Random Stuff

Alex Ross is in Bayreuth; I'm not. (I'm not in Seattle or Santa Fe, either, owing to family obligations.) Looking forward to Alex's reports on the Castorf Ring.....Intermezzo has photos of Castorf's production. Goetterdaemmerung on Wall Street sounds like a nod to Chereau and Shaw and a few others...If you're listening to the Proms Ring, by Barenboim, the Staatskapelle Berlin, and a cast of many, consider reading commentary by Intermezzo, Jessica Duchen, Mark Berry, and Finn Pollard, who have a nice range of opinions. Yes, I'm sure there are reviews in the newspapers too, but they're not in my RSS feed.....Anthony Tommasini has an article in the Times how much improved the Mostly Mozart festival is. It depends on which parts of the programming interest you: "staged concert" performances of Nozze (Ivan Fischer), middle-of-the-road programming for the orchestra, and some great chamber programs....Also in the Times, Gustav Mahler's love life before he married the loveliest girl in Vienna.