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We happened upon this Stanford site, Opera for Everyone, and thought perhaps, our audience might like to become an opera audience, if you haven't already:

Welcome to the OperaGlass home of Opera for Everyone:

This site enables opera companies and educators to access and download free digital versions of the Opera for Everyone series of CDs and the Teaching Manual for teaching purposes. Our objective is to have these materials used to introduce everyone to opera — the remarkable combination of music, drama, dance and the visual arts.

Opera for Everyone provides an excellent opportunity for students and educators alike to become familiar with the background and music of four classic operas — each related to a different important period of opera: Rossini's The Barber of Seville (1816); Verdi's La Traviata (1853); Bizet's Carmen (1875); and Puccini's Madama Butterfly (1904).

Ira Ross begins each CD with an introduction to the opera and to the overture. He then describes the action of the first major episode and suggests what to listen for in the related music. This is followed by the music. This sequence is repeated for each additional major episode in the opera: narration — music — etc.

Chicago Jazz Archive

"The archive, celebrating its 25th [in 2001] anniversary this year, spans nearly a century of Dixieland, swing, bebop, avant-garde, fusion, and other siblings of 'traditional' jazz. Its holdings range from 1905 piano sheet music to photos and recordings of current performers."

The Cab Calloway Jive Dictionary is an online link from the archive that provides a rich and colorful look at this form of speech:

Whaddya say, gate? Are you in the know, or are you a solid bringer-downer? — from Cab Calloways' hit song, 'Are you Hep to the Jive?'

Here's the stone bible for you to collar that apple trickeration that will truly get your boots on! Say all you cats and chicks, don't be icky. Bust your conk on this mess and you'll be wailin' with the mellows.

Articles

Liz Flaherty, A Voice Like Starlight: In less than three minutes, with words that only covered a few pages, the songwriter and the performing artist had combined forces to share a story it would take me an entire book to tell

Roberta McReynolds, Downloading a Headache: I slipped the ear-buds in and selected gentle music from a favored genre. I had made friends with my iPod and conquered iTunes within twelve days. My eyes closed in pure contentment. It lasted about a minute before my cat spotted the fascinating wires sticking out of my ears

Chamber Music Notes

The notes written by Joseph Way for the Sierra Chamber Society are both informative and witty. They're poured over by the audience before, after and, yes, during the performances.

Fortunately, they're available by season at the Sierra site for your own pouring-over. A few excerpts:

Schulhoff allied himself with the Dada art movement, of the post-WWI era, dedicating a work, Pittoresken, to the artist George Grosz. One of his other Dada-inspired compositions, In Futurum, contains, as its middle movement, only a rest — marked "with feeling." In yet another work, Sonata Erotica, designated "for Gentlemen only," Schulhoff composed a piece for female voice, with obbligato chamber pot. The work was to evoke a woman having an orgasm, and more. (Today, a work such as this would have probably earned him a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, as long as he lost the "Gentlemen business"). Yes, the work has been recorded — more than once.

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Märchenerzählungen for clarinet, viola, and piano Op. 132 (1853)

The above quote is a translation (not mine, by the way) of the German phrase “Erzähl mir keine Märchen” — “tell me no tales.” And so, the 18 letter boa constrictor-of-a-word that is the title of Schumann’s work translates as Fairy Tale Narrations, or Narratives, thus distinguishing them from Schumann’s Märchenbilder, Fairy Tale Pictures. Schumann was always good with titles. This set of four pieces for clarinet, viola and piano is the culmination of a group of chamber works featuring piano, paired with such instruments as French horn, oboe, cello, and viola. Schumann’s choice of viola, clarinet and piano was most likely inspired by the instrumentation Mozart’s famous
Kegelstatt Trio in E Flat K. 498. (That’s the piece that, so the story goes, was written in a bowling alley during an afternoon of “skittles” — the Austrian equivalent of bowling. Did you ever see an oyster bowl?)

Luigi Boccherini (1743 -1805)
Quintet for Guitar & Strings in D Major "Fandango," G.448

“Boccherini is the wife of Haydn.” This unfortunately oft-quoted saying, attributed to the violinist Puppo (now there’s a name) is a double slam against Boccherini. While the good Puppo may have only meant that Boccherini is the “yin” to Haydn’s “yang,” the phrase makes Boccherini’s music seem to be merely derivative of Haydn. The second slam is that Haydn despised his wife, a termagant, by all accounts.

Dohnányi never did succeed in achieving a personal identity in his music. He never allowed himself to be influenced by the new ideas and techniques and idioms springing up all around him. Even on those less frequent occasions when he derived his materials from Hungarian folk music — following the lead of his celebrated compatriots, Bartók and Kodály — his music never assumed a distinguished personality. He simply never outgrew his love for German postromanticism; and by the same token he never quite developed from an interesting and charming composer into a great one. — David Ewen

The above rather sour-sounding estimations would probably not lead the reader to believe that Dohnányi was probably the foremost figure in the musical life of Hungary in the opening decades of the Twentieth Century. Bela Bartók and Zoltán Kodaly were small potatoes in comparison. (That would make Dohnányi the big potato, which in itself is no small honor). Dohnányi achieved fame, while yet a teenager, with the composition of his Piano Quintet Op.1 which was greatly admired by Brahms himself; in no small measure because it sounds like his own music. (The old curmudgeon seems to have had an affinity for the works of younger composers, Dvorák and Zemlinsky to name but two more, whose works, at the time, were flatteringly imitative or as Oscar Levant would have it; “Plagiarism is the sincerest form of imitation.”)

Michael Tilson Thomas: Keeping Score

In case you've missed the first performance in MTT's three-part series, Keeping Score: Revolutions in Music, PBS' websites for the performances and Tilson's hosting of this journey will allow you to listen in and learn.

"In this symphony Beethoven began to use broad strokes of sound to tell us how he felt, and what being alive meant to him. The piece caused a sensation and changed the idea of what a symphony could be."

"When Beethoven called this piece “heroic,” he wasn’t kidding. It’s bigger, longer than a symphony had ever been. It’s confessional, even confrontational."

"Just the scale of it was huge, unprecedented — and daunting for its first listeners. It foreshadowed the world that Wagner and, ultimately, Sigmund Freud would explore — the realm of the unconscious. That’s what was so revolutionary."

Read the rest of the text for the first episode, a preview for the Eroica presentation, explore timelines of his life, deafness, music, Napoleon and patronage, including stop on the life timeline describing his personal relationships with women:

Beethoven was never sucessful winning the hand of any of the women in his life. Fourteen love letters to the widowed Josephine von Brunsvik prove his love to her. She may have been in love with him as well, but the two were unable to marry because her children would lose their nobility and inheritance. Because he refers to her in one of the letters as his "only beloved," many believe her to be the famous "Immortal Beloved".

Follow along with the score (with film of MTT conducting what you're hearing). Such tangents as What's in a Theme? further enlivens this extremely informative website.

The Met's Digital Presence

The Metropolitan Opera's 2006-2007 Opera series will be the 75th Anniversary Season of Live Met Radio Broadcasts. They're aired over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network. Synopses, biographies for singers, conductors and composers, production photos, sound clips, background information, and teacher study guides for each opera in the broadcast season can be accessed at the Met's website.

The radio stations number 300 in the US and stations in 40 countries on five continents. An extensive archive of opera study guides for every broadcast since 2000 forms another section. Each guide includes composer and background information, opera stories with images from the current Met production, sound clips and teacher materials. Online Intermission Features consist of artist interviews and roundtables, audio essays, and the Opera Quiz.

And, yes, there is a shop and the main Met Opera site includes a genres link, a defined guide to help select which form and specific opera you might want to attend or listen to, such as these examples of the operas of Extreme Emotions:

It’s a cliché to think of all opera as emotionally overblown, but many operas do revel in a view of life on the edge. Elements of this extremism (vocal, orchestral, and dramatic) have been present since the early days of opera, but reached their fullest expression in the influential, rough-and-tumble verismo style (real people in highly charged situations) that peaked in Italy a century ago.

Legends of Jazz

Ramsey Lewis (who we saw in concert recently at Berkeley Performances sharing a bill with Dave Brubeck, both senior men!) is the host and executive producer of a new series appearing on PBS: Legends of Jazz. This is the first weekly network television jazz show in 40 years.

From the site, a preview of the series (with some additions or corrections of our own): In each half-hour episode Ramsey focuses on a specific theme —The Golden Horns, The Altos, The Tenors, The Jazz Singers, Contemporary Jazz, Brazilian Jazz and The Killer B's (the Hammond B3 organ's role in jazz) are just some of the diverse topics that Ramsey explores with his guests. Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Al Jarreau, Clark Terry, Phil Woods, Lee Ritneour, Chris Botti, Roy Hargrove, Eddie Palmieri and David Sanborn are just a few examples of artists slated to appear.

Roots: The Blues features the contributions of artists Robert Cray and Keb’ Mo’. The NEA Jazz Masters 2006 episode concentrates on Tony Bennett, Chick Corea and the late Ray Baretto.

Reading

The New Yorker present an article, Great Fugue, written by Alex Ross about a lost Beethoven manuscript:

Last summer, a librarian at the Palmer Theological Seminary, outside Philadelphia, reached onto the bottom shelf of a basement cabinet and pulled out a lost manuscript by Beethoven. It was a draft of an arrangement for piano, four hands, of the composer’s “Grosse Fuge,” or “Great Fugue” (or, as the cover inexplicably said, “Grande Tugue”). Once the property of a nineteenth-century industrialist-composer, it had disappeared, “Citizen Kane”-style, into the clutter of his belongings, some of which the seminary inherited. The manuscript was handed over to Sotheby’s, which sold it in December to an unnamed buyer for $1.95 million. Shortly before the sale, the manuscript was put on display. With some misgivings, I went to Sotheby’s to have a look.

New Link

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear; ...
Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs.
— Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855)

"Although the song tradition in the United States is fairly young compared to that of Western Europe, there are still over two centuries' worth of song composition in America. The birth of the American song coincided with the birth of the country; in fact, the first extant art songs in the United States are credited to Francis Hopkinson (1737-1791), a friend of George Washington and signer of the Declaration of Independence. The only American-born composer for whom there is evidence of having written songs prior to 1800, Hopkinson's first song "My Days Have Been So Wondrous Free" was penned in 1759. In 1788, Hopkinson dedicated a collection of songs titled A Washington Garland (originally Seven songs for the Harpsichord or Fortepiano) to the future president. This collection, which actually contains eight songs, was modeled on the works of English composers, such as Thomas Arne and Stephen Storace."

This site is the companion to the 11-city concert tour featuring baritone Thomas Hampson and "commemorates the history of the American art song by highlighting the Library's unparalleled collections of holograph manuscripts, first editions of published sheet music, copyright deposits, and recordings.

Music, oh how faint, how weak, Language fades before thy spell! Why should Feeling ever speak, When thou canst breathe her soul so well?

The Opera, Dr. Atomic

The Dr. Atomic website is almost as stark as the subject and the New Mexico landscape, with few illustrations and flourishes (as much as a website can strike a flourish). But then again, it did gain a Webby award.

The costume section of the website consists of an interview with Costume Director Dunya Ramicova, revealing what inspired and drove her designs for the opera:

How do the costumes reflect the personalities of the characters in Doctor Atomic?

Because they are based on what those real people wore, the costumes obviously reflect them completely because all the costumes are based on something I saw. The one person who is not like that is Kitty. And that's partly because she is basically the only woman besides Pasqualita and the female chorus. I wanted to get a sense of her vulnerability and her sexiness and womanhood, which Kitty had. She was very feminine and at the same time a mysterious person. Her costumes are based on what Peter and I talked about. That's really the only costume I designed. The rest I copied from reality.

The Choral Director, Ian Robertson, who was also interviewed for the website answers the question, In your opinion, how does the choral music reflect the atmosphere of New Mexico in July 1945?

I think the choral music is very scientific and is sung mechanically. As far as reflecting the mood, the chorus acts as a bunch of lower level scientists who comment upon the destructive weapon being made. If you think about the harmony and the multi-tonality that's going on in the choral writing, then you get a feel of the tension that would have been around at that time. There are moments of great beauty – maybe if you're out in the desert for the sunset or sunrise. And then there are moments of harshness, which is the realization or depiction of the fact that this was a horrible development for the human race.

The Doctor Atomic set suggests the style and tone of the production. Replicating the look of a stark desert, the set creates the austere mood and atmosphere of New Mexico in July 1945. Adrianne Lobel creates a backdrop of desert solitude and scorched landscapes, where the stage becomes a laboratory of both apocalyptic science and ground zero for a new millennium in human history. Her designs evoke a sense of the infinite with a vast horizon and the great expanse of the desert.

The set itself is quite simple. Lobel desired to create just a hint of the time and place of the action – the barren desolation of the New Mexico desert in July 1945. Unlike many other operas, the Doctor Atomic set lacks the exquisite splendor expected in traditional opera sets. The intentional sparseness of the set is beautiful unto itself, and it funnels the viewer's attention to the compelling content of the opera – to the powerful words and music about the notion of a bomb that could destroy the world.
Oppenheimer watched the explosion in this bleak setting at the base camp, which was ten miles southwest of ground zero. Just following the explosion, Dr. Oppenheimer quoted from Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-gita, "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."

Syracuse's Sibley Music Library

From the Belfer Audio Laboratory and Archive:

The Era and the Music

World War II America (1941-1945) produced a significant number of popular songs ranging from the patriotic to the sentimental. This was the era of Big Bands and Swing Music. Americans on the Homefront or overseas closer to the war zones, gathered to listen and dance to popular bands led by Glenn Miller, Harry James, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and countless others. Vocalists such as Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Dick Haymes, the Andrews Sisters, Jo Stafford, the Mills Brothers, Peggy Lee, and Helen O'Connell sang the lyrics that helped Americans get through the war years. New musical forms such as the Boogie Woogie became extremely popular during these years. Country and Western tunes received increasing airplay on the radio and Latin-inspired rhythms were provided by Xavier Cugat and Carmen Miranda, "the Lady in the tutti-frutti hat." By the outbreak of World War II, radio and phonograph records had evolved into a mature commercial juke box culture.

Popular songs during World War II fall into a variety of categories. There were patriotic tunes such as Remember Pearl Harbor and Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition. Morale boosters represented by Johnny Mercer's Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive helped lift wartime spirits. Many songs such as Bell-Bottom Trousers, A Boy in Khaki-a Girl in Lace , and First Class Private Mary Brown told the stories of soldiers, sailors, and their sweethearts. The themes of love and wartime parting and separation appeared in numerous examples: As Time Goes By, I'll Walk Alone, I'll Be Seeing You, and I Don't Want to Walk without You. As the war approached its end, there were songs about homecoming and the dreams of reunion: My Guy's Come Back, It's Been a Long Long Time, and My Dreams are Getting Better All the Time. If sweethearts predominated as a subject, mothers ran a close second: Goodbye Mama (I'm Off to Yokohama), Dear Mom, and Ma ! I Miss Your Apple Pie.

Topical songs were popular during the war. For example, the entry of increasing numbers of women into the American workforce resulted in examples such as Rosie the Riveter and Milkman Keep those Bottles Quiet. In the latter song, vocalist Ella Mae Morse elaborated on the sleeping difficulties of women working on the swing shift in America's defense plants. Perhaps, in an attempt to relieve tension and evoke a smile, novelty and humorous songs such as Mairzy Doats and Leave the Dishes in the Sink, Ma also appeared and achieved commercial success.

As a midterm project each student [ taking a course on American popular culture of the World War II years] was required to select a lesser known American World War II song and write an analysis of it in the broader context of the period being studied. Song selection was carried out as follows: Students were given lists of World War II songs from a database published on the World Wide Web by the Sibley Music Library at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York.

"The collection contains over 500 items of popular sheet music all published during the years of World War II. In theme all relate specifically to the war or are of a general patriotic nature. The collection thus represents a very detailed overview of patriotic music during the second World War. The material bears upon the subjects of American popular music and society. It also possesses value for the study of history of the period."

Each of the twenty-two students checked a page from the Sibley collection database against the holdings of 1940s 78 rpm recordings in the Belfer Audio Laboratory and Archive located at Syracuse University. Twenty of the students identified songs they wanted to use for analysis from the Sibley lists. Two additional songs (not listed in the Sibley collection) were also located in the Belfer Audio Laboratory and Archive. Individual cassettes were made of each song and distributed to the students for their analysis. What is accessible are brief clips from each of these songs and some of the comments made by the students.

MTT on Music

Michael Tilson Thomas, the San Francisco Symphony's conductor, takes PBS television viewers on a guided tour of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4. Thomas explores each of the symphony's four movements, providing commentary on the 'powerful and vibrant' emotions embodied in the composer's music.

Scholar Alexander Poznansky's essay about Tchaikovsky's relationship with the woman to whom he dedicated the Fourth Symphony, his friend and patroness, Mrs. Nadezhda von Meck is a page on the site and readers can browse an English translation of Tchaikovsky's letter to her discussing the symphony which begins,

How much joy you've afforded me with your letter today, my matchless Nadezhda Filaretovna! How immeasurably lucky I am that you liked the symphony, that, listening to it, you experienced the same feelings I was full of when I was writing it and that my music made a deep impression on your heart.

Explore what went into the making of the documentary from the producers/directors and what it's like to perform the work from a member of the orchestra in Dialogue.

The Blues

An ambitious, seven-part series executive produced by Martin Scorsese, follows the history of this distinctly American musical movement, the blues. Some of the artists whose recordings are used on a new CD that has emerged from this series include W. C. Handy and Bessie Smith, to Son House and Robert Johnson; and from B. B. King and John Lee Hooker, to Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins, Howlin' Wolf, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan and contemporary artists including Van Morrison & Jeff Beck, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray & Shemekia Copeland and Beck.

"The blues is at once American and worldly," said Martin Scorsese, who began work on the project six years ago. "It's a form of storytelling that is so universal that it has inspired people beyond our borders and continues to influence music here and abroad. We're hopeful that the series and Year of the Blues will introduce new audiences worldwide to this music and also inspire kids, whether they like rock or hip hop, to better understand the struggles and genius that gave birth to what they listen to today."

"Our goal never was to produce the definitive work on the blues," Scorsese added. "It was, from the start, to create highly personal and impressionistic films as seen through the eyes of the most creative directors around with a passion for this music."

The site's content provides discographies, biographies of artists, a road trip with an interactive map that traces the migration of the blues throughout the US from its origins in slave communities on plantations in the Deep South.

Glenn Gould Archive

In 1982, in the lounge of a 15th century building in the town of Lacock, near Bath, England, we were mesmerized by the talent of Glenn Gould during a BBC program. Since then we have, through recordings, enjoyed many hours of his immense talent as a pianist. Sadly, we never heard him in concert before his death in 1984.

The National Library of Canada maintains the official repository of the archives of the late concert pianist, Glenn Gould. The article included in the archive by B. W. Powe from his book, The Solitary Outlaw, offers a brief glimpse about the myths surrounding Gould:

Gould arriving at mid-night at a twenty-four-hour "coffee-and-donut" shop (I imagined a story: Gould dressed in an overcoat; July - it is steamy and close; street people sulk over coffee and doughnuts that taste like sugared paper, and one of the premier interpreters of Bach discoursing on Wagner, tape edits, Arnold Schoenberg, and Thomas Mann's post-war novels); Gould driving his Lincoln over gravel roads in the dark, his hands sensuously feeling the steering wheel so that he could be close to the vibrations; Gould crooning Mahler Lieder to giraffes at the Metro Zoo; Gould driving his motor-boat in circles on the lake near his cottage to scare away fish from fishermen; his love for Holiday Inns, shopping malls, radio, and TV; his friendship with Marshall McLuhan (I imagined another story: Gould arriving at 3 Wychwood Park to discuss communicable things, and the two saying nothing to each other); his refusal to perform in public; his choice of "the womb-like" recording studio; his night calls that interrupted others' sleep to become arias...improvisations...monologues...marathons of talk...

From the Library's site:
"A supremely gifted artist and Canada's most renowned classical musician of the 20th century, Gould was a recording artist, radio and television broadcaster and producer, writer and an outspoken apologist for the electronic media. Visitors to this site [in both English and French] will find a virtual exhibition drawn from his archival papers, a look at the National Library's audio archival tapes available using RealAudio, two searchable databases of the National Library's Glenn Gould Papers, research aids such as two chronologies, a Gould bibliography, lists of films, videos and radio broadcasts made by and about Gould, selections of writings by Gould and writings about Gould, works of art and of poetry inspired by him, and links to other related Internet sites.'

Glimmerglass

The Glimmerglass Opera site goes beyond the synopses of operas with a diary of Orlando, the third show to open in Glimmerglass's 2003 season by exploring the various elements of the opera production through the words of the participants, including that of an understudy, also known as a cover. One of the files explains a 'cover run' wherein once the mainstage show has opened, the covers present a full performance of the opera in the rehearsal room with rehearsal scenery.

The diary itself covers the subjects of the staging rehearsals, costumes, scheduling, and covering. Onstage rehearsals, designs and coaching follow ending with final rehearsals, backstage, wigs and props.

"An opera performance is the culmination of an artistic process that has often been over a year in the making. Designers, singers, administrators, carpenters, drapers, props crews, electricians, volunteers and many others all come together in a creative venture that, with hard work and good will, results in an engaging opening night performance. While the opera should speak for itself artistically, it can be useful and exciting to peer behind the proscenium to see just how involved the process can be. At Glimmerglass, all of the four productions are created from scratch onsite - sets and costumes are being built right behind the opera house in the weeks before you arrive in Cooperstown. In the theater itself, hundreds of lights are loaded into the fly-tower and onto rails in the balcony, scenery is put into place, and rehearsals move from local schools and churches to the stage of the Alice Busch Theater. The concentrated energy is amazing."

The diary is part of O pera Insights, a selection of reflections and writings about each of the Cooperstown, NY operas, as well as recommendations for further reading, listening, and looking.

Blue Note Biography

The famed jazz recording label, Blue Note, was founded by two German immigrants, Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff. NPR's site contains a section devoted to the new book, In Blue Note Records, The Biography by Richard Cook. The page has an excerpt from the book as well as links to the audio portion of the interview with the author. Valuable, too, is the link with the albums released by Blue Note that are included in the NPR Basic Jazz Record Library. Artists include Lee Morgan, Cannonball Adderley, Bod Powell, Herbie Hancock among others. NPR's site features profiles of such jazz greats Horace Silver, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Bud Powell and Sonny Rollins and a John Coltrane interview.

Of course you can go to Blue Note's homepage, too, for further resources including free streaming audio service for visitors.

Sources

Project Gutenberg's Music Site - The famed literary repository now is the principle outlet for the Chamber Music Archive. Free scores and parts of public domain music, digitized in a variety of printable, playable and editable formats are available. PG states it's aim: It is our purpose to stimulate the musical interactions intrinsic to small gatherings by bringing contemporary technology to bear on chamber works from the common practice period in the establishment of an archive of Public Domain chamber music scores.

We've gotten to the point that listening to tracks on an album we're considering is now routine. Since the Web has provided such a marvelous venue for this activity, comparing criticisms and commentary with some of the actual tracks seems like a very good idea before making a purchase.

The New York Times has provided an Album Showcase (with first time registration) on their site for a discussion of audio clips from a new album each Wednesday. Some recent albums that demonstrate their varied approach to music are:

Allan Kozinn discusses audio clips of songs based on Fortuna Desperata, a 15th-century piece, in a new recording by the Clerks' Group, an English early-music ensemble.

'Don't Worry About Me' by Joey Ramone Pop music critic Jon Pareles discusses audio clips of songs from the posthumous album by Joey Ramone.

'The Girl in My Alphabet' Music critic Allan Kozinn discusses selections from a recording of chamber and vocal works by Errollyn Wallen, a British composer who was born in Belize.

'Mary Star of the Sea' Jon Pareles comments on the debut album of Zwan, a new band led by Billy Corgan, formerly of Smashing Pumpkins.

'Ninna Nanna' Allan Kozinn discusses audio excerpts from this collection of lullabies sung by the soprano Montserrat Figueras.

Opera for Everyone