If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart!
Be that as it may, I hope you’ll join me this afternoon on The Classical Network for a conversation with documentarian H. Paul Moon of Zen Violence Films, who dropped by the WWFM studios last week to talk about the release of his latest project, a filmed production of John Deak’s chamber opera, “The Passion of Scrooge.”
The work is a real tour de force for baritone William Sharp, who appears with Washington DC’s 21st Century Consort.
Moon’s film is now available on BluRay and DVD. Learn more about it, when you tune in for our chat – with selections from the opera – beginning at 5 p.m., or by visiting scroogeopera.com
The balance of the hour will be devoted to a complete performance of “On Christmas Night,” a rarely-heard masque, also inspired by Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Prior to that, we’ll remember American composer and pianist Edward MacDowell, on his birthday, with his “Fireside Tales,” and Rita Streich, whom we heard yesterday in Josef Rheinberger’s “The Star of Bethlehem,” on hers. This afternoon, she will present a medley of German language Christmas songs.
At 6:00, it’s another “Music from Marlboro,” with works for Christmas by Wagner and Brahms. There will also be time for a cheerful wind octet by Carl Reinecke.
Fires will roar and winds will blow. I hope you’ll join me for a bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato, this Wednesday from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
