Yakima Symphony Music Director Audition Trip - Day 2
No, I haven't secretly taken up a job with the Yakima, WA tourist bureau, but when a town is surrounded by hops and vineyards, it seems a pretty cool place to visit.
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Thoughts on Avatar... and Opera (Part 1 - from Chron.com blog)
I can’t name the number of times that I’ve been told that the problem with opera is “that it is too long! Nobody has an attention span that can sit there for three hours anymore! We’re a video game, iphone society. Nobody can sit still for three hours!”
Read MoreWill the symphony fail? Thoughts on Michael Kaiser's blog.
It takes the same number of people to perform opera and orchestral pieces as it did in the 1800s – there is no way around that if we are to maintain the experience.
Read MorePerforming Wagner - Part 1: Background
As Bill Curry said in his speech – in 1988, he checked with the Library of Congress about a statement that he had heard on TV, and they verified it: The most written about person in human history was Jesus. The second was…..Wagner. Where does this fascination come from? For composers, he was one of the most innovative musicians ever, so that explains why music historians study him and his music, but to be the second more written about person in history after Jesus?
Read More2010 Vista Competition - What I look for. (Part 1)
I think many people think of opera as a rarified “upper crust” art form, but when you hear the composers talking about their work, the opera fanatics realize that there is a great deal of craft that goes into creating great opera, and the neophytes realize that they understand more about opera than they give themselves credit for.
Read MoreOpera 101: Italian Opera - Info.
In our example of the baby momma bit from Opera 101, the aria was the portion where the woman sings about being traumatized that her baby daddy found out that she had slept with his brother.
Read MoreThe Apotheosis of Dance
I’m fascinated by the fact that Beethoven uses rhythm to create that tension in the first movement.
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