New City, Same Website

I have a confession to make: I’ve never seen “History of the World, Part 1″ —until this morning. It’s the perfect pick-me-up for 7am on a hump-day (or, for our German readers, “Hump-Tag”)

“The Christians are so poor … so poor … they only have one god!

Oh, my belly is hurtin’. STOP! On second thought …

“If they’re captured, they’ll be hung”

“Not necessarily”

Ouch. STOP! No, don’t. Too hot for AMC, but not, apparently, for YouTube — and we’re glad.

“Made in Germany. You know the Germans, they make good stuff”

Ha-ha-ha. I amuse myself, and that’s all that really matters, isn’t it. If you’ve never seen the commercial for the real product, you can view it here (although, from what I read on the internet, it’s more sham than wow). I love the spokesmodel though, he amuses me.

From YouTube: an outtake from the 1961 film “The Ladies Man”

Doesn’t Jerry Lewis do a great Charlie Rose impersonation?

For the Met’s next revival of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, I think they should replace “No Word From Tom” with another neo-classical aria. After all, the Rake may not have progressed too far but Anne, you’ve come a long way baby.

“I’m gonna be the swingiest swinger you’ve ever had …. ” ( “YEE-HAW!”, a word from Tom)

As I re-rip my iTunes at a higher bit rate, nostalgia rears its rose-colored head.

1998: I meet the divine one herself backstage after an Arabella in Houston.

“To Roy, with warmest regards Renée Fleming”

Back at ya Renée, x 10. What a decade it’s been, for both of us.

Today, we are greeted by a mystery Elisabeth. Before you enter the mess Halle, however, here’s a gentle reminder: these aren’t “365 Voices I Love” or even “365 Voices I’m Particularly Fond Of”; they aren’t necessarily heavenly voices, beautiful voices, or voices of reason. They’re just voices, nodes and all.

Oh, sorry about all the orchestral prelude. Once the clip loads though, you can move the scroll-bar over to min. 1.54 and bypass it entirely –or not. After all, the orchestral prelude might be best thing you’ll hear today.

Listen “Dich teure Halle”, Tannhauser. The Mystery Elisabeth, soprano. circa 2008.

I missed yesterday’s posting, which doesn’t bode well for the remaining 150-or-so voices. Still, I’ve got an excuse. I got caught in the rain yesterday. I don’t mean Sunday’s thunderstorms either. You see, while it was raining outside, I was ‘Right As The Rain’ inside. I was spellbound the entire day by Leontyne so rare that it was simply unheard of —by me, anyway. Thanks to L’Ultimo Leontyne Fanatico for posting these audio-only clips to YouTube. I also commend the work he put into presentation. I know how time-consuming and tedious such extra effort can be, and since feedback is minimal, it may seem that all that trouble is neither noticed nor appreciated. Well, it is noticed and it is appreciated. Little things really do mean a lot — unless you’re a size queen, of course. But I digress.

One post, two days, two voices, one soprano — and well worth the delay, indeed!

“Love Walked In”, by George Gershwin. Andre Previn, piano. Leontyne Price, soprano.

“It’s Good To Have You Near Again”, composed by Andre Previn, played by Andre Previn, lyrics by … Dory Previn, or rather, the then-Mrs Previn …the 2nd one (outta five, so far –Andre needs just three more to earn his Bluebeard boyscout patch); sung flawlessly of course by Leontyne Price, the not-never-Mrs. Previn (oh, but Leontyne, there’s still time)

Aaaaah Leontyne, it is good to have you near again - as near as my nearest iTunes

“One way the company has found to serve the public at large is an annual series of free concert-opera performances in New York City parks. The first took place on June 24, 1967, at Crocheron Park, Queens, with an audience of over 35,000 seated in the grass under the stars to hear Anna Moffo as Mimi and Sandor Konya as Rodolfo in La Boheme” [Celebration: The Metropolitan Opera]

Hi All. Anyone remember as far back as the beginning of the year, when I started posting “365 Days Of Opera” …and petered out about Day 15. Well, let’s revisit the concept — with a few minor changes.

• now, I’m calling it “365 Voices”, with 1 for each day. Voices WILL be repeated during the cycle.
• to cover my a**, I’m not going to reveal the identity of the voice. Oh goody goody, a game!
• if voice is correctly identified via the comments, however, I will gladly let everyone know. So, if you guessed, and there’s no comment from me within a reasonable amount of time, then you were wrong.
• oh, and I’m picking up in the middle, obviously. We’re beginning at voice # 221, since today is the 221st day of the year. Don’t go searching for voices 1-220 that you missed, cuz they ain’t there.

I can’t promise how long I’ll stay interested this time, but I promise to try. Will you do the same? As if I really care (smirk). Let’s get goin’…

Listen Mozart Concert Aria KV577, “Giunse alfin il momento… Al desio” (circa 1992)