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About operaman
Name
Stephen LlewellynBio
Stephen Llewellyn worked with Portland Opera for nearly four years and still produces this blog on a weekly basis. You may see him manning the Portland Opera table at the Metropolitan Opera High Definition transmissions where he enjoys chatting with like-minded Saturday morning opera fans. Do stop by and say 'hello'. He has been a barrister in Hong Kong, a professional folk singer and classically-trained tenor. He makes a mean zabaglione, and cries easily and frequently at opera performances.
Opera and Other Links
The Rest is Noise - Alex Ross of the New Yorker
What I Am Reading
In Patagonia (Bruce Chatwin)
Memoirs (Da Ponte)
The Librettist of Venice (Bolt)
Ship Fever (Andrea Barrett)
Le Grand Meaulnes (Alain-Fournier)
Beethoven. Letters, Journals and Conversations
What I am listening to as I write this week's post...
Magnum Mysterium (Lauridsen)
Nixon in China (new recording)
Vanessa (Barber)
John Martyn
Leon Redbone Christmas Album
Christmas With The Yours (Elio)
Mozart Requiem (arr. for String Quartet)
Tosca (Callas)
Till Eulenspiegel (Strauss)
I'll bet you wish you were coming with me!
"Whether the angels play only Bach praising God, I am not quite sure. I am sure, however, that en famille they play Mozart!"
(Karl Barth 1886 - 1968)
On Sunday I am driving north with a friend and fellow opera fan to Tacoma Opera for a performance of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. This is one of my all-time fave operas and I haven't seen it in many years. I'll report about it upon my return. Oh, by the way, the quotation above, usually attributed to Protestant theologian Karl Barth but this may be a mis-attribution and the saying probably first saw the light of day in her novel Results of an Accident by Vicki Baum in 1931.
Here is an unusual take on the Overture to Nozze.
The world of music waits with bated breath for the Spring 2010 release of Renée Fleming's latest album, Dark Hope. It's a cross-over album. Ugh. She sings, inter alia the music of Death Cab For Cutie. There are so many bad jokes just waiting to be told/written about that but I just don't have the time or inclination to do it. Picture of Cutie above.
Happy birthday, Antonio Vivaldi. I try not to blame you personally for all the awful versions of your Four Seasons concerti. I try. I am not always successful. I do like this:
Have a fine weekend and come back to see me on Monday. I have great news to share with you!!