Yesterday, the radio opera was Puccini’s “Turandot” from Covent Garden. I won’t go into the details, having discussed it before (more than once). I’ll just mention that Sondra Radvanovsky (who is American) has a thought new to me about exactly when in the opera Turandot’s shell cracks, which in her opinion happens to coincide with the exact point in the opera at which Puccini died composing it – the rest of the opera was constructed from his notes by Franco Alfano, with mixed reviews. Personally, if I didn’t already know Puccini hadn’t finished it, I wouldn’t be able to tell any difference. Toscanini, who conducted the premier, did not agree. He felt so strongly that he stopped the premier at that point, turning to the audience and saying (probably in Italian) “At this point, the maestro laid down his pen.” Anyway, I’m off to see Virgil and will check in upon return
Not the most important news – but lovely to see Scotland doing Scotland and giving the Apricot Antichrist a ginormous middle finger.
Liza Donnelly is a good friend of Heather Cox Richardson. She is a professional cartoonist and gets published in The New Yorker. The experience she writes (and draws) about here has me green with envy. But, of course, to move in those circles one has to be in those circles – and I really don’t have the strength any more to do that.
I knew this, but I can’t tell you how happy I am to see it in print in a Colorado newspaper, even a small one. Because he will need name recognition to win the Democratic gubernatorial primary, let alone the general.
We don’t seem to hear as much about Make-A-Wish as we used to. But they are still around. And still doing good.
John D. Cundle is a Canadian (he may or may not be a US expat, but he is definitely a Canadian now) who is willing to help us keep our spirits up in any way he can. Like this.
