That's Harrison Birtwistle - quick, let's hide

The Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall are in Philadelphia on Saturday as part of their current American tour, and it's great to see the royal couple taking in a cutting edge contemporary music concert at the city's famed Academy of Music.

Here's the programme - The Philadelphia Orchestra, Christoph Eschenbach, conductor
Tom Brokaw, host, Deborah Voigt, soprano, Ben Heppner, tenor, Dongwon Shin, tenor, John Lithgow, vocalist
The Philadelphia Singers Chorale, David Hayes, music director, Peter Nero, piano
Special Guest Appearance by Rod Stewart, A Selection of Popular Songs

Ravel "General Dance," from Daphnis and Chloé
Puccini "Vissi d'arte," from Tosca
Giordano "Un dì all'azzurro spazio," from Andrea Chénier
Verdi "Di quella pira," from Il trovatore
Verdi "Libiamo ne' lieti calici," from La traviata
Bach/Stokowski, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, & Dukas Fantasia Suite

Now take an Overgrown Path to some more progressive reflections on the Philadelphia Orchestra
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Comments

Henry Holland said…
Hahahaha, great headline, Pliable. I'm going to assume that the Prince of Wales and consort will NOT be attending the world premiere of Sir Harry's new opera, The Minotaur, at the Royal Opera House in 4/2008.

I found performances on a certain file theft site of Birtwistle's latest big orchestral pieces, Night's Black Bird and Shadow of Night and it seems he's entered a new, more lyrical phase. There's even *gasp* hints of hummable melody along the way. Nothing that will be used in a soap commerical, mind, but lyrical nontheless.

I'd love to hear Heppner sing Andrea Chenier.
11:04 pm
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