Yesterday, the radio opera was Verdi’s “Falstaff”, obviously based on Shakespeare, of whom Verdi was quite the fan. It was the last opera he wrote, and at the time he was maybe 2 years younger than I am now. Falstaff is an absolute jerk, in Shakespeare and also in Verdi, but he does get his comeuppance in the play (The Merry Wives of Windsor”) and the opera, which is a comedy as is the play. But I’d rather discuss Gustavo Dudamel (AKA The Dude) today. Born in Venezuela into a musical family, he started violin lessons with El Sistems at the age of five. (If you don’t know about El Sistema – it is a musical educational phenomenon in Venezuela, and the envy of the classical music world. He soon began to study composition, and at 14, he began to study conducting. At 18, he became the music director (which includes the positon of principal conductor) of the Simon Bolivar Orchestra – Venezuela’s national youth orchestra, also associated with La Sistema. At 36, he conducted the Vienna New Year’s Concert, becoming the youngest conductor ever to do so. Conductors tend to live (and work) to advanced ages – some believe this may be at least in part due to the upper body exercise they get on the job – well, it’s possible. In 2007 he was appointed music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic with a contract which was extended three times. They are finally leting him go to become Music Director of the New York Philharmonic – the most prestigious orchestra in the US. He is now 45 – which is still young for a conductor. Without contracts, he has worked with orchestras all over the world. He conducted the intro and outro for one of the Star Wars movies at the request of John Williams. He has also worked with Coldplay, Beyoncé, and Bruno Mars. I could list his accomplishments and accolades until the cows come home, and then some – but I’d bore y’all to tears. Let’s just say The Dude is a phenomenon. I believe history will remember him as being to the 21at century as a conductor what Mozart was to the 18th century as a composer (of course he’s already older than Mozart was when he died.)
With that, I’ll move on to other good news and continue with my alphabetical listings.
Y’all probably know that Mitch – OUR Mitch, not the monster -is a huge lover of jazz. But you may not have known that he has a cousin who plays bass in a jazz band. He sent me a link to them performing “Undecided,” and they are really good. You don’t get to see Mitch’s cousin much – and it’s part of a playlist, so you .may need to stop it when it’s over (if you skim the playlist and see what other bands are included, you’ll see I’m not alone in rating them really good.)
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