Re: OT: Ridin' tall on the Santiago Canyon Road (was Re: What could J4 (or WG4) do)

"James J. Gavan" <jgavandeletethis@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:tXlgg.230786$7a.163671@pd7tw1no...

> I absolutely LOVE Puccini's Madam Butterfly. Some boring bits but for the
> most part also contains some very beautiful melodies. So one night I'm
> watching PBS where they did three one-acts by Puccini. What an absolute
> bore - there was only one decent melody in the three acts. Don't know it's
> name in Italian, but in English comes across as "Oh my beloved
> Father.....".

Most of Puccini's pretty nice stuff.  The one-acts you mention may have been
intended to be treated as a unit (-- "Il Trittico", consisting of "Il
Tabarro", "Suor Angelica", and "Gianni Schicchi").  Often one or more of
them will pair with one or the other of "Cav and Pag" (Mascagni's
"Cavalerria Rusticana" and Leoncavallo's "I Pagliacci").  A lot of his plots
are a little implausible (Butterfly's one), but the music is gorgeous, I
think.  My personal favorite is Turandot; it's a pity he never finished it.


> I think the name Philip Glass rings a remote bell. Time Magazine grabs TV
> for hour long stretches offering a set of say 10 DVDs plus a bonus of two
> freebies for around #140 for the twelve. I'm often so tempted.

I am not a fan of Philip Glass' works.  He seems to be devoted to repeating
the same thing over and over and over and over and over again with only the
minutest variations, and the game seems to be to figure out what changed
between the fourth time you heard the tume and the fifty-seventh.  If you've
ever sat through Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" with its several variations on
"O sacred head surrounded", take out everything but those chorales and throw
it away, and multiply it by about fifty, you've got the essence of Philip
Glass.  When I hear Philip Glass -- and for that matter when I hear the
Matthew -- all I can think of is "Alright, already.  We got your point.  May
we please move on?"  Alas, ...

-Chuck Stevens