Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

  • The Black Hole Disney’s Mad Sci-Fi?

    The Black Hole Disney’s Mad Sci-Fi?

    What is this I’m watching?

    Is it speculative fiction?

    A Gothic melodrama?

    An all-star disaster flick?

    A zombie horror movie?

    A retro, 1950s throwback?

    A metaphysical mind-trip?

    Or just another shameless, post-“Star Wars” cash-grab?

    Toss these seemingly disparate elements into Maximilian’s mixer, and you’ll be drinking deep from the craziest smoothie ever!

    Join Roy Bjellquist and me tomorrow evening, as once again I will be the guest co-host for “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.” Roy and I will take the plunge into Walt Disney’s WTF intergalactic whirlpool, “The Black Hole” (1979).

    “The Black Hole” is a product of Disney’s maddest fever dream ever, a barely sustainable period during which the studio repeatedly girded itself for an icy plunge into relevance, only to get cold feet and yank its creative team back from the brink. This is the same psychotic pattern that yielded such potentially bold gambits as “The Watcher in the Woods,” “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” “Tron,” “The Black Cauldron,” and “The Return to Oz.”

    Too violent and scary for kids (to whom the films were marketed), and too compromised for adults, the result is a cabinet of curiosities full of freakish specimens that are neither fish nor fowl. Hard to believe, now that Disney owns the world, but there was actually a precarious decade or more when the studio was more off-the-charts than Hans Reinhardt’s “Cygnus.”

    I hope you’ll join us for another lively discussion, in many ways launching off of last week’s autopsy of “Starcrash” (1978). John Barry wrote the music for both.

    “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner” will be live-streamed this Friday at 7 p.m. EDT. For more information, follow the link.

    https://www.facebook.com/events/649274212291005/

    PLEASE NOTE: On Sunday, Roy’s guest will be Nick Tate, who will return to share more behind-the-scenes stories about his time on the classic TV series “Space: 1999.” Sunday’s show will air at a special time, 4 p.m. EDT.

  • Strauss’ Lasting Message of Love & Music

    Strauss’ Lasting Message of Love & Music

    “Our future lies in art, especially in music. In times when spiritual goods are rarer than material ones, and egotism, envy and hatred govern the world, music will do much to re-establish love among mankind.”

    – Richard Strauss

    This is the last music Strauss ever conducted, as part of his 85th birthday celebration. He also stipulated that the music be performed at his funeral. On that occasion, a 36 year-old Georg Solti conducted, and the three singers, in turn, broke down, overcome by emotion. Its message is, simultaneously, one of valediction and renewal. In a performance like this is, it can be almost unbearably poignant.

  • Richard Strauss Documentary Birthday Tribute

    Richard Strauss Documentary Birthday Tribute

    Happy birthday, Richard Strauss! Fans of the composer will enjoy this two-hour documentary I found on YouTube, featuring commentary by prominent musicians, interviews with people who actually KNEW him, narration by Sir John Gielgud, and, not least of all, footage of Strauss himself. Strauss described himself as “a first-rate second-class composer.” He certainly lived a remarkable life.

  • Carl Nielsen The Underrated Northern Composer?

    Carl Nielsen The Underrated Northern Composer?

    With the specter of COVID looming over the prospect of a trip to the hair salon, perhaps the time is ripe for a resurgence of the Carl Nielsen haircut?

    Of the great composers of the North, why is Sibelius so widely lauded (in Scandinavia, England, and the United States, anyway), while Nielsen continues to languish as the Ugly Duckling of Danish music?

    Far from being a simple Sibelius knock-off, Nielsen forged his own, immediately-recognizable style – which can’t always be said, with as much conviction, about a lot of other fin de siècle Scandinavian composers. Not that I don’t love their music.

    Leonard Bernstein believed Nielsen’s rightful place was as Sibelius’ equal:

    “I think many people are in for pleasant surprises as they get to know Nielsen,” he said at a centennial celebration of the composer’s birth, “his rough charm, his swing, his drive, his rhythmic surprises, his strange power of harmonic and tonal relationships – and especially his constant unpredictability – all these are irresistible. I feel confident that Nielsen’s time has come.”

    That was in 1965. Yet, fifty-five years on, with many more recordings and performances to choose from, Nielsen continues stubbornly to be an acquired taste.

    What’s not to like? There’s struggle in the music and harmonic ambiguity – key relationships don’t always play out the way you expect they should (they don’t always in life, either, so why should they in music?) – there is conflict and violence, anxiety, but also great beauty and even humor. At its core, and at the end of the journey, there is, for me, an optimism in much of Nielsen’s output, a love for life, a belief that there is indeed, as the subtitle of his Fourth Symphony professes, something “Inextinguishable” in all of us, that I find inspiring.

    A tip of the blond brush cut to Carl Nielsen on his birthday!

    Take a gander at the Duckling on film! This is the only known surviving footage of Denmark’s greatest composer. You’ll find translations of the intertitles when you click on “show more” beneath the video.

  • Met Opera Free Streams This Week

    Met Opera Free Streams This Week

    This week’s selection of Metropolitan Opera “Live in HD” encores runs the gamut from Handel’s “Rodelinda” to John Corigliano’s “The Ghosts of Versailles.”

    Of particular interest is a double-bill of Tchaikovsky’s “Iolanta” and Bartók’s “Bluebeard’s Castle.” The staging of “Bluebeard,” allegedly inspired by noir films of the 1940s, is a knock-out! A powerful introduction, for anyone who has had difficulty getting his or her head around this darkly beautiful work on recordings.

    In addition, the Met will re-stream its at-home gala, which made a very favorable impression the first time around. This virtual event features dozens of opera singers performing out of their homes, with some very unlikely accompanists. At least one of the singers, taken off-guard, is caught drinking a beer on camera. The gala will run continuously, on both Friday and Saturday. It’s four-hours long, but compelling throughout.

    The Met continues to make good on its pledge to stream free opera for the duration of the house’s shutdown. Each opera is accessible for approximately 23 hours, starting every day around 7 p.m. EDT. Massenet’s “Thais” streams through 6 p.m. today, at metopera.org.

    Here’s a complete schedule of this week’s offerings. You’ll find teasers and bonus materials when following the link:

    https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/week-13/

    Monday, June 8
    Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito
    Starring Lucy Crowe, Barbara Frittoli, Elīna Garanča, Kate Lindsey, and Giuseppe Filianoti, conducted by Harry Bicket. From December 1, 2012.

    Tuesday, June 9
    Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle
    Starring Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczała in Iolanta, and Nadja Michael and Mikhail Petrenko in Bluebeard’s Castle, conducted by Valery Gergiev. From February 14, 2015.

    Wednesday, June 10
    Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel
    Starring Christine Schäfer, Alice Coote, Rosalind Plowright, Philip Langridge, and Alan Held, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. From January 1, 2008.

    Thursday, June 11
    John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles
    Starring Teresa Stratas, Renée Fleming, Marilyn Horne, Graham Clark, Gino Quilico, and Håkan Hagegård, conducted by James Levine. From January 10, 1992.

    Friday, June 12, and Saturday, June 13
    At-Home Gala (Encore Screening)
    In a re-broadcast of our recent At-Home Gala, more than 40 leading artists and members of the Met Orchestra and Chorus perform virtually from their homes around the world, with General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin as hosts. From April 25, 2020.

    Sunday, June 14
    Handel’s Rodelinda
    Starring Renée Fleming, Stephanie Blythe, Andreas Scholl, Iestyn Davies, Joseph Kaiser, and Shenyang, conducted by Harry Bicket. From December 3, 2011.

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