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“There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.”

Albert Schweitzer

” I want the head of Jokanaan on the silver platter … “

“Wait a minute! This isn’t Amahl and the Night Visitors!”

Move Over Bernard Hermann.

Hitchcock meets Wagner.Birds. Valkyries. Tippi Hedren. Magic Fire.

I guess that makes her Brunnhilde

Elaine Stricht, Ernest Borgnine, and Dean Martin. 1972. This clip really amuses me …. and I bet there was some kinda party goin on backstage!

Poor Elaine, someday her Prince will come — and go away with somebody else. Ain’t that always the way?

In this scene from Wagner’s Rheingold Girl, Lana descends into Nibelheim to retrieve the Rhinemaiden’s gold from Alberich.

She doesn’t quite make it.

Anna Moffo On The Dean Martin Show. If I weren’t gay already, I would be after watching this!

Dazzling in her Pucci Meets The Seven Veils frock, Anna Moffo is a one woman variety show — singing, dancing, and trying to get into Deano’s pants!? Well, judge for yourself. With chorus boys Martin and Lloyd Bridges in attendance, Moffo reminds us why her milkshake will always be better than ours.

“I’ll drink to that …. and one for Moffo!”

A little video editing knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Tiger Tanaka/Sharpless: Rule number one: never do anything yourself when someone else can do it for you.
James Bond/B.F. Pinkerton: And rule number two?
Tiger Tanaka/Sharpless: Rule number two: in Japan, men come first, women come second.
James Bond/B.F. Pinkerton: I just might retire here.

Dear Diary:

Today, I started the world thinking about the similiarities between Nancy Sinatra and Mirella Freni rather than their differences.

Also, I challenged people to dig a little deeper next time they encounter Puccini’s Madama Butterfly — they just might discover a Bond film lurking underneath.

Puccini | John Barry

Luigi Illica | Ian Fleming

David Belasco | Albert R. Broccoli & Harry Saltzman

Cio-Cio San as the archetypal freaky Asian Bond Girl

Suzuki, more specifically Christa Ludwig’s Suzuki, as an Oriental Rosa Klebb (or, in this case, “Helga Brandt”)

Placido Domingo’s Pinkerton, a wild-haired Cinecittà Sean Connery …. WILD-HAIRED!

[Being bathed by Tanaka's women]
Tiger Tanaka: You know what it is about you that fascinates them, don’t you? It’s the hair on your chest. Japanese men all have beautiful bare skin.
James Bond: Japanese proverb say, “Bird never make nest in bare tree.”

December 18, 1926: Leoš Janáček’s The Makropulos Case premieres in Brno, Czechoslovakia.

• Wikipedia: The Makropulos “Affair”

EMILIA MARTY, 82 YEARS YOUNG!

(but who’s counting)

Let’s celebrate!

(a) The closing 7 minutes of Janacek’s opera … sung in English rather than the original Czech (I’m not sure you’d have figured that out on your own, the translation comes across as mostly incomprehensible!)….with the legendary Anja Silja as Emila Marty.

Makropulos Case finale

(b) I’ve added a few years to Five For Fighting’s “100 Years” in order to create the perfect birthday ode for the forever-young La Marty.

I’m 15 for a moment
Caught in between 10 and 20
And I’m just dreaming
Drinking the cup my Dad pours

I’m 82 for a moment
I feel stranger than ever
But I’m on fire
Going away from Makropulos

15, there’s still time for you
Time to try and time to lose
15, there’s never a wish better than this
When you only got 300 years to live

I’m 133 for a moment
I’m still a girl, but Elian is my name
With a kid on the way
A McGregor on my mind

I’m 225 for a moment
Eugenia’s my name
A gypsy from Spain
Chasing the years of my life

15, there’s still time for you
Time to try, Time to lose yourself
Within a morning star
15, I’m all right with you
15, there’s never a wish better than this
When you only got 300 years to live

Half time goes by
Suddenly you’re wise
Another blink of an eye
267 is gone
The sun is getting high
Emilia Marty, you’re on…

I’m 299 for a moment
Dying to end these moments
And I’m just dreaming
Counting the ways back to Makropulos

15, there’s still time for you
82, I feel weird too
133, a McGregor on the way
Every decade’s a new decade.

15, there’s still time for you
Time to try and time to choose
Hey 15, there’s never a wish better than this
When you only got 300 years to live

So, I was watching Cleopatra the other day ….

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.

I come not to bury Alex North, but to praise Samuel Barber!”

give me my robe remix 1

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.

I come not to bury Liz, but to praise Leontyne!”

I’ve been up all night watching The Met Video Marathon on WHYY, Philadelphia’s local (and very fanatic-friendly) PBS station. The Divine Renee looks degorgeous as the Mistress of Ceremonies … and, mon dieu, what breath control on “Dov’e sono” (Levine brings new meaning to the term “langsam”). I can’t believe that a majority of viewers picked Domingo’s “Nessun dorma” though (eeyck). So, we’re substituting MY viewer’s choice in its place.

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A boy’s 1st Met telecast

A boy’s first diva

A boy’s first reality check, my mantra and my motto ever since

Kommt ein neuer Gott gegangen,
hingegeben sind wir stumm!

Remember, you asked.

How do you say DEGROOVY?

How do you say DEGORGEOUS?

Ooh lala lalalalala

How do you say DESSAY…

Dessay…Dessay…Dessay?

video

It’s rather late but … I just stumbled upon the perfect epitaph for Beverly Sills during my daily surfing.

“When a bubble’s gone, you don’t see it anymore with your eyes.

And when an opera is over, you don’t hear it anymore with your ears.

But you can remember it.

You can remember what bubbles look like and what operas sound like and what friends feel like.

And you’ll always have them with you in your memory.”

-Mr. Rogers

“Bubbles” 1929-2007

You posted the complete Stan Kenton Plays Wagner before I could!

(Bravo and Thank You!)

• A Long-Distance Dedication To The Divine Astrid (10.3.06)
• Kenton-Wagner (6.13.07)

Now that Oprah has come out publicly for her presidential candidate, the NYCOF feels that he should school his massive audience as well. And watching “Mary Poppins” tonight has only re-inforced this feeling. So, the NYCOF is officially endorsing the only practically perfect person vying for the Democratic presidential nomination. I’ve even composed a practically perfect anthem for us (loosely borrowed from Mrs. Banks’ “Sister Suffragette!”)

We’re clearly soldiers in petticoats
And dauntless crusaders for woman’s votes
Though we adore men individually
We agree that as a group they’re rather stupid!

Cast off the shackles of yesterday!
Shoulder to shoulder into the fray!
Our daughters’ daughters will adore us
And they’ll sing in grateful chorus
“Well done, Sister President!”

From Arkansas to Yonkers
One hears the restless cries!
From ev’ry corner of the land:
“Womankind, arise!”
Political equality and equal rights with men!
Take heart! For Bela Abzug has been clapped in irons again!

No more the meek and mild subservients we!
We’re fighting for our rights, militantly!
Never you fear!

So, cast off the shackles of yesterday!
Shoulder to shoulder into the fray!
Our daughters’ daughters will adore us
And they’ll sing in grateful chorus
“Well done! Well done!
Well done, Sister President!”

NOW! EVERYBODY SING……

“i should probably note that I AM SANE, DOWN-TO-EARTH AND INTELLIGENT, but you are probably more interested in the fact that i am 6′2″, 210, athlectic, …”

8 December 1951
London

Went with Cole to see Billy Budd at Covent Garden. Well sung, well put on, but Benjamin Britten’s music does not move me. It has the same effect on me as a Braque painting.

Today, in 1542, Mary Queen of Scots was born. So, to celebrate the anniversary of her birth, let’s listen to Joan Crawford peforming Mary of Scotland on the radio. It’s almost as ill-starred as the Stuart queen herself!

Mary of Scotland (by Maxwell Anderson)

Lux Radio Theater

May 10, 1937.

Joan Crawford as Mary, Queen of Scots

Franchot Tone as the Earl of Bothwell

Judith Anderson as Queen Elizabeth.

Here, then, is the conclusion of the broadcast — the dramatic, if fictional, confrontation between Queens Mary and Elizabeth, or rather Joan and Judith. Stay tuned following the performance, for an “interlude” with the show’s stars for the evening. And yes, that’s Cecil B. DeMille as the Master of Ceremonies.

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