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- Location:
- Guelph, ON
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- Biscuit Tin 1:29pm Jul 3
- Making The Score Come Alive 6:02am Jul 1
- With Glowing Hearts We See Thee Rise 11:17pm Jun 30
Favorite Pages
Miss Mussel has a weakness for large groups of homogenous instruments – string quartet, cello ensemble, bassoon quartet, horn octet and even tuba choir, as long as the range and timbre variance is large...
It’s our day for wearing red and white clothing, listening to atrocious tribute bands in the park playing Canadian songs people have only vaguely heard of and mangling the national anthem in two languages before the fireworks begin...
Hoedown from Rodeo from Eleanor Stewart on Vimeo. @sinclairmusic from Greenwood Lake, New York brought these three minutes of loveliness to Miss Mussel’s attention this morning via Twitter...
Is criticism democratic? Attaque (Guardian) | Riposte (Minnesota Orchestra) “There may be more of them, not fewer, as the ability to participate in journalism extends beyond the credentialed halls of traditional media...
In a high school band room in 1994, Miss Mussel discovered that there was more to music than Andrew Lloyd Weber medleys, marches and the James Swearingen catalogue. Gustav Holst’s Suite No.1 For Military Band in Eb major was the one that started it all...
Alternate Title: Jumping The Shark
Canadian soprano Measha Bruggergosman has emergency open heart surgery...
According to the OM Dictionary, a pearl is song is one that Miss Mussel can listen to 20 times or more in a row without becoming the least bit irritating. By definition (OMD) a pearl is small (<5 mins), perfectly formed lovingly burnished by innumerable listens...
“The present Covent Garden management wisely do not insist upon evening dress and although the majority in the stalls and boxes still assume the claw-hammer coat and white tie of convention, the costumes are of a very varied character...
Season 7 Episode 13 - They’re Playing Our Song Backstory: Frasier has to compose a jingle for his show. A 10 second spot gets a little out of hand and turns into a full orchestra piece complete with dramatic monologue...
As the result of a spectacular case of cosmic alignment, it appears that Miss Mussel’s summer is going to be sehr super fantastische. While this is naturally very exciting news, there is still much emailing, finishing of existing projects, organizing and packing to be done before departure day...
As many others have already noted, Universal Edition has started a video blog about Mahler. Video loading is slow while my tired old Powerbook (yes, Miss M is one of those people) tries to download the new iPhone software (and one of those) but so far, it seems like a rather capital idea...
@holeytonal from London drew Miss Mussel’s attention to this Youtube delight featuring that guy from the Orange commercials and Mr Collins from the wet-shirt Pride & Prejudice. For all its silliness, the film really does capture the fragile dynamics of the performer/listener relationship...
Hello all! Miss Mussel is pleased to announced that starting July 1st, she will be decamping to the United Kingdom for a summer of festival fun times. Does that mean that this space will be shuttered for those weeks? To the contrary gentle reader...
or rather more correctly, in Washington D.C at the Singaporean Embassy hobnobbing with the cool kids at the WNO end of season after party. Don’t have the foggiest idea who Priscilla Barrow is? Read her #operaplot Cinderalla story here. You may need a tissue...
Now that #operaplot is over, Miss Mussel has to make up for lost time and give full attention to her paying obligations. Macaroni and cheese is nice on occasion but not something she wishes to make a habit of. As such, for the next week or so, things will be very quiet around here. Don’t panic...
The only real use for Wagner Tubas? Why contemporary opera? The best three answers will each get a pair of tickets for Tapestry New Opera’s production of The Shadow. ...
Miss Mussel went archive diving again and stumbled upon, quite by accident, a piece in the NY Times called “MUSIC IN THE CITY.; Where Our Musicians Come Front [sic]–Their Qualifications and Rates of Compensation.” The article is a whopping 1714 words long and in dire need of editing in places...
From Anne Midgette at The Washington Post “Canadian music writer invents contest; Oregon-based Brit wins it; Washington music teacher gets prize, ball gown, Cinderella night. This one isn’t an opera plot. This is a true story. Priscilla Barrow, who has taught music in D.C...
A concert Miss Mussel reviewed last week brought a fundamental question to the fore: Which is more important: the program or the playing? Audience: Would you go hear a great ensemble even if you weren’t that keen on the pieces or is repertoire the deciding factor...
In The Record - 15th May 2009 WATERLOO — On Feb. 24, 1607, Members of the Mantuan Accademia degl’Invaghiti witnessed the most dramatic musical invention since harmony: opera. The next invention to so fundamentally change the status quo was probably the electric guitar...
In the Waterloo Region Record - 11th May 2009 KITCHENER — The DaCapo Chamber Choir gave an outstanding performance Saturday night at St John the Evangelist in Kitchener, an outcome that occurs with such regularity it isn’t really news...
Apparently the Muppet Show has been back for 4 years or so in webisode form. Did anyone else miss out on that memo? [h/t Opera Chic]
Wondering which of the 32 fantastic prizes the Round 2 winners chose? Who the winners really are? Good news: Those mysteries of the universe can be checked off your list. Answers below...
While we’re all thinking about it, Miss Mussel thought it might be nice to get some feedback from operaplotters about what you liked/didn’t like about this round of the competition...
Ok, everyone, here’s what you’ve all been waiting for. Thank you so much for your patience. Danielle De Niese took her judging duties quite seriously and returned quarter final, semi final, top 25 results before paring the list down to the seven best ones. Amazing...
#Operaplotters have reported a sharp increase in spare time now that the contest has closed as well as an inability to know what to do with it. For some, analysis has proven to be a comforting time filler...
Looking for just the right hoop skirt to complete your wardrobe? What about a killer wig guaranteed to get you voted best costume at your next Hallowe’en party? Maybe your regional theatre could use some new props...
Orphans - help rescue these in the comments. Every operaplot, not matter how innane deserves a home. To keep things straight, please copy the whole tweet including the author and then add the title. Thanks...
At the risk of being your annoying neighbour who runs across the street with her vacation snaps the minute you come home from grocery shopping, here are some more photographs from the Open Ears Festival in Kitchener. It finished this morning, so there will be no further photo essays. Promise...
Whispering Room Jane Cardiff - Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery [Audio clip: view full post to listen] 16 speakers each play part of a dialogue in which a female voice describes an event from various viewpoints...
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | W | Orphans A Midsummer Night’s Dream mlaffs - Monarchs fight, Rude Mechanicals rehearse by night, lovers get lost, confused and duel over height. Magic makes all things right...
[feed readers click through for audio] [Audio clip: view full post to listen]...
The Flying Bulgars, a Toronto-based nouveau klezmer band were in town Saturday night for the first show in the late night concert series at Open Ears. They were, in a word, fabulous. The concert took place in the Upper Parish Hall of St John The Evangelist Church on Water Street...
Miss Mussel has been terribly remiss in her blogging duties for the Open Ears Festival. The list of excuses is long but desperately boring, so instead she will give a little plug for the RARE Soundwalks that are running nearly every day from now till the end of the Festival...
The Omniscient Mussel Over 200 entries in the #operaplot contest so far and still 5 days remaining. Have you entered yours yet? You get up to 10 tries, so what are you waiting for?
Source: theomniscientmussel.com
Classical Music & Culture
After reading the #operaplot entries for the day, it appears that there is a new disease sweeping the globe. Because it is so new, a complete list of symptoms has not been codified...
Miss Mussel thought it might be interesting to see what sort of catchment area the 32 participating houses cover. She was right. It is. The first map is all the houses from the United States and Canada...
Miss Mussel is pleased to discover that many people and even arts organizations are joining Twitter to participate in this competition. Perhaps she should take a moment to buy some stock….wait….scratch that. The company is not yet public and virtual stocks are going for $1,475 each...
Earlier in the competition, Miss Mussel promised that you would still be able to enter the competition if you did not have a Twitter account. These were the rules last time and it seemed to make sense to do it again this time...
It’s on folks. After two weeks filled with inhuman amounts of email, #operaplot is finally here. There are still a couple of houses making arrangements but at the moment, it looks like the final number of partners is 32. Miss Mussel can hardly believe it...
Hello everyone! Miss Mussel has been recruited to do some blogging for the 2009 Open Ears Festival, which is, by all accounts, the coolest thing happening in the Kdub these days. A big OM welcome to those of you arriving via the Open Ears website...
It’s a tribute to the weird and wonderful world of the Internet that #operaplot is becoming anything at all, so in an effort to map the trail, here’s where the contest has been mentioned so far. If you know of another link, please leave it in the comments. There’s no press snobbery here...
The Omniscient Mussel