Opera Lovers unite against the ROH and the BBC in unholy alliance

[Prommer]

Presumably somebody will be out front at the top of the evening to explain what's coming? That is the time to express one's displeasure (i.e. of management) rather than during.

[JFLL]

I'm wondering what the next wheeze will be. Perhaps four totally tone-deaf 'celebrities' with no knowledge of music learning the Beethoven violin concerto in four weeks, and then the 'winner' performing it at the RFH after Joshua Bell? Why not? This sort of stunts's all about pushing the limits, isn't it? And there's no limit to the populists' desire for sensation.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Looking on the positive side ...















.... errr ....




... hmmm ...








... as you were!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oh, yes! I know: it'll give me time to catch up on the Shakespeare and '70s programmes on the i-Player from Monday!

[Nick Armstrong]

Oh, yes! I know: it'll give me time to catch up on the Shakespeare and '70s programmes on the i-Player from Monday!

My plan exactly too!! (I guess you mean the 'King and Playwright' series... The other Shakespeare doc is worth watching too, I think - if you can take S. da Mosto's thick Venetian accent and approach http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode..._Land_of_Love/ )

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

My plan exactly too!! (I guess you mean the 'King and Playwright' series...

The other Shakespeare doc is worth watching too, I think - if you can take S. da Mosto's thick Venetian accent and approach

Yes; I watched it last night - Shakespeare was Chukkalanza indeed! <harrumphemoticon> - I rather enjoy Francesco's programmes.

[Nick Armstrong]

Shakespeare was Chukkalanza

Huh?

I rather enjoy Francesco's programmes

So do I. That transparent carnival mask was amazing wasn't it!!

[Barbirollians]

I did not say I would be buying anything !!!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Huh?

When FdM was in Sicily, he met a chap who claimed that Shakespeare was really a Sicilian nobleman whose name in Italian meant "shake spear": I can't remember the full Italian name, but the last part was "lanza" (and, no; it wasn't "Mario"!) "Chukkalanza" was the best I could do!

So do I. That transparent carnival mask was amazing wasn't it!!

[Nick Armstrong]

When FdM was in Sicily, he met a chap who claimed that Shakespeare was really a Sicilian nobleman whose name in Italian meant "shake spear": I can't remember the full Italian name, but the last part was "lanza" (and, no; it wasn't "Mario"!) "Chukkalanza" was the best I could do!

AH... I haven't seen it all yet.

All I know is that the programme plus the food series about Carluccio and his pal guzzling their way around the place make me want to dash out of the house with a passport and a credit card and take the next plane to Italy!

[vinteuil]

When FdM was in Sicily, he met a chap who claimed that Shakespeare was really a Sicilian nobleman whose name in Italian meant "shake spear":

oh, I remember in the Middle East meeting a scholar who wd talk for ages about "Sheikh el Sbir, l’immortel auteur d’Othello et Hamlet... "

[Nick Armstrong]

oh, I remember in the Middle East meeting a scholar who wd talk for ages about "Sheikh el Sbir, l’immortel auteur d’Othello et Hamlet... "

[Stanfordian]

News just in: in a reversal of policy and what was promised when tickets went on sale, the ROH seems to have decided an hour ago that at this Saturday's performance of La Boheme, the winner of Maestro at the Opera, the BBC's new reality TV programme for celeb baton-faciers, will conduct Act II not at the END of the evening after the end of the performance conducted by Semyon Bychkov, as they were promising people who rang the Box Office only this morning, and indeed tweeted earlier this pm, but now we will have to sit through Act II twice, consecutively, before the actual performance can resume. What a bloody liberty. Trades description act? Suspension of disbelief? Different casts? Trains to catch, anyone? Artistic integrity? I know Tony Hall used to work for the BBC, but he now works for the ROH... doesn't he?

I saw some of the BBC's Maestro this evening. It was toe curlingly awful. If anyone says that conducting is just waving a baton around don't believe them. Some of the celebrities (I knew of two of the four) couldn't even do that properly.

[french frank]

I saw some of the BBC's Maestro this evening. It was toe curlingly awful. If anyone says that conducting is just waving a baton around don't believe them. Some of the celebrities (I knew of two of the four) couldn't even do that properly.

I suppose the thing about the ROH is the fakery of the occasion. If any conducting is done it will be done as far as possible by the leader. The sham that tries to give the impression that the celebrity is actually conducting the players (must be - it's taking place in the ROH in front of an audience of real opera lovers) is pretty shabby.

[Osborn]

I saw some of the BBC's Maestro this evening. It was toe curlingly awful. If anyone says that conducting is just waving a baton around don't believe them. Some of the celebrities (I knew of two of the four) couldn't even do that properly.

I'm delighted for you regulars. You've got something new to sneer about & a long weekend to make the most of it.