What a Day

Well it was my turn to have one of those days today. I don't know what it was but I just couldn't do anything right, and everybody seemed to be looking at me like I had a booger hanging out my nose. Whatever it was, wrong side of the bed, two left feet, booger hanging out my nose...I'm just glad it's over.

Looking over my first blog entry didn't help things either. I just can't believe how bad a writer I've become. Not that I was ever that good, of course, but I was never so mannered and self-conscious before. Maybe it's because all the writing I've done lately has been that stultifyinly dull office kind of writing. I think I'd better resolve right here and now to write at least four entries a week and try to shake some of the stuffiness out of my style. Just let it go and unclutter myself, you know.


Deadwood

Okay, the saint who finds redemption through sin. The alchoholic who delivers absolution to the priest. Something like that. It's at times like these that I wish I hadn't spent my two semesters of college shooting pool at the Student Union and had actually gone to class and learned something. I get the feeling this has all been explored many times before, but it's new to me so I'll just ruminate on it a while.

Actually, I've got the opening for my "Deadwood" opera. It's simple enough and trite as hell, but, then, it's a work in progress. The curtain rises and the we find ourselves in front of the new saloon in town - the Belle Union. The chorus is on stage and breaks out in lively anticipation of the nights festivities. The sopranos and mezzos sing a slightly risque song about all the lonely miners with their pockets full of gold and nowhere to spend it, and the tenors, baritones and basses sing a lusty bit about the hardhips of working all day and coming home to an empty bed. Hmmm... this is sounding a little too much like "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" isn't it. Well, like I said it's a work in progress and I'll just have to ruminate on it for a while.

Problem is where do I go with this whole idea. I've got the preacher and the saloon girl, but I don't want to turn this into "Of Human Bondage". After all, this is opera and there has to be some tragedy and someone damn well better die before the final curtain. I just can't figure out the character who precipitates the disaster, and how the preacher comes to embrace sin as his salvation. Ruminate, ruminate, ruminate...

Of course, it could be an Opera buffa with sort of a lighthearted descent into sin. Time to ruminate some more.

Donizetti

Mozart and Mendelssohn were both child prodigies, Beethoven lived under the savage yoke of his father, but poor old Donizetti seems to have had a rather ordinary childhood. He grew up poor and attended a school for young singers. Though his voice was somewhat limited he showed an aptitude for harpsichord and composition, and despite numerous attempts to have him expelled he continued on and received his musical education. Geez, I was hoping he'd be a more interesting genius than that.

He did have a brother who was a musician in Napoleon's army, though, and it seems that while stationed in Turkey the Pasha was so taken with his musical ability that he allowed him access to his harem. Well, talk about your perks! Nowadays they give you a corner office or a company car, but I'd say access to the harem has both of those beat. The book says that the brother came home for a visit, but then left again for Turkey and never came back. Duh!!!