Dan has some incredible fall pictures up at his blog right now. Do check them out! I find them simply amazing.
“We’re not going to make a decision for at least 60 days,” said San Francisco Opera spokesman Jon Finck. “First we have to ascertain whether this is really just a postponement, and then if it’s really off, think about how can we do this ourselves.
“We can’t say definitely that we will be able to do the cycle in 2011. That’s our intention, and we will continue to proceed on the assumption that our plans hold. But we can’t say anything definitively until we study the budget.”
I read it here.
David Mankin blogs about a job he was hired for. He makes it fairly clear that he didn’t adhere to the music’s religious views (I’m guessing it’s from a contemporary Christian oratorio, as they are frequently called, or some such thing). I wouldn’t have had a problem with the viewpoint, as a person of faith, but I sure would have wanted to argue with the taste issue and, who knows, possibly a theological issue. And I would have been embarrassed. Sigh. Why is so much of that music so horrendous? Why is the singing so darn annoying? Ugh. It’s really the sort of music that can turn my stomach. Sorry to any of you who love this kind of music, but there you go.
But I ramble and I’m really didn’t intend to go that direction …
It caused me think about something I’ve pondered before. Where would I draw the line? Where would you?
I remember when I friend of mine was asked to play violin and be filmed for an advertisement for a presidential candidate. Not the one she would vote for. She was chosen specifically because she is Japanese American. She struggled. Should she take the money and run? Should she take a stand and say “No, I can’t play for and be seen in an ad when I don’t support the candidate”? What would you do?
David, you sound lovely, btw. But I couldn’t listen all the way through. It’s just the kind of stuff that makes me sad and frustrated, you know?
Oh … and the friend who was asked to do the presidential ad? She got another call canceling it, so she never had to make the choice.
I suppose I’m probably the only one who hadn’t heard about the opera Nagano, about the Czech ice hockey team at the Olympics in 1998. The opera was premiered in 2005, but is soon to be repeated.
Go here to get your tickets. You probably need to know it’s in Prague, though.
You know … that movie star Seth Green? The climber?
Or maybe you are like me and don’t really know him after all. (Yeah, I lied about the brilliant thing. Sorry. But perhaps he really is brilliant. Who am I to say?)
Green ran at Australia’s iconic building, jumped into the crevice and kept moving until he was 11 metres above the ground.
“I got to the high point and turned around, my friend took the photo, but it was only then I realised just how steep the incline was and on the way down I didn’t have a lot of stopping ability,” he said.
“But, the moment I was ready to slide down and burn the soles off my shoes, a security guard walked around the corner.
I wonder if he’s ever gone inside the opera house. That’s where I’d prefer to be. But I’m silly that way.
I read it here.
Two additional unique things to remember are: Osmo Vanska is the conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, and (I’m not making this up) Iccolo Miccolo played the piccolo in the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
