Niche marketing...
La Donna Mobile
I think it's it a clever idea, even whilst wondering about mixed schools, boys schools etc.
I wonder if there is any scope for similar marketing techniques of opera...
La Donna Mobile, always the Prefect never the Head Girl
-- http://www.madmusingsof.me.uk/weblog/ http://www.geraldine-curtis.me.uk/photoblog/
Mrs Terfel
to try and get kids interested and put a stop to the stupid stereotype
that opera is "boring"
But they'd have to choose very good versions of suitable operas -
probably ones like Carmen or Tosca with good powerful stories / loads
of sex and violence that would appeal to them. Also throw in some
attractive tenors or baritones sans shirts.
It certainly worked with the BBC Pride & Prejudice a few years back.
How many girls thought Jane Austen and English Literature in general
was really dull and boring until they saw Colin Firth as Mr Darcy in
that wet shirt?
Mrs T xx
Stephen Jay-Taylor
Looking like an ice lollipop, and about as sexy as a lump of cod. If ever
there was an actor that had screen ABSENCE it's him, the great frigid yawn.
SJT, who doesn't think Matthew McFadyen - her off "Spooks" - looks any more
animated or horny in the new film either, in which Brenda Blethyn Blethyn
and Judi Dench give doubtless Oscar-grabbing exercises in OTT
scene-stealing, but dear old Donald Sutherland walks off with the film.
PS. And in which some pallid estuary-English slapper who can neither act nor
speak plays Lizzie.
Virginia Zeani's Adopted Brother
positive responses....although they are so inundated (drowned) with
Crap music...it is hard to "convert," but i do see some interest. I
reach some.....not enough..CH
Mrs Terfel
about the sexiness of Mr Firth in that wet shirt......
He's supposed to be delivering lines like "I trust your parents are in
good health" in a frigid way, because that's the sort of repressed
stuck-up character he is - and I thought he was the perfect Mr Darcy.
I'm going to see the new film on Monday and am really looking forward
to it. It got some good reviews..... and I always thought the Spooks
bloke was pretty damn sexy anyway. Not so sure about Keira Knightley
as Lizzie - as her acting in King Arthur was so dreadful that it was
laughable. On va voir.....
Someone should make an opera out of Pride & Prejudice.
Mrs T xx
Mrs Terfel
I often have this dilemma with friends who have never been to the
opera. It's so important that the first one they see is a really good
one, otherwise they could be put off for life. I think Tosca is
probably the best choice, with Carmen as second. Reason for that is
that Tosca is not too long and is all action and not much padding -
good for the attention span of the less devoted.
The first opera I ever saw - on tv - was the Boulez/Chereau Ring - I
was only about 8 or 9 at the time but I loved it. (Of course at that
age I had no idea Siegfried wasn't supposed to wear a tuxedo and things
like that.....)
The first opera I ever saw live was a traditional production of
Meistersinger in Mannheim, Germany. I was only about 12 at the time
and had only just started to learn German - so there were no subtitles
and I couldn't understand any of it. I remember thinking that I was
going to die of boredom. One of the main singers was sick and the last
act was cancelled - I was very relieved at the time.
Mrs T xx
Steve Silverman
"Stephen Jay-Taylor" <sjayt...@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:dgfvdf$etd$1...@nwrdmz01.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com...
> "Colin Firth as Mr Darcy in that wet shirt?"
>
> nor speak plays Lizzie.
I haven't seen the film yet, but the reviews seem pretty consistent in their
praise for Kiera Knightley's performance. Visually she is not what one might
expect from Austen's description of her heroine.
If only the estuary-English that assaults my ears on a daily basis were
moderated from time to time by dulcet tones such as Ms. Knightley's, I would
be truly blessed.
Steve Silverman.
Mrs Terfel
Steve Silverman wrote:
> "> If only the estuary-English that assaults my ears on a daily basis were
> moderated from time to time by dulcet tones such as Ms. Knightley's, I would
> be truly blessed.
>
> Steve Silverman.
Not much chance of that round 'ere in Furrock, Mr Silverman
Mrs T xx
Alice
About Colin Firth, I did not have to look at the signature to know it
was a man who wrote that! LOL
Alice.
La Donna Mobile
Mrs Terfel wrote:
King Arthur? Was that the one I tried to watch for Clive Owen and then
decided that there simply aren't enough hours in the day to sit through
excrutiating awfulness, notwithstanding the delectable Clive.
>Someone should make an opera out of Pride & Prejudice.
>
>
Can we wait a few years yet. A good few years, else I'll have to endure
another earbashing from my mother who wants to know why it's deemed
necessary to make yet another P&P, as if there aren't plenty enough
already, and very many novels from that era and others who haven't had
the treatment once
Bridget Jones
Mrs Terfel
La Donna Mobile wrote:
>
> >
> King Arthur? Was that the one I tried to watch for Clive Owen and then
> decided that there simply aren't enough hours in the day to sit through
> excrutiating awfulness, notwithstanding the delectable Clive.
Yes, that was the one! Have never come so close to walking out of a
cinema before the end of a film in my life. Even the men pretending to
be women in the Monty Python version were better actresses than Kiera
Knightley. Would rather watch Act 1 of Siegfried non-stop for a week
than sit through THAT again......
> >Someone should make an opera out of Pride & Prejudice.
> >
> >
> Can we wait a few years yet. A good few years, else I'll have to endure
> another earbashing from my mother who wants to know why it's deemed
> necessary to make yet another P&P, as if there aren't plenty enough
> already, and very many novels from that era and others who haven't had
> the treatment once
>
> Bridget Jones
>
So, you've got a mother like Mrs Bennet too? Join the club. Mine even
asked me a few months ago - perfectly seriously: "That nice Welsh
singer that you're always seeing, is he married?"
When she was taping Walkure for me off the radio I had to phone her and
tell her when to turn the tape over (to avoid missing any Wotan bits)
as she was genuinely unable to tell the difference between Placido and
Bryn. "Placido's the one who sings the high notes, Mum...."
Mrs T xx
La Donna Mobile
Although not quite a big a fan as the mother of someone else who left a comment on my blog "As far as my Mum is concerned, Bryn Terfel could dress up as a transvestite and sing and she would still worship him..."
She pretends not to be a Placido fan. She said in 1983 he was just a phase I'm going through. I thought, I'll prove her wrong.
Although, in fairness the Xmas-before-last she did trek all over Manchester to find me the CG Otello DVD, finally realising that Forsyths on Deansgate was a better bet than HMV.
REG
"Steve Silverman" <ssil...@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:dggldc$hh2$1...@nwrdmz03.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com...
Steve Silverman
"REG" <Rich...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:VwVWe.35093$%w.1...@twister.nyc.rr.com...
> What is Estuary English?
A hideous curse visited upon Landing Strip One. It is an unbelievably sloppy
and ugly way of pronouncing the English language that has become prevalent
in the South East and is infecting other parts of the country via the medium
of television. Originally the affliction of lower types such as Mrs. Terfel,
it is characterised by glottal stops instead of final "t"s, "l"s pronounced
as "w"s, and a general carelessness in speaking that should be eradicated by
extensive use of the lethal injection. Even Tony Blair has acquired some of
its milder mannerisms, although that may just be a ploy to attract the votes
of the people who live near me.
Steve Silverman
Mrs Terfel
Steve Silverman wrote:
>. Originally the affliction of lower types such as Mrs. Terfel,
> it is characterised by glottal stops instead of final "t"s, "l"s pronounced
> as "w"s, and a general carelessness in speaking that should be eradicated by
> extensive use of the lethal injection. Even Tony Blair has acquired some of
> its milder mannerisms, although that may just be a ploy to attract the votes
> of the people who live near me.
>
> Steve Silverman
You are *so* going to get a slap the next time I see you in Ikea, Mr
Silverman!
I certainly do not speak with an Essex accent- as I grew up in Catholic
convent schools where 90% of staff and pupils were of Irish decent.
And I am proud to say that I have never voted for Tony Bliar in my
life, nor do I ever intend to.
You choose to live in Essex, so stop being such a snob about it
Mrs T, pretty effing miffed and ready to knock over a few chairs xx
EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)
Mrs Terfel wrote:
> They could try sending a nice opera DVD involving a particularly
> attractive tenor or baritone sans shirt?
>
> Think that would inspire most teenage girls....
Too bad there's none of the Bastille "Don Quichotte" from
2002 - JVD's torso certainly didn't look 61 years old! (But
I understand he swims and plays tennis a lot.)
>
> Mrs T, who still acts like a teenager even though frighteningly
> approaching 30
>
REG
"Steve Silverman" <ssil...@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:dghi25$74m$1...@nwrdmz02.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com...
alanwa...@aol.com
>
> You are *so* going to get a slap the next time I see you in Ikea, Mr
> Silverman!
>
> I certainly do not speak with an Essex accent- as I grew up in Catholic
> convent schools where 90% of staff and pupils were of Irish decent.
> And I am proud to say that I have never voted for Tony Bliar in my
> life, nor do I ever intend to.
>
> You choose to live in Essex, so stop being such a snob about it
>
> Mrs T, pretty effing miffed and ready to knock over a few chairs xx
You are an IRISH girl based on your responses to Points 1, 2 and 3,
particularly 3 or a potential Irish girl at the very least. Check out
your genealogy:):)
Come to think of it, if you are "pretty effing miffed and ready to
knock over a few chairs xx" there is almost certainly an Irish girl
somewhere. I'd put money on it, meself.
That's grand.
Kind regards,
Alan M. Watkins
REG
"Steve Silverman" <ssil...@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:dghi25$74m$1...@nwrdmz02.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com...
Mrs Terfel
alanwa...@aol.com wrote:
> >> You are an IRISH girl based on your responses to Points 1, 2 and 3,
> particularly 3 or a potential Irish girl at the very least. Check out
> your genealogy:):)
>
> Come to think of it, if you are "pretty effing miffed and ready to
> knock over a few chairs xx" there is almost certainly an Irish girl
> somewhere. I'd put money on it, meself.
>
> That's grand.
>
> Kind regards,
> Alan M. Watkins
Well, my Dad's Irish and my Mum's Scottish. Whatever that makes me,
it's certainly not English and it's certainly not Essex. Apparently I
actually spoke with an Irish accent up to the age of about 12 because I
grew up in an almost entirley Irish community. Later I lost my Irish
accent and now speak with a general "southern" accent.
Although I live in a nicer part of Essex unfortunately there are some
really rough types in my neighbourhood..... I can scarcely sleep at
night due to the noise made by chav types like Mr Steve Silverman Esq.
who insist on racing their flash cars around the estate at 2am while
playing "Andrea Boccelli Sings Wagner" at full volume on their car
stereos....
Disgraceful.
Mrs T xx
Silverfin
I was once forced against my will to take a school music class for a
couple of terms. Age 11-14, all SEN. Having had no warning, no
syllabus, no line manager and no experience with non-music readers, I
decided to do a big project on Carmen. Some stuff we did:
- Watched it on video, but in short sections once a week, not all in
one go. (They didn't know the plot, or how it ended, beforehand.)
- Talked about the story and the characters.
- Acted out bits.
- Drew illustrations.
- Listened to traditional Spanish music.
- Played percussion along to Habanera, etc.
- I put various pages from the score on the projector, and they had to
match them up with the right section of music (played on CD). (They got
the hang of this surprisingly well, like recognising the start of the
Gypsy dance from the pattern that the semiquavers made.)
They really got into the whole thing. In fact, a couple of the boys
liked the gypsy dance so much that they'd ask to hear it. If they
worked well in the lesson I'd put it on really loudly at the end. One
of them headbanged.
Still have no desire to ever teach music again,though.
Silverfin
Mrs Terfel
the hairy armpits?
If so, hope you fast forwarded through that horribley cruel and brutal
scene at the beginning with the bullfight. For me that almost spoiled
the whole film. Can't believe in this day and age that something as
barbaric as bullfighting is still legal in "civilised" countries......
The only cruelty that is morally acceptable is cruelty to furniture.
Mrs T xx
Leonard Tillman
>The only cruelty that is morally acceptable is
> cruelty to furniture.
Indeed so, and even this should be limited to the passive sort of
cruelty, eg, neglecting to send a Christmas or Anniversary greeting to
one's recliner-chair.
LT
alanwa...@aol.com
You sound like a potential candidate for Irish citizenship to me:):)
Congratulations.
alanwa...@aol.com
English.
La Donna Mobile
alanwa...@aol.com
where you are travelling to of course.
Mrs Terfel
La Donna Mobile wrote:
> > >Someone should make an opera out of Pride & Prejudice.
> >
> >
> Can we wait a few years yet. A good few years, else I'll have to endure
> another earbashing from my mother who wants to know why it's deemed
> necessary to make yet another P&P, as if there aren't plenty enough
> already, and very many novels from that era and others who haven't had
> the treatment once
>
> Bridget Jones
>
Just returned from seeing the new film of Pride & Prejudice and am so
traumatised that I feel a serious attack of furniture abuse coming on.
The most appropriate analogy I can think of is that imagine you're
going to see The Ring (or your favourite opera)- but you suddenly
discover that someone has cut about 10 hours out of the plot, employed
3rd rate singers and ditched Wagner's music only to replace it by a
totally new score by Andrew Lloyd-Webber. That's the best way I can
think of to describe it.
Sorry for being off-topic - but if you know and love every word and
subtle nuance of the BBC version with Colin Firth (like I do) then
you'll be in for one hell of a disappointment. They don't even kiss,
for f***'s sake!!!!!
Mrs T, terribly traumatised and vexed at what they've done to her
favourite story xx
P.S: Is there a problem with my computer or is everyone being
suspiciously quiet on RMO tonight? Let me guess....all the Americans
are at the Met hearing Bryn doing Scarpia. Life is so unfair!!!!
La Donna Mobile
Furniture is so for wimps
La Donna Mobile
Mrs Terfel
La Donna Mobile wrote:
> > I won't be rushing out, then. To be honest, I was never much of an
> Austen girl. Gaskell and the Brontes far more my cuppa
>
People who don't know the BBC version will probably think the film is
ok, if a little dull. I'm a die-hard Jane Austen fanatic but even I was
getting bored. There's nothing actually wrong with the actors *per se*
- it's just that they're pale spiritless shadows of the other cast. A
lot of it is bad direction too, we felt. But Judi Dench was excellent.
Mrs T - still traumatised xx
REG
abuse a la mode by moving all the pieces around, to the disapproval of the
father of the house? I've forgotten now, but I remember Nabakov writing
about it and saying that the unauthorized moving of furniture was a serious
matter in a 19th century English home.
REG, SPOCTF
"Mrs Terfel" <faye.c...@tesco.net> wrote in message
news:1127194071....@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)
Mrs Terfel wrote:
When is she ever not? However many repeats of "As Time Goes
By" we see here, I still love watching her (and Geoffrey
Palmer, of course). Given what mostly passes for "comedy"
in the U.S., many of us thank God for the imports from
Britain we see (forever) on PBS!
Count of Warwick
accent is seen as being "posh".
It's not just confined to the capital, either, Steve.
Many times I have overheard conversations of youths on buses, in town
centres, and it's like a foreign, unintelligible, non-earthbound
language. One cannot make out any consenants.
It's not just the youths, either. I speak to people all of the country
by phone, and it is difficult to comprehend what they are saying.
To think MY parents sent me for elocution lessons to get rid of my
strong "twang".
Count
Count of Warwick
vo'ers?
I seem to recall that when he became Prime Monstrosity, he made a big
thing about being a proud North Easterner (actually, born and educated
in Edinburgh), then supporting Newcastle United. His constituency is
Sedgefield in Durham, more likely catchment areas of Sunderland FC,
Newcastle's deadly enemies.
Glottal stops and dropping consenants (not just final ones) is now
nationwide.
I have nothing against Essex, as that county cricket team kindly
donated the twenty points Lancashire needed for promotion.
Also, a former girlfriend of mine came from Dagenham.
Mrs T, I would suggest you stop abusing the furniture; people will
assume you and Brynny are in cohoots with the Alvarez furniture makers
Count
Count of Warwick
> The only cruelty that is morally acceptable is cruelty to furniture.
>
I am a chair. A large reclining chair made for long winter evenings
situated near a roaring open fire with the crackle of coal and the
faint smell of firelighters still in my upholstery.
I was enjoying this varied discussion until I saw the messages which
advocated cruelty to my brothers, sisters and cousins.
I wish to register in the strongest possible terms that in these
so-called enlightened times, there are people who are advocating
violence on items of furniture.
Please stop this barbaric practice forthwith.
Thank you
S E Dan
Count of Warwick
He was rehearsing the confrontation scene in Tosca Act 2, at the point
just before Cavaradossi attacks Scarpia. The Cavaradossi leapt to his
feet (bearing in mind he was just recovering consciousness), grabbed
the nearest chair and started to sing "Vittoria!
Vittoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooriiaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!".
He raised the chair in a threatening manner. Gobbi fixed him with a
stare. The tenor looked sheepish to say the least. He replaced the
chair and mumbled:
"Scusi, Commendatore"
Mrs Terfel
Oh come on, be realistic Signor Conte. Asking me to stop abusing
furniture is like asking Don Giovanni to give up the women.....
Mrs T xx
Steve Silverman
"Count of Warwick" <raff_ma...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1127233213....@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Also, a former girlfriend of mine came from Dagenham.
Anybody prepared to admit that in public deserves respect, in my opinion.
Steve Silverman
La Donna Mobile
Count of Warwick wrote:
>Also, a former girlfriend of mine came from Dagenham.
>
>
>
>
Did she play the pipes?
Actually, my godfather taught in Dagenham
Mrs Terfel
it's 3 syllables anymore. A friend of mine calls it "The Nam"
Dagnam Dock must be one of the most beautiful train stations in
Britain, I'm lucky enough to go through it every morning on my way to
work.
Mrs T xx
Count of Warwick
No, Carola wasn't a piper.
Steve Silverman
>
> Oh come on, be realistic Signor Conte. Asking me to stop abusing
> furniture is like asking Don Giovanni to give up the women.....
Hardly. He knocks them up, not over.
Steve Silverman
Count of Warwick
Seeing as the Walls of Jericho crumbled to the sound of trumpets,
that's not necessarily such a great feat by Samson in the temple....
alanwa...@aol.com
Mrs Terfel wrote:
> Steve Silverman wrote:
> > "> If only the estuary-English that assaults my ears on a daily basis were
> > moderated from time to time by dulcet tones such as Ms. Knightley's, I would
> > be truly blessed.
> >
> > Steve Silverman.
>
> Not much chance of that round 'ere in Furrock, Mr Silverman
>
> Mrs T xx
Wot is nar the burrer of furrock, I'll have you know, has a small
plaice in musical historee, even if it is simfonic stuff.
A great deal of Scheh....errr...Cherryzade by Rimsky-CorsetCough was
ritten in Tilberry. CorsetCough was brite enuff to go across the riva
on the ferri to try it out on an upright pub joanna in Gravesend. He
only had a harmonipom on his timber boat, see, what couldn't get all
the notes. He was f****d in ovver words, scuse my langwidge dear.
Smart bloke I fink. You wouldn't do that sort of stuff in them pubs
near the doks on a Saturday night wouldya? "Tell that geezer to
f*****g knock it orf will ya?"
So whenever you here Cherryzade you should fink of Tilberry and say:
"That geeser writ it hear."
A translation: Rimsky-Korskakov wrote the vast majority of Scheherazade
while an Officer in the Russian Merchant Navy, stuck for weeks in
Tilbury, Essex, England, having delivered a cargo of timber. Unable to
return to Leningrad at the time because of ice in the Baltic Sea. The
second movement of the work was played for the first time by the
composer on an upright bar piano in The Swan Hotel, Gravesend, Kent,
just across the river from Tilbury and reached by a regular ferry
service taking little more than five minutes. He only had a small
harmonium on board the vessel and wanted a piano to try out the
somewhat greater range of Movement II. That is where it was heard
first.
PS: His score of Scheherazade for two players, one piano, is almost as
good as the orchestral version and a lot more interesting to watch:
cross over hands from both players, for example.
So don't you start tellin me that Furrock don't have a place in
historee....if you wanna talk about Tilburee that's somefink else,
lady.
La Donna Mobile
Count of Warwick wrote:
>Seeing as the Walls of Jericho crumbled to the sound of trumpets,
>that's not necessarily such a great feat by Samson in the temple....
>
>
>
What opera's that in?
Silverfin
I thought his name was RipYe-CorsetsOff.
Silverfin
alanwa...@aol.com
You may be right but my guess is that somewhere, among the 1001 nights,
the corsets came off somewhere.
Either way much of it was Tilbury, Essex, England.
So much for the Orient.
Kind regards,
Alan M, Watkins
Silverfin
Count of Warwick wrote:
> Tony Blair Bliar affecting a mock cockernee accen' just to appeaw to de
> vo'ers?
>
If I'm interpreting your phonetic deptictions correctly, this sentence
is a mixture of 3 distinct London dialects.
People are mispronounding all over the capital, not to mention the rest
of the country , but in a bewildering variety of different and
fascinating ways.
Silverfin (aka. Professor H Higgins)
La Donna Mobile
REG
"Mrs Terfel" <faye.c...@tesco.net> wrote in message
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REG
<alanwa...@aol.com> wrote in message
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Stephen Jay-Taylor
Thus writes Colonel Puckering
I don't think Rimsky churning out the tedious, bitty, repetitious and
overlong "Scheherazade" at Tillbury nearly as amusing as the discovery that
the quintessence of Gallic refinement and orchestral impressionism that is
Debussy's La Mer was written in Eastbourne and on the Isle of Wight ( but
then, the greatest Impressionist was Turner, as Monet acknowledged, just as
the greatest "French" Gothic architect was William of Crundale. The French ?
Cultural shop-lifters. If not shirt-lifters , though I'll keep off their
good points.)
SJT, who's levée the ocassional chemise lui-même
Leonard Tillman
Brings to mind his mentioning in another chapter that he and a
colleague, in performance, happened to notice, in the front row, some
"pirates'" microphones visibly displayed as these fellows were recording
the opera. Gobbi and his colleague looked to each other, approached
these illegit mikes, and while remaining in character, kicked said
"accouterments" out of their owners' hands to the floor.
While some opera stars are fans of such "live" recordings, some, like
Sr. Gobbi, evidently are not.
LT
Leonard Tillman
> variat.
What a pluperfect description for storfart35's drinking straw!
-Or does that liltle coprophage now imbibe more directly, as in
"eliminate the middleman"?
LT