Sunsets, Stars, West, Wind
In just a few hours I’ll be boarding a plane to the Pacific Northwest so I can visit my daughter and see her debut performance as Principessa in Suor Angelica for the Lyric Opera of the Northwest. This will be the second time this year I have seen this opera. Earlier this year, in May, Rachelle appeared at the Mistress of Novices for the St. Petersburg Opera.
Continue reading “My Daughter’s Debut as Principessa in Suor Angelica Tonight”
This post at Contralto Corner featuring my daughter became the high point of my evening.
I really need a Spring/Summer home in the Pacific Northwest so I can enjoy her live performances in person this season, or any season for that matter. I miss hearing her unique, powerful and beautiful voice.
For a full list of her upcoming engagements, visit her web site here:
http://rachellemoss.com/engagments/
Visit her Patreon page and become a supporter for exclusive content, such as behind the scenes view of the creative process of preparing and performing classical music, discussions on the history and origin stories of operas she’ll be performing, videos featuring the music from those works, discussing opera history, and the current life of an opera singer.
I’m amazed at how much I accomplished this past weekend, especially considering my husband had major surgery less than three weeks ago.
Friday night was our first venture out on a ‘date’ since the surgery. I signed up for a free lecture and screening at the National World War I Museum and Memorial entitled “Talking Tolkien: The Two Towers.” We arrived about fifteen minutes early to enjoy some hors d’oeuvres and drinks. We retired to the auditorium and waited a few minutes. At ten minutes or so after the hour, the lecturer strolled up to the podium and gave a meandering introduction of upcoming events in a clear effort to stall. He wanted to give the people in the lobby time to finish eating.
His lecture on Tolkien’s experiences during the Battle of the Somme was quite brief and rushed, not at all what I had been hoping for. He further devolved into a montage of photographs from the Museum’s collection delivered in the manner of a television show’s “Previously on …” wrap of the Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring. You could clearly see where Tolkien (and probably Peter Jackson) got his inspiration for scenes from Middle Earth and the conflict immortalized in the Lord of the Rings. After the lecture, the screening of The Two Towers began, for which Terry and I stayed only about thirty minutes before deciding the movie viewing experience was better at home.
Once back home, I decided to break out the Celestron C8 I had recently borrowed from my astronomy club. Despite dire predictions, the sky remained perfectly clear so I looked forward to an evening of planetary observing, since all five visible planets are ripe for the plucking at this time of year. I got everything attached to the tripod and manhandled it outside to my lower patio, giving it a quick leveling and orientation north so I could get through a polar alignment swiftly. Then I just had to wait for darkness to fall enough for me to see Polaris with my naked eye. Continue reading “Grande Finale to a Grand Weekend”
Back in late March, I wrote a post about searching for an Austen audiobook I needed to read for a book club discussion. At the end of that post, I promised a followup post on watching a movie using Hoopla and Google Chromecast. I did search diligently for a movie to watch via Hoopla, one that I hadn’t already seen and that was even remotely appealing. I watched two movies from Hoopla: The Girl on the Train and Drive Hard. I wasn’t overly impressed with either of them. I searched and searched and determined that Hoopla’s catalog is just not for me, at least for movies.
I’m my own worst enemy though. I’ve been a Netflix subscriber for years, both Blu-Rays and streaming. I’m a snob when it comes to video quality as well. For example, I rarely watch anything provided by my Dish Network subscription because they compress their “HD” to such a point that it might as well be “SD” quality. If it’s not at least Blu-Ray quality, I’d rather not watch it. So anything worth seeing, I’ve either gotten the Blu-Ray from Netflix or I’ve bought it through Google Play.
So Hoopla’s movie and television catalog is dated or full of not-so-highly rated offerings. i could say similar things for Netflix streaming, but at least there are occasional gems to be had and the television shows available on Netflix are only about a year behind, except for their own flagship shows of course.
But Hoopla has more than just movies and shows. It has music (and ebooks and audiobooks and comics and … well a whole lot more). This will become significant in a moment.
Reposting this in a non-Facebook location for friends and family who do not have Facebook accounts. For those of you new to my blog, Rachelle is my daughter.
Become a Musicians Friend by supporting one of our musicians for our January performance.
RACHELLE MOSS, $150*
SUPPORT RACHELLE at this link: https://www.crowdrise.com/queencitymusicians
Rachelle Moss is an American mezzo-contralto. She has been praised for her warm and sultry timbre.She performed the Alto Solo for Mozart’s Coronation Mass with the KCKCC Honorworks Choir. Rachelle received a Bachelor’s in Music History and Master’s in Vocal Performance from the University of North Texas.
During the summer of 2013 Rachelle worked with Spotlight on Opera in Austin, Texas. She portrayed Madame Larina (Eugene Onegin) and Gertrude (Romeo et Juliette) in scenes programs, and covered both Mama McCourt (The Ballad of Baby Doe) and Bianca (The Rape of Lucretia). Immediately following her return to North Texas, Ms. Moss sang the part of Maddalena in the Rigoletto Quartet for Verdi’s 200th Birthday at the University of North Texas.
Rachelle Moss now resides in Gig Harbor, Wa.
To read more about Rachelle: http://rachellemoss.blogspot.com/p/biography.html
*6 days of rehearsal as chorus, two performances.
Handel’s TheodoraGraeme Jenkins, guest conductor
Ava Pine, Theodora; Ryland Angel, Didymus; Richard Croft, Septimius; Jeffrey Snider, Valens; Jennifer Lane, Irene
UNT Baroque Orchestra–Paul Leenhouts, director
Collegium Singers–Richard Sparks, director
A Cappella Choir–Jerry McCoy, director
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. Central
Watch live online at http://recording.music.unt.edu/live
My daughter, Rachelle Moss, a mezzo soprano, performs as a member of the Collegium Singers.
Theodora is an oratorio concerning the Christian martyr Theodora and her Christian-converted Roman lover, Didymus. It is a tragedy, ending in the death of the heroine and her converted lover. The music is much more direct than Handel’s earlier works, transcending the mediocrity of the libretto (which was true for several of his works) so that the characters and the drama are well-defined. Theodora was actually Handel’s favorite of his oratorios. The composer himself ranked the final chorus of Act II, “He saw the lovely youth,” “far beyond” “Hallelujah” in Messiah.
During the drive in to work today I heard one of my favorite Baroque music pieces, albeit not in performed as originally written or arranged. A piece of music history that lay forgotten for centuries and only a single original manuscript copy survives to this day. Rediscovered in the early 20th century, it’s popularity remains undimmed nearly another century later. I’m speaking of Pachelbel‘s Canon.
The version I heard this morning via KLOVE had been massaged by the Trans Siberian Orchestra and transformed into a ‘Christmas Canon Rock.’
I can’t explain my reaction to this music. Just three notes into this song and my chest tightens, I have trouble breathing and my eyes tear up. No wonder this piece is wildly popular at weddings. And it doesn’t matter what form or genre morphs this music. The original genius and simple beauty always shines through.
My tiny bit of research this morning yielded an entire site devoted to this piece of music and how often it shows up in modern music. Admittedly, the chord progression contained in the Canon in D is very common (I -V-vi-iii-IV-I-ii-V). A few of the modern songs that caught my eye were:
And I’m glad I clicked on the videos link there or I would have never watched this comedian’s rant on his cross to bear in Pachelbel’s Canon in D:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM]
While I enjoyed TSO’s ‘Christmas Canon Rock’ version, I think, at the end of the day, what really puts a smile on my face and a zing in my spring, would be the ‘Ultimate Canon Rock’ as seen here:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMWl_5NujBw]
