Author Archive: Peter Jakobsen
Manon Lescaut
(Puccini, NY Met, 5 March, 2016) TVC had not seen this early Puccini but was pleasantly surprised. It’s a Puccini, of course, so a rural, low-born tart will get uppity and be handed a disproportionate retribution as her fate, but whilst the story is the messy result of being written by a committee, it is uncomplicated (albeit piecemeal), heartfelt and in the end, very moving. There are flat bits – the café twittering at the beginning reminds one of the rubbish music theatre Valli is forced to do in The Third Man – but the music shows the composer’s great talent and there are numerous Wagnerian…
Continue Reading →The Time of the Preacher
Happy Birthday, Mr Honey/Whiskey Tonsils! Now (for God’s sake) get your hair cut! Willie is 83 today, which unfortunately means we may have to contemplate pushing him into TVC’s Dead Pool ™ some time soon…. But for now, let’s celebrate both kinds of great music – country and western – and from Texas, at that. Willie is the last man standing at the Alamo, now that Waylon Jennings has gone. He has ‘cut’ a bunch of great ‘discs’ in his time but we particularly like: Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain Blue Skies (which everyone used to sing,…
Continue Reading →Tallinn
(photo by Zigomar)
P’s father, Hugo, maintained that the only good thing about being drafted by the Red Army was that being captured by any other side would be a bonus. In 1940, he was deferring his University studies, doing national service, then a requirement in free Estonia. Then the Ruskies moved in (it was ironic to see them celebrating recently the anniversary of the end of WWII, since they had a pretty big hand in starting it, along with Hitler) and simply annexed Estonia, and the rest of the Baltic States. Lots of Estonian officials were liquidated (including P’s grandfather) and all private property confiscated (including…
Continue Reading →Bays Battle On
A shame we couldn't put out the lights (photo courtesy 'The Advertiser')
Glenelg v Adelaide, 24 April 2016 The Tigers are clearly better this year; you don’t get that sinking feeling like you did for large chunks of matches last season. They were in the game nearly all the way last Sunday, did some good things, and they never lost heart. But they were up against a team with 19 AFL-listed stars, or embryonic stars, half of them bigger and faster than a Silverado. For all their gallant striving, the Bays didn’t win a quarter, had 10 less scoring shots, and lost by a comfortable 5 goals. The inclusion of Adelaide in the SANFL is…
Continue Reading →This Whiteley Business
True blue
There’s a fascinating case on in Sydney at the moment, and lots of folks seem to be treating the litigation as a dripping roast. In 2009 an artwork (“Orange Lavender Bay”) attributed to Brett Whiteley, who died in 1992, was sold to a Sydney car dealer for big money. A car dealer being hornswoggled! O, delicious irony. The contentious piece has superficial similarities with Blue Lavender Bay (the Bay was where the Whiteleys lived for some years), namely: the same offhand brush strokes, cartoonish curves, and Ken-Done-infantilism. We feel for Wendy Whiteley, the artist’s Cosima, who said at a launch of a biography of…
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