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Monday, June 02, 2008

This week's Arts Journal

Bit of time on my hand before departing for Georgia tonight, on a direct flight from Vilnius (yeah!), so here's some stuff from the Arts Journal:

The ballerina Irina Baronova, one of first ever to dance in Australia (one of three Ballets Russes dancers who went to Australia in about 1936) as possibly the first classical ballet there, here tells this lovely story:

"I remember at a matinee of Cinderella, a family left
after 20 minutes. The papa told the theatre manager, 'We want our
money back … We've been here 20 minutes and no one has said a
word.'" She also talks about sitting on the floor during an amateur silent movie recording of some ballets, humming the music to match the steps on the screen.

This article from the Chicago Tribune wonders how Ricardo Muti will get on there, or rather how the orchestra will get on with him, given the rather tempestuous way in which he left La Scala in Milan. Seems like he needs a permanent orchestra, even though he seems to have had plenty of work since he left Milan 3 years ago. I wonder, too.

The Guardian has an article about choices of funeral music (for mine, start with Verdi's 'Dies Irae' and finish with 'Ruhe sanft' from Bach's St Matthew's(?) Passion). Apparently in the UK 'Always look on the bright side of life' (Monty Python) is one of the favourites. And why not - I bet it'll get plenty of people smiling in the church - though perhaps it also says something about which generation is dying off these days.

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