  Its Polka and Fugue have become a popular concert piece.

Walter Braunfels was Trude Rittman's mentor, whose work was banned by the Nazis, and he's now getting rediscovered.  Die Vogel sounds like prime Richard Strauss.  It's very beautiful.

[elmore3003]

And kitty cleanup is over.

[ChasSmith]

I also see that I should bring a little Hänsel und Gretel back into my life, since I’ve more or less ignored it for many years.

I might still have the 1950s Met recording on Odyssey (that would be the English version?), but that’s probably all I’ve got here. DR Elmore’s links look great and I shall do something about this, this very season.

There are at least three English recordings:
  The Met recording with Max Rudolf conducting for Columbia Records.
  The Sadlers Well Opera on EMI.
  The Chandos Opera in English recording conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras

It's the Max Rudolf that I have. I see it got its start on 78 rpm. Mine is on Columbia's budget label Odyssey which I remember buying at Phil Harris on Hollywood Blvd. in 1972.

I also have this other one he conducted with a different cast (Hurley, Miller, Resnik) for the "Metropolitan Opera Record Club", a series issued by the Book-of-the-Month Club. A few of these were also issued by RCA (who I think would have done all the pressings anyway), and my copy has the RCA logo at top right with an LM number, and a completely blank back side. Hmm.....

[Jrand73]

HA! I was going to mention the Klemperer connection today - I assumed it was general knowledge.  But MR BK took care of it in the notes.

[Jrand73]

As I read DR singdaw's post yesterday, I kept thinking how much more interesting JUDY would have been if Renee had spent half the movie making that shepherd's pie.