"Ask 5 to give classical music a try"

That's the subject line of email I received today from Classical Music Broadcast, a web site that broadcasts classical music 24 hours a day, has short composer bios on its web site, and a page called "classical music history" that is, well, a little on the shallow side. The history page has a short list of recommended videos, and they're strictly middle of the road: a little Beethoven, a little Dvorak (with the well-known Ma and Perlman), Luciano Pavarotti, etc.

I tried out the station briefly, coming in someplace in the middle of a cello concerto I didn't recognize. That finished and the next piece was the last movement of one of the Saint-Saens piano concertos. That, I think is enough for me; not only do I have the gigantic EMI RVW and Britten boxes sitting here, I'd rather listen to Cesky Rohzlas.

But let's consider that business of asking five of my friends to give classical music a try. "Classical music" generally means concert music written between, say, 1100 and today. That's a lot of ground. A friend who can't bear Wagner might love Messiaen. A friend who can't bear Messiaen might love Bach. Just asking people to give it a try isn't enough; there's so much repertory and so much of it is good, and it's not all that predictable who will like what.

Not only that, if I'm asking friends to give a particular repertory a try, I buy them tickets to live performances. There's no substitute for being there, especially if you're taking someone to the opera or symphony. The impact of a voice or instrument or ensemble in the house is a big part of the experience.

So, no, I'm not asking five friends to give it a try by listening to Classical Music Broadcast.

He's Back!

Last June, Mark Adamo discussed a redesign for his web site and blog - but he also sounded as if maybe he was going to stop blogging for good. That's what I assumed, anyway.

So imagine my surprise and pleasure when he resumed blogging on November 4. Welcome back, Mark! And how did the European premiere of Little Women go?

P. S. Of local interest: "I'm ahead of schedule for San Francisco." Woo hoo!

Recent Lack of Postings

The comparatively lack of posting recently hasn't been because I lack subjects. The causes include a lot of work to do, the annual tech writer gathering for which I was the lead organizer, being sick off and on for a couple of weeks, and, most recently, sore back. I have a pretty big backlog of postings about the opera and various concerts I've been to. I plan to spend some time in the next couple of weeks catching up and maybe trying to deal with the 2008 and 2009 opera performances I never wrote up.

One Good Thing About Being a Blogger

You can rag on the local symphony's conductor and not worry about being removed from reviewing that orchestra.

Yeah, you're right. I couldn't resist a good one-liner. Seriously, though - Brian at Out West Arts sees about a zillion performances a year, in the LA area and across the country, including whatever looks interesting to him at San Francisco Opera. He and I agreed about the SFO Salome; disagreed about the local Trittico. (Yes, I am about two months behind in blogging Trittico, which I saw three times, yes, three. It was that good.) His skepticism about Dudamel is a fine thing in light of both the hyype surrounding Dudamel and the riskiness of hiring him in the first place. And it makes me quite curious to finally hear Dudamel in a substantive program.

Met Broadcast Season

Here's the full Metropolitan Opera radio broadcast season. The times are East Coast, United States; add or subtract for your time zone. Note especially the historic broadcast of Vanessa with Mitropoulos conducting, the opening Trittico for more of that Racette-Puccini goodness, Damrau & Florez in Fille (with Kiri!?), the Shostakovich, Lulu, Armida, and the delayed broadcast of the currently-running From the House of the Dead. I plan to skip the tenor attempting the baritone role, much as I love the opera; the outtakes from Europe were not reassuring. I've seen Hamlet and that was enough.

2009-10 Toll Brothers Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network Schedule

12/12 Sat 12:30 Puccini: Il Trittico
Ranzani; Racette, Murphy, Blythe, Licitra, Pirgu, Lučić, Corbelli


12/19 Sat 1:00 Offenbach: Les Contes d’Hoffmann
Levine; Kim, Netrebko, Gubanova, Lindsey, Calleja, Held


12/26 Sat 1:00 Strauss: Elektra
Luisi; Bullock, Voigt, Palmer, Schmidt, Nikitin


1/2 Sat 1:00 Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel
Davis; Persson, Kirchschlager, Plowright, Langridge, Croft


1/9 Sat 1:00 Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier
De Waart; Fleming, Graham, Schäfer, Cutler, Allen, Sigmundsson


1/16 Sat 1:00 Bizet: Carmen
Nézet-Séguin; Frittoli, Garanča, Alagna, Kwiecien


1/23 Sat 1:00 Barber: Vanessa Archive Broadcast February 1, 1958
Mitropoulos; Steber, Elias, Resnik, Gedda, Tozzi


1/30 Sat 1:00 Verdi: Stiffelio
Domingo; Radvanovsky, Cura, Dobber, Ens


2/6 Sat 1:00 Verdi: Simon Boccanegra
Levine; Pieczonka, Giordani, Domingo, Morris


2/13 Sat 1:00 Donizetti: La Fille du Régiment
Armiliato; Damrau, Palmer, Te Kanawa, Flórez, Muraro


2/20 Sat 1:00 Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos
Petrenko; Stemme, Kurzak, Connolly, Ryan, Schmeckenbecher


2/27 Sat 1:00 Puccini: La Bohème
Armiliato; Netrebko, Cabell, Beczala, Finley, Cavalletti, Gradus, Plishka


3/6 Sat 1:00 TBA


3/13 Sat 1:00 Shostakovich: The Nose
Gergiev; Popov, Gietz, Szot


3/20 Sat 1:00 Janáček:: From the House of the Dead (performance from Fall 2009)
Salonen; Margita, Streit, Hoare, Mattei, White


3/27 Sat 1:00 Thomas: Hamlet
Langrée; Dessay, Larmore, Spence, Keenlyside, Morris


4/3 Sat 1:00 Verdi: Aida
Carignani; Papian, Zajick, Licitra, Guelfi, Colombara, Kocán


4/10 Sat 1:00 Mozart: Die Zauberflöte
Fischer; Kleiter, Shagimuratova, Polenzani, Gunn, Pittsinger, König


4/17 Sat 1:00 Verdi: La Traviata
Slatkin; Gheorghiu, Valenti, Hampson


4/24 Sat 1:00 Puccini: Tosca
Levine; Mattila, Kaufmann, Terfel, Del Carlo


5/1 Sat 1:00 Rossini: Armida
Frizza; Fleming, Brownlee, Ford, Zapata, Banks, van Rensburg


5/8 Sat 1:00 Berg: Lulu
Levine; Petersen, von Otter, Lehman, Schade, Pittsinger, Morris

Publicity Basics Updated

Earlier this year, I put up a couple of postings about publicity etiquette. Here's a consolidated, updated version:

• DO make the subject line something meaningful. I almost trashed email once that had the subject line "YOU GO GIRL!!" because it looked like spam to me. I stopped to take a look and found that it contained important news. "ICE Founder and Flutist Claire Chase Wins Important Competition" would have gotten my attention real fast.
• DO put the most critical information (dates, times, works, performers, ticket prices, venue) someplace easy to locate. Right at the top is good; if you send out many press releases, put this information in the same place every time, whether at the top or bottom. Just make it easy to find.
  
• DO use blind carbon copy. That is, don't open-copy your mailing list. Many people, especially high-profile individuals, do not want their personal email addresses circulated by others.
• DON'T write a fake personal note as part of the email. You know what I mean: "Hey...I was just reading your blog and thought this might interest you." I can't stand those, and while I might be more sensitive than most to fakery, or email that looks fake, I assure you that being professionally impersonal is much, much better than anything with a whiff of the fake about it. "Dear Media Professional" is fine; no cover note at all is fine. Fake friendliness is out, because you don't know who will be rubbed the wrong way by it.
• DO paste the full text of the press release into the email or provide a link to a web page.
• Conversely, DO NOT attach Word or PDF documents. You don't know who has Acrobat Reader or the right Word version installed, and the current Word format is not backward compatible with older versions.
• DO include the full cast if there's an opera in your announcement or the singers' names if it's an orchestral work with vocal parts. I once received a Spoleto Festival USA announcement that mentions performances of Louise with only the soprano's name, and performances of Das Lied von der Erde without either of the singers' names. I am certain that the Festival had singers under contract for performances that were taking place six months after the mailing.
• DO consider writing informal, entertaining, or humorous press releases, but be extremely careful with your tone. Humor varies around the world, and be especially careful if you're addressing the press release to individuals in different countries.
• DO get the details right when the email is personalized. I once received email that included "I know you're in Germany, but your readership is probably international." The sentiment is a good one; the mistake was an honest one, but I stopped reading right there. I roll my eyes slightly, but I read on, when I get email with salutations to Linda or Laura. (I'm Lisa.)
  
• DO make sure the press release is relevant to the people you're emailing. I am happy to read press releases for events all over the world, but not everyone is. On the other hand, I rarely read pop music press releases. That is, know your audience.
  
• DO proofread what you're sending out. Make sure performer names, dates, times, locations, and ticket prices are correct and easy to find. Use that spelling checker. Have someone check your grammar if it's not your strong suit.
• DO use 10 or 12 point type. Twenty-odd years into the digital age, I feel like I shouldn't have to say this any more, but since I recently received a print document where the point size went down to 6 and maybe 4 point type.... That's unreadable without a magnifying glass.
• DO make it easy for people to find the information they want. This means, DON'T use an overly complicated or fussy layout, or more than 2 fonts in one document. This is a particular hazard if you're emailing HTML copied directly from your organization's web site. Again, 20 years into the digital age...just don't do anything that reduces readability or findability.
  
• DON'T even think about posting press releases in the comments section of a blog. I've seen this happen a few times, on my blog and others' blogs. I immediately delete such comments as spam. For one thing, they're almost always irrelevant to the blog entry where they've been posted. For another, it's rude and random behavior. For yet another, the press release will be seen ONLY by people subscribed to comments to that blog entry. Lastly, it pisses people off, which doesn't do your client any good. If you've managed to find my blog, look for the Email Me link and use that mailing address.
• DON'T make people click through to your web site to find information that you omitted from the press release.
• DO include contact information, and make it an email address. What if your media contact has a question or wants more information or is thinking of writing a story? Make it easy for the press release recipient to contact the right person at your organization.

To summarize: Make it easy for people to find the important information in your email announcement or press release. Get the facts right and include everything useful. Plain text is better than something pretty but fussy.

To close with a couple of positives: whether you're a PR pro or an amateur like me (I've handled publicity for a couple of small organizations), you'll find tons of useful information at Amanda Ameer's blog, Life's a Pitch. And if you want to see a few examples of really good press releases, try those issued by San Francisco Opera or by publicist Louise Barder, who does a great job of providing the right information the right way at the right time.

Fifty Years Hence

Over at Slipped Disc, Norman Lebrecht has been taking a poll over the last few days about which composers who are alive today will be played fifty years from now. In essence, he's asking about repertory formation and about our powers of prediction. It'd be nice if he'd focus on particular genres. Do we mean composers of big orchestral works? of opera, which has special challenges? composers who focus on chamber music or choral music?

It might be interesting to look at which composers were alive fifty years ago who are still played today. Let's start with the biggest gun of all, Igor Stravinsky. Alive in 1959? Check. Still being played today? Boy howdy. Dmitri Shostakovich? Alive in 1959, played all over today, Shostakovich might be the most recent composer to enter what I'd call the standard repertory.

How about Benjamin Britten? Yep. Ralph Vaughan Williams? Ooops, died in '57. Aaron Copland? Still played today. Leonard Bernstein? Oh, yeah. Pierre Boulez? Yep, people are still playing him. He's one of the old guard of Modernism now. Elliott Carter? Still alive and still composing at nearly 101. I'm willing to bet that string quartets looking for depth and challenge will be playing Carter fifty years from now, too.

Can anyone come up with a nice list of composers who were played 50 years ago and are not played today? Mr. Soho, this seems up your alley.

The Next San Francisco Opera Tosca...

.....will be Patricia Racette. I'd call this rumor and gossip, but I feel safe in assuming that David Gockley knows what he's talking about.

Choral Car Pile-Up Time!

It's that time of year, when every chorus in the world puts on their fall concerts. I hope to get to many of these, but there are only so many hours in a day:

• Chora Nova's Evening of Beethoven, featuring the Mass in C and "Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage," First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley (not First Congo), 8 p.m., Saturday, November 21. $10-$20.
  
• California Bach Society, Advent in Dresden, Music for Vespers during Advent by Schein, Scheidt, Schütz, and Praetorius. December 4-6 in San Francisco (St. Mark's Lutheran, 8 p.m.), Palo Alto (All Saints' Episcopal, 8 p.m.), and Berkeley (St. Mark's Episcopal, 4 p.m.). $10-$25. You bet I will be at this one.
  
• Soli Deo Gloria, Songs of Nativity, featuring Respighi's Laud to the Nativity. Unfortunately opposite Cal Bach, because I'd love to hear the piece. Dec. 5, 5 p.m., First Lutheran in Palo Alto; Dec. 6, 3:30 p.m., Christ Episcopal, Alameda. $20-$25 at the door, discount with advance purchase (see web site).
  
• Sacred and Profane, Spain and the New World: A Holiday Concert. Dec. 4, 8 p.m., St. Mark's Episcopal, Berkeley; Dec. 6, 4 p.m., First Presbyterian, Alameda; Dec. 12, 8 p.m., St. Francis Lutheran, S.F. $15-18.
  
• San Francisco Choral Artists, Old Chestnuts, New Fire Dec. 5, 8 p.m., St. Mark's Episcopal, Palo Alto; Dec. 12, 8 p.m., St. Mark's Lutheran, S.F.; Dec. 13, 4 p.m. St. Paul's Episcopal, Oakland.
  
• International Orange Chorale, Dinner, as a Concert. (No food is involved, sadly. Don't go hungry.) Dec. 4, 5 p.m. Solarium Public Space, S.F.; Dec. 5, 7:30 p.m., Most Holy Redeemer, S.F.
• Magnificat, Christmas Mass by Chiara Maria Cozzolani. Dec. 4, 8 p.m., St. Patrick's Seminary, Menlo Park; Dec. 5, 8 p.m., St. Mark's Episcopal, Berkeley; Dec. 6. 4 p.m., St. Mark's Lutheran, S.F.

You do all realize that you're splitting up your audience? Spread those concerts over more weekends and attendance will go up. I mean, how many concerts can I attend the first weekend in December? Three max, or four if I am insane, but I'm booked elsewhere Friday night, so very likely I will make life easy for myself and see Cal Bach and Magnificat despite the tasty S&P Spanish concert and the chance to hear the rare Respighi.

The NY Times on From the House of the Dead

The Times has what amounts to an enormous, in-depth preview of Janacek's From the House of the Dead, which premieres at the Metropolitan Opera tomorrow. Anthony Tommasini and James Oesterreich (appearing as "Tony" and "Jim") discuss the music; Charles Isherwood discusses director Patrice Chereau's style; Dwight Garner talks about...some other stuff.

Whether you read the previews or not, you should go see this production if you can. It's Janacek; can't enough of him. The cast and conductor are something: Esa-Pekka Salonen, in his Met debut; Stefan Margita (the magnificent Loge of the in-progress Ring in SF), Kurt Streit, Peter Mattei, Willard White, and Peter Hoare.

More on Health Care Reform

Nicholas Kristoff has a great column today on why the U.S. health care system has worse outcomes than just about every other industrialized nation. Note the graceful apology to his readers in Slovenia. :)

The Times Prescriptions blog has excellent coverage of an anti-reform rally going on right now in D.C. I quote the following:

Ms. Garloch, who has a combination of Medicare and private coverage, said insurance should be sold across state lines to increase competition.

But Ms. Garloch, like many in the crowd who while visibly angry. could not articulate the main problems in the health care system or how they should be solved.

Some of the same people warning of too much government spending also complained that Medicare does not provide sufficient coverage.

Ms. Garloch dismissed suggestions that some hospitals, like the Cleveland Clinic in her home state, had figured out ways to provide higher-quality medical outcomes at lower cost, indicating that there might be ways to cut costs without sacrificing patient care.

This is typical of the grass-roots opposition to health-care reform. Ms. Garloch is a Medicare beneficiary (that's government-provided, single-payer health insurance); she apparently doesn't understand what is wrong with the current system; she hasn't read enough about the Cleveland Clinic to understand how that excellent institution works and achieves better results with lower costs than almost any other hospital in the country. I am sure she knows the slogans, and I wish she would read more and move past the slogans.

In Fernem Land

All the Lohengrin you could want, with an amazing range of voices taking on the great aria "In fernem Land," from Klaus Florian Vogt and Jussi Bjoerling to Lauritz Melchior.

Other Minds Does Henry Cowell

The indispensable Other Minds is putting on a mini-festival next week devoted to the visionary American composer Henry Cowell. A pair of concerts, a panel discussion, and a couple of receptions await anyone lucky enough to be free. The performers include Sarah Cahill, Wendy Hillhouse, the Colorado String Quartet, organist Sandra Soderlund, and the Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio. What a lineup! I probably cannot go; I have multiple conflicts that include a two-day work event of which I am an organizer. But maybe you can go!

Here's the basic information:

Thursday, November 12, 2009
7pm Reception, 8pm Concert
Valley Presbyterian Church
945 Portola Road, Portola Valley

Friday, November 13, 2009
7pm Panel Discussion, 8pm Concert, Reception to follow
Presidio Chapel
Building 130, Fisher Loop, San Francisco

Tickets
Thursday, November 12: $20 / $15 students & seniors
Friday, November 13: $25 / $20 students & seniors
Two-Concert Pass: $40 / $30 students & seniors
Order (800) 838-3006 or through Brown Paper Tickets.

Full details are here.

The Prokofiev Project

Stanford Lively Arts is presenting what looks to be a fascinating four day event called "The Prokofiev Project," which is similar to last year's "Stravinsky Project." Joseph Horowitz curates the event, which will include concerts of orchestral and piano music. Pianists Alexander Toradze, George Barth, and Kumaran Arul are among the performers. The puppet artist Robin Walsh also participates. There are sundry talks, including an evening that will include historic recordings and film.

The dates for this extravaganza are November 12-15, at Stanford, in Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Campbell Recital Hall, and Tresidder Union. Some events are free. For full details, see the press release (a PDF) or SLA's web site. Please note that Simon Morrison's event has been canceled.

I'd like to go to some of these but I may have conflicts, alas.

Upcoming in Berkeley

A friend is the pianist in what looks like a perfectly lovely program. "Mystery Composer" - who could resist?

Mike Jones, violin

John Burke, piano

Bach, Brahms, Mozart, Ravel, Richard Strauss, and a Mystery Composer

8:00 pm Saturday, November 21st

Trinity Episcopal Church

corner of Dana and Durant, Berkeley

details, directions etc. at http://www.trinitychamberconcerts.com/

Republican Schism

Dede Scozzafava endorses her former Democratic rival. And see Brad DeLong on Hoffman, the Conservative Party nominee. Just in case you thought I wasn't serious about a schism. H/T to rootlesscosmo on the DeLong posting.

Now We are Five

It's been a great five years.

The Coming Republican Schism

I can see it now: the far-right-wing's insistence on running far-right-wing candidates will either further marginalize the Republican Party or lead to a split. You can see this dynamic at work in NY-23, the congressional district that had been represented by moderate Republican John McHugh, whom President Obama has named to the post of Secretary of the Army.

The Republican Party leadership nominated state Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava as the Republican candidate to replace McHugh; meanwhile, the state Conservative Party nominated Douglas Hoffman, who is far to right of the Republican candidate.

Hoffman's been getting support from out-of-state Republicans like Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty, who both have aspirations to higher office. Scozzafava, you see, is an old-fashioned, northeast Republican: socially liberal (pro-abortion rights, pro-gay marriage), fiscally conservative, pro-business. That's just not acceptable to the "Republican base;" i.e. the farthest-right wing. Today, Scozzafava withdrew from the race, because she's losing support, not raising enough money, and she and Hoffman are in a dead draw.

Of all people. Newt Gingrich is troubled by this dynamic. Here's how he's quoted in today's Times:

“This makes life more complicated from the standpoint of this: If we get into a cycle where every time one side loses, they run a third-party candidate, we’ll make Pelosi speaker for life and guarantee Obama’s re-election.”

I can see how that prospect might bother a few Republicans. Will they push themselves even further from the center, or split entirely? Read the whole story in today's Times.

The Damrau Effect

Maybe it's Diana Damrau's fault.

Five years ago, in June, 2004, I attended a performance of Arabella at Covent Garden. I had seen the opera once before, with Janice Watson, Franz Grundhaber, and Tracy Dahl as the annoying Fiakermili. Donald Runnicles probably conducted; I cannot for the life of me remember who sang Zdenka or Matteo. I intensely disliked it despite some lovely music.

So why did I buy a ticket to the London performance? Get this cast and conductor: Mattila, Bonney, Hampson, Very, Damrau/Dohnanyi. They were near perfect, and I became a fan. I still remember the beautiful clarity and balance of the orchestra, the thrust of Mattila's voice, echoed on a smaller scale by Bonney's, Hampson's humanity, the rightness of the production and direction.

Longtime readers of this blog know that I'm a bel-canto skeptic. Sure, I'd be happy to take in a well-cast Norma or Lucia once in a while, and I'd run to get tickets to William Tell. But I've walked out on La Favorite and Elisir and avoid Rossini comedies like the plague.

That means that I missed the hotshot tenor Juan Diego Florez's first two appearances in San Francisco, which were in Barber of Seville and Cenerentola. So when the much-touted and well-traveled Laurent Pelly production of La Fille du Regiment came around, with Florez in the tenor lead and Damrau as Marie, I gulped and dragged myself to the balcony standing room area of the War Memorial Opera House, concerned about both the music and the 80-minute first act.

I'm going to have to eat my words about Donizetti: I liked the production a great deal and loved the music. You've probably heard "Pour mon ame,"* the famous tenor cavatina with the nine (9) high Cs, and while it's certainly the opera's biggest show-stopper, it's just one of the many beautiful, imaginative, and delightful arias and ensembles.

See, the focus of the publicity materials on the tenor's vocal gymnastics obscures a few things. The soprano lead is not only three times the length of the tenor role, it has a much wider emotional range, from the very extroverted and athletic to the wistful. And those ensembles! There are several excellent choral pieces and some great trios; the music is more harmonically adventurous than what I remember of the other Donizetti operas I've seen.

The singing was mostly terrific. I loved both Damrau and Florez. She has the range and flexibility for the role, and a lovely voice, bigger than I remembered from Arabella, though not as luscious as Ruth Ann Swenson's. She's an excellent singer and was as good in the slow music as the fast. Florez sounds much warmer and more human in the hall than on record, where he sounds brilliant to the point of hardness. The 9 high Cs? Yep, they were great, but for me the most impressive thing about the aria is that he is so charming and sings with such a good line. Not to mention, the Cs were easy and it sounded as though he had headroom and could have gone to a D or even higher.

The production, set in or around WWI, is a little on the manic side, especially for Marie, who has to haul around laundry and tubs of potatoes, jump all over the stage, sing while being carried off stage, etc., etc. I can't imagine Joan Sutherland putting herself through these particular paces, though Sills and possibly Swenson could have. Some of the schtick, esp. for the Duchess of Krackenthorp, is broad and a little dumb, but the role and the opera are like that. It's not exactly subtle, and of course the plot is about as thin and silly as opera plots get.** The rushing around didn't feel overdone. My colleague Jerry said he thought it was staged like a Broadway show. I think he's right, and I think it worked quite well. There IS dialog, of course.

Meredeith Arwady, heard here in Il Trittico as the Mother Superior and Zita, was back, as the Marquise of Berkenfeld. She sounds like a young Podles, though I find the width of her vibrato worrying. She's funny and has lots of presence. I remember her as an awkward and seemingly terrified Merola fellow who looked out of place on stage, so her current authoritative performances give me great pleasure. I can't explain the schtick very well, but at one point she sings about half a verse of "Mon coer s'ouvre a ta voix" and it was really good! Sheila Nadler, as the Duchess, must be in her mid-60s, and it sounds as though she can still sing, in the three lines of music she had.

Bruno Pratico, as Sulpice, is okay (in tune, funny) but sounds worn and vocally unattractive.

This production also benefits from really superb conducting by Andriy Yurkevych. He has a great feel for the ebb and flow of Italian music, and did NOT conducting everything at a firm moderato, which is one of my standard complaints about bel canto performances. He conducted as though he took the music seriously - good for him! Which reminds me that the conductor of Swenson's Lucia - which I think of as Swenson's Lucia with Vargas's Edgardo - was Richard Bonnyng, who was at best a competent bore.

So, do I blame Damrau, or not? Two operas I had every reason to think I'd hate, two great performances that made me a fan.

*If you've been under a rock for the last couple of years, here are Luciano Pavarotti in 1972 and Juan Diego Florez in the Pelly production, filmed at Covent Garden and available commercially. Florez sounds even better live, with a warmer sound that's bigger than you might think from the voice's lightness. And what I heard was better than Pav in '72. Really.

** A regiment of French soldiers inherits an infant and raises her collectively as their daughter. Some years later, she's in love with a young Swiss hayseed. The soldiers will only allow her to marry a member of the regiment, so he joins up, just as she discovers she is the neice - actually the daughter - of a Marquise. The Marquise thinks a young hayseed/soldier isn't exactly good enough for her either. This is a comic opera, so they wind up engaged instead of dead.

Happenings at the Opera

So, any reports on last night's Salome? I've heard Nadja Michael was out and that the last-minute substitute, flown in from Arizona, was very good. You could say I'm surprised there wasn't a cover in town, but what do I know?

Making the Ultimate Sacrificium: A Virtual Archeological Dig

Well, if you're Cecilia Bartoli, you don't need any anatomical alterations to sing the 18th c. castrato repertory! And here's the question of the day, which just happens to be Clue 9:

Sacrificium focuses on the composer and teacher Nicola Porpora. In which Italian city was he based?

Go to the Bartoli puzzle page and post your answer in the Answer Nine field.

Read the previous clue at Nico's Twitter feed. Read the next clue (which is really the first clue) chez La Cieca, who has returned from exile.

For Sale

I'm not going to make it to the San Francisco Opera costume sale this weekend, alas, but Opera Tattler went and has the story. I was fascinated to read that one of Precious Auntie's costumes from The Bonesetter's Daughter is up for grabs. That certainly says something about the chances of a Bonesetter revival, now, doesn't it.

Rebranding America

The rock musician and do-gooder Bono had an op-ed piece in the NY Times recently, called "Rebranding America," and today's Times has reader responses in the Letters to the Editor. One reader says the following, in part:

What distinguishes the American Idea from the superstitions, stifling traditions and the various forms of collectivism that have historically cursed humanity is its confidence in individual freedom. Without that freedom, opportunity is a mirage and “responsibility to your fellow man” is simply a slogan used to justify harnessing the populace to serve those in power.

Another says, in part:

Yes, we have the freedoms of choice and speech, but we are an individualistic and self-sufficient people. We believe that people should take care of themselves and carry their own water.

I’m not responsible for my fellow man. The fellow man should take care of himself, and so on.

I'm sure these fellow citizens, who so value individualism and dislike collectivism, will turn down Social Security and Medicare at age 65, aren't you? After all, people should take care of themselves.

Den Kopf des Jokanaan

Contrary to my usual current practice - standing room - I bought a ticket to see Salome last night at San Francisco Opera, owing to a slightly sore ankle and the knowledge that I am standing through the sold-out Daughter of the Regiment today.

I thought the staging was fine and the sets and lighting okay; not problematic but not outstanding. Nothing struck me as very decadent about the court, so it was hard to tell just what bothered Jokanaan so much except, well, that business with Herodes, her first husband, and her second husband. Perhaps it was the general lack of on-stage dementia, except, of course, Salome herself.

I did not like Garrett Sorenson's Narraboth; he sobbed like Gigli and that's just wrong in Strauss, even if you're the Italian Singer in Rosenkavalier. I did like Elizabeth DeShong's Page. Irina Mishura sounded slightly blowsy from where I was sitting and I wish she'd been more physically crazed. She seemed too polite, even when urging Salome on late in the opera. Ildiko Komlosi in last year's Met broadcast was plenty nuts, or maybe it was that there were plenty of close-ups of her with a drink in her hand and a soused look on her face.

I've never much cared for Greer Grimsley: all that wool in his voice! He's like a latter-day Leonard Warren. Oh, maybe not that bad.

Nadja Michael was very effective physically, and definitely looks and moves like a dancer. But she seems to have been hired for her physical rather than vocal abilities, and she had serious vocal drawbacks. Sometimes I couldn't hear her; sometimes she couldn't hit the notes; her phrasing didn't have much insight or variety. I liked the staging of the dance very much.

Kim Begley was the best of the singers and as far as I'm concerned more or less stole the show, or would have if he'd been dancing instead of watching the dance. Weirdly, he is a dead ring for Paolo Gavanelli, but they're definitely not the same person.

The big problem of the night, really, was Luisotti. I don't care, much, that he drowned everyone out once in a while. He was so languid I felt like there was never much musical momentum or tension, no sense of the structure of the piece or of how the music hurtles toward destruction. He needs another year or two with the score - and maybe all the German music should still be conducted by The Donald.

Possibly-Familiar Superrnumeraries in DC's Ariadne

Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Antonin Scalia, that is, will once again be supers in Washington National Opera's production of Ariadne auf Naxos, or so I hear. Wish I could join them!

Adler Fellows, Past and Present, at LAPO

The solo quartet for the November 5 to 8 Verdi Requiem performances at the Los Angeles Philharmonic includes Leah Crocetto, David Lomeli, and John Relyea. Go, team!