New City, Same Website

This is one of those Holy Grail recordings: “Our Garden Of Hymns”, Marilyn Horne & Tennessee Ernie Ford sing all those good ole Southern Baptist hymns you remember from your youth. Well, that I remember, anyways. The two hymns included here are special to me. You see, they are the ones that my grandmother and I sang at all the funerals of our many octagenarian distant cousins, once removed. What is truly frightening, however, is that I can still remember … and sing … the harmony. And, those of you who only know Tennessee Ernie Ford from “I Love Lucy” are in for a treat —Tennessee Ernie had a beautiful singing voice. Who knew? Well, I did. As “Our Garden of Hymns” liner notes inform us:

Religious inspiration is in itself magnificent.

Artistic accomplishment is in itself enlightening.

An inspired combination of the two is an all-too-rare experience in what is genuinely thrilling.

Just such an experience is…

Marilyn Horne and Tennessee Ernie Ford

whispering “Whispering Hope”

garden “In The Garden”

Kids …. you give something to one, and you gotta give it to the other one too. For example …

Calvin, the step-cat, (aka “Big Papa”, “The George Clooney Of Pussycats”) was not about to allow Boo to become Martha Stewart’s next feline spokesmodel without a cat-fight (see “Guten Abend, Pussycat“). In an unprecedented move, he sprawled across our new Martha Stewart comforter and demanded equal air-time, or else.

I hate to give Julie Taymor any ideas but … Amii Stewart/Natalie Dessay as Queen Of The Psychedelics really speaks to me. Or, maybe, it’s those ’shrooms I just ingested. Hmmm. Let’s hope so. Knock wood.

discoqueen

Ain’t No La Sonnambulas In This House! Bootylicious (”Boo”), my youngest, on our new Martha Stewart comforter.

lullaby Brahms “Lullaby”. Christa Ludwig. 1971.

To the hottie around the corner on Lombard Street who waxes “Daddy’s” tricked-out BMW convertible every Friday night with next-to-nothin on. God Bless America.

wash You might not ever get rich
But let me tell ya it’s better that diggin’ a ditch.
There ain’t no tellin’ who ya might meet.
A movie star or maybe even an Opera Fanatique.

Next week, I’ll ask to take a picture.

And the boss don’t mind sometimes if ya act a fool.

We only hope that the Divine Renee includes this song on her next album, “The Funky Heart”

And Decca don’t mind sometimes if ya act a fool.

“People are really nice in Philadelphia, unless you’re in a car”

-10th/Spruce

He was a mighty raucous Manrico, that’s who.

trova “Di quella pira” (with encore, presumably). Giovanni Consiglio, tenor.

Warning: This Trovatore comes from that enigmatic opera house known as “Pennsylvania”. Upon closer inspection however I feel safe in placing this performance at one of those bars down on Locust Street, with a bunch of drunken dock workers mumming the male chorus. In short, it was a rough-and-ready night of 1,000 troubadours, circa 1966.

If you’d like to enlighten yourself re: Giovanni Consiglio (as, I admit, I had to), click on the image below to link to a very informative blog article. And, yes, there IS a Philly connection!

I was at the local Borders yesterday when I noticed that Catherine Malfitano was on the cover of the new “Rough Guide To Opera” …. and I thought, “How appropriate”

Recital

Viki Lawrence does a flawless Evelyn Lear.

In his clever comment to my “Pieta (1977)” post, fellow fanatic “Momentous” wonders if Maria Guleghina is, in fact, Wonder Woman. While La Guleghina’s voice is surely a thing of wonder, considering everything she’s put it through, I’m not sure Maria meets the secondary requirement for “Wonder Woman” status — big boobies (my father, after all, used to call my favorite childhood television show “Wonder Boobs”). I’m not saying Guleghina ain’t stacked, I’m just saying that I have no personal experience with them either way. There is, however, another singer who most certainly meets both wondrous requirements.

Since, for some inexplicable reason, gay men love big tits, we present a 90 second ode to that soprano’s bazookas.

Wonder Woman

Leona Mitchell, Wonder (Bra) Woman

Leona’s “O patria mia” on YouTube (from whence the clip above came) is pretty wondrous too, except for a Whitney Houston-esque final high c (but, at least, she makes it, unlike some, more famous, others).

Attention Opera Fans! Look for a cameo appearance by Dame Gwyneth Jones in the new Sex And The City movie. Dame Gwyneth Jones plays the mother of Samantha Jones, aka Kim Cattrall

The Pietà (Italian for “pity”) is a subject in Christian art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus … As such, it is a particular form of the devotional theme of Our Lady of Sorrows, and also a scene from the Passion of Christ and is the 13th of the Stations of the Cross.-Wikipedia

The most famous Pietà is Michelangelo’s Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. His interpretation is different from most earlier pietà … The Virgin is also unusually youthful, and in repose, rather than the older, sorrowing Mary of most pietàs -Wikipedia

This reminds me of that old Bette Davis movie where she’s the good twin AND the bad twin, except that here it’s Grace Bumbry who plays both the good & the bad sister! Bravii to La Grazia!

Oh, btw, I think I’m re-doing my boudoir in Early XIIIth Dynasty . Love the chaise lounge.

Hello again, children. Sorry for my silence but I’ve had the Kaiserin of all sinus infections. Today is the first day in a while I’ve even felt like listening to opera (so you know it was bad). Fortunately, there’s nothing like some good Leonie to scare the phleghm right outta ya. So, let me share. This, btw, is one of my favorite moments in all of opera: you don’t have to know the story of FROSH, you can just tell by the music that the Schattens about to hit the fan! Remember, listen until the very end of the clip!

Leonie \”Will Nicht!\” Leonie Rysanek IS The Woman Without A Sinus Infection!

A Vega$ Double-Bill From 30 Years Ago

Poor Bernadette Peters. Such talent wasted laboring under the likes of Bob Newhart.

I’m very grateful to Renee Fleming for many things, one of which is introducing me to “Song Of Love”, MGM’s late ’40’s Robert Schumann biopic starring, among others, Katharine Hepburn as Clara Schumann. [Continue reading →]