Elgan speaks
...and her words thunder across the land

Happy Birthday zitagsd

Sunday, Nov. 27, 2005
10:12 a.m.
Last night Hubby and I attended a performance of Three Cities in the Life of Dr. N0rman Bethune at our own Centennial Theatre, which as you can tell from it�s name was constructed in 1967 and looks it, the chairs falling apart, the carpeting worn. The concert consisted of three different pieces in the first half, which were all quite good, avant-garde music, a composition for piano, baritone sax, percussion, one with electric guitar added, and one for solo electric guitar. The opera itself was scored for solo baritone, who plays the good doctor, a very fine singer and actor, the above-mentioned musicians with the addition of a string quartet, and a guest conductor. The electric guitarist is also the composer. His website is here.

The tragedy of the evening is that it was extremely poorly attended. The theatre has 600 seats (although many of them are broken). Music students were offered free admission provided they went to the box office and showed I.D. There were only five actual music students there, one because her violin teacher was in the ensemble (or she probably wouldn�t have come) and one who works the lobby of the theatre, because the Duke, in his infinite wisdom, had scheduled a video viewing of a Wagner opera the same night following a student potluck over at the music department. Vlad and Hubby and I were totally affronted. Here was an opportunity for students to attend, free of charge, a very important concert of Canadian music, the programme describing one of our Canadian cultural heroes, and they were watching a video of a Wagner opera just two buildings over because the professor showing it was so obtuse he wouldn�t change his evening. They could have done that anytime! We were not amused.

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