gardening in the shade; uncovering an old garden

A giant hosta dominates the view through my sliding patio doors. Recently, I realized how pretty it looks on a hot summer afternoon when the wind blows the upper branches of the plane tree that overlooks the patio and causes shafts of sunlight to move over the bluish green leaves of the hosta. The effect makes me feel as though I've been transported to a glade deep in some forest.

But this little scene is surrounded by the larger scene of an overgrown patio, swamped by mud and moss after years of heavy rain and badly planned or unplanned drainage beyond the patio fence. The old patio pavers, where you can see them, are the brick red oblong type mottled with whitish chips, brittle but very attractive in appearance. Somebody many years ago laid them expertly to form a flat, even surface, but now violets, English ivy, Virginia creeper, wild grape and wild strawberry are thriving in the cracks and helping the mud and moss to bury the old patio. Sometimes this arrangement actually looks appealing in its own way, but some of it must go. I've acquired a distaste for ubiquitous English ivy, but the Virginia creeper and its native companions could be managed into elements of a planned shade garden.

After a couple of years of eyeing this area and wondering what to do with it (while working on my front patio container garden), I began a real attack on it this week. Until last year, the concrete slab right outside the patio sliders had several wooden, slatted pallet-like platforms on it to provide a dry surface when rain flooded the patio. I wanted to get rid of these as soon as I moved in a few years ago, and discovering that they were harboring a small snake last fall finally gave me the prompt I needed, and I gradually broke them up and put them in the garbage. Today, I washed the slab with a hose and discovered that not only did it go out a little further than I thought, but it had an extension formed by more of the brick red pavers. That giant hosta actually overshadows one corner of this paver arrangement, and one can see that many years ago this was a beautiful shade garden already.

Isn't finding elements of an older garden as you develop your new garden a grand occasion? Gardens take so long to develop, and you never really finish them, so I'm not inclined to uproot completely the work of the previous gardener or gardeners. Well, I've been told by a neighbor and original resident of the complex that the first owners of my unit back in the early 1980s were two men in designing professions who had a real creative bent when it came to laying out the first garden here. I'm not sure how many of the touches I'm finding in different parts of the garden are theirs, but I know some of them are. The pavers are staying, but most of them will be dug up, cleaned and moved around. In place of the pallets, I'm trying some of the pavers on top of the concrete slab for the much-needed elevated surface. Others will form a new smaller patio area or a path. The giant hosta will continue to be one of this garden's crown jewels -- its circular mass of leaves looks so dramatic when viewed from above through an upper storey window. And then on to developing my own plantings, and I think now that it will be mainly a fern garden in this shade, with a foundation of violets, Virginia creeper, wild strawberry and even some moss.

Thomas Viaduct Painting and Photography Exhibit

I don't want to forget to visit this exhibit, sponsored by the Friends of Patapsco Valley and Heritage Greenway and held at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. Time for submitting entries has passed, and the public opening is this weekend. The exhibit will run until early 2011.

Thanks again to artist Deborah Maklowski (in my blog roll) for mentioning this event earlier. One of Maklowski's pastels, a dramatic scene of Great Falls on the Potomac, now hangs in my own small collection.

movie suggestion: "The Red Shoes"

A very strong suggestion, I should say. The Washington Post's column on new DVD releases, seen in last week's Weekend section, is to be lauded for the coverage of this particular release. This is 1948's "The Red Shoes" from the Powell and Pressburger team, restored and released by the Criterion label this year. Full of Technicolor ballet effects, the movie is also famous for drawing New York cinema audiences for a two-year run. Was it the entire riveting story that speaks to anyone interested in the performing arts that drew them, or that central fantastic ballet sequence? Watching the ballet of "The Red Shoes" for my first time last night, I loved the way the theater audience is portrayed at the end of one scene in this sequence, which otherwise is seemingly performed on a boundless magic set that has no audience.

Here is David Ehrenstein's essay on "The Red Shoes" on Criterion's own blog. Rather meticulous -- and there are spoilers, if you have not seen this movie before -- but Ehrenstein makes some important connections.

Examiner Reviews Artscape Opera

The Baltimore Examiner's Patrick Klink made it to two of the operatic events at Artscape 2010. Here is part 1 of Klink's review of Baltimore Concert Opera's "The Verdi Baritone". Hit the Next button at the top of the column to see part 2 then the review of Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's concert with soprano Rachele Gilmore.

Wolf Trap on Young Singers and Happy Audiences

Wolf Trap Opera Company (Director Kim Witman writing?) recently held a barebones performance by young singers (around early twenties) in scenes from various operas. It sounds something like Opera Vivente's new Opera Vivente Academy. Wolf Trap ponders why the audience was so content.

a blogging break and delights upcoming, including a tornado

[I'm sorry, but a lot of this post disappeared after I added labels. I'll try to investigate the problem soon.]

I'm on a break from posting, unless someone sends me something that needs to be circulated. Meanwhile, I'm labeling my archived posts; reading your posts (unless you're on a brea I'm blogging in the middle of a tornado warning for Howard County. Later.

...4:00pm. It has passed, and I've let Ollie out of the basement. This blogging is getting too dangerous! There was another warning while I was blogging a few days ago, so this post really will be my last one for a while. See you at an opera house or a concert hall soon.

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My list of local opera groups with links now includes Theatre Project. LPOI mentioned above is on the list, too. Some companies have not updated their season information yet, but you can find the AOT Weill production mentioned above on Theatre Project's site.

link and opinion: on critics

Tim Smith posts on the Cleveland Plain Dealer affair and expands on the role of critics in general. (I've posted a comment, not yet approved as I write this.)

As for the business in Cleveland, in my mind I don't think it should even be happening. Performance-goers who care to read the critics (as I do) may choose to do so and make their own decisions based on what they've experienced in a performance and what is added by a critic's judgement. If a professional critic's writing really does have an impact on ticket sales, well, then the affected group needs to examine what it's doing wrong and not try to retaliate against the critic. There's more to consider here, of course, and this is an ongoing rather than complete discussion. I'll meet you in City Cafe or Lakeside Roastery for coffee shop chat....

Can an Opera Brochure be Both Good and Evil?

Opera cats looking for places to display (or find) season brochures for their favorite companies might want to take note: I'm checking out a few places in Columbia, Howard County, Maryland. Thanks very much to "Mike", proprietor of Lakeside Roastery, the sandwich and coffee shop next door to the Artists' Gallery near Columbia Town Center's Lakefront. There are now a few of Opera Vivente's fabulous 2010-2011 season brochures on the information shelves inside Lakeside Roastery. (OV's theme this season, "Good vs. Evil", is quite visible on the covers of the intricate brochure-card sets.) I thought of this place when I remembered that last year I spotted cards from the wonderful local harpist, Jacqueline Pollauf, on those shelves.

Designer Dave K. Cooper again had a hand in the highly collectible OV brochures.

Each of OV's three productions in English for the upcoming season gets a rather provocative card in the set: Donizetti's "Lucy of Lammermoor", Handel's "Rinaldo" and Puccini's first opera, "The Will-O-the-Wisps".

Columbia's Summer Opera School

The Little Patuxent Opera Institute is in session at Howard Community College here in Columbia, Maryland. A developing program is in that link, and I see that soprano Sheryl Woods gave a masterclass earlier this week. Coming up on Sunday is an aria and art song recital with free admission. One of LPOI's organizers is tenor James Bailey, who sang the village mayor in Opera Vivente's production of Britten's "Albert Herring" in spring 2009.

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I just started labeling posts. Labels on older posts are a work in progress, but you can click on the label below to see my posts about LPOI last summer.

labels

F. pushkini now has labels so that opera cats may better stalk and pounce upon archived posts in specific categories.

"Living Opera": a new collection of interviews by Joshua Jampol

The interview with Placido Domingo was the first one I read when I brought this new book home -- "Living Opera", Joshua Jampol, Oxford University Press, 2010. Isn't the book's title also the English translation of the name of a certain opera company in Baltimore? How appropriate, since Domingo's own views of updating opera closely match what I've seen Opera Vivente do on stage. Basically, if you change the century and the city of the setting, then change the language to the local language and the characters' names as needed. I found Domingo to be a Voice of Reason in later remarks concerning updating opera. There is also much at the beginning of Domingo's interview about Operalia, his own program for young singers.

Flipping through the book at Borders, I was impressed by a story about Karajan told by Ferruccio Furlanetto, and I'm looking forward to more such gems as I read the book. Fred Cohn's review in the June "Opera News" indicates that I won't be disappointed.

After Artscape; Opera Vivente Academy

[Post edited.]

Is everybody tired? And dehydrated? I made it to every day of Artscape but not to every performance I hoped to hear. If the intention of Artscape performances and publicity kiosks is to attract new patrons, I wonder how successful that was. I know that I stuck to my favorite (opera), but I did try at least one group whose main season performances I have not attended yet (Baltimore Concert Opera)...

Opera Vivente's public Artscape performance by OV Academy singers at the Brown Center flowed nicely yesterday afternoon, and I enjoyed it very much. I heard a longer version with several arias besides the scenes at the Friday dress rehearsal in OV's usual performance space. (See link below.) There was the sticky problem of young voices singing in a larger space (or an unfamiliar space?) at Sunday's Brown Center performance, and I detected some signs of strain here and there. Even the more experienced Jonathan Carle at BCO's Saturday performance was asked by Maestro DeRenzi if he felt up to singing the final aria of a generous program before he sang it. (And he did well!)

The Academy singers had great support from Diane Kinsley's piano accompaniment. On this second hearing I realized how effectively Kinsley was translating Britten's eerie score for the scene from "The Turn of the Screw" to the keyboard. A nice ending touch to the program was Laurie's Song from Aaron Copland's "The Tender Land", which dissipated the creepiness of the Britten scene.

In this inaugural year of the Academy, Opera Vivente appears to have added something special to the Baltimore opera scene and to the health of the art form beyond Baltimore. Hearing these nine young singers and seeing their acting on stage has been a wonderful experience. We look forward to future work from these singers and to next year's OV Academy. (It should be noted that the OV Academy is geared to covering many aspects of producing opera and is open to students in other areas besides singing.)

Previous post: Friday's dress rehearsal (includes a roster of the OV Academy singers)

potteryscape

Between attending performances at Artscape in Baltimore, I was on a mission to buy pottery from one or several vendors in the kiosks. I bought a few pieces from favorite local ceramic artist, Mea Rhee and her Good Elephant Pottery. Trust me, the compost pail -- I believe it's the first one Rhee has made -- was put to use immediately when I got it home. I started a compost heap recently, and I need a temporary parking spot for kitchen scraps between trips to the heap. For example, paper coffee filters with the grounds in them are going straight from the coffeemaker into this pail. Later, as I cook, there will be egg shells and some vegetable scraps, and maybe banana peels. I just hope that no visitors mistake the artful-looking covered pail for a cookie jar. They'll be in for a nice surprise!

I also found Scott Martin's pottery and met his fiancee and his mother running the kiosk today. (Sorry for missing names.) They hail from Michigan, and this is their first visit to Artscape. I was drawn to some distinctive stamp patterns in various color schemes that distinguished Martin's work. There was a lot of the cobblestone pattern that also suggests pebbles and even alligator hide, and there was one piece with a tree bark stamp. Mostly this was on various flat pieces like trays and plates, but this pottery produces a lot of vases and other vessels, too. (If my browser isn't failing me again, I can't see any pictures of this particular kind of stamped work on the website.) So I bought a couple of these small trays. One of them looks great on a black metal table next to a set of Good Elephant Pottery's fossil crab coasters bought at an earlier Artscape. Let's hope the Martins return next year to enjoy Charm City's lovely summer heat and humidity.

Other fine arts and crafts were on view in many kiosks. I had to stop somewhere, and it's mainly the pottery that interests me at this event, though I caught sight of some great photography, too. Don't ask me about food at Artscape. I cheated and kept visiting City Cafe for sustenance and refreshment.

An die Musik Plans Lieder Weekend in October

Just a quick preview in the middle of a busy weekend: Here is a link to An die Musik's October 2010 calendar. Have a look at the links on the Lieder Weekend scheduled for October 23 and 24. Performances will focus on the songs of Hugo Wolf. Not to eclipse the performers (I recognize baritone Ryan De Ryke and accompanist Daniel Schlosberg), but one of the speakers will be bass-baritone John Shirley-Quirk -- Peabody Conservatory voice faculty member and legendary opera singer known for his Britten roles.

(I already see some potential conflict with opera dates on my own calendar, but come October maybe I can attend at least part of this Lieder Weekend.)

One Stunning Verdi Baritone at BCO's Artscape Performance

A neat contrast here, I think: Nine talented young singers are giving us an overview of opera's history in the Opera Vivente contribution to Artscape. Meanwhile, this afternoon at the Baltimore Concert Opera's show, one established baritone star named Jonathan Carle held the stage in front of an enthusiastic audience to illustrate one slice, albeit a signicant one, of opera's history.

Assisted by James Harp accompanying on piano and Sarasota Opera's Victor DeRenzi giving explanations, Carle illustrated Verdi's development of opera, particularly in the baritone repertoire. Now, thanks to this program, I understand better the meaning of the phrase, "Verdi baritone" or "Verdian baritone". Well, Carle sounded just fine to us in the opening aria from Bellini's "I Puritani", which showed how baritones more or less stayed close to the middle of their range before Verdi arrived on the scene. The ensuing excerpts from Verdi's operas and finally from Leoncavallo's "Il Pagliacci" showed how much more expressive and dramatic a baritone can be (as well as how much louder, to compete with the pit orchestra as it developed through the 19th century).

Carle's singing, supported by Harp's orchestral-sounding keyboard, held us spellbound and a little choked up throughout the program. I think we opera lovers who look to modern opera and opera in the vernacular to continue the art must concede that Italy is the motherland of opera. To hear the opera scholars explain it, as DeRenzi did today, Italian society practically revolved around opera. Can we hope to have something like that here in America today? And based on new operatic writing?

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I didn't make it to the Baltimore Symphony's Artscape showing, which followed close on BCO's performance and was a few hot and humid blocks away at the Meyerhoff. Plus, I was on a pottery purchasing mission again. I also headed up to An die Musik, which I have not visited for too long. Some news about An die Musik might follow later.

Tomorrow -- Sunday, July 18 -- comes Opera Vivente's public Artscape program and an introduction to Lyric Opera of Baltimore, and also the operatic exploration for children over at Theatre Project. Note on my previous post about Opera Vivente: The OV program will retain the opera scenes but lose the arias heard at the dress rehearsal because of Artscape's time constraints.

The Voices of Opera Vivente Academy at Artscape

I made it to the dress rehearsal this afternoon, and I hope you can hear the final performance by the students of Opera Vivente Academy on Sunday afternoon at 1:00pm at Artscape...

Six weeks of OV Academy, in its first year, sharpened the singing and acting skills of nine voice students, besides preparing them for some realities of the opera world -- like media and fan attention and fast circulation of performance impressions on the Internet. The nine included tenor Lane Conklin, soprano Fabiola Echazabal, countertenor Joshua Garvey, tenor Spencer Goldberg, soprano Justine Hoerning, soprano Sarah Mahon, soprano Jess Perry, soprano Emily Riley and soprano Carolyn Walter. For Artscape, accompanied by pianist Diane Kinsley, they are performing an impressive program of arias and scenes that fairly covers the history of opera from Monteverdi to Copland. (Some of the foreign selections were sung in the original, some in English.)

Among the stand-outs in today's dress rehearsal, I really admire the light tenor of Spencer Goldberg -- superb in "Vainement, ma bien-aimee" from Edouard Lalo's "Le Roi d'Ys". (I'm not going to pretend that I have memorized that aria's title, but I recognize this lovely French item from recordings.) In a performance of a scene from Britten's "The Turn of the Screw", Goldberg as the ghostly Peter Quint reminded me a little of tenor Zachary Stains, who was Quint for Opera Vivente a few years ago (and returned for Handel's "Alcina" more recently). Goldberg also has presence and looks to match his tenor, and I heard that his acting is much better than it was at the start of the Academy.

Countertenor Joshua Garvey stood out in particular for a much improved, steadier and stronger voice since he appeared in Vivente's production of "The Coronation of Poppea" last year. He gave us a heroic effort back then but apparently was in over his head. Now you can hear him reprising his role from that opera to better effect in this recital plus performing other roles, including Miles taunted by Goldberg's Quint. I should add that Garvey also has been under the tutelage of tenor Aaron Sheehan at Towson University. Many of us know Sheehan through his performances with American Opera Theater.

There was much more to enjoy in this rich program. I'm going to close by expressing thanks and admiration for Justine Hoerning's bright, smiling Annchen in an aria from one of my favorite operas, Carl Maria von Weber's "Der Freischutz".

Thanks also to Opera Vivente director John Bowen, countertenor and OV Academy faculty member David Walker and consultant Leslie Marqua for sharing information about the Academy and Opera Vivente at our little meeting after the rehearsal.

Here is the Artscape opera schedule again, courtesy of BaltimoreOpera.com.

ADDENDUM: John Bowen has linked to this post with a note that the Artscape performance of this program will be abbreviated because of time constraints.

An die Artscape, and Nobody Likes the French

I've been all over the map in recent posts, so here's a review with links for this weekend's events in Baltimore:

Artscape's portal to various schedules

a handy guide to opera at Artscape provided by BaltimoreOpera.com

a concert of early music sponsored by An die Musik at Walters Art Museum, late on Sunday -- note that this is not part of Artscape.

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If you like your opera in French, watch for the August issue of "Opera News". My copy arrived in the mail yesterday, and it's devoted to French opera from Baroque to 20th century.

Philip Gossett to Lead Opera Workshop at Peabody, September

Thanks to Peabody Communications Office for the comment on my recent post about the Peabody Conservatory's opera season. Now I understand: While the next season hasn't appeared on the Peabody's opera page yet, the season's operatic events have been posted on the Institute's events calendar. I was just leafing through, and here is Philip Gossett leading a workshop in ornamentation in Italian opera. That's on Wednesday, September 15, 8pm. Gossett is the author of "Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera" (University of Chicago Press, 2006).

A quick look through the rest of the calendar shows a Puccini workshop and a full production run of Massenet's "Manon" later in the fall.

The wintertime Peabody Chamber Opera offering at Theatre Project, a double bill this time, shows the difference that Peabody brings to the local opera scene and the reason why I was eager to see the calendar. It's Bernstein's "Trouble in Tahiti" and something completely new to me, Lee Hoiby's "This is the Rill Speaking".

Later in the spring comes a familiar French double bill of Poulenc and Ravel short operas worth seeing again, then a Handel workshop. The Peabody events calendar has been in my margin links since I started blogging, and there's much more besides opera there.

Good Elephant Pottery at Artscape

There will be many fine artists and craft workers at Baltimore's Artscape this weekend. One of my favorite ceramic artists is Mea Rhee and her Good Elephant Pottery, and I usually buy a piece from Rhee each year. Here is the new Good Elephant Pottery blog with photos of Rhee's work. Scroll to the bottom of the new blog, and you'll find a link to the old one with more photos.

The Munsters

Amid all the opera, obscure classical composers, literature and art, I broke down and bought the complete series of "The Munsters" on DVD. There's some nostalgia in watching it again, to be sure, but now I listen to the lines with an adult point of view, and there definitely were some things going over my younger head way back then. Chemistry between actors Fred Gwynne (Herman), Al Lewis (Grandpa), Yvonne De Carlo (Lily), Butch Patrick (little Eddie) and (apologies) the various actresses who played Marilyn between the series and the later movie was brilliant. Generous special features on this Universal DVD set provide portraits of the actors behind the Munsters' make-up, besides a study in 1960's pop culture and TV.

I also don't mind hearing the music for "The Munsters" again. The composer was Jack Marshall, and his Munsters theme almost won a Grammy in 1965.

Links to Opera at Artscape; Operatic News; etc.

Surf along with Ollie the Opera Cat! ...

~~ Here's the main gate to the Artscape website. Baltimore's giant arts and crafts festival takes place next weekend, starting on Friday. If you're new to Artscape, you'll see that other types of music dominate the street scene, but here's the opera and theater schedule. Most of the opera is at MICA's very comfortable and modern Brown Center theater. One opera event is at Theatre Project, near the Meyerhoff. Oh, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's own opera event is at the Meyerhoff.

The performances at Artscape are free! This is your chance to window-shop for opera companies and other groups. Pick up any available brochures at the performances and plan some opera-going later.

One company has dropped off the Artscape schedule since I first saw it, but you can do some online window-shopping on my list of opera companies.

~~ Anne Midgette informs readers about what we've known all along about the opera scene in Baltimore. Yet in Midgette's list of Baltimore opera groups, there's another new one I did not know about: The Figaro Project (added to my list). ADDENDUM: To tell the truth, I went out and bought a copy of the Post for a closer read of Midgette's article.

~~ This weekend here in Columbia, I discovered for myself the superb Aida Bistro. It's not exactly named after the opera but after the hostess who you might meet at the door, and the hostess was named after the opera. I hope to return with some friends in the near future. Once again: With such fine and diverse dining establishments, the city of Columbia is just screaming for an opera house.

Hyperion at Daedalus

Some readers might really care about this: Daedalus Books and Music Warehouse here in Columbia has had a recent influx of CD's from Hyperion and Helios (Hyperion's budget reissue label) at Daedalus' usual generous price reduction.

Among a few other items, I came away with a 1994 album of Constant Lambert (1905-51, and new to me) by the Nash Ensemble. The Nash is joined here by tenor Philip Langridge and narrator Nigel Hawthorne (Sir Humphrey in "Yes, Prime Minister" and also mad King George).

Where, oh, where is Peabody Opera's next season calendar?

I'm keeping my eye on this web page and its current season link to see what's coming up in the Peabody Institute's opera season. We should see something happen soon -- some early news about the season and then a developing calendar with more information.

BSO: Tchaikovsky Tonight; Porgy in Concert

I'm just looking at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's online calendar to see if they have anything going on in the summer that's not at an outdoor venue with all the bugs and elements and stuff. Yes, they do! I know I'm missing the Planet Earth concerts, but tonight's Tchaikovsky concert with young soloists at the Meyerhoff is a possibility. (Repeated next weekend at the Strathmore, but that's also Artscape weekend.)

What really caught my eye on the calendar was Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" in concert conducted by the Maestra. I recognize at least one singer's name from Washington National Opera's performances of the same work. The BSO's concert performance will be on July 22 -- a "school night", but I'm planning to be there.

Here is the BSO's July calendar.

Opera Vivente's John Bowen on WBJC This Saturday; OV and OV Academy News

[Addendum: I hope there was no confusion over the timing of Bowen's interview on WBJC in relation to the LA Opera broadcast. I almost missed it myself but decided to tune in 20 or 25 minutes before 1pm, in case I was mistaken.]

I just received a note addressed to the Opera Vivente Board. (So, can you guess which local opera company invited me to join their PR effort? Cf. my previous post.) Some great news follows, mostly copied in excerpts from the board note:

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I hope that you'll be able to catch John Bowen's appearance on the WBJC Opera Preview show tomorrow, Saturday, 10 July at 1 PM on WBJC.  Hear John talk about Handel's Tamberlaine prior to the broadcast of LA Opera's production.  It's an opera that OV has produced and is, of course, close to John's heart!  (Sorry for the late notice about this, but the computer gremlins were really in control of my machinery for the last several days.)

[If you're close enough to Baltimore, you can find WBJC at 91.5 FM. The station's website is also in my margin links.]

Keep an eye out for an upcoming Anne Midgette piece on the state of opera in The Washington Post.  John was interviewed.  Ditto for a story that is to appear in the September issue of Style Magazine. [If you're a supporter of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, you probably get the Style free in the mail.]

The season brochure is at the printers and all I can say is "wow"!  You'll be blown away!  Watch the mails for your copy by the end of July.  Or see it at the opera scenes preview on 16 July.  Or at Artscape.  The website will also be changed to a whole new look over the next several weeks.
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My own note, based on this and other sources:

The Opera Vivente Academy currently in its first year already sounds like a resounding success. The buzz on Facebook indicates that the student singers in the program are finding this to be a profound and rewarding experience. We'll be hearing them at Artscape next weekend, Sunday, July 18, 1pm at MICA's Brown Center. There is a dress rehearsal on Friday, July 16, 3pm, at OV's Emmanuel Church headquarters. Sources tell me that anyone inclined to attend this rehearsal will be welcome. See Baltimore Opera Examiner, now in my resources links in the margin, for recent articles about the Academy. (In an upcoming post, I'll link or copy the schedule for all opera at Artscape again. Several local companies of note will be there.)

Opera PR Man (maybe)

I've been holding back, because the news might be premature, but I've been telling a few friends and I'll spill the beans a little here: One of the opera companies that I follow on this blog has invited me to meet and discuss being part of its new public relations committee. This is not definite yet. I think we're going to feel each other out, and I'll find out what they're envisioning. If it happens, I'll post a disclosure that I'm an "agent" for such-and-such an opera company, but this blog will continue to focus on opera in general around the region (as well as other arts as I feel inclined).

This is a more sensible, as well as exciting, venture for me than the time when a public relations company for classical musicians saw my blog and contacted me by e-mail. They invited me to interview a conductor who was working in summer opera for two different programs in the area. I discreetly declined and explained what my background or lack of background really was. After that, I added more detail to my personal profile, though I thought that it had been explicit enough before. They were still glad that I had been posting about the programs in which their conductor was involved.

More about opera PR adventures later. We're meeting in about a week.

extended playlist: a little more modern

Recent acquisitions not heard yet; just to raise awareness; comments invited, if you have heard any of these works...

~~ Kurt Weill's "Lost in the Stars" (opera or music theater?) with cast of singers and Orchestra of St. Luke's conducted by Julius Rudel. A 1993 MusicMasters release released again by Wyastone Estate in cooperation with Nimbus Records in 2009.

~~ "Cloudburst" and other choral works by Eric Whitacre (b. 1970) with Stephen Layton and Polyphony on Hyperion. The upcoming August issue of Gramophone drew my attention to American composer Whitacre, and I decided I had to listen.

~~ Menotti's one-act comic opera, "Amelia al ballo" with La Scala forces conducted by Nino Sanzogno, plus Thomas Schippers conducting an unnamed ensemble in "The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore" instrumental interludes. Recordings from the 1950's remastered on Testament in 2000 (and found in the CD bins at An die Musik in Baltimore).

not-really-otters make-up playlist

If you saw my earlier post today about seeing otters in Columbia's Lake Kittamaqundi: A better look at one of the animals this evening proved it to be a muskrat. To make up for my mistake, I'm typing a playlist of albums recently spun on my CD player... Don't ask. I just feel like this makes up in some way. Maybe I should send this to the wildlife official to whom I reported my otter sighting...

.... Claudio Abbado Conducts Mussorgsky; London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, RCA/BMG 1981. Richard Hickox is listed as the chorus master. There are some rare operatic choruses and independent choral works here and also orchestral excerpts. The original version of "Night on Bald Mountain" before Rimsky-Korsakov applied his polish to it is also in the program .... Chris Norman and friends in "The Man with the Wooden Flute: Traditional Flute Music of the British Isles, America, Quebec and Cape Breton", Dorian Recordings, 1992. The last track on this album is the lovely Welsh melody, "Suo Gam", which is heard in Spielberg's movie, "Empire of the Sun" .... Baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky in "Tchaikovsky Romances" with Ivari Ilja on piano, Delos, 2009 .... Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli in her homage to Maria Malibran (1808-1836, "the first female superstar in music history"), Decca, 2007 .... Rolf Lislevand and friends in "Diminuito", a different take on early music with a few exotic instruments in the ensemble, ECM, 2009 .... The Florestan Trio in Piano Trios by Schumann, Hyperion, recorded 1998.

Thomas Viaduct Painting and Photography Event; Artists' Gallery Featured Artist

Local artist Deborah Maklowski has posted on her blog about a call to artists and photographers to capture an image of the Patapsco Valley's historic Thomas Viaduct. Maklowski provides a link to the organizers of the event, the Friends of the Patapsco Valley and Heritage Greenway.

Maklowski is this month's featured artist at the Artists' Gallery on Columbia's Lakefront. Here's another look at Maklowski's work.

The Gallery showcases the work of a different member artist each month, and there's an opening reception on the first or second Friday (usually scheduled to avoid holiday weekends). Maklowski's reception will be this Friday, July 9, 6-8pm. Also note that the Lakeside Cafe (or Roastery) next door displays the work of Gallery members.

Columbia Town Center: Land of Fox and Otter [Muskrat]

[Thursday, July 15, from the wildlife official in Howard County Parks and Recreation: "Always nice to see wildlife you don't see every day. Just so you know though, we do have otter in Howard County and they have been seen in the Columbia area. They feed on small fish, mammals, snails, frogs, catfish, etc."]

[Monday, July 5: I had a closer look at one of the "otters" this evening. It's a muskrat. It was closer to shore and feeding on the aquatic weeds -- not something an otter would be doing. Still, muskrats are fun to see, aren't they?]

I saw the red fox for the first time in the woods nearby some time last year. Either this one or a relative was running around on frozen Lake Kittamaqundi one Saturday afternoon later in the winter. Its red coat and black legs showing up in the middle of the white expanse of ice has been etched into my memory as one of the most beautiful wintry scenes in my experience. I've seen grey fox in the neighborhood, too -- one was stalking through our condominium parking lot after midnight one night -- but it's been a while.

Now add otters [muskrats] to the wildlife attracted to our suburban manmade lake and stretches of woods. I thought I was seeing a beaver or muskrat swimming in the lake last Saturday morning on my way to Lakeside Roastery for some coffee. I was still thinking beaver or muskrat -- the obvious possibilities around here -- on Sunday morning when I returned with binoculars. Another wildlife watcher confirmed the animal was an otter. As we watched, it sometimes floated on its back, and we could see the arc of the long, powerful tail [well, that's what I thought I saw from a distance after it was suggested to me]. Then a second otter [muskrat] showed up! Probably a mating pair, they both cavorted [grazed on aquatic plants] close to each other in the water. I'll stroll by this morning again for another look, and I hope that our lakeside fireworks last night didn't scare them off.

(The rangers for the Howard County parks and recreation like to know about these things, so a friend in the Howard County Bird Club relayed my e-mail to a ranger.) [This is another mis-identification. I'm told that this wildlife management official is not really a ranger.]

report on my pre-Independence Day soiree

A note for organizing future gatherings at my place in Columbia Town Center: My "first annual party-open house-soiree" which I touted in previous posts and on Facebook went off very well yesterday. The main crowd that was here between 5 and about 8 or 9pm numbered at least 15 people, plus 2 or 3 others who dropped in for a short visit. My main floor is rather open in plan but split by a short flight of stairs, so people could spread out and enjoy a couple of different seating areas and food stations. A little sun room served as a refuge at times for people taking a break from the party for some relative seclusion. A small crowd remained until after 10pm for more party conversation.

Between the food and drink which I provided and what people brought with them, I have enough left over to do this again today, if anyone wants to come over! There is still a whole untouched cake from Touche Touchet Bakery in the fridge -- it might go to work with me and provide a treat for others, if you don't come over. The cake that was eaten last night was a layered yellow cake with raspberry filling, gorgeously decorated with a red, white and blue fireworks theme by Touche Touchet.

Throughout the party, Ollie the Wonder Cat mingled with people and thoroughly charmed them. I managed to keep him out of the food until the very end, when a lapse in vigilance allowed him to invade the dining table. Not sure what he got into -- the boiled shrimp? -- but he was licking up his chops and paws like he does whenever he has something nice.

Baltimore Examiner Examines Opera in Baltimore

A newspaper devoting a regular section to what's happening in the local opera scene attests to the liveliness of that scene in spite of hard times. The Baltimore Examiner has a new section called the Baltimore Opera Examiner written by Patrick Klink. Thanks to John Bowen's latest post on the Opera Vivente blog for leading me to this resource. Klink's latest articles are about developments at the new Opera Vivente Academy. When I can get to my other computer, I'll add the Baltimore Opera Examiner to my links. I'll try it in the blog roll first, to see if latest headlines will show up there in blog fashion, but it might have to go in the resource list.

(There are similar sections in the Examiner devoted to various aspects of the arts and entertainment. The Baltimore Examiner is part of a network of free Examiner newspapers in different cities.)

Meanwhile, the Baltimore Sun's Tim Smith continues to cover classical music, including opera, in Clef Notes (in my blog roll) and in regular articles for the Sun. Here is Smith's first post about this year's Castleton Festival.

A Cat Named Pounce (Reading More Rebecca West)

"I have never felt jealous of other women because they were more beautiful than I was, for almost any cat was far more beautiful than either me or them." ... "It is easy to say that Pounce had formed no critical judgement of the furniture, and that we ascribed wit to him only because he was lithe and quick as we imagine wit would be if it had a corporeal shape." ... [There is so much more, both silly and profound, and I don't want to spoil it for you.]

-- from "Why My Mother Was Frightened of Cats", Rebecca West, typewritten manuscript, 1956, included in "The Essential Rebecca West", Pearhouse Press, 2010.

Thanks for the comment by one of the book's organizers on my previous post about this wonderful writer. This essay-turned-short story about cats, West's own cat, Pounce, in particular, also appeared in the New York Review of Books this spring in advance of the book's release. I read the whole piece last night and understand now why West's mother was frightened of cats, and why I might be frightened even of my own cat, Ollie. If you love cats and great writing, please read this work. If you hate cats or are frightened of them -- well, reading this work possibly could change your mind about them.