• Rhapsody in Blue on TCM Oscar Levant & Gershwin

    Rhapsody in Blue on TCM Oscar Levant & Gershwin

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    Since there seemed to be a lot of interest when I posted about Oscar Levant the other week, on the occasion of his birthday anniversary, I thought I’d point out the fact that Turner Classic Movies: TCM is showing “Rhapsody in Blue” tonight at 10 ET. In this 1945 film, an alleged biography of George Gershwin, Levant plays a supporting role – as himself. The composer is played by Robert Alda, Alan Alda’s dad.

    http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/24016%7C0/Rhapsody-in-Blue.html

    “Even the lies about Gershwin were being distorted.” – Oscar Levant


  • Latin Swashbuckler Music to Heat Up Winter

    Latin Swashbuckler Music to Heat Up Winter

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    Frigid temperatures got you down? Put some swagger back into your step with an hour of music from Latin swashbucklers.

    Alfred Newman gets the blood pumping with his virile soundtrack for “Captain from Castile” (1947), in which Tyrone Power flees persecution at the hands of the Inquisition to join Cortés’ expedition to conquer Mexico. The film was shot on location with one sequence set against the backdrop of an erupting volcano!

    Power, of course, was one of the screen’s great Zorros. However, with “The Mask of Zorro” (1998), Antonio Banderas becomes the Zorro for our time. He’s aided and abetted by Anthony Hopkins, as the elder Zorro who mentors him. (TWO Zorros in one film! I could expire of joy.) Catherine Zeta-Jones is radiant, and the music by James Horner literally hits all the right notes.

    This film was already a throw-back upon release, with plenty of real-life, real-time swordplay and stunts galore, with the barest minimum of computer-generated bells and whistles. I wish to God popcorn entertainment could still be like this. As it was, “The Mask of Zorro” was like a belated last gasp of the 1980s. It was easily the best swashbuckler of the ‘90s – though, really, was there much competition?

    Banderas got a chance to send-up his image in the Dreamworks’ computer-animated feature, “Puss in Boots” (2011), a spin-off from the Shrek series, which actually turned out to be a better sequel than “The Legend of Zorro” (2005).

    The film sports plenty of Zorro in-jokes, which extend even to Henry Jackman’s entertaining score. How is it that animated movies are just about the only movies these days that seem to keep up the great symphonic tradition of classic film scoring?

    Finally, Errol Flynn has one last swash left in his buckle for “The Adventures of Don Juan” (1948), his last wholly satisfying period adventure. Equally, Max Steiner rises to the occasion and provides one of his best scores, just about on the same level as those of the master of the genre, Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

    I hope you’ll join me for an hour of Latin swords, on “Picture Perfect,” this Friday evening at 6 ET, with a repeat Saturday morning at 6, or that you’ll listen to it later as a webcast, at http://www.wwfm.org.


  • William Scheide Radio Tribute Princeton

    William Scheide Radio Tribute Princeton

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    If you just can’t get enough of William H. Scheide and the Bach Aria Group, tune in tomorrow morning to Princeton’s WPRB 103.3 FM (or listen online at http://www.wprb.com) for a belated birthday salute from Teri Noel Towe. Towe, host of Towe on Thursday, was an intimate friend of Scheide for over 40 years. The two shared the microphone on a number occasions, and Teri will revisit one of those. The program is bound to include some personal reminiscences. You can listen from 6 to 11 a.m. ET.

    Of perhaps related interest, my WWFM tribute, “William H. Scheide: A Job Well-Done” (sporting a title ripped from a Towe quote), which originally aired yesterday (the 101st anniversary of Scheide’s birth), will be rebroadcast Friday evening at 8, at 89.1 FM or online at http://www.wwfm.org. I’ll be tweaking the files between now and then so that the rebroadcast will contain subtle differences, including a couple of alternate music files.

    My thanks to Teri for his suggestions, and to Mark Laycock for sending me audio from the Scheide 100th birthday concert, which took place last year at Richardson Auditorium.


  • Marian Anderson’s Historic Met Debut

    Marian Anderson’s Historic Met Debut

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    Philadelphia-born contralto Marian Anderson, famously lauded by Arturo Toscanini as having “a voice such as one hears once in a hundred years,” made her belated Metropolitan Opera debut on this date 60 years ago – January 7, 1955.

    She was the first African American to be so permitted. Why anyone would keep so talented an individual from singing on any stage anywhere on account of her skin color defies comprehension. What were people thinking?

    It’s great that she sang Ulrica and all, and I’m sure she was marvelous, if getting on in years (she was a month shy of her 58th birthday), but there’s always something about the stills that make me a little uncomfortable, as if they were trying to portray her as some sort of voodoo priestess, like she was Screamin’ Jay Hawkins or something.

    Here’s a sample of Anderson as Ulrica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTUfEcTRzIY

    Give that woman a drink from the Ezio Pinza fountain!


  • Merry Coptic Christmas in Egypt Traditions

    Merry Coptic Christmas in Egypt Traditions

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    MERRY COPTIC CHRISTMAS!

    http://www.christmasarchives.com/christmas_in_egypt.html


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