Performances June 15 and 16 More info: www.operaprojectcolumbus.com
Second staging rehearsal last night, in a different church basement (my church) Not as fancy as before, and I had to collapse a boatload of tables and chairs to make room and haul the upright out of storage, but once set up we were good to go. I need to work on the disconnect between who's been cast to do what. Two roles still open. Spinelocio the doctor arrived late last night-a surprise to me and maybe to him as well. I wonder if Spineloccio can also sing the Notary.
Giuseppe de Luca, the first Gianni Schicchi
I hope I remember correctly that we will have more space to spread out in the theater than I have approximated in these church basements. Things are looking bunched up so far, but I'm confident that in the one night we have to rehearse in the theater I'll come up with attractive stage pictures. This is certainly an attractive cast. They catch on pretty quickly and they all remember the moves better than I do. That's the chore of being 25 years older than most of these good people. Thank God I'm getting out of the habit of calling them 'kids'
Giulioo Crimi created Luigi in Il tabarro and Rinuccio on the same night
So far I haven't been able to dig in to characterizations. I've spoken in general terms...Lauretta=Princess, Rinuccio=nice music but he's as nasty as his relatives (our tenor is such a nice guy I'm going to give him lessons in being an asshole) I haven't so far come up with enough for Nella, Ciesca, Gherardo, Marco and Betto. Gherardo is whipped; Nella is a shrew and it would be fun to spike up a little bitch competition between Nella and Zita. The latter's music I feel illustrates her nicely. I do want to avoid the old harridan stereotype. That's why I have Zita, Nella and Ciesca sexing up Gianni-and enjoying it-as they undress him and put him to bed. Oh, damn...we don't have a letto. We have a sedia. We're also going to have a problem if the stage platforms don't work out. Not that our conductor's backside isn't charming I'm sure but that's not what the audiences is paying for.
Florence Easton as Lauretta
There was an extended music rehearsal last night. I had forgotten how few rehearsals have been available thus far. This is a difficult score. It's 80% ensembles.
There's a lot of idiomatic Italian. (I'm wondering if we shoulda done in this in English...what with the attractive cast and the audience...Still in this world of titles our singers will never be asked to sing this in English)
I don't know if we'll have more than one orchestra rehearsal. Our pianist/conductor last night is another fine musician. He's really brilliant. He's down extensive work in this repertoire. I sat in on the music with nothing to do myself and learned a great deal.
Gianni Schicchi world premiere, Metropolitan Opera, New York December 14, 1918
I've been wondering about the world premiere of Gianni Schicchi. Not the facts of it which I already know. But how it looked and sounded. Only one of the principal singers in any of the the three Trittico operas recorded music from these works. There's no original cast Senza mamma from Geraldine Farrar; No Nulla! Silenzio! from Giuseppe de Luca...nothing of "E ben altro mio sogno with Giulo Crimi and the divine Claudia Muzio.
Muzio (1887-1937) is the one soprano other sopranos adored. She had a dark, haunting voice and was a reserved, melancholy figure. Diva Magda Olivero, now 103, insists that Muzio "took poison" to end her own life. It is said she was broke at the end, and borrowed money from the Mafia to make the recordings for which she is best remembered today.
Florence Easton (1882-1955) was the first Lauretta. She was a British soprano who sang Mozart, Puccini, Verdi and a great deal of Wagner. It's curious casting a Wagner soprano as Lauretta. Easton was a a good looking woman but hardly the petite soubrette type. She was a valued artist who never attained real stardom. It may be she was given Lauretta as a reward for distinguished service. That said, she's very impressive, and must have been a fine musician. She made the one 'original cast' recording"
Tenor Giulio Crimi (1885-1939) created Luigi in Il tabarro and our buddy Rinuccio. He made his debut at the Met in Aida one month before the Trittico premiere. The New York Times recorded a "thunderous ovation" for Crimi's Radames. He was the teacher of Tito Gobbi.
Giuseppe de Luca, the first Michele and Schicchi, was such a great artist I am going to save him for the next post.
Music rehearsal this Saturday. Next staging rehearsal next Tuesday.
I'm in love with voices. I heard a lot of fine ones last night. It was the first staging rehearsal. We were locked put of the venue for about 20 minutes, this while a local reporter was hovering on the steps, waiting with us. Once we got to work it was great. We had to make do in a very nice choir room (tonight's venue is not as nice I'm sorry to say)
We had a new addition tonight, the young man playing Gherardino. He was sweet and fun and he'll probably walk out off the show, God bless him.
I also met our Marco, a young man who had done the role before. He asked if I wanted to see how it was done in Kent and I said NO. Too abruptly probably. I was in the moment. But really, I need to figure it out for myself.
Licia Albanese: Take risks!
I had to REALLY approximate the playing area. Most of it will be IN the theater not on the bit of stage we have. There was a lot of positioning and running around last night. We had our wonderful rehearsal pianist, thank God and me pacing and yelling and positioning. Years ago at OSU a somewhat hippy dippy guest director asked me "Do you have a lot of experience working with young people?" Well, yes, since before you were born I thought. "You handle them too much. It makes them uncomfortable." I don't get off on handling people but y'all shoulda seen Frank Corsaro or many other great directors, who thought nothing of flinging people into the wings if it made a good affect. Jeez.
Some confusion reigned but all of the singers 'got' what I was trying to do quicker than I did. I'm deeply impressed by the talents and professionalism of these young people. Many have kids, responsibilities, day jobs, other gigs and here they are at 9 pm rehearsing another-unpaid=performance.
I had wanted Schicchi to be more Donald Trump, arrogant and cool and we'll get there if I can get past he beauty of GS's voice. Lauretta immediately got princess ' concept-that she's not such a nice girl. Rinuccio's gonna be whipped, if you know what I mean. We'll work harder on giving each of the relatives a specific characterization. Zita's got it. Simone pretty much. Rinuccio great, well tone down the OSU football hero stance-and this boy knows how to sell the notes. Nella and La Ciesca I need to think about. No Jewish mother. Too clingy. No Irish mother, too aloof. Italian mother, eat but with a menacing undertone (mangia idiote!) Nella, at least rules the roost. Gherardo is a husband typical for 1299 and typical for today. Sweet, responsible and clueless.
I think we listen to singers differently today. Until the early 1960s one on one listening was less adulterated. IPODS, APPS (I had to ask tho years ago what the hell is an app) we didn't listen while doing something else. This appointment listening is endangered./ Tough for me since a lot of my producing involves 'appointment' style programming. We had radio, TV and film of course, but people were still used to hearing great singers-or any singers, either live or with most of their attention tuned to the performance. Years ago I knew a voice teacher with some fine students, but her mantra was "too big too big". She wanted an Elisabeth Schumann style delicacy in everything, which is fine if you're Elisabeth Schumann, but it ain't gonna help you sing Verdi. Most of us view today's technology as a blessing. A few of us see it as a barrier. We are more about the technology that enables us to listen than experiencing what we are hearing. That's part of the reason oldsters say "Oh there' no voices today. you should have heard Tebaldi." I did and she was glorious. Her generation of singers were monsters. They sang without fear, straight out, go-to-hell no shortcuts, filled with courage. Do singers today do the same? Yes! But the voices seem smaller and less characterful. Today's most famous soprano is a beautiful woman with a beautiful voice but to me she's dull. The gift three notes are gorgeous and twenty minutes later so are the last one. There's no risk.
Tebaldi, Del Monaco, Stignani, Merrill, Warren, Tucker, Callas all planted themselves on stage and sang and sang. They loved their own voices, the knew the texts and they cared about what they were doing. The audience sensed this. Many singers today are no different but we hear them differently and they hear themselves differently--ears have been readjusted, diluted if you will, by smaller attention spans and technology
.
I tell singers today. Sing! Don' be afraid! Take risks! In an interview elsewhere on this blog, Licia Albanese told me, "I tell young singers make mistakes! Take risks and use the text!" This from Toscanini's Mimi and Violetta (still going strong today at 100)
I also think some current teachers either distrust a student with a big voice or don't know what to do with it.
Because a huge voice in the current technology may be thought vulgar. (When the hell is opera not vulgar. Do you think the Count was trying to draw Susanna a picture?) Don't forget. You are STILL singing primarily for the live audience.In a 3,000 seat house, less is not more. More is more.
It's my custom to keep a diary when working outside the studios, so welcome to The Gianni Schicchi Diary!
The good people at Opera Project Columbus have asked me to direct their production of Puccini's Gianni Schicchi. Tonight is the first staging rehearsal.
This one act delight is Puccini's only comedy. It is part of three one act operas (Il trittico-The Triptych) the world premier of which was given in New York at the Metropolitan Opera n December 14, 1918. The world was in the mood to celebrate one month after the armistice was signed.
Giuseppe DeLuca , the first Gianni Schicchi
Il tabarro and Suor Angelica were qualified successes. Gianni Schicchi was a bona fide hit. W.J. Henderson, dean of music critics for the New York Times, was gentle with the first two operas but called GS "one of the most delightful bits every put on the opera stage".
The libretto is by Gioacchino Forzano. The basis is an episode, a few lines really, from Dante's Divina Commedia. In the XXX canto, we encounter Gianni Schicchi, who had advised Simone, relative of Buoso Donati on amending an unsatisfactory will. In so doing, Schicchi is consigned by Dante to hell. Some of this story reflects Dante's own antipathy toward the 'peasant class' and especially of his wife's family, the Donati.
What's not to love with this 45 minute opera? You get a deliciously nasty family, a dead guy on stage for much of the action, a 'peasant', his daughter who sings a big hit:
"Un Donati sposare un figlia di villano?! cries Simone, the elder of the family.
A Donati, to marry the daughter of a peasant?!
That's just one of several great lines in this opera.
Splendida Firenze!
When the will is found and read leaving all of Buoso's property to the monks, his cousin Zita, a hateful old lady grumbles:
Ch l'avrrebe mai detto che quando Buoso andava al cimitero si sarebbe pianto per daverro!
Who could have told that once Buoso went to the cemetery, we'd be crying for real!
Gianni Schicchi arrives with his daughter Lauretta. She's usually portrayed as a sweet, innocent girl. I think she's more of a princess. Daaaaaadddy!
Schicchi's first line is one of my favorites in all opera:
Quale aspetto sgomenta e desolato
Buoso Donati certo e migliorato
What a lot of sad looks
Buoso Donati must be getting better
I've directed Suor Angelica and yes. I loved it and yes I cried, nice Catholic boy that I am.
But now we get down and dirty, and we have fun. Newsflash: Opera can be fun!
Opera Project Columbus was formed to give local singers an opportunity to perform. We have a terrific cast
Alessandro Siciliani. Opera can be fun!
for this production: attractive, talented and a world class baritone for the tile role. And our conductor?
Alessandro Siciliani, former music director of the Columbus Symphony, veteran of the New York City Opera and the Met, not forgetting a slew of Italian opera houses. Alessandro is Florentine himself. Watching him dart around at rehearsal coaching the Italian texts has been the joy of my late spring. He gets all of the inflection and double meanings unavailable at first to non native speakers.
The big challenge of this staging is not musical, its the venue. We have a small stage, and no pit. With the orchestra onstage we're going to use the house more than the stage. You may be sitting next to Rinuccio as he pours out his love for Lauretta, or Simone or Zita as they scheme away Buoso's money. Gianni Schicchi might pick your pocket.
Performances June 15 and 16.
Check back here for more dish.
First staging rehearsal is tonight.
Needn't be "classical". Janis Joplin and Adele would make my list.
Please leave your own choices on this blog. I want to make a collection over the next month to encourage myself and others to listen to one and other's choices. Don't be shy. There are no wrong answers.
A listener died and left me crates and crates of back issues of OPERA NEWS.
So all of these crates were a rich play ground for me.
I first received this magazine in 1968 at age 12 and have been a subscriber ever since. But I manage to hang on to very few.
(Wife: You are NOT
bringing that shit in here!")
I rediscovered one of my favorite issues, from 1999 which asked the question up in the title. Other sings were asked. Peters loved Sutherland. Moffo loved Callas and de los Angeles. Horne loved del Monaco, Stignani and Tebaldi. Hampson loved De Luca. Farrell loved Ponselle. Chookasian loved Farrell.
I've been listening a lot over the past weeks trying to gather my own list. Its impossible. Like the ol' potato chips, its impossible to choose just one.
With one exception, I limited myself to only one voice I never heard live. I could have, had I gone to Russia, as this artist lived to a great age and was reportedly still singing well at the end of his life:
PAVEL LISITSIAN (1911-2004)
This rich voiced Armenian baritone seldom appeared outside the old Soviet Union. Reports would come back form the USSR and Europe about the Armenian baritone with the beautiful voice. This is The Greatest Voice I Did NOT Hear Live
Lisitsian sang a lot of Italian Opera-in Russian-Rigoletto, Germont, Amonasro. He sang a lot of lieder and art song, always in Russian translation. Remember up until fifty years or so ago vocal music was generally sung in the language of the audience. I chose Yeletsky's aria to show you Lisitsian's gorgeous legato, and I always enjoy hearing a great voice sing in his own language. What a Great Voice!
Hold the phone, here. What's the criteria for a GREAT voice. Vocal beauty/quality? Diction?
Characterization? All of it. Every scrap. A beautiful voice that says nothing is a bore. A flawed voiced used expressively (Callas, Sills) can be very exciting. A stentorian, exiting voice with nothing much behind it can be dull . I want to hear a sound ion which to wallow and a wonderful legato.
CARLO BERGONZI (b. 1924)
I heard this tenor live many times. It was late for him, but she made no cuts, never dodged a note, never cheated. Pavarotti cancelled his apeearance at a gala in New York in 1996. Bergonzi, then 72 walked out unexpectedly. The place went bananas before he uttered a sound. It was not a young man's voice and the top notes weren't rock solid in his prime. Never mind. Carlo Bergonzi kept the line and sweetness of tone.
Here's Bergonzi in 1970:
And the winner is....
This voice never failed. It was louder, richer, high and faster than anyone else. he one thing you don't get in recordings is the most important element: Presence. Birgit Nilsson's voice was an arrow aimed right between your eyes. Pavarotti could sing a piano than projected beautifully to the cheap seats. Marlyn Horne made the most fiendish music sound easy-and magnificent. She never cheated, either.
But THIS voice. I don't think there will ever be another like her. There will be, and their are magnificent voices but this artist could sing it all. And again, the voice was huge and warm in person, elements hard to capture on recordings.
DAME JOAN SUTHERLAND (1926-2010)
Dame Joan. And still champ.
Isn't this hard? What about Pavarotti, Caballe, Domingo, Horne, Janet Baker, Merrill, Pape, Leontyne Price...oh wait I have room fotr an encore. This vocie and this specific performance are incredible. Enjoy:
Who are your great voices? Leave your choices here:
It's hard to know what to say about Boston and what to say about April 19th
That's Patriot's Day, little known outside New England. It's a state holiday in Massachusetts: no school, no work, parades, pancake breakfasts, battle reenactments and scads of hula hoops and tri-corn hats.
The American Revolution began with the battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775, around 5 a.m. People in Concord MA will tell you the American Revolution began there at Concord Bridge. Yes the battle continued in Concord, but those of us from Lexington have long allowed our neighbors to rave on.
April 19 became a "Monday holiday" years ago. I'll say this for Concord, their celebration has always kept to the actual date. The Boston marathon is run on Patriot's Day. For me the day was magic as well because the Metropolitan Opera always opened their spring tour at the War Memorial Auditorium, close to the finish line. The War Memorial was great for the boat show and bad for the opera but one made do.;
In short, April 19 or the Monday closest to it was a time for celebration. It was a great day. Now look
what's happened
April 19, 1989 rape and beating of the Central Park Jogger
April 19, 1993 David Koesh and the Branch Davidians firebombed in Waco, TX
April 19, 1995 Timothy McVeigh blows up the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City killing nearly 200, many of them children
April 15 (for the 19th) Bombing at the Boston Marathon, killing three including an eight year old child, injuring many others. On e police officer killed later that night.
I don't know what the good burghers of Boston and Lexington are going to do about Patriot's Day in the future. My guess is a rousing fuck you to those who would use this or any day for violence.
But the day is tainted by violence by the sick and deranged toward the innocent . And yes, I know all about the U.S. bombing Baghdad and the horror of Vietnam.
I have a number of unhappy memories of growing up in Lexington-not the town's fault! I have only wonderful memories of Boston. All through Jr. high and high school, Boston to me meant freedom. I often skipped school to crash Sarah Caldwell's rehearsal at the Opera Co. of Boston (theater in the combat zone...yay!) to sit in the Boston Public Library Meeting Room, to eat pizza in a dive on Boylston Street-almost smack in what became the bombing site-and to go to X rated movies since I could pass for 21.
I would get off the Red Line at Charles St., and walk down to the public garden. I loved that walk down Charles Street to this day. That walk was my Freedom Trail. I would walk all over the city, by myself and loved every minute of it. Even if I did nothing else, walking through Boston never disappointed me.
A dear friend , a city, has been wounded. People have been killed and badly hurt. I wish I could be there just to walk around again. Boston is beautiful and for me was filled with opportunity. I lived in the city, I went to B.U. and I had escapades I shudder to remember. And enjoy remembering as well. What a time! What a city!
I generally delay writing program notes for late in the week, and I usually use another blog. I 'm giving
pre-concert talks on the Brahms Requiem this year, and with the bombing in Boston can't wait any longer in expressing my devotion to this work.
Trinity Church, Boston
I first heard Ein deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms at Boston's Trinity Church, about thirty-five years ago. Trinity is one of those magnificent stone structures built by the Brahmins.It's house of worship as awe inspiring as the grandiose banks of the day were meant to be. Trinity Church is also quite close to the bomb site at the Boston Marathon of two days ago. I heard the performance back in the day with friends who were much smarter, more serious and better informed about life than I ever was. My post adolescent cynicism was mightily challenged by the beauty, both simple and grand of this music in such impressive surroundings. There was organ, and oh, mighty it was, no orchestra and a large choir. I was hooked.
Johannes Brahms
Brahms was a German Protestant. There's no earth shaking rabble rousing call to punishment and death favored by the Latin liturgy. No Dies irae here: "The day of wrath will dissolve the earth into ashes".
Brahms assembled the texts himself, from Luther's bible. He uses the psalms, the apocrypha, Revelations, Ecclesiastes and parts of the Gospels and Letters of Paul. There is no mention of God, Jesus or any reference to the deity anywhere. If the opening music is dark, it is a darkness of reverence rather than of fear. The first words come from Matthew:
Seling sind, die da Leid tragen, denn sie sollen getrostet werden Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted
It goes on: Die mit Tranen saen, werden mit Freude enten They that sow in tears shall reap in joy
To say that nothing in the Brahms Requiem hit s you over the head unexpectedly is a compliment. There are unpredictable harmonies if you want to dig enough (I don't) The fifth movement, a soprano solo was added by Brahms after the premiere. This may be a nod to Christiane Brahms, the composer's mother, who died as work on the Requiem began. Brahms denied for years any association with his mother's memory. Yet here he sets,
Ich will euch trosten, wie einen seine Mutter trostet I will comfort you as one whom his mother comforteth (Isaiah 66:13)
Robert and Clara Schumann
There's another specter at work.. Robert Schumann died in 1856. A few years earlier, as sketches for the Requiem began, Schumann threw himself into the river in an attempted suicide. Tertiary syphilis destroyed his mind. He was eventually hospitalized and starved himself to death. Schumann, renowned as a great composer in his lifetime, was an astute music critic, and knew a winner when he found one. He was young Brahms's mentor and father figure. Things go all the more complicated when the young Brahms became infatuated by Clara Schumann. Yes, she assumed a maternal role-she had six children of her own-and she it was to whom Brahms showed many a sketch that eventually became great symphony or concerto. It is evident that Brahms's feelings for his paternal friend's life were complicated and uncomfortable. Cara Schumann lived to a great age dying in 1896 a year before Brahms and some years older than the composer who both idolized and needed her.
Shall we decide that the third movement is about Robert Schumann? If I could sing at all, I would want to sing this: Herr, lehre doch mich, dass ein Ende mit mir haben muss Lord, make me to know there must be and end to me
The entire work opens with Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. The German Requiem ends over an hour later with
Selig sind die Toten, die in dem Herrn sterben Blessed are the dead, that die in the Lord form henceforth
And only at the end of this great work are the dead comforted, the previous hour taken up with comforting the living.
Until I Say Goodbye: My Year of Living with Joyby Susan Spencer-Wendel with Bret Witter c. 2013 Harper Collins
I want you to go and buy this book. Keep it at home, in the office, in the car. You don't have to read it now. The next time you want to whine about spouses, kids or hemorrhoids, I want you to take out this book. Your spirit will soar and you will never complain again.
Susan Spencer-Wendel had it all. You could just hate her. She was the crime reporter for the Palm Beach Journal; she had a happy marriage to a hunky husband and they had three gorgeous kids. They lived in West Palm Beach, FL where the sun never sets and snow is something on which to pour flavored syrup in a paper cone. Oh, and she's a beauty.
One day Susan noticed that her left hand was withered. There followed numbness from one hand to the next. Eventually she found a doctor who looked her in the eye and said, "There's no doubt you have ALS".
ALS: aka Lou Gehrig disease. All the muscles in the body die. There is no treatment and no cure. The mind is unaffected as the body slowly but surely fails and the patient becomes trapped in paralysis until death. Life expectancy about 2 years. No promise they'll be two good years.
Susan decided she was going to have one great year and hope for more. Her book is clear abut her diagnosis and about her condition. She continues to deteriorate, chapter by chapter. She's still with us, unable to walk or speak.
But what a year! Pay attention to what you have. Go after what you want. Susan took each of her children on a special trip of their own "making memories". Mind you, her oldest child was 14 at the time, and the youngest has Asperger's. An adoptee, Susan finds her birth mother, a fading hippie in California. The search for her birth father takes her to Cyprus (she's in a wheel chair by now) Her father is dead. His family embraces Susan as one of their own.
Susan's adopted mother, a Greek beauty named Tee struggles with her own serious illness and a continuing case of mother-daughter angst. Susan goes from vital, busy and energetic to a woman unable to raise her arms, then unable to walk, her speech fading and" finally John has to wipe me."
This is not a depressing book! To say it is demeans Susan and her family. She has no denial about her condition but she will not give in to despair. Making memories for her kids is important to her. Planning a life for her beloved husband John, the hero of this book, is important to her. She is thrilled when this book sells well and gets a movie sale. She can leave her loved ones financially well off and she works mighty hard to insure they won't be worse off without her.
Read the book, say a prayer for Susan's family and go and hug your own. And don't you DARE be sad!
Every year I choose books to read ten page at a time. Last Christmas it was the turn of James Joyce's Ulysees. I read Molly's final Yes I will Yes on March 31. I rather like the symmetry.
Of course I needed a study guide, but mine was little help. The academic writing was denser than James Joyce and a damn sight less entertaining. And no, I did not re-read The Odyssey before my first journey to Sandymount Cove. I do know and love Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and Berlioz Les Troyens but I can't say the helped much in the Dublin of June 16, 1904. Here's a lovely sight of that Dublin:
I loved this book. I was a bit relieved to see it end in the way you are relieved at the end of a long race. You don't come in first but maybe in the top 100.
What I especially loved is the diction. Molly, Leopold, Steven, Blazes Boylan and the scene in the pub
reminded me so much of my grandparents. My grandmother never set foot in a pub as far as I know, but I can hear her voice discussing Paddy Digman's endless wake and funeral.
The idea of eating a pork kidney is repellent. Molly Bloom makes me think of dirty knickers.She's either just getting out of bed or plotting to get back in-with whom is the question.
Catholicism is invoked n the first line, as Buck Mulligan prepares to shave singing "Introibo ad altarei dei". The church is set up with Leopold Bloom is Jewish, yet can still enjoy a good wake, Glory be to God. The structure that had me guffawing was Episode 17-Ithaca--it's nothing less than the Roman Catholic Catechism. From the austerity of the questions to the windy replies.
We are spared nothing, from Molly's kickers to Leopold pooping, to dialogue reflecting the crunch of shells
underfoot. James Joyce was either supremely talented or crazy as hell. I think they go together.
Sylvia Beach, owner of the Shakespeare and Company bookstore, published Ulysses in 1922 and was nearly arrested for her pains. How I would have loved to have spent a day in her bookstore, with Joyce at the tea table and Hemingway arguing and Stein and Toklas glaring and huffing out.
I'm not writing this very well. I'm incapable of writing about Ulysees in a linear way. But I loved it.
I thought of several alternatives to 'old' in the above title, but somehow back issue or out of print didn't cut it.
I got a phone call a few months ago. The gentleman said, my father loved your station and loved you.He's left you boxes of Opera News magazine, and crates of tapes. Grateful and intrigued, I arranged for a drop off of said loot and shook hands with the nice gentleman and his gorgeous two year old daughter.
Then I heaved my 50 plus plus plus sized-self boxes and all and found a corner for them in the studio. No thought of taking them home. Most of my CD collection is in exile for lack of space. I'm going to make room for dated magazines when there's no room for Rosa Ponselle's 1936 Carmen broadcast? I think not
Max Rudolf
I've been reading Opera News, the publication of he Metropolitan Opera Guild since I was twelve. Yes, I was a weird kid, but there you are. That was the late sixties. Back then Tebaldi, Tucker, Corelli, Merrill, Sutherland, Price, Bergonzi, Sills, Peters and Moffo were all in full cry. The Pav and Domingo were just hitting the big time.Most of them toured and eventually I saw them all at Boston's cavernous John B. Hynes Civic Auditorium (the War Memorial in my day) Diana Damrau, Ann Netrebko, Juan Diego Florez, Simon Keenlyside and Natalie Dessay were either yet to be born or not long out of diapers. Conductors featured back then were Thomas Schippers, Karl Bohm, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, Zubin Mehta, Fausto Cleva and the barely out of teens James Levine. Elanor Steber popped up occasionally and Callas was planning a comeback.
Robert Jacobson
My late friend left crates of Opera News going back to 1983. That's the first year I participated in Texaco Opera Quiz. I was a guest-and occasional host-on and off for twenty years. The current management was not for me and clearly the feeling is mutual but I was the kid in the Golden Age (hello, Father Lee!) and my name is listed in many of these magazines, to my joy. How great to relive some exciting times.
Christopher Keene
There's an interview with conductor Max Rudolf, (December 7, 1991) the reading of which is like a mini master class in conducting Mozart. Eleanor Steber is full of herself and loving it in a 1990 interview, possibly her last? She goes on about her joie de vivre and admires Maria Ewing. That lady is at the center of the March 1986 Carmen issue-her portrayal of the gypsy previewed with excitement and later acknowledged as a disasters. The wonderful Phillis Curtin is gorgeous on the cover in 1992. At one point she lets fly with commentary on being bumped from the New York City Opera 'Giulio Cesare' in favor of Beverly Sills: "That's when the knife went in my back."
Leonie Rysanek as Kostenicka in Jenufa
Leonie Rysanek tells us that her Kostelnicka will be terrific complete with high Cs (March 15, 1986) Magda Olivero, in her eighties and quite young (today is her 103rd birthday) had just recorded scenes from Adriana Lecouvreur. Pavarotti celebrated his 50th birthday (March 29, 1986) and talks of restudying Idomeneo. A girl called Dolora Zajick was beginning to win prizes (1985) and Renee Fleming was one of "ten singers to watch" (1989)
AIDS slowly began to decimate the arts around 1984. Obituaries of young artists appear. Robert Jacobson, editor of Opera News, died in 1987. The baritone Wayne Turnage was the center of a "Living with AIDS' feature in 1990. His gaunt photograph brought back that terrible time. He talked of a rapid decline in health and isolation relieved by the first of many support groups. He died before the article saw print. It's terrible that I can find not one photo of Wayne Turnage on line.John Reardon died. Bill Harwood, a promising young conductor was the first I heard of to die of pneumonia. I said to a friend "It's 1982. Who dies of pneumonia in 1982?" Christopher Keene at the New York City Opera always looks dashing in these Opera News photos, belying the AIDS and alcoholism that would take his life.
Rockwell Blake was a young tenor. Chris Merritt was singing Rossini;s Otello everywhere. Marilyn Horne did her first Mistress Quickly and retired her Rossini repertoire. Dame Joan added Anna Bolena and Ophelia in Hamlet. Barrymore Laurence Scherer, Daniel Patrick Stearns, Dale Harris (a loss to ADIS) Father Owen Lee and Philip L Miller were among the contributors. The issue of July 1988 has Dolora Zajick and Richard Leech on the cover, kids then, and the Letters column argues the pros and cons of super titles.
It's nostalgia and a lot of it is poignant and sad. On the other hand, this past weekend at the Columbus Symphony./Ballet Met collaboration the packed house was filled with 20-somethings on a date night. There's hope yet for new audiences and publications serving them.
I was mildly shocked this morning to realize its been thirty years since I stood through four performances of the Met's then new production of Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini. Back then it had been seventy years since the opera was produced in New York, On today's live HD presentation from the Met, commentators and artists alike spoke with admiration of the video from that 1983 production. I guess they are all too young to have seen it 'live.' The thought gave me a bit of a chill.
Today's performance did not. I loved it and accept its flaws. Was it Sondra Radvanovsky who said "There's nobody like Zandonai." I agree. Many Italian composers of the early twentieth century were fitting notes to words and coming up with dramatic, strong scores-not concert hall stuff but good ol' blood and guts. One of the tenets of verismo is a depiction of every day life.
If that's the criteria Zandonai would have passed on D'Annunzio's text based on Dante. Gabriele D'Annunzio used language where today we see the sex act in all its variety, D'Annunzio's words are fragrant and suggestive, never vulgar. Paolo refers to his passion for Francesca 'come labbra d'una fresca ferita-like the lips of a fresh wound, likening to a rose . I never heard the name D'Annunzio mentioned today.
Eleanora Duse as Francesca
Music to a text like this needs to swirl and caress and bathe. So Zandonai does. He uses church modes to suggest a medieval austerity. He uses old instruments. Everything is suggested until-forgive-the climax of passion ending Act III. As erotic and dangerous as the story is, still we are allowed and encouraged to use our imaginations. Noting is thrown into our ears or faces.
One of the reasons I believe for Francesca's neglect is the requirement of the two leads to be very charismatic. We didn't have that today. Eva- Maria Westbroek did well. I enjoyed her guts and sincerity. She lacks the warm, pulsating voice that best fits this music. She used her voice fearlessly and excitingly. I found her performance measured, as if she were a soprano singing Francesca rather than being Francesca.
Marcello Giordani was made up to look like Charlie Sheen's grandfather Again, I think this music needs liquidity and flow to the voice Giordani can no longer summon. Mark Delavan had more voice than Cornell MacNeil did thirty years ago, but he wasn't as terrifying as his predecessor. Delavan was fun in interviews. I think he's better off in roles that show the line and beauty of his voice (line and beauty in this opera are in the orchestra) I'd love to hear his Germont again, or Posa, or Wolfram.
The hit of the afternoon for me was the gold curtain. Go ahead, laugh. Walking into the Met and seeing that great curtain tells you that you are in for something intended to be special. Unique. It's part of the passion in opera, Same with the curtain-bows. It becomes an Event, at least to me.
And what a joy to see beautiful 3-D sets...and not a present day costume or reference to be seen. D'Annunzio says medieval Italy and by God....
Marco Armilitato understood that the orchestra had to approach this score, lyrically, as song, the battle scenes excepted. What we had today was a show with curtain that looked like 1980s at the Met. I'm grateful for recent productions of House of the Dead, The Nose, Maria Stuarda, and I loved the Vegas Rigoletto-but today the entire experience spelled o-p-e-r-a.
P.S. Riccardo Zandonai has a very worthy biographer in Konrad Dryden.Go find it. Well worth reading.
By now hopefully you've had a night's sleep and have dealt with the Eva Peron jokes. You will remember that she too positioned herself as an advocate of the poor.
Last night on CNN I saw a man of humility on the Vatican balcony. You should be proud of that. It's difficult to appear humble amidst trappings that would have shamed the Borgias (a nasty pope among them). The digital age did not invent religion as theater. The Greek tragedies thousands of years before Christ combined worship with spectacle. What are the pyramids but pretty graveyards built to appease the gods? Yes, spectacle is import as symbols of power. Power you now have.
What will you do with such power? We read that you eschew the Cardinal's mansion in Buenos Aires for a simple apartment. You ride public transport. I'll bet you do take the opportunity to chat up with as many fellow straphangers as you can-be they Catholic or not. I believe too, that in your heart you are a decent person rooted and sincere in your beliefs.
That said, you know what has to happen to the church in which I was raised, the liturgy of which I still love.
Let's start with women. The question of ordination of women is always greeted with a lecture on the esteem with which the church holds women. Martha, Mary Magdalene and above all the Virgin Mary. Insisting on the perpetual virginity of the mother of Jesus doesn't say much for women, in my opinion. But let's recognize such praise for what it is 2,000 years later. Weak. Admiring mythical women of thousands of years ago at the expense of human rights today is absurd. But that's the line. Cardinal Dolan was trumpeting away on the early a.m. news cycles today. How can you say the church debases woman, the Mother of God...yadda yadda yadda. It's lip service and you know it.
Women are the healers and the nurturers. So are men today-we've come a long way, baby. They belong in front of the congregation, dispensing the sacraments and preaching the gospel. Not ordaining women reinforces the white old man power structure that has brought the church to a new low. No, this won't be solved by acknowledging more men of color (that's not a bad thing) So many people have worked hard for years to insure an equal opportunity world, at least gender based. Get with it. You are dying for lack of clergy. A woman with a good mind and a full heart needn't emulate the Virgin Mary-rather she can insure the future of a dynamic and compassionate church.
But I'm not sure that's what the Curia wants. You'll find that out.
About the sexual scandals. How much more evidence do you need to see that the present recruitment of an all male celibate (HA!) clergy is wrong. The church's hatred of gay people (spare me "hate the sin love the sinner-" a sexual relationship between two consenting adults is not sinful, and even you aren't yet Jerry Falwell please God) is ironic. In my day the seminaries were seen as havens for men who were "a little funny." Better they embrace celibacy and give their lives to God. If you made a pitch to older, married men you'd have the seminaries overflowing. You and I both know why this isn't happening. A man in his forties is not going to buy the line. He's going to ask questions and posit new ideas. See previous note about the Curia.
I live two miles from the lovely campus of the Pontifical College Josephinum. I needn't tell you this is the only seminary outside of Rome answering directly to the Vatican. To you. I used to go up there to walk the grounds, and occasionally visit St. Tiberius Chapel. Walk around up there and you are greeted by young seminarians out to enjoy the sunshine. What alarms me is how young they are, if not in years than emotionally. What do you expect when you admit 14 year olds to study and impress on them lives of chastity, poverty and obedience? Yes, there may be some especially blessed. You know they are in the right place. I've met a few. But c'mon. Most become sexually fearful and emotionally stunted. They stop maturing in any way at 14. Or 24. The young men I've chatted with were polite, kindly, respectable and in some ways immature. You can be very moved by their sincerity-I was and am-and alarmed by their lack of worldview. These boys need to get drunk, get beaten up a few times and these boys need to get laid.
Show me a priest guilty of child abuse and I'll show you a kid subjected to a life way, way beyond his years. I cry for these young men, because it will be hard to trust them. The church has tolerated too much horror and too much harm has been done. What new clergy there is will live amidst distrust. Their loneliness will be acute. Eager young people with a lot to offer will become cynical power graspers.The cycle towards abuse is guaranteed to continue.
Admit women to full participation. Get rid of celibacy. Encourage older vocations and go after married men. Encourage questions and constructive criticism. Read the gospels thoroughly and interpret them for the 21st century. Keep the beauty and holiness of the sacraments. The church just may have a chance.
The Metropolitan Opera's new production of Wagner's Parsifal, seen in HD live last Saturday may be the best performance of anything I've ever experienced anywhere.
The work itself has always moved me. I stood through it several times in New York during my younger days. This weekend it made its full affect when seen up close, with titles.
The cast was superb: Jonas Kaufman, Rene Pape, Peter Mattei, Katarina Delayman, Evgeny Nikitin conducted by Daniele Gatti. The production is by Francois Girard. Men in white shirts and dark trousers. Women in black (mimes) Flowermainden in white sheaths.
Here's what struck me seeing this performance "up close". Rene Pape has the mot beautiful voice I've encountered in a long time. Peter Mattei exhausted the audience with Amfortas's agony but his voice was in no way infirm. Jonas Kaufman turned his move star looks into a touching naivete and nothing about the role troubled him vocally. Daniele Gatti conducted with the expansiveness of a great musician who has this score down-with just the right touch of Italian passion. I have a specially admiration for Italians conducting Wagner. De Sabata's Tristan is especially powerful-yearning times 100.
Of the opera itself, I know the basis in medieval legend. I know the guardianship of the Holy Grail.
When this performance ended I turned to my friend next to me and said "Remember, the Holocaust was going on just over fifty years after this premiered."
How is it possible? I know that Parsifal was banned during the Third Reich. Perhaps Hitler and the composer's wretched family in Bayreuth couldn't countenance "The Perfect Fool" among German manhood.
Was it the music or the megalomania of Wagner's art that Hitler admired.
Parsifal as music is to me the end. Nothing surpasses its beauty and emotional pull.
I don't know if Wagner had any sincerity in his Christianity. I've read he wasn't a churchgoer. This opera is not steeped in religion but in Christianity. A Christianity steeped in wounds and blood. Wagner's Christianity? Was the sacred a vehicle for Wagner to write the music he wanted (I never get the sense that Wagner HAD to needed to write music.) I think Wagner thought himself BIGGER than Christianity-that the Deity should be serving Wagner's art.
The sanctity expressed in Parsifal unnerves some people. It doesn't bother me because I don't think much about it. I get the allegories: Speer, blood, grail, madness, sex.
Was Wagner laughing at humanity for being suckered? I think it was Wagner's cynicism that attracted Hitler and much as the grandeur of Wagner's music.
Pieta: Peter Mattei as Amfortas
What impresses me most is the idea of male connections. not homosexuality, not sex but connection. Gurnemanz as the stern but loving father. He's especially touching in his old age. His recognition of
Parsifal in Act III was another performance highlight. Parsifal doesn't know empathy-Kundry's Kiss brings him into humanity-not to sex with her but to the suffering Amfortas.
Amfortas, the king of the grail knights, in his pain and misery is still the king. His vulnerability is what is most shocking to the others, more so than his actual pain. I do appreciate the male-male love depicted in these roles being elevated far above a sexual plane.
I still find a lot of Wagner, well...long. And Parsifal is the longest. I could have sat through it again on Saturday.. I left the theater not wanting to hear any more music and three days later I still don't.
The Columbus Symphony presents Mendelssohn's Symphony no. 3 "Scottish" this weekend, along with Beethoven's Piano concerto no. 4 and Kenneth Frazelle's Elegy for Strings-this weekend at the Ohio Theater. Jeffrey Kahane is the pianist and conductor.
Composer Kenneth Frazelle promises me a phone conversation later today. I'll report back tomorrow.
In listening to and researching the Mendelssohn Symphony, I came across some delightful references to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's fascnianton with this young German melodist.
Victoria and Albert bonded over music and her sexual passion for the dashing German princeling. Let's stay with music for now. The Queen loved her Bellini and Meyerbeer. She thrilled to Norma and I Puritani. No doubt she too sighed over Bellini, a lovely young man, most fetching and dead at 34. The Queen did love her dead friends. Albert was a respectable pianist and organist. He and the royal Mrs. were known to play piano four hands and Her Majesty was often most graciously pleased to sign. Withal, both Queen and Prince loved music, showed some gifts in performance. Aside from Albert and music, the Queen also adored Scotland. "Home of oatcakes and sulphur" Disraeli was heard to moan. As The Queen spent more and more time in seclusion at Balmoral, all of her ministers were forced to make the chilly trek north to conduct business.
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) became a star at 17 with his overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream. His Songs Without Words were all the rage. The early string symphonies were considered decorative and good fun. Mendelssohn's four Symphonies lack the drama and passion of Beethoven or Schumann, but they have a grace and melodic perfection all their own.
During a visit to Scotland in 1829, the young was impressed by the ruins of the chapel at Holyrood House-once the home of Mary, Queen of Scots. The sight of that unhappy lady's home in the moonlight led Mendelssohn to jot down a tune. Over years this blossomed into his third symphony. And why not call it 'Scottish'. "I have come up with the theme for my Scotch Symphony", wrote Mendelssohn. Indeed he had, even though thirteen years passed until the Symphony was ready. But it begins with that haunting tune, inspired by ruins in the moonlight:
So here we have Mendelssohn: handsome, German and purportedly in love with Scotland. How could Victoria resist? She didn't. During one of his many trips to Britain, the composer was invited to Buckingham Palace. Many an eyebrow raised as court, since Mendelssohn was Jewish and a composer. Not exactly respectable, since composers were known to run with fast women and have a predilection for drink
Mendelssohn's first visit to the Royal couple was on June 15, 1842. The Queen and the Prince were "quite fluttery" anticipating Mendelssohn's arrival. The Queen reported that Mendelssohn "was very pleasing and modest...At one moment he played the Austrian national anthem with one hand and Rule Britannia with the other. We were all filled with the greatest admiration. Poor Mendelssohn was quite exhausted when he was done playing."
Mendelssohn came back a month later. The queen decided to sing for the composer "She will sing you something by Gluck. Meanwhile, . the Princess of Gotha had come in and we all proceeded through the various rooms and corridors to the Queen's boudoir. There stood a piano and two enormous bird cages. The Duchess of Kent came in, and while they were all talking I rummaged through the music and found two songs of my own, which I asked her to sing in place of the Gluck.":
Mendelssohn and Queen Victoria reckoned without on of the Queen's favored pets:
"Just as we were about to begin, the Queen said 'But first we must get rid of the parrot, or he will scream louder than I can sing! Prince Albert rang the bell and the Prince of Gotha said 'I will take him out,'. I came forward and said "Please allow me?' and lifted up the big cage and carried it to the astonished servants. "
Mendelssohn grit his teeth when Victoria chose to sing "Schoner und schoner schmuckt dich". Mendelssohn could overlook the Queen singing D instead of D sharp but he pouted when admitting that this song was written not by himself but by another Mendelssohn, his sister Fanny.
"I gave him a little ring in remembrance" wrote the Queen. They met twice more, in 1844 and 1847. Albert heard the composer conduct Elijah in London and sent a signed copy of the program with a windy but admiring inscription. The one favor Mendelssohn asked, to visit the Royal children, further endeared him to the couple.
Felix Mendelssohn died on November 4, 1847. The Queen was "horrified, astounded and distressed" at this news. "We liked and esteemed the excellent man & looked up to & amp; esteemed the wonderful genius and the great mind, which I feel were too much for the frail and delicate body."
For all his vigor in fathering nine children, Albert himself was frail. He did in 1861. Victoria was prostrate and claimed she would soon join him, so weak and heartsick was she. Forty years later-she did!
Margot Peters has had a distinguished career, both in academia and as a biographer.
Her subjects have included George Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, and poet/icon May Sarton. Her latest book is a biography of poet Lorine Niedecker, Lorine Niedecker, A Poet's Life, available now from University of Rochester Press.
I was interested in how a biographer begins her work, and whether of not views of the subject change over time.
Margot Peters spoke to me on the phone from her home in Wisconsin
CP: What does it take to be a biographer?
MP: An organized mind. And the ability out of the million facts that you get, to see patterns.
And you have to have a narrative sense, to carry the reader. But if you can see patters out of all your research, that's when it begins to become a biography.
CP: How long does it take to find those patterns?
MP: I know that I have it when I tell myself, even if I discover things about his person, they won't surprise me. They will fit in.
CP: Many of your books deal with the theater
MP: Yes!
CP: I know the theater is a passion of yours. The first book of yours that I read was your book on Mrs. Patrick Campbell. I had heard then name but didn't really know much about her. What inspired you to go to her?
MP: I had written a biography of George Bernard Shaw. It's called Bernard Shaw and the Actresses-bad title!-it should have been called Shaw and the New Woman. He wrote wonderful roles for women. He was very involved with Mrs. Patrick Campbell. He was in love with her. After I was finished with Shaw and the Actresses, which dealt with many actresses I thought, Oh-there's not a good biography of Stella Campbell. I think there should be. She's witty. A Wonderful snob, She was a great-some people say-actress, and she had a colorful life.
CP: Could you tell strictly from your research what kind of actress she was?
MP: I think so. There were lengthy theater reviews in those days. We're talking the 1890s--1910-1920s, Theater reviews went on and on. They'd describe the tone of voice, timbre, action, how she turned her back at crucial moments in a play. They really described very thoroughly. I think I think I have a sense of how she would have acted. The films did not help me very much. She was older, she had let herself go, she was unused to film as a medium. It was good to see her on film, but I think I grasped her acting as a young actress.
CP: When you're researching a subject do you start with one mindset about them, then through your research change your mind?
Stella Patrick Campbell 1865-1940
MP: I think all biographers-or many of them-change their minds. Shaw was an absolute hero to me. For his socialism, for his feminism, for his brilliance. But he was not very nice with women. He was a philanderer when he was young. He could be cruel. I had to make all kinds of adjustments in writing that book. I had to reconcile this true feminist who wrote great roles for women, with a sometimes nastily behaving man towards women. That was a problem. He tore some actors apart. He was out for Sir Henry Irving. He felt Irving was behind times, he wasn't current with the new drama. He just ripped him apart. Later Irving said, "I'd be glad to pay for this man's funeral!"
CP: You have reintroduced Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne to the public. Tell me who they were in context of their own times
MP: Lunt and Fontanne are a genius, as one critic said. Together-and the seldom performed separately-they created absolute magic. Their timing was perfect. Their sense of humor, their comedy. Alfred I think was the far better actor. But after he hitched up with Lynn, Lynn had to have wonderful women's roles. I think he would be the greater actor.
CP: Some of the plays they did were not very good. Without them they would not be performed. Was that deliberate on their part?
MP: Noel Coward was their closest friend. One of the plays he wrote for them, Quadrille, is not good. I suspect it was one of these friendships, you did it to be all involved together. Yes, they were in some bad plays, but they had good roles--for them.
CP: Why do you think they so seldom worked separately?
MP: They started separately. The acted together after they got married. Then, I think, as this sounds really petty, I think that she was horribly jealous of his leading ladies.Helen ?Hayes was in love with him. Lynn didn't want anyone with Alfred except herself.
CP: As far as I know, only one of your subjects was living at the time you were working with them, and that was May Sarton.
MP: How true! Never work with a living subject!
CP: Will you ever do it again, after that?
MP: Never
CP: What's the difference between a subject living or not living.
MP: I did the living subject because I was interested in her, and her feminism and I thought it would be interesting to talk with a live person. But there quickly grew a battle between us. She wanted to talk to me, and yet she wanted to control her own life. She wanted to read and then control what I said. She fired me twice!
I told my husband, "She's going to bury me!" She was so difficult, I really thought I could never do this. I was able to publish the book after she died. It's a very blunt biography, but she told me most of it....all of her affairs, all of her philandering was incredible. And her temper. She was fascinating, but I would never work with anybody alive again.
CP: It a blunt biography and I know you've had some criticism
MP: I got death threats!
CP: But people were so attracted to her. If you're into her you're really into her, you're really into her. Like Wagner.
MP: She had fans. She didn't have readers, she had fans.
CP: Why were people attracted to her?
MP: The vitality. I used to show a film of her to my students, called A World of Light. I taught a class called Women's Voices Women's Lives, and in that film she is incandescent. She is so vital, so alive, I thought what a wonderful woman! And it turned out she was almost empty. No, she couldn't be empty, but she had so little self.
CP: She was an actress
May Sarton (1912-1995)
MP: She was. She overwhelmed these audiences with her beautiful voice and her poetry. She was a huge success.
CP: I think the bluntness of the book reflects her very well. She should not have been surprised .
MP: No! She told me all of this
CP: If she read the book herself she may not have liked it but he could not have been surprised. I don't appreciate her work any less. I don't think she was a great writer
MP: I don't either
CP; That's why I was really curious why she had such a fan base
MP: Some of her novels are good. Some of them are quite good, but that's the most you can say. Some of them are very bad. Her poetry has appeal, especially when she would read it aloud. I was interested in her because of her journals. I said to myself, it doesn't matter that she's a lesbian, well it certainly did!
CP: In what way?
MP: Not being lesbian myself should I be writing this person? But no, it doesn't matter. She's a human being. But she was so lesbian, she was so involved with so many women. Her promiscuity bothered me.
But it would bother me in a heterosexual.
CP: She seemed predatory about it
MP: Yes, she was predatory. Yes.
Lorine Niedecker
CP: Finally I'm intrigued by your latest book about a poet I didn't know .
MP: Lorine Niedecker. A wonderful poet. A hard, hard life. Poverty. Living alone on Blackhawk island that flooded frequently. There was loneliness. Then she makes a connection with a poet in New York and that gives her energy to publish. She had only four books published in her lifetime. She is a wonderful poet. She's a wonderful human being.
CP: A little different than May Sarton.
When you speak of poets working alone Emily Dickinson always comes up. but if you've been to
Amherst you know there's a difference between splendid isolation and really living alone .
CP: Any final thoughts for a would be biographer? Make sure they're dead.
MP: Make sure they're dead. Number one. Don't write about anyone living. Don't choose a living celebrity. you have to split fifty-fifty with them. You can't say what you want. If the person's living, you don't gt an honest biography. Very few subjects would allow that. Do lots of research. Looks for the pattern always. I use psychology but I don't broadcast it. I don't go in to long psychological analyses. Write well!
