Cicada song is not the only music to be heard in New Jersey over the next week or so, as VOICES Chorale and the New Jersey Gay Men’s Chorus – NJGMC invite amateur singers to join them for concerts in Princeton and at the Jersey shore.
The NJGMC will hold its annual “summer sing” at Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, Monday at 7:30 p.m. The Hopewell-based VOICES will perform at the Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences in Loveladies, August 24 at 7 p.m.
You can read more about it in my article in today’s Trenton Times:
Chivalry is not dead this week on “Picture Perfect,” as we listen to music from movies set in the Middle Ages. The term “chivalry” conjures images of knights in armor, of courtly behavior, of bravery, honor, courtesy, moral virtue and willingness to defend the weak. For the average filmmaker and moviegoer, that likely translates into spectacle and adventure.
We’ll hear scores that celebrate or circumvent the code, with selections from “The Warlord” by Jerome Moross, “El Cid” by Miklós Rózsa, “Lionheart” by Jerry Goldsmith and “The Adventures of Robin Hood” by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
As always, we go on a crusade for great film music this week, on “Picture Perfect,” this Friday evening at 6 ET. If you miss it, you can enjoy it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.
With the world still reeling in disbelief at the sudden death of Robin Williams, news of the passing of Lauren Bacall got pushed way down the page. I barely noticed it last night before I shut off my computer. This morning, there isn’t even a mention on my home page. Of course, there are plenty of links to gossip about trash celebrities, a good number of whom I’ve never even heard of, save in that capacity. I think it’s time to finally change my home page.
Bacall died yesterday, one month shy of her 90th birthday. Of course, her love affair with Humphrey Bogart is legendary. It’s easy to see in “To Have and Have Not,” her film debut, exactly what Bogie saw in her. At only 19, she was sultry and magnetic. Bogart was 44 and unhappily married. He tried to tough it out, but it couldn’t be helped. For once in his life, he wound up playing the sap. Fortunately Bacall was more femme than fatale, and the two lived happily ever after – or at least until 1957, when Bogart finally succumbed to cancer.
Bacall, born Betty Joan Perske, enjoyed a long and enviable career. Only this year, she provided one of the voices for the English language release of the French-Belgian animated film, “Ernest & Celestine.”
It’s always sobering for me to realize, having seen all those television commercials for “Woman of the Year” back in 1981, that this siren of the Golden Age of Hollywood was still in her 50s. Bacall would receive her second Tony Award for her performance. Earlier, she had been honored with a Tony for “Applause,” in 1970.
In 1997, Bacall was nominated for an Academy Award for her work opposite Barbra Streisand in “The Mirror Has Two Faces.” She received an honorary Oscar in 2009.
Following her star-making turn in “To Have and Have Not,” Bacall would go on to appear with Bogart in three more films – “The Big Sleep” (1946), “Dark Passage”(1947) , and “Key Largo” (1948) – and Max Steiner was there most of the way. (Franz Waxman scored “Dark Passage.”) Here’ s Steiner’s haunting love music for “The Big Sleep”:
This is the second time I’m posting today. I wish I had better news. The conductor Frans Brüggen has died at the age of 79. Brüggen, who began his career as a recorder virtuoso, went on to become one of the leading lights of the period instrument movement. He cofounded the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century in 1981.
You have to love a man who named his daughters Zephyr and Eos. Thank you, Maestro, especially for your illuminating Rameau performances.
Here’s Brüggen playing a sonata by Willem de Fesch, with Gustav Leonhardt on the harpsichord:
And conducting a selection from Rameau’s “Les Boréades”:
What happens when Robert Altman directs Mork from Ork? Well, “Popeye,” I’m afraid.
I always had a soft spot for this 1980 film, generally cited as Robin Williams’ first (earlier he had appeared in “Can I Do It ‘Til Need Glasses?”), though it received mostly tepid reviews. The film made $60 million worldwide – a respectable gross for the time – but it was a financial disappointment in light of the studio’s blockbuster expectations. Overall, “Popeye’s” reputation took a pretty sound drubbing.
The film was written by Jules Feiffer, with a marvelous assemblage of talent in all the character roles – Paul Dooley, Linda Hunt, Bill Irwin, Paul L. Smith (best known as the unforgettable warden Hamidou in “Midnight Express”) as Bluto, and Ray Walston as the definitive Poopdeck Pappy. And of course, Shelley Duvall was born to play Olive Oyl. The film had the added interest of being shot on the island of Malta. The songs, which were generally regarded as pretty weak, were by Harry Nilsson.
Hard to believe the producer originally wanted Dustin Hoffman for the lead (this was before it became the vogue for big actors to play comic strip characters, and Hoffman was at the peak of his career), opposite Altman regular Lily Tomlin as Olive (which could have been an interesting choice).
Williams made a lot of bad films in his career, much worse than this one, but scanning his filmography I can say with confidence that he left behind his share of good ones, or at least ones that connected with the public. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, and took home an Oscar for his role in “Good Will Hunting.” He was certainly never hurting for work. His television series may have been cancelled, but allegedly there are four more films in the pipeline.
Of course his genius was best displayed in front of a live audience, where his freewheeling free association could scale manic, surreal heights. I had the privilege to see his act once in Philadelphia, back in the mid-‘80s. He was unrelenting under the best of circumstances, but when someone dropped a drink into the crowd from the balcony, it sent him into overdrive. You did not want to make yourself the target of Robin Williams.
It’s always sad when a comedian gets old, but it’s even sadder when one dies. Comedy is vitality, and Williams was nothing if not vital. It really bothers me that he’s gone. I don’t know about you, but I need all the laughter I can get.
