The Clever Pup's Guide to Making Christmas Work - Be Jolly - Sing.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

A partridge in a pear tree.

On the second day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the third day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the fourth day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the fifth day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the sixth day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Six geese a-laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the seventh day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Seven swans a-swimming,

Six geese a-laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the eighth day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Eight maids a-milking,

Seven swans a-swimming,

Six geese a-laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the ninth day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Nine ladies dancing,

Eight maids a-milking,

Seven swans a-swimming,

Six geese a-laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the tenth day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Ten lords a-leaping,

Nine ladies dancing,

Eight maids a-milking,

Seven swans a-swimming,

Six geese a-laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the eleventh day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Eleven pipers piping,

Ten lords a-leaping,

Nine ladies dancing,

Eight maids a-milking,

Seven swans a-swimming,

Six geese a-laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the twelfth day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Twelve drummers drumming,

Eleven pipers piping,

Ten lords a-leaping,

Nine ladies dancing,

Eight maids a-milking,

Seven swans a-swimming,

Six geese a-laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree! 

The Clever Pup's Guide to Making Christmas Work - Listen - Loreena McKennitt

No, this isn't Helen Mirren in a red wig. It's the fabulous Canadian singer and harpist, Loreena McKennitt. We have a long tradition of listening to her in our house at Christmastime and it's a tradition I plan to continue.

A Midwinter's Dream is a seasonal collection featuring Loreena on vocals and harp. Her musical influences range from Celtic to classical to Middle Eastern. Her exotic arrangements of  “The Holly and the Ivy,” and “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” are as much a part of Christmas in our house as a Charlie Brown Christmas.

Loreena's first foray into Christmas music was the exquisite and far-too-short A Winter Garden: Five Songs for the Season. Of the recording Loreena said " I hope some of the scent of frankincense and myrrh comes through." And it does. There is some duplication with A Midwinter's Dream above, but it's shorter and sweeter. 

More winter tunes are found on To Drive the Cold Winter Away. Ethereal, it really is the kind of music to listen to in a half-darkened room with your feet tucked under a blanket. You have to have glass of good red wine with you too. 

I tear up listening to these samples. I guess Loreena McKennitt makes Christmas work for me.

Buy - Amnesty International's Chimes of Freedom - The Songs of Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan's first studio album came out 50 years ago this year. Amnesty International is also commemorating fifty years since its inception. My Dylan-mad husband bought Chimes of Freedom, the Songs of Bob Dylan - Honouring 50 years of Amnesty International . It's great. You'll feel good when you buy it. It's wonderful if you know the "Canon" and if you don't you will surely learn more Bob tunes than you knew before. Eighty artists participated. There's Miley Cyrus, Johnny Cash, Neil Finn ex Crowded House, Pete Townshend, Cage the Elephant, Marianne Faithfull, Patti Smith, and  bunch of bands I'm too out of the loop to know. There's 92-year-old Pete Seeger singing Forever Young, old flame Joan Baez, plus Sting singing in his new "deep voice".

Bob Dylan shuns the mantle of "Civil Rights Activist", ( I think he shuns just about everything) but this project is such a great melding of music and human rights activism that the connection can't be avoided.Check it out.

Dylan's career and Amnesty International aren't the only things turning 50  this year. Just sayin....

Gordon Lightfoot

I went to see Gordon Lightfoot last night at Toronto's Massey Hall. Lightfoot plays Massey Hall every spring and he's played there now over 150 times. Lightfoot is 72 now, gaunt and thin and from where I was sitting, resembles Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture show - although not as bad I assure you. His voice is weak now and has lost its elasticity. But by the second set he was warmed up and in much better shape.

Among his new songs that I dubbed Robert Bateman songs - with lyrics that paid tribute to the loon on his lake, a clutch of brown snails etc - were some of Lightfoot's greatest numbers; Beautiful, Sundown, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the Canadian Train Trilogy, Rainy Day People and Cotton Jenny. I didn't mean to cry during If You Could Read My Mind...

photo: The Globe and Mail

Yes'n Who'll Give Me $422,500 for Bob Dylan's Lyrics...?

The answer my friend
is hedge-fund manager Adam Sender
The answer is hedge-fund manager Adam Sender.

Mr. Sender outbid 5 others in order to buy the original handwritten lyrics of Dylan's The Times They are A'Changing. Too bad - it would have been a nice Christmas present for my husband.

Due to his great output, Bob Dylan lyrics aren't especially rare, but Selby Kiffer of Sotheby's says "... to have lyrics of such a seminal song is unusual."  And seminal it is - this 1963 anthem is Bob at his most political.

Adam Sender also owns the guitar John Lennon was playing when he met Paul McCartney.

For more information please read Katya Kazakina's article on Bloomberg.com

Not Dark Yet...

Happy 69th Birthday, Mr. Bob.


Milton Glaser, 1967

His Royal Purpleness

Wait for it... at about the 3:35 mark Prince appears and reminds me that despite his flakiness that he is a great guitar player. That is George Harrison's son Dhani.

Prince bought a house in Toronto in 2004. I think he's still here - I haven't heard that he moved. It's just off the Bridle Path. I heard a clip on CBC Radio, when they were asking for "brushes with fame", from a middle-aged fellow who said he and his teen-aged son used to jam at a Yorkville bar; he played guitar and his son drummed. Prince jumped on stage unannounced and joined them. Dad bowed and gave up the spotlight and let his son bask in the experience of drumming with Prince.

You know - I was going to place the video of the half-time show here but Prince wants all unauthorized clips of him taken of Youtube. The performance can be viewed here at dailymotion.com if you're curious.

I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day - Vincent Van Gogh, March 30, 1853 - July 29, 1890

Starry, starry night.
Paint your palette blue and grey,
Look out on a summer's day,
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills,
Sketch the trees and the daffodils,
Catch the breeze and the winter chills,
In colors on the snowy linen land.

Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.

Starry, starry night.
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze,
Swirling clouds in violet haze,
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue.
Colors changing hue, morning field of amber grain,
Weathered faces lined in pain,
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand.

Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.

For they could not love you,
But still your love was true.
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night,
You took your life, as lovers often do.
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you.

Starry, starry night.
Portraits hung in empty halls,
Frameless head on nameless walls,
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget.
Like the strangers that you've met,
The ragged men in the ragged clothes,
The silver thorn of bloody rose,
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.

Now I think I know what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they're not listening still.
Perhaps they never will..

Don McLean, 1970

Guitars

March 7 we were a no-guitar household. March 8 we were a 1-guitar household. March 28 we are a 2-guitar household.

Godin SD22. Epiphone Les Paul.

Neither of them can play yet, but they're learning. This is the riff that rings through our house.

Found the little birds video on Le Divan Fumoir Bohemian.

Another Movie Review - Walk Hard

Here I am blathering on about another movie. We watched Walk Hard - The Dewey Cox Story again on the weekend and I just caught myself singing, "Walk Hard - Hard - Down Life's Rocky Road" so I thought I better get this down in writing.

Walk Hard starring the very talented John C. Reilly is a witty, clever parody of rock star biographies. I initially steered clear of this movie because I found the poster of Reilly as Jim Morrison repellent and I didn’t want to muddle my brain with Will Ferrell/ Talladega Nights kinds of movies. It’s also made by the same guys that made Superbad and Knocked Up so I almost walked hard in the opposite direction. But my son rented it and we found it really funny. My husband almost laughed himself off the couch and had to watch it twice.

Walk Hard which I think came out Christmas of 2007, is a really smart movie. You sort of have to know what they’re talking about before you can enjoy it. Maybe that’s why its rating on IMDb is kind of paltry. The movie follows the life of fake rock star legend Dewey Cox and spoofs all sorts of bio-pics. In the 50s Dewey Cox is discovered and his Elvis-like story unfolds like the Coal Miner’s Daughter and the Buddy Holly Story. He morphs into a tex-mex Roy Orbison and then he becomes a copy of Bob Dylan straight out of D.A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back. Dewey meets the Beatles in India. With a full orchestra including the didgeridoo, Kalahari Bushmen, and a herd of goats he becomes Brian Wilson.

When Dewey, suffering from writer’s block, sinks into a mundane existence his manager persuades him to do a “Sonny and Cher” style variety show. Then he falls into a Partridge Family lifestyle with his plethora of children. Again, you’ve got to know what they’re on about before you can understand the joke. Dewey Cox becomes a national icon and the movie culminates with a tribute to Dewey at the end of his days.

Walk Hard can be crass, but the smarty-pants cleverness of this movie redeems it for me. The music really impresses. John C. Reilly is a talented singer and performs all the songs on the soundtrack. And the soundtrack is great. All the songs – derived from popular styles of the day – stand up on their own right. The DVD also includes videos and songs not included in the movie. We find ourselves, as I mentioned above, singing them around the house. The Bob Dylan spoof "Royal Jelly" is hilarious. I was going to print it here but you really have to see it.

The homely (what a mug!)  but pleasant John C. Reilly plays Dewey Cox from the age of 14! to 71 which in itself is a joke. Jenna Fisher from The Office is his love interest and does a good job of being Dewey’s June Carter-Cash. His first wife Kristen Wiig is left with a bunch of children and a giraffe. She’s fond of saying “I love you. You’ll never amount to anything.”

Tim Meadows is Dewey’s drummer – introducing him to the drug of the month in a series of hilarious repetitive scenes. Other names to look out for are: Harold Ramis, Chris Parnell, Frankie Muniz, Jack White, Jack Black, Jackson Browne, Jewel, Lyle Lovett, Eddie Vedder, Paul Rudd and the ubiquitous Justin Long.  In the extended version Cheryl Tiegs is Dewey’s 1970s wife. Patrick Duffy, Cheryl Ladd and Morgan Fairchild make appearances too.

Walk Hard is rude  - there’s no getting away from that. It has its share of grottyness and drug jokes, tons of innuendo and a "little" nudity. I wouldn’t show it to anyone under 14. But it’s WAAAAY funnier than I expected it to be.

all pictures from www.movieweb.com

U2 - Toronto September 17, 2009

Well, that was something. The biggest production I’ve ever seen.

Junior Pup and I got there first after walking completely around “The Dome”. I’ve lived here 26 years and I didn’t know that Gate 14 was next to Gate 1. I'll have to remember that next time.

We emerged from our entrance on Level 5- just about as high as one could get. We were practically vertical. I felt like a limpet on the side of a spaceship and staring us down was this Kling-on octopus thing that was to be U2’s stage. Everything was huge.

Snow Patrol opened while the sun was still out. The Irish band was good and they looked like nice young men. I can say that now because I’m pushing 50. My husband arrived right on time, ready to rock (sort of) and saw most of the opening act.

The only other time in history that The Dome’s (sorry, Rogers Centre's) roof’s been open for a concert was for Bruce Springsteen in ‘03. It was open again tonight and what a sight. The CN tower loomed directly over us, putting on a light show of it’s own, changing colours - whoop, whoop - every 10 seconds or so.



Some well-kempt but extremely drunk middle-aged women (even older than me) and their adult daughters arrived late and the worst of them was destined to rub elbows with me. As she kept drifting off I knew she was in trouble. “Don’t throw up on me- don’t throw up on me,” I muttered to myself. Thankfully, she lasted until “Vertigo” and then she had to leave. Suburbanites!

U2 started at 9:00 and played 23 songs. We were directly in line with the stage but about half a mile away. Their video screen took care of that and at times I had to remind myself that it was real men down there as I was constantly drawn to the live video images and accompanying effects on the screen.

I’m not that familiar with the material from “No Line on the Horizon”. The band opened with that and quickly moved on to the things I’m most familiar with. I’ve appended a set list below.

Bono was an excellent ring leader and amused us with lots of banter about Toronto. The crowd sang the balance of the vocals for "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" witnessed in one of the Youtube vids below. Twice I felt as thought I was participating in an experiment from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Once was the call and response mentioned above and the second - when the people in front of me did a weird hand-clap to the song "Moment of Surrender".

Out of the ordinary was the 30 or 40 youth that “Walked On” the stage all wearing Aung San Suu Kyi masks in tribute of the Burmese activist who cannot “Walk On” as she is under house arrest.

Bono also pulled a boy named Lucas out of the crowd to accompany him on “City of Blinding Lights.” Jogging around the outer rim of the stage, he did an admirable job. I kind of cringe at this thing but Lucas will remember it all his life.

Lights seemed to shoot up to a point in the sky. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see the “Bat Insignia”. At one point light from a huge disco ball dotted the crowd, the CN Tower and the surrounding condos. More that once Bono implored the condo dwellers to flick their lights if they were listening. How could they not be?

Towards the end of the show, the mercurial Bishop Desmond Tutu spoke to us on the video screen, and in his own way introduced the song “One”.

Then the limos arrived and I thought the show was over but Bono reappeared for the second encore in a suit trimmed with red neon lights. He sang into a dangling neon microphone reminiscent of those used in old radio shows. With a life of its own I thought that Bono would have to perform a Cirque du Soleil move to keep it in place.

It was a great evening. I’m sure it was the biggest and the best spectacle I’ve ever seen. The best $32 plus handling I've spent in a long time.

Set List

Breathe
No Line On The Horizon
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day
Elevation
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Unknown Caller
New Year's Day
Stuck In A Moment
The Unforgettable Fire
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Crazy Tonight
Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah (snippet)
MLK
Walk On

Encore

One / Amazing Grace (snippet)
Where the Streets Have no Name
Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
With Or Without You
Moment of Surrender



Thanks to backpackdave09



Thanks to Sobriquet77

I've been borrowing pictures willnilly off Flickr. Thanks to Onion for the top image and Kmaraj for the 2nd image and the shot of the Tower. Kmaraj must have been sitting close as we seem to have had the same sightlines.

Where I'll Be Tomorrow Night

Gee, I can hardly concentrate.

I won't be in Chicago but I will be at Toronto's Roger's Centre tomorrow night to see U2. I'll be one of those dots in the crowd. I've never seen them before.

My 15-year-old son said " Are we sitting close to the stage?"

"No," I say "As far away as humanly possible. I couldn't afford 3 seats together any closer than the fifth level."

"Good" says the Junior Pup. "It won't be too loud."

Er...

When I saw The Police in 07 my trousers were trembling. Not from being so close to Sting but from the sheer wall of noise.

Here's some stills from Milan for my Mum who can't play video on her 'puter.

Like a Complete Unknown

So how does it feel, Bob
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown?

Oh, dear. Bob Dylan, who is like the fifth member of our household, was questioned by a New Jersey cop last month after acting suspiciously and looking scruffy in the seaside town of Long Branch.

The 24-year-old officer apparently was not too familar with Dylan's catalogue of work. When she asked what he was doing there, alone and palely loitering, Dylan stated, "I'm on tour". Well, that didn't wash with the young officer who later said, "Now, I've seen pictures of Bob Dylan from a long time ago and he didn't look like Bob Dylan to me at all."

Personally, I don't see what she's getting at (insert winky face here), but to be on the safe side, Paul McCartney should start carrying before and after pictures in his wallet in case he gets busted for jaywalking.

Theme Thursday - Festival

© 2009 Festival of the Sound

The summer I was 17 the “festival” came to town. I was working at a shop at the Parry Sound Mall when a man with a dignified demeanor and a pleasantly undefinable accent came in to buy an assortment of the strange things we had on offer. Obligatory plastic pails and beach towels were purchased but also cutlery and china. I felt he was more than just a summer cottager.

As it turned out, he was. During the summer of 1979, the renowned pianist Anton Kuerti purchased a summer home just north of Parry Sound and set about organizing three concerts by exceptional Canadian musicians. Anton Kuerti has an international reputation as an outstanding musician and is one of the world’s most recorded pianists. His recordings include all of Beethoven's concertos and sonatas. At that time Kuerti and his wife, cellist Christine Bogyo, had one child, Julian. I ended up baby-sitting Julian once – I’ll never forget that he asked for change for a $10.

The response to the concerts that Kuerti had planned was enthusiastic and inspired him to launch an annual concert series. The event was christened the Festival of the Sound and with Mr. Kuerti as Artistic director, this marked the beginning of Ontario's first annual international summer classical music festival.

In 1985, James Campbell began his tenure as the Festival's second Artistic Director, a position he still holds today.

Hundreds of Canadian and international musicians have performed at the Festival of the Sound, among them: Pinchas Zukerman, Yo-Yo Ma, Denis Brott, Victor Borge, Dave Brubeck Dizzy Gillespie, George Shearing, Peter Appleyard, Moshe Hammer, Norbert Kraft and Angela Hewitt. Plus Baritone Russell Braun, the Gryphon and Beaux Arts Trios and the Elmer Iseler Singers to name a few.

As part of the annual repertoire, cruises aboard the 500 passenger Island Queen feature on-deck music from classical to Dixieland.

CBC Radio broadcasts Festival concerts yearly. TV Ontario (TVO) has filmed concerts and a joint CBC/BBC documentary was for filmed for Canadian and European audiences.

Much has changed in the 30 years since Anton Kuerti organized the first classical music concerts in the small gym at Parry Sound High School. Summer after summer, organizers had to grapple with making the gym into a concert hall, not to mention overcoming the nightly noise of the trains. Concerts were also held in people’s homes and there was a stint at St. Peter’s Parish Hall.

In 2003 the long-time dream held by the Festival of the Sound of having a concert hall of their own was realized with the opening of the new Charles W. Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts on the Parry Sound waterfront. Immediately, numbers of Festival attendants doubled.

“It’s one of the best halls in the world for un-amplified music,” said Margaret Boyd, FOTS Executive Director.

© 2009 Festival of the Sound

S'wonderful

I awoke this morning to Paolo Conte on the radio - Jazz FM 91.1 - singing Via Con Me, also known in our household as the S'wonderful song from one of my favourite films, Mostly Martha. How can anything go wrong today?

Here is Paolo Conte live in Amsterdam looking like a big cartoon tigercat.




And the version from the film, with an added foodie surprise.

Royal Fireworks - Handel vs Hendrix

Pop Plaque Plan Rocks Classicists

Thus rean a headline in the London Times of 16 March 1995. The Handel House Trust, headed by Dr. Stanley Sadie, had acquired 25 Brook Street, Mayfair, Handel's home for 39 years, and with number 23 next door wished to turn it into a museum devoted to the composer.

Problems arose when English Heritage expressed a desire to decorate the front of number 23 with a commemorative plaque dedicated to the rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix who had lived in the house in 1969.

Dr. Sadie promptly deemed such a move "inappropriate", perhaps mindful of the fact that Hendrix had only lived in the house for a few months prior to his squalid death the following year.

While Sadie acknowledged Hendrix as "an important figure in the history of pop music", the star himself was unimpressed with Handel: "To tell you the God's honest truth, I haven't heard much of the fella's stuff."

Opposition to the plaque for Hendrix shocked a former lover ("Hendrix has sold more records than Handel...he's more relevant in today's society than Handel..."), while another acolyte opined that a certain musical elitism was at work.

Denying any such motive , Dr. Sadie pointed out that his New Grove Dictionary of American Music carried a long entry for Hendrix. In a small masterpiece of understatement this volume has the final word on the star: "He was not gifted with a naturally fine singing voice."
Taken from the Hutchinson Encyclopedia of Music, Helicon Publishing 1997

Here's a link to the Handel House Museum. http://www.handelhouse.org/the-house/

Tafelmusik - The Concert

So - the concert.

We had good seats in the centre balcony. I thought Husband-pup had merely won the tickets in a raffle – he had sprung the idea of the concert on me the night before and that’s what I believed. When I got to Trinity-St. Paul’s I realized that we were VIP and that through business connections we were in the Sponsor’s Circle, so to speak. We were welcomed by a PR liaison and invited to spend the intermission in a special lounge, high above, with wine and hors d’oevres. Two free Tafelmusik CDs were presented to me. I wish that I had worn other than my wide-leg L.L. Bean pants. I had the sense to wear a nice velvet coat and do my hair up.

Coincidentally, Jeanne Lamon - Conductor, Concertmaster and Music Director of Tafelmusik arrived and sat next to me on the pew during the concert. Having a night off, I guess. She has an infectious smile and seemed very pleased with the performance below.

The small Tafelmusik ensemble, there were no more than 13 on the stage at any time, performed Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos Numbers 1, 4, 5 and 3 in that order. I was worried that I wouldn’t recognize the Bach because Mozart’s my man but I knew this Bach as if it were the back of my hand.

For the most part the music was happy and likeable. I’m no judge of classical music but I felt that things kind of fell apart during the second movement of Concerto No. 1. It felt like the First Violin, Christopher Verrette, was having a hell of a time keeping them together and there were a couple of squeakers from the oboe and the violins. I was fully expecting Ms. Lamon to leave her perch next to me in the balcony and take over from that point, but when the horns came in, everything seemed to tie in again.

The harpsichordist Alexander Weimann was great! What would Bach be without the harpsichord?! He strongly reminded me of character actor Bob Balaban and he was just rocking. I felt like flicking a BIC lighter and paying tribute.

The musicians had a hard time keeping still. In Concerto Number 3, the strings took turns showing off their chops. In the Q & A session afterwards, violinist Julia Wedman let us know they recorded it that way too for some stereophonic fun.

All in all, a light, enjoyable evening.

All though not Bach, here’s a happy clip of Tafelmusik via Youtube. Enjoy it. You deserve it.

Please check out other Tafelmusik clips while you’re at it.

Tafelmusik

I’m going to see Tafelmusik tonight performing selections from Bach's Brandenburg Concertos.Tafelmusik is one of the world’s best chamber orchestras and they are located right here in Toronto. I know I’m sounding like a booster but it’s true. Gramophone Magazine praised Canada’s Tafelmusik as “one of the world’s top baroque orchestras.”

At the heart of Tafelmusik is a group of seventeen talented performers playing on period instruments, each of whom is a specialist in historical performance practice. I’ve seen the stage much fuller than the requisite seventeen. Guest performers and soloists often grace the stage. I’ve seen Tafelmusik performances about half a dozen times and the pièce de résistance for me was watching Dame Emma Kirkby from the front row. She is one of the loveliest and most ethereal sopranos in the world.

Frequently on the stage is the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, which has been lauded by The Globe and Mail as “the best period-performance choir anywhere in the world…”

Tafelmusik’s annual performances of the Messiah and Sing-Along Messiah are an established part of Toronto's holiday tradition.

On the road for 2 to 3 months each year, Tafelmusik’s home in Toronto is Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, a historic church in the Annex neighbourhood of Toronto, with an accessible, real street-level feel.

Tafelmusik also has two decade-long collaboration with Opera Atelier which I wrote about on February 25. Please check out that post as well as Tafelmusik’s website. http://www.tafelmusik.org/

photograph: Cylla von Tiedemann for Tafelmusik.

The Last Waltz

I woke up thinking about The Band, and the first song that I heard on the radio this morning was by The Band, portents leading me to write about them today.

“He who shall remain nameless”, my husband, came home last Friday with a bag of goodies from HMV including the DVD of The Last Waltz.

Four Canadian boys and a rascal from Arkansas seemed to define Country Rock and Americana during the late 60s, early 70s with songs like The Weight, Up on Cripple Creek and The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.

Thanksgiving 1976 was The Band’s last concert and director Martin Scorsese turned it into one of the best concert films ever made.

It’s a smooth, seamless concert. Very enjoyable to watch.

You can be driven to distraction by the maddeningly handsome Robbie Robertson. Rick Danko’s voice makes you want to cry. Levon Helm’s got a bit of a Yosemite Sam thing going on, but I forgive him because he can drum and sing lead vocals at the same time.

Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson’s mammas obviously never told them girls don’t like big, aging beards.

Their stellar guests included: (click on the names, most of them are linked)

Neil Young, looking like most of my brother's highschool friends waxing lyrical and giving a shout out to North Ontario, where I was born, in Helpless.

A clear-eyed Dylan is there doing his Jesus impersonation.

The tiny perfect Van Morrison, with his lace-up pants. I wish I had his magic mirror.

Joni Mitchell, I’m not a fan, be quiet for a minute and let Neil sing.

Dr. John having a lot of fun it seems.

The reptilian Neil Diamond.

Ringo and Ronnie Wood were there too, our representatives from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

Eric Clapton, after reading some of his autobiography, I now know you can be a genius guitar player and not very smart.

Muddy Waters sings Mannish Boy with a great deal of energy

And The Band’s former boss, Ronnie Hawkins, gets everbody riled up with “Who Do You Love”. Emmy Lou Harris and Paul Butterfield are also in attendance.

The actual concert was about 4 hours long. Scorcese has given us 1.5. If it weren’t for the occasional howler from Robertson, overly corny comments he makes about life on the road, I’m sure I could have sat through the whole 4.

My favourite song The Band performs is The Night They Drove old Dixie Down. The lyrics, written by Toronto native Robbie Robertson, tell of the last days of the American Civil War. Virgil Caine is a Confederate who served on the Danville train, a main supply line into the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. Robert E. Lee’s army was holding the line of defense at the Seige of Petersburg. Union General George Stoneman’s cavalry “tore up the tracks” blocking the passage of food and supplies. The siege lasted from June 1864 to April 1865, when both Petersburg and Richmond fell, and Lee's troops were starving at the end. (thanks Wiki)

As a kid this song seemed so authentic it seemed impossible to me that this wasn’t a traditional song. I bet Ken Burns would’ve liked to have it for his Civil War, along with Ashokan Farewell. Levon takes the lead, making the plight seem all the more urgent. Here’s a clip from Youtube.




pictures from The Band's website : http://theband.hiof.no/

Brundibár - Holocaust Remembrance Day

The opera "Brundibár" was written by a Jewish Czech composer Hans Krása in 1938. In 1942, he was deported to Terezín (or Theresienstadt), a former garrison town near Prague appropriated by the Nazis to assemble European Jews in one location prior to transportation to the death camps.

The opera, first staged in a Jewish orphanage in Prague in 1942, is a delightful folk tale intended for a cast of children. In Terezín, Krása's opera Brundibár was performed more than fifty times by children and musicians from the ghetto. One of the children that auditioned for the children’s opera was Ela Stein Weissberger. Weissberger was 11 years old when she arrived at Terezin in February 1942. Her first sight at the Nazi controlled camp was several young men, hanging dead in the square.

Weissberger spent three years in the concentration camp, sharing a cramped room with 27 other girls. She landed the part of the cat in the opera.

Brundibár tells the story of two children singing to raise money to buy milk for their sick mother. An evil organ grinder (Brundibár), throws them out of the town square. A sparrow, a cat (Ela Weissberger's role), a dog and a chorus of children come to their aid, helping them sing louder than the organ grinder and collect enough money to help their mother. The opera concludes with a victory song which the Nazis didn’t seem to comprehend had a double meaning.

Weissberger said “In our eyes, Brundibár was Hitler. ... We wanted a victory over a terrible man,” she says.*

Many of Europe’s Jewish artists and intellectuals were sent to Terezin. The staging of Brundibár was ideally suited for Terezín because of the numbers of musicians, and artists imprisoned there. But during the rehearsals and performances, there was a constant stream of new performers, replacing the previous musicians and child performers who were being shipped to Auschwitz for extermination.

Ela Weissberger played the cat in all 55 performances, including the infamous day in June 1944. A show was put on for visiting members of the International Red Cross who had been invited to the camp by the Nazis for a day of deceit. The camp was cleaned up. The children given extra food and the opera played in a grand auditorium on first rate instruments, in an effort to show the Red Cross how well the Nazi’s were treating their Jewish inmates.

Weissberger remembers how the young children were told to call the Commandant “Uncle” and to say things like “Oh, no uncle, not sardines again!”, when if fact, they were living on thin soup and a frozen potato. Bread with margarine was made to last three days.

The phony performance was such a success that it was repeated for a notorious propaganda film created by the Nazis called “The Fuhrer Gives a Village to the Jews.”

“I remember it well because we were so scared of the Nazis. They were standing in the gallery of the theater,” (Weissberger) says, naming Adolf Eichmann, mastermind of the Holocaust that killed 6 million Jews, Henrik Himmler, and the commander of Terezin. “There is one part in Brundibár, the lullaby, that is very close to our hearts. When we started to sing the lullaby, they sat down and took off their hats." *

However, directly after that performance, Weissberger says, most of the children were sent to the gas chambers at Auschwitz and executed. Of the 28 girls living in cramped quarters with Weissberger only 3 remained. She found out later that 14 did in fact survive.

“We were originally 15,000 children, and only 100 survived. It is by a miracle that I can talk about it. I was saved. I think I speak in the voices of those that couldn't make it. All that is left behind a whole generation of children are a couple of poems and pictures.” *

Krása the composer was also gassed at Auschwitz.

I originally heard of this story watching a documentary about Brundibár on CBC. In it, a young teen playing the cat makes a pilgrimage back to the Czech Republic with Ela Weissberger. I cried for the whole hour.

In the picture above Ela Weissberger is the girl in black in the front row.

Ela Stein Weissberger has also collaborated on a book with Susan Goldman Rubin. The children’s book The Cat With the Yellow Star: Coming of Age in Terezin is available at Amazon.

* Janelle Gelfand, A conversation with ... Ela Stein Weissberger, The Cincinnati Enquirer

Marsha Lederman, Finding Hope in a Concentration Camp Opera, The Globe and Mail