Salzburg 2006 Magic Flute DVD - Warning!

I rented this DVD (well, the first half of it) from Netflix. The First Act is fine, but there is a 'Making of' bonus that I want to warn you about -- hold on to your heart with both hands before you watch Pape. He's outdoors in Salzburg, green, gorgeous summer day, in jeans and a jeans jacket, a dweller of the stratosphere or the mesophere, decidedly not one of us mere earth mortals. He talks (German w/ subtitles) about Sarastro and says nothing really new except that unlike other characters (he plays?) Sarastro doesn't evolve or 'transform' during the play (I read somewhere that he finds him boring). Believe they cropped the picture to not show the cigarette he is smoking - occasionally you see the smoke waft upward. The video shows each of the main characters and Muti. When they show Pape rehearsing to a piano with Pamina, he is singing I think-the brat-an octave lower than in the opera. When it gets a little low for him (remember it's an octave lower) he just sings a little harmony instead. Guess it was too early, he wasn't rehearsed or warmed, all of the above, but the result is delightful. There is a line in Act One when Sarastro is singing to Pamina about how he knows she loves someone, and a woman needs a man to keep her in line lest she get too 'uppity,' which sounds very sexist of course. But I think it's really a lamentation on having done battle (and love) with the Queen of the Night and found that woman, at least, very uppity indeed!

Click for Amazon link

Gem of a Video

I just discovered this little gem of a video documentary about Pape. There's even a shot of him as a choirboy. Enjoy.

Click for documentary, scroll and click on Report As Video On Demand

Jessye Norman, I Was Born In Love With You, With Michele Legrand

This is the only Jessye Norman I own. Michele LeGrand plays his own gorgeous music on his Bosendorfer as accompaniment. I think it is probably the best CD in my entire collection. There is a man in my past, or I wish had been in my past, because I loved him, and he would understand this music, and before I die I would like to screw up the courage to send this CD to him.



I Was Born In Love With You at Amazon

Pape, Pape, and the Pet Food Recall

I bought a season ticket to Met Orchestra tonight for a concert at Carnegie Hall that's over a year away. That's hope for you. The concert is all Mussorgsky and (the attraction) includes the incomparable basso Rene Pape singing Songs and Dances of Death.

I have climbed inside and don't want to come out of the Rasch - Mein Herz Brennt with Herr Pape singing most songs. This work is based on the songs/lyrics of the group Rammstein. Believe all (Rasch, Pape, Rammstein) are products of Dresden/Berlin and the former Eastern bloc. The best songs are Mein Herz Brennt and the very best Alter Mann. There is a theme in this song which out Mahlers Mahler. I have heard nothing more beautiful in symphonic music. On the other hand, the song Seemann I skip over -- sounds like a Klingon dirge to me. I bought this CD only to hear Pape sing. If it had said Rene Pape Sings the Phone Book I would have bought it. Who would have thought it would take me on this musical journey.

I am p*ssed p*ssed p*ssed about the pet food recall, the vastness of it, the fact that the injurious ingredients have not been all found, the estimate of the number of animals affected is somewhere between 9 and 39,000 DUH!. Our Government, the FDA, the Bush administration should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. As should the Congress for not providing oversight to the regulations of the inspections of the industry. It is absolutely ridiculous that I have to cook meat, rice, vegetables for my pets because the pet food supply in the USA cannot be trusted.

Musical Sherpas

When I discover a song or musician, I usually grab hold like a pit bull and hold on like hell till I've exhausted myself and their (musical) literature. What's neat is that I learn SO MUCH in the process.

One example is Ry Cooder. One serendipitous day I read an article about the CD Long Black Veil by the Chieftains. I had no Chieftain albums. I also have virtually no rock and roll, and the Stones were advertised as being on this CD. I bought it and enjoyed it -- still play it each year to celebrate St. Paddy's Day. But the discovery for me was Ry Cooder. On that album he plays what I believe is a traditional tune, Coast of Malabar. But Oh My God how he plays it. He (and the other musicians) do things with slide and slack key (I think these are the instruments, guitar methods) that I've never heard except in country and Hawaiian music. This song, in particular the bridge, is gorgeous.

Well, I kept buying Ry Cooder albums (he's been rather prolific) in an attempt to duplicate what Coast of Malabar did for me. I bought album after album, but found no Coast of Malabar. However, on this journey I discovered a little R & B wasn't so bad (Slide Area), and I would feel cheated if I hadn't been introduced to the incomparable Cuban music on Buena Vista Social Club or its follow up or its movie.

A couple of years ago Ry produced a Latinish album called Mambo Sinuendo. It's very gentle, almost easy listening, and on it I think he almost equals Coast of Malabar. He does a song called Secret Love, which is from the movie Calamity Jane. Doris Day as Calamity Jane sang the song in the movie which I saw at about age 12, about the time Jimmy Brown came over and kissed me on the sidewalk in front of our house on Oakdale Road, my first kiss! Anyway the arrangement is gorgeous, the complex harmony expertly done.

Ry has a new album, Travels with Buddy, about a cat, which is nothing short of brilliant. I haven't climbed into it yet because I've been following another Sherpa (Pape) through miles and miles of mainly German opera lately. But I know Buddy's there and look forward to new discoveries.

Here's a quote from Wikipedia on Ry:
Cooder was ranked number 8 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.

Clicky for Wiki on Ry Cooder

Clicky for Ry Cooder stuff at Amazon