BaL 18.11.17 - Rodgers: Oklahoma

[pastoralguy]

My word Gordon Macrae's singing of SWTFOT was unbelievably beautiful . To produce that sound amongst all the razzmatazz and pressure of a big budget movie - that is talent . With performances of this quality the boundaries between the popular and high art become meaningless really .

Well said, Sir!

[Lawrence]

My word Gordon Macrae's singing of SWTFOT was unbelievably beautiful . To produce that sound amongst all the razzmatazz and pressure of a big budget movie - that is talent . With performances of this quality the boundaries between the popular and high art become meaningless really .

I entirely agree. The winner was a good choice I suppose but not for me I'm afraid. I have always loved the film soundtrack. When the film was released two other boys and I bunked off school one afternoon and went to the local cinema to see it. On returning to school, just in time for tea, to our dismay we ran slap bang into the headmaster who treated us to a painful return which made sitting down to tea in the school hall a somewhat delicate business!

[CGR]

If you can have a BAL on Carmen or Die Lustige Witwe , you can have a BAL on Oklahoma, Carousel, Pal Joey, etc, etc. There is no reason why these wonderful works shoudn't be treated with the respect afforded to 'proper' operas/music dramas.

But i think I'd be a bit concerned if there as a BAL on Phantom of the Opera, say (not likely to happen, though - who knows? - there may be one on Jesus Christ Superstar at some point in the near(ish) future).

More dumbing down on R3

[Stanfordian]

If you can have a BAL on Carmen or Die Lustige Witwe , you can have a BAL on Oklahoma, Carousel, Pal Joey, etc, etc. There is no reason why these wonderful works shoudn't be treated with the respect afforded to 'proper' operas/music dramas.

But i think I'd be a bit concerned if there as a BAL on Phantom of the Opera, say (not likely to happen, though - who knows? - there may be one on Jesus Christ Superstar at some point in the near(ish) future).

Hiya Consis,

If we can have a BAL on Oklahoma, Carousel then we could have one on say Phantom of the Opera or Jesus Christ Superstar. Not a case of musical snobbery, surely?

[vinteuil]

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... perhaps Radio 2, the 'Light Programme' of yore, could be encouraged to have its own Building a Library, which could look at things like musicals, music theatre, Gilbert and Sullivan, the American Songbook and such.

We need more space on Radio 3 for Dunstaple, Xenakis, Lefébure-Wely, Morton Feldman, d'Anglebert, Cabezón, Lawes, and the ars subtilior school...


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[french frank]

It seems that people's differing points of view are based, not on any sort of principle, but on whether they personally happen to enjoy/admire particular forms of music. "If I admire it, why shouldn't it be on Radio 3?"

One reason might be because the BBC, alone, offers five other music stations for a broad range of music with popular appeal, and these stations rigorously exclude anything that 'comes within Radio 3's remit'.

Is 'quality' the criterion for including music on Radio 3? Or, to put it another way, is the rest of BBC music radio just popular rubbish?

[vinteuil]

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... in the days when there were record shops there was often an 'easy listening' section.

I always hoped I might come across a record shop brave enough to have a 'difficult listening' section.

Radio 2 is happy to provide 'easy listening'.

I want radio 3 to offer us 'difficult listening'.

http://amzn.eu/cnhlbDj

http://www.academia.edu/9458260/Steiner_George_-_On_Difficulty_and_Other_Essays_Oxford_1978_

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[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Tweet in and request this, vinty:

[Stanfordian]

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... in the days when there were record shops there was often an 'easy listening' section.

I always hoped I might come across a record shop brave enough to have a 'difficult listening' section.

Radio 2 is happy to provide 'easy listening'.

I want radio 3 to offer us 'difficult listening'.

http://amzn.eu/cnhlbDj

http://www.academia.edu/9458260/Steiner_George_-_On_Difficulty_and_Other_Essays_Oxford_1978_

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Hiya vinteuil,

I fully agree with your sentiments. But I won't be holding my breath!