I used to have a soccer blog but it was tedious for me let alone any readers. In any case, for the next six months, I may show surprising interest in music from Italy, the Czech Republic and Ghana. Related, the News Blog has the best prediction so far for next year's soccer World Cup in Germany:
But a win in Germany would likely bring back the Cup to the UK, if the English fans don't refight WWII in the process.
So, I'll be seeking out Italian-American, Czech-American, and Ghanian-American composers. Only Gian Carlo Menotti and his Pulitzer-winning The Counsel comes to mind but I'll keep working on it.
Reading Menotti's bio, I see that he "wrote the libretti to Samuel Barber's operas Vanessa and A Hand of Bridge." I'm not familiar with the latter but the Wikipedia description intrigues:
A Hand of Bridge, a nine minute opera composed by Samuel Barber with libretto by Gian-Carlo Menotti, is one of the shortest operas that is regularly performed. It consists of two couples playing a hand of bridge. During the opera each character has a short arietta in which they express their internal monologue. The soprano laments not loving her now dying mother while she was still well. The contralto recalls a hat she saw in a shop window erlier in the day. The tenor recalls an ex-lover and wonders where she is now. Finally, the baritone fantasizes about what he would do if he were as rich as his boss "Mr. Pritchett."
Uh oh, I identify with several of those characters...
A quick search points out Tomas Svoboda and I suppose Dvorák has relevance here. Amazon, via this interesting list of African American composers, also turns up a CD I want.
There is something about cards that brings out the interior life in a composer. I'm thinking also of Stravinski's Jeu de cartes.
Posted by: Stirling Newberry | December 11, 2005 at 02:09 AM
Obo Addy is listed as a Ghanaian American musician, specializing in drumming. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obo_Addy
Posted by: Scott Spiegelberg | December 13, 2005 at 06:36 AM
Czech-American composer? That's me. I don't actually highlight the factoid that I am half-Czech as such on my cv or Web site (nor do I even make a big thing about being American), but there you have it.
I was looking for something totally different when I stumbled across your blog, but that's the way the Web works.
Posted by: Peter Castine | March 16, 2006 at 02:08 PM