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Martin
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« Reply #30 on: 17:19:38, 21-05-2008 » |
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Thanks to Stanley for his continuing reminiscences. The poetry is lovely - I am no good... is especially touching, I thought. Opera Notes less so perhaps, the rhyming reminding me - in style, but not length - more of Ogden Nash. The telegrams are wonderful. I shall have to read back through the thread again.
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Stanley Stewart
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« Reply #31 on: 17:59:39, 21-05-2008 » |
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Thank you, Martin. I prefer to blather away using vignette, as my Welcoming Blog could only add that I use my real name; and my avatar is accurate. The rest is detail.
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #32 on: 09:02:48, 22-05-2008 » |
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I'll say this here, rather than clog up the poetry thread.
At the considerable risk of being one of the terribly boring cultured people Coward mocked, the libretti of Norma and Rigoletto are wonderful. I will cheerfully grant a lot of C19 plots are tosh, and frankly I love 'em for it. But those two have profoundly moving and unconventional central characters presented in wonderful music.
I seem to remember a New Statesman competition to yoke together unlikely artistic figures:
Dante and Noel Coward - The Too, Too Divine Comedy.
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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Stanley Stewart
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« Reply #33 on: 10:58:03, 22-05-2008 » |
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Y'know, DB, I rather feel that Noel Coward would agree with you.  |
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #34 on: 11:38:38, 22-05-2008 » |
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the libretti of Norma and Rigoletto are wonderful. I can cope with Rigoletto right up until ...which I'm afraid just can't bear the weight it needs to for me.  My problem, I know. |
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #35 on: 11:46:30, 22-05-2008 » |
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Even in my lifetime, Verdi's reputation has altered almost beyond recognition.
While he is now a Great Composer, fifty years ago I believe he was three in the middle and two at the end (and Don Carlos was not there.) I remember at university booking up to see the Welsh Opera in Don Carlos, and a musically educated friend saying, "O they're doing something really unusual."
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #36 on: 11:54:10, 22-05-2008 » |
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... quite so, Don B. I remember being told at school that Verdi was "trash", by a music teacher who got all misty-eyed about Dyson and Parry  |
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At every one of these [classical] concerts in England you will find rows of weary people who are there, not because they really like classical music, but because they think they ought to like it. (Shaw, Don Juan in Hell)
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Stanley Stewart
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« Reply #37 on: 12:16:34, 22-05-2008 » |
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"He jests at scars that never felt a wound" (Romeo)
You came to mind, yesterday, PW. During an interminable sort-out, I came across a Times (full size page of old) repro, dated Monday, August 2, 1976, 5p, which celebrated 'The Richard Wagner Non Stop Ring Show at Theatre Museum, Room 132, V & A Museum, South Kensington, London SW7. I've searched for this over several years to match the repro of Wagner at Bayreuth at the same Exhibition. Ah, seems like yesterday.
Back to the thread. Noel Coward on leaving Drury Lane Theatre after the first night of Lerner and Loewe's "Camelot" was asked for a soundbite. "Parsifal" without the jokes".
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #38 on: 12:25:43, 22-05-2008 » |
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Come on Stanley: give us the musical Gone With the Wind soundbite regarding the incontinent steed and the incessantly irritating tot that was Bonnie Langford. Please.
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Stanley Stewart
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« Reply #39 on: 13:54:49, 22-05-2008 » |
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AAAGH! How did you guess, Ron? "If they'd stuck that little brat up the donkey's arse, they'd have solved two problems in one!" |
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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #40 on: 14:03:13, 22-05-2008 » |
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You came to mind, yesterday, PW. During an interminable sort-out, I came across a Times (full size page of old) repro, dated Monday, August 2, 1976, 5p, which celebrated 'The Richard Wagner Non Stop Ring Show at Theatre Museum, Room 132, V & A Museum, South Kensington, London SW7. I've searched for this over several years to match the repro of Wagner at Bayreuth at the same Exhibition. Ah, seems like yesterday.
Back to the thread. Noel Coward on leaving Drury Lane Theatre after the first night of Lerner and Loewe's "Camelot" was asked for a soundbite. "Parsifal" without the jokes".
Thank you for that, Stanley. I'd heard that there was such a thing at Bayreuth but not at the V and A. Your quote reminds me of the story Neville Cardus tells in his autobiography of attending a less-than-riveting performance of Parsifal with Samuel Langford, his predecessor as music critic of the Manchester Guardian: "Amfortas is the wisest man here tonight" whispered Langford at one point in the performance. "He's brought his bed with him." |
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At every one of these [classical] concerts in England you will find rows of weary people who are there, not because they really like classical music, but because they think they ought to like it. (Shaw, Don Juan in Hell)
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Stanley Stewart
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« Reply #41 on: 11:51:53, 02-06-2008 » |
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My Noel Coward collection enhanced by the arrival of a remastered 1951 studio recording of "Conversation Piece", conducted by Lehman Engel. Coward again heads the cast with diva Lily Pons and a young Richard Burton in support. The setting is Regency Brighton and my other recording features Yvonne Printemps singing an exquisite 'I'll Follow my Secret Heart', in 1934. The new recording, produced by Must-close-saturday-co.uk, will have to wait a day or two for a spin as I'm still under the influence of 'The Minotaur'.  |
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