The topic of The Royal Wedding briefly surfaced last night at church choir. First to clarify the idea of church choir. Almost every singer in the San Diego Opera chorus also has what's called a church gig. A church gig …

The aforementioned Josh Vincent and I set a Daddy date for the beach today. I took my two kids aged 7 and 4 to meet Josh and his 17-month-old at Powerhouse Park in Del Mar. We discussed the Pelican issue, …

After Faust closed on Sunday, I went over to have a chicken quesadilla at Downtown Johnny Brown's while Josh Vincent and Linda Piatt had beers. Josh is an opera chorister and yoga instructor. Linda is a violist in the orchestra …

I bumped into Greer Grimsley at 7-11 downtown yesterday. Greer is singing Mephistopheles in SDO's production of Faust. I asked him if he ever reads reviews. He said he waits until a show is over and then reads the reviews …

Just for fun, I listened to some of Bach's cello suites today and I must admit they're better than kale. The recording I chose is from 1936 with Pablo Casals as cellist. Casals was the preeminent cellist of the first …

A while back, I posted about "One Hit Wonders" and followed it up with "One Hit Wagner". Dmopbuff made a comment about one hit operas. It's a terrific category. The requirements are an opera that is rarely performed except for …

I've just noticed there isn't much classical music I associate with Easter. There are a few pieces for Good Friday. Both Haydn and the French composer Dubois composed pieces based on "The Seven Last Words of Christ." I wouldn't call …

The funny thing about this topic of classical music being boring is that I tend to find pop music boring. There are songs that I love such as Crazy by Patsy Kline, Sway by Dean Martin, One by U2, or …

I've been thinking about trying to understand how the non-classical music patron hears classical music. I say I've been thinking about it because I'm not sure how understanding it will help me proselytize, I mean, apologize for classical music. I …

It has come to my attention that I recently threw a musical term out there that should have been defined. The term is scherzo and I was referring to the third movement of Sibelius' 1st Symphony. In Italian, scherzo simply …

Yesterday, I was driving along the 163 toward downtown to get a costume fitting for Carmen. My seven-year-old daughter was with me and we were listening to Ravel's La Valse. As the introduction section concluded and the waltz began I …

So what of this Sibelius and his 1st Symphony sounding like Tchaikovsky's 7th? When Sibelius premiered his 1st Symphony in 1899, some critics responded that its orchestral vocabulary sounded like Tchaikovsky, and they were right. Tchaikovsky wrote six symphonies. When …

I heard that Lulu Lemon has men's apparel. As I wasn't feeling too confident about walking into a store with Lulu in the title, I grabbed a gal pal and headed over to La Jolla. As we were wandering down …

Each of us has a soundtrack to our life. There are certain pieces of music that, when we hear them, can take us right back to a specific event. Not only does the music bring back the memory it also …

Speaking of the organ. It's been a while since I heard Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3. The second and fourth movements are almost a concerto for organ and orchestra. Well, the fourth movement is. The second uses the organ as something …

With the onset of some sunshine, I took a run through Balboa Park and there it was, The Spreckels Organ Pavilion. The pavilion houses the largest outdoor pipe organ in the world--the world. The Spreckels Organ weighs over 100,000 pounds …

For the last few weeks, every morning I've had a full chorus of chirpy birds singing to their hearts' content outside my window. It's a wonderful sound and is an indication that spring is here--whatever that means to a San …

When Der Rosenkavalier opens on April 3rd, it will be interesting to see how the San Diego audience responds. Rosenkavalier is a great big ol' piece of music. The San Diego production is scheduled to run four hours, including two …

As mentioned, Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian conductor who joined the Nazi Party. In the early 1900’s, Georg von Schonerer and Karl Lueger were two politicians who were willing to manipulate anti-Semitism for their own gain. Of the two, …

I got a late start to my run the other day. I almost didn’t go but somehow ended up at Torrey Pines State Beach just after sunset. I believe that time of day is called dusk. As I got to …