‘Tis the season. It’s all about June weddings in time of COVID, in today’s Classic Ross Amico crossword.
To fill out the puzzle, follow the link and select “solve online” at the bottom of the page. You’ll then be able to type directly into the squares. Once you feel you’ve exhausted the puzzle, you’ll find the solutions by clicking on “Answer Key PDF.”
Try your luck with these June Zoom Wedding Tunes!
https://www.armoredpenguin.com/crossword/Data/2020.06/0706/07062246.898.html
The Princeton Festival is picking up a good head of steam, heading into its first weekend.
The festival’s 2020 public performance season was canceled over valid concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. But in its place, as something of a stay-at-home stop-gap, we now have “Virtually Yours,” a free online series of live and recorded performances of instrumental and vocal music, musical theater, opera, and poetry, along with educational presentations, streamed daily throughout the month of June.
Today, enjoy a recital by organist Matt Middleton, performing on the Aeolian-Skinner organ of Princeton University Chapel. The program was original presented in 2013, and includes works by Liszt, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Karg-Elert (after Wagner), Rheinberger, and Reubke.
Then tomorrow, stream the first of four Sunday operas from the Princeton Festival archive. Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” will begin at 1 p.m. EDT.
Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” will follow on June 14; John Adams’ “Nixon in China” will be offered on June 21; and Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman” will conclude the series on June 28.
These performances will be streamed ONCE, beginning at 1 PM, SHARP, so be there, or be square! Princeton’s opera productions are uniformly fabulous, so do yourself a favor and definitely check them out.
As a bonus, I am very happy to report that the Festival will be streaming Rachmaninoff’s rarely-seen, one-act opera “Francesca da Rimini” on Tuesday, June 23. This is a souvenir of the 2012 festival and was originally presented on a double-bill with Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi.” Again, it’s very much worth seeing.
Of course, the Princeton Festival isn’t just about opera. The New York jazz and swing band Fleur Seule will lend a touch of elegance to a special Latin-themed concert to be presented next Saturday at 5 p.m.; a live musical theater revue will take place on June 20 at 8 p.m.; and a dozen poets from around the world will share some of their work on June 22.
Don’t forget, several of the events will air exclusively on WWFM – The Classical Network, including concerts of the Princeton Festival Baroque Orchestra and pianist Rachel Cheung 張緯晴. These programs will be broadcast on Fridays at 8 p.m. and can be heard locally at 89.1 FM, or anywhere online at wwfm.org.
All other events stream free from the Princeton Festival website. This week’s past offerings are still available, so you might want to set aside a little time this weekend to binge!
Check out the complete schedule and register for email notifications of upcoming events at princetonfestival.org.
If you are a Miklós Rózsa fan, you’ll want to join me for this week’s “Picture Perfect,” as I dig deep into the archive for two contrasting scores to movies set in South America.
Rózsa, who is probably best remembered for his work on Biblical and historical epics (he won his third Academy Award for “Ben Hur” in 1959) provides a lush symphonic tapestry for “Green Fire” (1954), starring Stewart Granger and Grace Kelly. Rózsa piles on the MGM gloss, for a conflict between love and lust for emeralds in the jungles of Colombia.
Then we’ll hear perhaps Rózsa’s most unusual venture, “Crisis” (1950). “Crisis” stars Cary Grant and Jose Ferrer in the story of a brain surgeon who must weigh ethical considerations when faced with saving the life of a dictator who oppresses the people of an unnamed banana republic. Unusual for a composer who likes to swing for the fences, Rózsa set himself the limitations of writing for solo guitar.
MGM must have felt it had scored a major coup when securing famed Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos to supply music for “Green Mansions” (1959). The big screen adaptation of W.H. Hudson’s novel, set in the rainforests of southeastern Venezuela, stars Audrey Hepburn as Rima the Bird Girl. Unfortunately, the studio deemed what Villa-Lobos produced unusable, since the composer had begun writing based on his impressions of the novel, rather than wait for the completed film. MGM house composer Bronislau Kaper was brought in to salvage what he could.
Finally, we’ll turn to one of Ennio Morricone’s best-loved scores – that for “The Mission” (1986). “The Mission” stars Jeremy Irons, as a Jesuit priest who penetrates the South American jungle to convert the native Guarani to Christianity, and Robert DeNiro, as a reformed slave hunter. The lovely and moving “Gabriel’s Oboe” became a recognizable hit, thanks in particular to its use by figure skaters and Aer Lingus.
This is the score for which Morricone believed he should have won the Oscar.
I hope you’ll join me for these South American adventures this week, on “Picture Perfect” – music for the movies – this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
I’ve always loved trees, but they also demand respect!
My neighbor counted 65-70 rings.
I also failed to mention that the tree was so tall that the top branches snapped off and flew into the parking lot — on the other side of the building — shattering my windshield!
PHOTOS, for scale: TOP, police; BOTTOM, property manager
I got through Act I of Alban Berg’s “Lulu”…
And then a tree fell on my building!
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