National Opera Week Festivities!

National Opera Week is October 29-November 7, 2010!

I find that people rarely take a neutral position on opera.* They tend to love or hate opera, laud or lambaste it. But at least during National Opera Week, I encourage you to have equal-opportunity ears--you might just find something you'll love.
Below you will find some links and catalog numbers so you can check this out for yourself!


According to OPERA America, National Opera Week is not only a week to promote opera across the country, but is also a time to continue celebrating the accomplishments of the 2010 NEA Opera Honors recipients: Soprano Martina Arroyo, General Director David DiChiera, Composer Philip Glass and Music Director Eve Queler. If you are lucky enough to live somewhere fancy, you might have access to a free event, open recitals, and more.

If your hometown doesn't have these types of offerings, you can always worship at the temple of La Divina from home** by reading, watching, and listening. You can even sing if you are so inclined and your neighbors are out of town.***


Blogs
People Who Talk About Opera:
Opera Chic- If you were unaware, snarkiness is beloved in opera, and Opera Chic knows how to do it right. There's also opera news.
Operagasm- Don't worry about the name, the site is both practical for opera singers and hilarious for all parties.
Opera Tattler- Opera reviews and chat in San Fran and beyond.
An Unamplified Voice- Met Opera Reviews.


People Who Do Opera and Talk About It (Or Have Their Publicists Talk About It) Later:
Joyce DiDonato
Nicholas Phan
Anna Netrebko


Opera Houses:
Metropolitan Opera (Also check out the fabulous Met Player!!!)
New York City Opera
Washington National Opera
Houston Grand Opera
Royal Opera House
Teatro Colon


In the NML:
Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro-- 8.660102-04
Verdi, Tosca-- HCD31096-97
Strauss, Ariadne auf Naxos--C67166-67
Bellini, La Sonnambula--NEI232475
Tchaikovsky, Eugene Onegin--ALC2007
Wagner, Tristan und Isolde--8.660152-54
Britten, Peter Grimes--LSO0054
Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor--CDS576
Adams, Nixon in China--8.669022-24









So get in the spirit, will you?




Pro musica,
Mo
nmlhelp@naxosusa.com





*My position is staunchly pro-opera.
**Preferably in pajamas with a glass of wine.
***Just kidding, who cares if your neighbors are there?

Oh, there's more.

I expect that many of you are quite familiar with the classical realm of the NML. It’s what most institutions and individuals subscribe for, it makes up the greatest portion of our catalogue, and Naxos is a classical record label. It all makes sense.
What you may not know is that we have other stuff on the NML. Lots of other stuff.

We’re going to do a few posts on that “other stuff,” highlighting certain labels, popular artists and albums on the NML, different genres that can be found, and more.

To open this up, let’s talk about one of our favorite popular music sources in the NML: selections from the Sun Records catalogue.




You may be familiar with Sun Records as an historic record company in Memphis, TN or simply as the place where Elvis got his start. If you’re interested in learning more about the history, artists, recordings, and future of Sun Records, check out their website at www.sunrecords.com.

Sun Records
Founded: 1952, Memphis, TN
Founder: Sam Phillips
Styles: Rockabilly, gospel, blues, hillbilly, country, boogie, western swing
Key Artists: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich, Conway Twitty, Howlin’ Wolf


Found it on the NML:

Johnny Cash: Greatest Hits-Finest Performances
015047800711










Patsy Cline: Classics
015047800049










Howlin’ Wolf: The Memphis Sessions
015047800094










Jerry Lee Lewis: Jerry Lee’s Greatest
015047800247










Roy Orbison: At the Rock House
015047800254










Charlie Rich: The Memphis Sound
015047801596










Merle Haggard: Classics
015047800056










The Dixie Cups: Chapel of Love
015074800029










So anyway, lend an ear to those golden sounds of the past.
And don't shoot me if you contend that this music doesn't belong to the past.

I am, as always, pro musica-
Mo


nmlhelp@naxosusa.com

Spooky Playlist Part II

Some people I know like it when the spooky sneaks up on them. They listen to those songs that you don’t notice creeping you out until you’re already totally creeped out. Some of these are like that, all chamber-y and quietly weird. But some of them are big and intense like the sounds that always happen in horror movies. Those creep me out at my desk at work in the middle of the day. In April.

Where Part 1 was mostly programmatic symphonic music of the romantic period, these pieces tend to be less traditional in their instrumentation and their sound. So. Enjoy!

Spooky Playlist Part the Second:

Kodaly
Sonata for Solo Cello, op. 8

HCD31046 Tr. 3-5

Ligeti
Volumina

BIS-CD-509 Tr. 8

Crumb

Black Angels "13 Images from the Dark Land", "Images I"

BCD9139 Tr. 9-21

Feeney

Dracula

8.553964

Ligeti

Atmospheres
9.50022 Tr. 1

Penderecki

Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima

0010122BC Disc 2 Tr. 5

Bartok
Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (Mvmt III- Adagio)

HSACD32510 Tr. 3

Xenakis
ST/48

1C1113 Tr. 3

Messiaen

Quatour pour la fin du temps
CHAN10480 Tr. 8-15

And of course, my favorite:

Pro musica,

Mo

nmlhelp@naxosusa.com

Spooky Playlist Part I

I know that October has barely managed to arrive and I'm already bludgeoning it to death with autumn/harvest/Halloween hoodlum-ery. I can't help it. I'm just excitable.
In honor of the advent of The Spookiest of Months I give you:

Spooky Playlist: Part the First*
A sampling of the creepy classics to suit all of your spooky needs

Bach
Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 538, "Dorian"
PSC1152 Tr. 10-11

Bach
Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542
8.550652 Tr. 4

Liszt
Prelude and Fugue on the name B-A-C-H, S260/R381
Carus83.171 Tr. 1-2

Mussorgsky
Pictures at an Exhibition –The Hut on Fowl’s Legs (Baba Yaga)
8.553249 Tr. 20

Berlioz
Symphony Fantastique (Mvmt. V- Ronde du Sabbat)
LSO0007 Tr. 5

Britten
4 Sea Interludes (Mvmt. 1- Dawn and mvmt. 4- Storm)
CHAN9221 Tr. 34-37

Prokofiev
Alexander Nevsky (Mvmt. V- The Battle on Ice)
DOR-90169 Tr. 5

Mussorgsky (arr. Rimsky-Korsakov)
St. John’s Night on Bald Mountain, “A Night on the Bare Mountain”
BIS-CD-325 Tr. 17

Verdi
Messa da Requiem (Dies irae, dies illa)
CHAN9490 Tr. 2

Stravinsky
Le Sacre du Printemps (esp. Patr II, The Sacrifice: Sacrificial Dance)
KMHCD20 Tr. 14

Grieg
Peer Gynt Suite (Mvmt. IV- In the Hall of the Mountain King)
KMHCD20 Tr. 4

Orff
Carmina Burana (Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi: O Fortuna)
8.570033 Tr. 1

Stravinsky
Firebird Suite (mvmt. 5- Danse infernale du roi Kastchei)
900706 Tr. 5

Rachmaninoff
The Isle of the Dead
HCD31551 Tr. 1

Saint-Saens
Danse Macabre
0094652BC Tr. 4

Falla
El Amor Brujo (Danza Ritual del Fuego)
V4768 Tr. 8

Kodaly
Sonata for Solo Cello, op. 8
HCD31046 Tr. 3-5

I leave you with this gem, which is unfortunately not in the NML and therefore does not qualify for the playlist but is excellent all the same.

*Part the Second is forthcoming and will contain other brands of creepiness.