So, you think you read a lot?

David Pittsinger as the ghost of Hamlet The Taruskin Challenge

In 2005 the Oxford University Press published, to virtually universal acclaim, a monumental musical reference work entitled The Oxford History of Western Music. The author, Richard Taruskin, has managed in five hefty volumes to examine one thousand years of Western music and to somehow make sense of it all. The San Francisco Chronicle named it one of the best books of 2005, and the Washington Post named it one of the ten best classical music books of the decade. Portland Opera's own Bob Kingston began to read it with a view to ploughing through it cover-to-cover but he has gone somewhat quiet about it recently so I am not sure how far he has managed to get. The internet world of instant communication being what it is, the work has, not surprisingly, spawned a serious blog called The Taruskin Challenge. Mark Samples and Zach Wallmar, two music PhD students are reading Taruskin daily, blogging about it and engaging in online discussions about the book and the music. This is some undertaking and I have decided to read them once a week to show support and to see how they are getting along. I am also adding their site to my blog roll so you will be able to link to them directly from this site, should you so wish. If you do go there and read their blog, I should be interested to hear what you think.

What next, David, a rap album?

If I had to name one opera as my all-time favourite, my answer today might not be my answer of a year ago, nor necessarily my answer next week. At any given time I have two or three operas which vie for the position of primus inter pares. Mozart's Don Giovanni is always in that top three, and so I was delighted when Portland Opera mounted a production of this Mozart masterpiece in their 2005-2006 season. The name role in this production was played by David Pittsinger, who made a truly spectacular Don and, almost overnight, I became a fan of his work. It pleased me greatly, therefore, when he received rave reviews for his role as Angelotti in the recent Met production of Tosca (yes, that one. The one there was so much fuss about!) David has now secured his place on the Met stage with his current role as the ghost of Hamlet's father in the opera by Frenchman Ambroise Thomas, based on the Shakespeare play. While I wouldn't go so far as to say it is but loosely based, it doesn't slavishly follow the bard's play - for instance, Hamlet doesn't die at the end (as one of my readers pointed out, Ophelia does die, so this cannot be called a 'happy ending'.) As if trying to maintain a successful career as an opera singer were not a big enough undertaking, David Pittsinger is combining his time at the Met with appearances at the nearby Lincoln Center Theater in the role of Emile de Becque in a revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical South Pacific! While there is precedent for an opera star singing this role - operatic bass Ezio Pinza originated the role, I don't think there is any history of a singer performing the role of Emile concurrently with singing a dramatic role at the Met. David seems to be taking it in his stride as this article in the New York Times can attest. While there are, as far as I know, no plans to broadcast a performance of South Pacific, those of us who go to next Saturdays' Met HD transmission will get to see him in Hamlet. David's picture in his Hamlet role appears at the head of this post.

Idomeneo

Just the other day I came across this clip of Ramon Vargas singing Fuor del mar from Mozart's Idomeneo. This may very well be the greatest account of this aria on record.

I have a wonderful story to tell you about a production of Idomeneo that took place in England in 1969 but I think it warrants a blog post all of its own so watch this space and in a week or two I'll tell you all about it.

Life imitates art imitates life, huh?

Needles to say, I found this headline irresistible:

An opera singer is suspected of murdering her wealthy husband then using a double to assume his identity to claim his £5 million estate in a case detectives claim is "straight out of a Hitchcock film".

And here is the full article in England's Daily Telegraph. It reads more like Puccini than Hitchcock to me but either way, she was real dumb!

In other 'They-should-make-an-opera-out-of-that'news, in its 2011 season, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden is to stage an opera based on the life of Anna Nicole Smith. Now, normally, I am not really queasy about this stuff, but somehow this entire project seems cruel, exploitive and just plain wrong! What do you think?

And another thing...

While on the subject of just-plain-wrong, NBC are re-making The Rockford Files. Just plain wrong? No. An outrage! There are some things you just don't mess with: Charlie Chaplin - and only he - is permitted to make bread rolls dance, Orson Welles will forever be Citizen Kane, and James Garner, was, is and forever will be, Jim Rockford. And does NBC seriously believe that any actor other than Noah Beery Jr can possible play the essential role of Rocky, Rockford's dad? What are they insane??(okay, not a fair question.) Write your Congressional representative about this immediately! Rise up and be heard!!

Have a happy and productive week.

Regarding the Taruskin, I got

Submitted by Bob (not verified) on Thu, 03/25/2010 - 10:17.

Regarding the Taruskin, I got a little sidetracked in the 14th century - a dark, lonely, and rather inhospitable place for an opera lover - but am slowly making my way back into it.

Good luck! Does it deserve

Submitted by operaman on Thu, 03/25/2010 - 11:15.

Good luck! Does it deserve all the plaudits it received?

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Regarding the Taruskin, I got

Good luck! Does it deserve