Valkyries
Painted by Emil Doepler
PREMIERE: 26 JUNE 1870 in MUNICH. It was done as a ‘stand-alone’ piece, not part of the Cycle, and reaction was mixed. But Wagner wasn’t going to allow 26 year’s worth of work down the drain and ultimately, as both part of the Ring cycle and alone, it stands atop the operatic ramparts. Discussion: February 10, 2016 at Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Performance: February 13, 2016 at Festival Theatre, Adelaide Die Walküre shows Wagner blossoming as musician and dramatist. In the words of Ernest Newman, “he abandoned himself luxuriously to the sheer joy of music-making, both enlarging the scale of his…
Continue Reading →St. Valentine
Valentine (by Bassano, c. 1575)
February 14 (2016) 18 centuries after this fellow was martyred, on the day when (in England) tradition has it that birds pair-up, The Varnished Culture chose a quieter programme for Valentine’s Day. Whereas last year we saw the ASO’s curious ‘romantic’ programme, this time we had Die Walküre the evening before, so instead there was a lazy morning, a lazy lunch (returning to the ABC recording of the ASO’s night before) and then we washed down another viewing of Picnic with champagne and Turkish delight. Once again, feel the love!
Continue Reading →Accidents Will Happen
Songs in Our Heart # 1 (We have sounded off about songs we dislike intensely, and had lots of lovely negative feedback! But in the interests of restoring harmony, we are starting a series of random tunes we love (or perhaps only one of us does) and we will continue as we think of more. Thanks also to those sporting sharers at YouTube – TVC doesn’t endorse any ads that may pop up!): Accidents Will Happen (Elvis Costello & the Attractions) (Written by Elvis Costello; released May 1979) [The perfect pop song, full of sound and fury, signifying everything.]
Continue Reading →Pulp Fiction
(Dir. Quentin Tarantino) (1994) It’s flashy, it’s funny, it’s overly literate. Styled after comics and melodrama magazines, it hops about a series of vaguely interconnected vignettes. The thugs trade Tom Stoppard-like wit…a portmanteau potboiler unravels, and whilst everyone self-consciously shoots from the hip, no-one’s hip when they shoot. This film is great fun, don’t get us wrong, it has some memorable scenes, some top rank stars thoroughly enjoying themselves, and it dumps all over 90% of films made by man, but actually, it shows more talent than brains. No one talks like that in real life and few act that way. To put it another way, in a more…
Continue Reading →Killer Film Quotes – The Classics
No CGI, often in glorious black-and-white, but here’s a bunch of reminders why the old films can still be music to the ears: Q (Peter Lorre): “You despise me, don’t you?” A (Humphrey Bogart): “If I gave you any thought, I probably would.” [Casablanca] (see our link for more quotes from the typewriters of the Brothers Epstein and Howard Koch) “The Children of the night…what music they make!” [Dracula] Rufus T. Firefly: “Go, and never darken my towels again!” [Duck Soup] “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” [Gone With the Wind] Private Eye Sam Spade to gunsel Wilmer:…
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