Opera

Just acquired the Decca Barbiere with Florez and Spagnoli. Wow! What a production. There were some cuts and fioriture I didn't care for, but I'd say that it was 98% perfect. Going right up there with my other favorite, the Glyndebourne production with Maria Ewing.

Tuesday library list

Still plowing through The Historian in our read-aloud hour in the evening.

Other than that, I am rereading (and I still don't much like) Brian Morgan's Strange Child of Chaos, a biography of Norman Treigle. I don't think it's the author's fault. I was, and still am, 35 years after his death, a huge, huge fan. I don't think this book could satisfy me unless it were cloyingly teh awesum sauce. Srsly.

Perfect description of the Ken Russell "Faust"

I have seen a lot of goofy interpretations of opera over the years. This production is the first to sink below the notorious Das-Rheingold-in-a-Steambath. How bad is it? Someone offered me the DVD and I refused it. If I had had a sword, I would have brandished it, singing, C'est une croix qui de l'enfer nous garde!

Another reason I love opera ...

Au fond du temple ...

I'm sitting here poking through YouTube in the US, listening to an Italian and a Bulgarian pretend to be in old Ceylon by singing a duet in French.

That international quality is something I love both in opera and in ice hockey.

OMG! Porgy and Bess by the Warsaw National Opera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J7z2C9isfM