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Thomasina
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Are you likely to want to swim? I gather Japanese public pools have a great many rules, not all of them familiar to Antipodeans…
http://www.japanfamilyguide.com/recreation/43-pool-etiquette-in-japan
http://tokyotombaker.wordpress.com/category/tokyo-lifestyle/swimming-pools/
http://www.abc.net.au/correspondents/content/2012/s3580923.htm
Commented Sep 3, 2012 on Tokyo at Prima la musica
Tokyo
Tomorrow our next adventure begins, and I have a feeling this might be one of our biggest yet: we're off to Tokyo, where the New National Theatre will present Willy Decker's production of Peter Grimes, recently seen at the Royal Opera. It's going to be a whole new world for me; we've travelle...
A Chorus Line
Posted Aug 7, 2012 at Thomasina’s last waltz
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Visitors
The marketing cheekily (I thought) referred to her as the grande dame of Australian orchestras. And she came with all her opulent finery. The sound was velvet plush, draped silk, whispering voile. Distinctive and beautiful. But in a program dominated... Continue reading
Posted Jun 29, 2012 at Thomasina’s last waltz
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Touring the provinces
Posted Jun 11, 2012 at Thomasina’s last waltz
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Skin and bones: a frindley theory
The other day Elissa Milne posted a thought-provoking post about preferred baroque keyboard composers and the possible correlation with personality types. The tricky matter of French baroque music emerged, including the fact that it often doesn’t seem to satisfy or... Continue reading
Posted Apr 22, 2012 at Thomasina’s last waltz
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Catherine the Great’s Lament
You wouldn’t believe what goes on in my court: Gambling. Harassment. A ghost. Multiple suicides. And I don’t even get a #walkon ! #opera702 That’s The Queen of Spades by the way. In the middle of Act II Catherine the... Continue reading
Posted Feb 29, 2012 at Thomasina’s last waltz
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Hear it, feel it. See it.
Recently I heard that journalist @harryfiddler was writing a piece on use of visuals in (classical) concerts. She was given a teeny, tiny 1000 words in which to explore the subject – barely enough to scratch the surface, which is... Continue reading
Posted Feb 24, 2012 at Thomasina’s last waltz
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Opera baby
Posted Feb 12, 2012 at Thomasina’s last waltz
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Your frindley neighbourhood pedant clarifies:
Strictly speaking, the Meistersinger arrangement was a duet arrangement, but this particular rendition or performance of it used two pianos mainly because two copies of the music happened to be at hand. (Not to mention that playing duets as duos has the nice side effect of saving the primo player from the anguish of surrendering control of the pedal…)
Commented Jan 24, 2012 on Vital Vacation Statistics at Thomasina’s last waltz
Vital Vacation Statistics
I took a week off. Here is a partial reckoning: 12 hours pretending I wasn’t really working 2 hours being all editorial and advisory by the light of the moon 550 kilometres 22 madonnas (and more) from Italy 100 manuscripts from Berlin (drool) 30 minutes photographing historical corresponden...
Very nice – frindley does indeed approve.
Commented Jan 22, 2012 on Seeing stars at Prima la musica
Seeing stars
What better way to spend the free night between performances #1 and #2 of Das Lied von der Erde than with a ridiculous French operetta? Hey, if it's good enough for Sir Simon Rattle (who's been conducting both) then it's good enough for me. Besides which, I am a Magdalena Kozena groupie, and i...
Vital Vacation Statistics
I took a week off. Here is a partial reckoning: 12 hours pretending I wasn’t really working 2 hours being all editorial and advisory by the light of the moon 550 kilometres 22 madonnas (and more) from Italy 100 manuscripts... Continue reading
Posted Jan 22, 2012 at Thomasina’s last waltz
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It would be nice if it were possible to enjoy Mahler in small doses, but since that’s impossible, I prefer infrequent doses. In my experience Mahler is like Shostakovich: great fun if you’re sitting in the middle of an orchestra playing it.
Commented Dec 15, 2011 on Fantasy Subscription 2011 at Thomasina’s last waltz
Fantasy Subscription 2011
Last week I was giving pre-concert talks here in Sydney, and I began by saying that the concert in question was one I’d been looking forward to all year – partly because it gave me a chance to hear in the concert hall two pieces I hadn’t heard live before (Tchaikovsky’s Voyevoda, Op.78 and Proko...
Fantasy Subscription 2011
Last week I was giving pre-concert talks here in Sydney, and I began by saying that the concert in question was one I’d been looking forward to all year – partly because it gave me a chance to hear in... Continue reading
Posted Dec 12, 2011 at Thomasina’s last waltz
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Classic 100 Twentieth Century: a personal response
The ABC’s Classic 100 Twentieth Century is over and it was every bit as frustrating as I expected it to be. Let me count the ways. 1. Frustration. Is “20th Century” a period or a state of mind? Choosing a... Continue reading
Posted Dec 5, 2011 at Thomasina’s last waltz
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Classic 100 Twentieth Century: a personal list
The voting called for our “ten favourite works written since 1900”. I took this literally: favourites. Not necessarily the greatest or the most seminal or the most famous or the most representatively “20th century”, whatever that might mean. Just favourites.... Continue reading
Posted Dec 2, 2011 at Thomasina’s last waltz
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Calligraphy porn
Or perhaps I should call it “Feathers, skin and gut” Those who know me really well know that I think one of the most exquisitely sensual sounds in the world is the scratch of a quill scribing on vellum. And... Continue reading
Posted Oct 22, 2011 at Thomasina’s last waltz
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Oxford dons from the ’70s
So English pianist James Rhodes is in Australia with a recital scheduled for Sydney, and if no one invites me to be their date for the opening night of The Love of the Nightingale, I just may go. He has... Continue reading
Posted Oct 18, 2011 at Thomasina’s last waltz
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Useful and beautiful: a tribute to the work of Steve Jobs (1955–2011)
I can’t claim to be the first to draw a comparison between Steve Jobs and British designer William Morris. Long before this past week – around the time of the Stanford commencement address where Jobs explained how calligraphy led to... Continue reading
Posted Oct 9, 2011 at Thomasina’s last waltz
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Frequently Asked Questions
I don’t normally publish my program notes here, but this one has already been seen online and is about to get an Australian reprise. I’m quite fond of it, because it’s one of those occasions where I’ve been able to... Continue reading
Posted Sep 28, 2011 at Thomasina’s last waltz
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Now there’s a challenge! To make it into Column 8 I would need to condense my complaint to perhaps 80 words. I’d have to toss out all the education…
Commented Sep 22, 2011 on In which I rant against the local broadsheet’s refusal to print foreign characters at Thomasina’s last waltz
In which I rant against the local broadsheet’s refusal to print foreign characters
At the instigation of a certain Sébastien, I am posting here a Heckler complaint that I submitted to the Sydney Morning Herald a few years ago. It was rejected; it must have been – as I feared – unprintable. This Heckler is unprintable. Not because it is offensive or in poor taste but because my...
In which I rant against the local broadsheet’s refusal to print foreign characters
At the instigation of a certain Sébastien, I am posting here a Heckler complaint that I submitted to the Sydney Morning Herald a few years ago. It was rejected; it must have been – as I feared – unprintable. This... Continue reading
Posted Sep 21, 2011 at Thomasina’s last waltz
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I completely agree. Seeing this business card certainly made me think I'd be dealing with some creative minds if I were to work with them.
Commented Sep 17, 2011 on Punching out the pronouns at Thomasina’s last waltz
Punching out the pronouns
Shifting to a different “enthusiasm”… A few months ago I came across a nifty business card from an Australian company that does office design work. Two pictures speak, I would say, about two thousand words.
Classical Music according to Time
Posted Aug 14, 2011 at Thomasina’s last waltz
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I'd question her judgement on the matter of spaces between periods of ellipses. Typographically speaking, an ellipsis is a single character, so three periods would be incorrect whether you put spaces between or not. Anyone preparing your manuscript for a designer or typesetter to work with would be replacing all those instances of ". . ." or "..." with "…".
Commented Aug 8, 2011 on Humbled by Copyediting: Guest Post by Elizabeth Fama at The Subversive Copy Editor Blog
Humbled by Copyediting: Guest Post by Elizabeth Fama
Photo: Elizabeth Fama I just finished reviewing my copyedited manuscript and I learned a valuable lesson: I am a hack writer. It has absolutely nothing to do with the copyeditor herself; she was professional and unobtrusive on the page. And before we go any further I want to say that based...
Where, oh where is Proper Discord?
Some time between 9 and 13 June 2011 Proper Discord disappeared. The blog was deleted; the twitter feed was protected then deleted altogether; the remarkable, hilarious Xtranormal videos were taken down from the YouTube channel. I’m utterly devastated. Others’ reactions... Continue reading
Posted Jun 19, 2011 at Thomasina’s last waltz
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