Midweek Madness: An operatic episode from 'What's My Line?'
It's almost too late for my Midweek Madness featurette -- sorry for the delay. I have visions of you clicking endlessly, pitifully, perhaps even tearfully onto the site in hopes of receiving this little weekly jolt of diversion.
Dry those tears. Here, at last, is the entertainment you seek.
I decided on the mystery guest portion from an episode of the vintage TV show "What's My Line?" It's great to see ...
Leontyne Price facing the panel and having so much fun.
This aired just after the now famous disaster of Samuel Barber's "Antony and Cleopatra" that opened the Metropolitan Opera's Lincoln Center home. Not that Miss Price was a disaster -- this goddess could never disappoint -- but the opera was deemed a massive flop. (That verdict has shifted over the years, at least to a degree.)
Enjoy:
The Kennedy Center turns 40 in September (I'm always happy to bore anyone with my memories of attending the very first public performance there -- at an impossibly young age, needless to say). 
The music season is getting closer, which seems as good an occasion as any for addressing the issue of dressing -- what classical musicians wear onstage. 
Switching to less formal wear for less formal music makes a certain sense -- and I don't just mean pops or casual concerts, where that is already done, but, say, a program heavy on the Gershwin, Copland, or Glass. Matching the attire to the music at hand might be gimmicky, but it could hit the right visual note, too. 
1) Mahler's Symphony No. 2, the "Resurrection"; Baltimore Symphony, Sept.15-17. 
One of the best things about Marin Alsop's tenure with the BSO is her adventurous programming. A case in point this season is a theatrical presentation of Arthur Honegger's 1935 oratorio about Joan of Arc, a fascinating, prismatic work. 
If you're still in a celebratory, good-vibe mood after marking Leonard Bernstein's birthday this week -- and who isn't? (especially if you viewed 
These have been tough times for arts groups; they can be even tougher on niche groups. 
An element of that theme will be particularly evident on Nov. 1, when violinist Miranda Cuckson and pianist Blair McMillen perform music by the challenging composer Michael Hersch, who is on the Peabody faculty. 
Darthea Redding Kerr, who died last week from cancer at the age of 61, was a valued member of the administrative staffs of our region's two major orchestras. 
Like so many artsy types, I spend a good deal of most Sunday mornings poring through the New York Times. It's what one does, after all.
If I were a contestant on a variant of the old game show "Name That Tune," perhaps called something along the lines of "Name the Fewest Notes in a Performance That Totally Blew You Away," I could start with two. 
Not surprisingly, when it comes to orchestral thought, this is pretty much a Baltimore Symphony-centric area. It's got the biggest budget, the most musicians, the most concerts, the most famous music director, etc. 
That single program also included an excerpt from John Adams' recent opera "Doctor Atomic" and even Radiohead's "Harry Patch (In Memory Of)." A lot of big-league orchestras would never risk putting such an assortment, or even such a weighty philosophical topic, in front of their subscribers. 
One more example. 
The final piece in Center Stage's 2011-2012 season has been put in place. 
There must be innumerable stories of suffering and loss from the London riots, so it may seem unfair to single any of them out. 
Kwame Kwei-Armah has only just settled into Baltimore and his tenure as artistic director of Center Stage. "It's head down and running to whichever meeting is next," he said Thursday. 
The children are now safe in a London suburb, but Kwei-Armah has not stopped thinking about what has been going on there. The latest news of a calmer situation has brought welcome relief. 
When it comes to opera in the summertime around this region, the most notable action is to be found in Northern Virginia. 
Every staging of "Hoffmann" raises the question of which edition of the score to use. The "integral edition" painstakingly compiled by Michael Kaye and Jean-Christophe Keck is cited as the basis for the Wolf Trap production, but, it is not, as far as I can tell, entirely faithful to that ground-breaking scholarship. 
Classical concerts are few and far between in Baltimore this month, so this one commands extra attention: 
It seemed fitting that the air was so hot and heavy, with dark clouds passing low in the sky, as the audience arrived for a performance of Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" at the Kennedy Center Saturday night. 
Of course, the cast helps, too. The Sydney company offers an impressive demonstration of true ensemble work, as was the case when the troupe paid a memorable visit to the Kennedy Center in 2009 with "A Streetcar Named Desire." 
Last year, I wrote a little something about 
File this under Not Surprising, But Disappointing. 
I loved the music of Philip Glass long before moving to his native city, but I get an extra kick out of it living here, knowing that this is where he grew up. 
I couldn't tear myself away from the recording of NYU Steel playing a version of Glass' Etudes for Piano (Nos. 1-10) on another Orange Mountain Music release. 
It's once again that time of year when I whine about the lack of significant, substantive music in Baltimore during the long summer months. 
Well, here's a little something to consider. Back in the '90s, the now sadly extinct Florida Philharmonic and its then-music director James Judd launched a summer enterprise in Fort Lauderdale called Beethoven by the Beach. 
