August....

And no sooner are we enjoying Portland's balmy clime than the newspapers and stores tell us it's time to prepare for the kids to return to school!  You know what that means, don't you? Any time now it's gonna be Jingle Bells time.  I do so wish that manufacturers and vendors weren't constantly trying to hurry us to some event still months away.  I caught the trailer of a movie this week and that movie isn't being released until March 2009!  It's not as though I can buy tickets for that now even if I wished to.  Waddya say we slow down, take a deep breath and enjoy what is here with us right now?  I am so not ready to be done with Summer yet.  The picture above was taken at last week's Farmers' Market.

Are composers and librettists running out of subjects to write operas about?  The day was - and not that long ago - when if you mentioned the word 'opera' to someone that word immediately conjured up some image in their head.  A fat lady wearing a hat with horns on it, perhaps.  Or another fat lady who got tuberculosis but managed not to lose heaps of weight and could still sing rather thabn cough her lungs out.  In either event, the plot boiled down to this:  soprano has no lover; soprano finds tenor and immediately falls in love with him 'cos, hey, who falls in love with a bass?  Happiness of soprano and tenor is short-lived because either the gods hate them or the evil and jealous bass kills one or both of them or soprano dies of terrible disease leaving tenor to mourn.  Curtain. Loud applause.  In the present day it would seem that those responsible for writing new operas are feeling those scenarios are played-out.  So now when we hear the word opera we get to think Jewish-tourist-on-hijacked-cruise-liner-gets-tipped-overboard-in-his-wheelchair-by-terrorist(Death of Klinghoffer) or US-President-hated-at-home-travels-across-globe-trying-to-find-someone-to-like-him (Nixon In China) or What-the-? (Jerry Springer, The Opera).  And now there is to be an adaptation of Louisa M. Alcott's Little Women.  I found the book turgid and the musical made me want to vomit/throw stuff at the stage - can't wait for the opera!

All of which brings me to this week's special treat.  You get to submit to Operaman your suggestion for a topic, plot or title for a new opera.  The winner, to be decided by me - and the judge's decision is final and un-appealable - will be mentioned here and we shall all laugh and say how clever you are.  How's that for a prize?  Here are some subjects already in the works.  The text isn't very clear I'm afraid.  Squint a bit and you should be able to read it:

In preparation for Portland Opera's production of The Turn of The Screw I have begun for the very first time to read some Henry James.  I started with The Portrait of a Lady as recommended by Holly, my literary guru.  I loved every minute of it with the possible exception of the very end which seemed to be in the style of: "And then a truck came round the corner and ran him over. The End".  Then I went online to see what others thought and was surprised to find that many people found the book un-readably boring.  It seems to be more beloved of academics and critics than of readers.  Be that as it may.  I plan to read The Bostonians this week and then move on to Screw.  Perhaps I shall also read Melville's Billy Budd another work of literature which made a great opera (Britten again).  This is being produced at Santa Fe this Summer.  Here's Anthony Tommasini's review.

A couple of weeks ago a comment was left on Operaman by Bob in which he wrote of Ralph Vaughan Williams.  I urge you to read it.  Then you may wish to proceed to this excellent article on Wikipedia.  Vaughan Williams (and it's pronounced 'Rafe' by the way - same as it is with the actor Ralph Feinnes) died 50 years ago this month.  As Bob mentions renowned film maker Tony Palmer has produced a documentary in celebration of RVW's life.  It is receiving rave reviews and I hope to see it soon.  Apparently Palmer tried to sell the idea of his film to the BBC, RVW being a very important British composer and all.  Palmer said he received an extraordinary rejection letter from a BBC commissioning editor explaining that, 'having looked at our own activity via the lens of find, play & share', it had been decided the film did not fit with 'the new vision for [BBC] Vision'.Bizarrely, The letter ended with this priceless sentence: 'But good luck with the project, and do let me know if Mr. V. Williams has an important premiere in the future as this findability might allow us to reconsider.'   Isn't there some saying about prophet's not being recognised in their own land or something?

Obviously someone at the BBC has heard of Vaughan Williams as on the actual anniversary of his death there will be a Promenade Concert dedicated to his works, including the Variations on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, of which Bob wrote.  Earlier this week I heard a broadcast of his Symphony Number 4.  Ravel said of RVW that he was the only one of his pupils "who does not write my music". He didn't write anyone else's music either and that originality is very striking and reminds one that he really was a major British composer.  So thank you for bringing his name to my attention, Bob.

You may recall that some months ago I wrote about attending a performance of Fidelio given by the Willamette Concert Opera.  Some of you will also know that one of the founders of that organisation Ralph Wells who had suffered from a brain tumour and stroke died just over two weeks ago.  This is not only a personal tragedy for his wife, Elizabeth, but a loss for Portland and the all in the community who love opera.  One of the remarkable things about performances by WCO was that not only did they strive to produce events of the highest possible quality and provide dinner and refreshments to all audience members during the interval - the performances were free!  The company relied entirely upon gifts and donations to keep going.  Ralph's death has, naturally, brought a premature end to WCO's season and I understand the company has some debts.  A memorial fund has been set up in Ralph's name and I can think of no better way to retrospectively thank him for what he did than to make a gift to that fund.  If you go to the web site of Willamette Concert Opera you will find details of how you may contribute.