Operation Opera
First, this bon bon: some garbage collectors found what they thought was trash outside a museum and hauled it away:
Unknown to the binmen, the sheets were part of a city-wide exhibition of modern sculpture by Michael Beutler, a graduate of Frankfurt's Städel art school. Thirty of the dustmen are now being sent to modern art classes to try to ensure that the same mistake never happens again.I can't keep track of all these new music blogs. Can we declare a moratorium please? Lots of people are noticing the nifty online mag Sequenza21 has a new group blog for composers -- darn, another essential daily read. Also, I just found choirgeek.com. I don't know if the concept will take off but I like this guy's sense of humor:
Create an account and contribute concerts of your own choosing to the database. This is your chance to get in on the ground floor before choirgeek.com's meteoric elevation to "household-namism." I smell IPO.Ah, yes. Soon he will join the teeming ranks of all those who have got rich from choral music -- a trend lovingly mocked in that famous scene from The Graduate:
Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word.Steve Hicken is writing an opera. Unbelievably cool. I don't know much about his music, but he sent me the score to a trumpet duet he wrote. It was really good. Stinkin' hard to play, but good. I wrote four one-act "operas" in my teen years (two were actually performed) but those brief pieces of fluff were profoundly shallow parodies of the form. I guess I'll have to write a real opera now. It will have to be better than Hicken's. His will have two characters. Mine must have three. His will have three scenes. Mine must have four. His is about a girl with curious hair. Mine must be about a girl with curious big hair. His will have 400 f-words. Mine must have 500. No, wait -- I'm getting Steve Hicken confused with Jerry Springer again.
Ben Braddock: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Ben Braddock: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Choral music.
Ben Braddock: That's two words, sir.
Umie the Umlaut says, "ask your doctor about the Fredösphere!"
2 Comments:
Choice quote from the composer of "Jerry Springer":
"One night there was a particularly violent and abusive episode, and I thought, 'Hang on a second. There's eight people screaming at each other, you can't understand a word they're saying, the audience is baying for blood - it's prefect for opera!'"
Now I actually have to write the damn thing. Stinkin' hard, indeed.
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