Thursday, April 16, 2009

Verrath? An wem? ... Siegfried? Gutrun's Gemahl? ... Brach er die Treue?

So, I've been sent rehearsal mp3s of the Wagner (thanks to those responsible, you know who you are) and they are now on my mp3 page. The total length of all 19 clips is less than 19 minutes, and sure enough the ladies only seem to sing for a total of about one minute (three separate bits, in clips II-39A, II-43 and II-45B). I looked up the score online (at IMSLP) and found that the entirety of the ladies' role is in the title of this post - and none of those words are repeated! A total of 15 notes, not even in harmony. Good old Wagner.

It's just as well I already decided I couldn't do the concert due to the Manchester derby, because due to United beating Porto last night, there is now a Champions' League semi-final at Old Trafford on the evening of 29th April, which I will NOT be missing. (It's against Arsenal, and Dimitar Berbatov - who is not the most popular United player, but I love him - had this to say: "They are a great team. But we are Manchester United, so I think we are going to win.")

A few links for you: firstly, our Abraham Lincoln gig is now on the official site. (Note to self: must go and look at that statue sometime.)

On An Overgrown Path reports on the latest I Fagiolini project - Tallis in Wonderland. Sounds intriguing - I'd love to see that. (I've still never seen them live despite one of my best friends being a member!)

Operas from Glyndebourne are to be shown on Sky Arts this summer.

In non-musical news, several bits of Greater Manchester are to lose their postmarks (I'm actually pleased about this - I hate having an Oldham postmark when I don't live in Oldham), and here is a heartwarming story about robots and nice people: Tweenbots.

Oh, and I finally finished my most recent temp assignment (at the university) yesterday, and I'm taking all the paid holiday I'm owed (which is only about a week, because I had to use some of it for recent bank holidays) to try and make some progress with Plan A, which has always been to do musical stuff from home. I have a new website that no-one has yet seen, with a proper domain name and everything - I'll let you know as soon as it's ready to be unveiled! In the meantime, I'm still applying for relevant musical admin jobs when they come up, but having been rejected now by every major musical organisation in Manchester (one of them has rejected me FIVE TIMES) I don't hold out much hope there. But working from home is much better if I can manage it, because it saves me three hours' travelling every day plus £23 train fares each week.

Just a couple of requests in the meantime, though - hope you don't mind me being cheeky... If you know anyone who's doing an Associated Board exam soon, and they're worrying about the aural and sight reading aspects, please suggest that they contact me, because I would love to give them a crash course (two or three lessons). Similarly, if you know anyone who wants a few maths (or music) GCSE or A level lessons before their exam, please send them my way. Thanks!

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