Classical Music
I’m spending some time in the Santa Cruz mountains and a redwood forest. A redwood forest is often compared to a cathedral and for good reason. I must admit there is something of a sacred ...
There are a multitude of stories currently presenting the idea that Beethoven was black. The claim is that he had a Moorish background through his mother’s side. His mother’s family came from Flanders which was ...
Since Father’s Day is coming up, let’s look at some operatic fathers and decide if they deserve a Father’s Day card or not. First up is Rigoletto from Verdi’s Rigoletto. We see Rigoletto as a ...
I’ve been sitting in on some voice lessons at the studio of a good friend. In the course of the conversation between lessons, the topic of sports performance came up, and then we realized the ...
What could an early 20th Century British composer and a 19th century American poet possibly have to say about the context of police brutality in early 21st Century America? First of all, I am growing ...
I wish I could find the wherewithal to be a fan of classical music in the age of streaming. For a while I watched out of obligation. Obligation turned to watching out of guilt and ...
Summer classical music in San Diego has followed a glorious pattern for as long as most of us can remember. The Mainly Mozart Festival welcomes the summer in June. The San Diego Symphony Summer Bayside ...
“To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist.” – Robert Schumann “Art is whatever you can get away with.” – John Cage With no concerts to ...
During the shelter-in-place era, I’ve been covering a lot of ground, relative to my normal consumption, in the realm of high culture. I’ve read books which I’ve been putting off for years such as Death ...
There are some real concerns out there regarding the future of many classical music organizations. I don’t want to come off as unsympathetic, but the destruction of these organizations by the COVID-19 situation won’t mean ...
There’s one thing we all have in common at this time. We are all required to spend a lot of time at home. All this seclusion got me to thinking about music which I associate ...
A few weeks ago I outlined some binge listening plans. I’ve completed two of them. The first was all 32 of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas. The second was a survey of Baroque music. The Beethoven took ...
“As we all know very well, music has a unique power to heal the human soul. In music, there are no boundaries of language or limits of understanding." Rafael Payare, music director, San Diego Symphony. ...
As Shelter in Place is extended to at least the end of April, I mourn the loss of some potentially fantastic concerts in San Diego. To replace those experiences, I’m considering a few listening projects ...
When, in an opera, the staging, acting, and costumes, are all misguided to bad, what’s left? The singing? What if the singing is just okay? What’s left is The Metropolitan Opera’s production of Wagner’s Das ...
There’s Covid-19 and then there’s the Black Death. The height of the Black Death was between the years of 1347-1351. Estimates for the number of deaths in, during the Black Death, range to 200 million. ...