parterre box

70 comments

• dcrazmo says:

  Perhaps Ms. Graves can use the time off to learn a new role.

  on January 29, 2010 at 3:02 PM
  • xiaoming says:

    My suggestion for Ms. Graves: Andromaque in “Les Troyens.”

    on January 29, 2010 at 7:20 PM
    • justanothertenor says:

      Actually, I think she might make a fine Didon.

      on January 30, 2010 at 10:03 AM
• Quanto Painy Fakor says:

  It’s easy: first you must memorize the names of the lines and spaces of the treble and bass staves. The lines of the Treble (G) Clef are Every Good Boy Does Fine;
  the spaces of the Treble (G) Clef are: F A C E

  The lines of the Bass (F) Clef are: Good Boys Do Fine As-long-as-they behave
  the spaces of the Bass (F) Clef are: All Cars Eat Gas.

  Then you must master the Circle of the Fifths, which is a handy way of knowing the correct order of the sharps in the different key signatures.
  C-major = no sharps or flats
  G major (up a perfect fifth from C) = 1 sharp
  Dmajor (likewise up a perfiect 5th from G) = 2 sharps, etc.
  The mandatory order of the sharps are: Father Charles Goes Down And Eats Bananas
  The circle of FOURTHS govern keys with Flats in the key signature:
  C major = no sharps or flats
  F major (up a perfect 4th from C) = 1 flat
  B-flat major (likewise up a perfect 4th from F) = 2 flats, etc.

  The correct order of the flats is: Battle Ends And Down Goes Charlies Father
  Of course you must learn about the nomenclature of various types of intervals before you can really know the difference between a perfect interval and an augmented one and all the others too.

  Yes, I guess it’s daunting at first and only gets more complicated as one must know how to interpret the clefs for the transposing instruments.

  Now a word from out sponsor…

  on January 29, 2010 at 3:12 PM
  • CruzSF says:

    ROFL. That sounds like my first lesson, all right.

    on January 29, 2010 at 3:20 PM
    • CruzSF says:

      Wait, “Father Charles Goes Down…”? Hmmm.

      on January 29, 2010 at 3:35 PM
  • louannd says:

    I am so reminded of all those ear-training cheat tunes: Ba LI Hai or and Ma RI a.

    on January 29, 2010 at 10:54 PM
• Quanto Painy Fakor says:

  You would be surprised how many conductors are really deficient in reading scores and the players can tell in a few pages if their Mo is just a bluffer.

  on January 29, 2010 at 3:28 PM
  • Camille says:

    I, for one, have run headlong into many a month who’s a bluffer.

    Thank you so much for the Every Good Boy Does Fine; brings back many desperate memories !

    on January 29, 2010 at 4:25 PM
    • Camille says:

      Dear me, my Blackberry strikes again!
      My mo became a month!

      As long as we are correcting here, I believe that several of us have referred to the soprano as ‘Lauren Flanigan’ when her name is spelled ‘FlanAgan’. Not important for us little people out in the darkness but very much so for our redoubtable doyenne.

      on January 29, 2010 at 4:46 PM
    • Camille says:

      Cruz–there is the sanfrancisco conservatory of music http://www.sfcm.edu; you might check to see if they have extension courses, and, less formally, there is a local school called “Blue Bear” that gives a variety of lessons to beginning students — someone I am acquainted is going there to learn the rudiments of singing with guitar.

      Might I also suggesy the Juilliard School Music store (online, of course). They’ve got everything under the sun. It’s much easier online anyway, as it’s in a crowde little trailer and hard to put up with in person.

      If you study the violin, it would perhaps be wise, in the beginning, to listen to the best bel canto singers and Mozartean singers to get a good grip on what it is tto have a seamless legato.

      Good luck, Cruz, and, as Gracie Slick intoned, “Keep your HEAD!”

      on January 29, 2010 at 5:28 PM
      • CruzSF says:

        Thanks for those suggestions, Camille! I’d always thought SFCM was a school for future music professionals. I’d never considered that they’d have adult extension classes.

        That’s interesting, what you say about bel canto. For me, bel canto is a big, gaping hole. I know Lucia, of course, and Barbiere, but my experience so far is in Verdi, Puccini, and Mozart. No surprise, there, I guess, since their works show up most frequently on stages. DiDonato’s recent disc has piqued my interest in the greater Rossini oeuvre, though.

        on January 29, 2010 at 5:53 PM
      • No Expert says:

        Or, possibly, “feed your head”

        on January 29, 2010 at 5:56 PM
      • hndymn says:

        I believe the last line of “White Rabbit” is “feed your head.” Since I remember doing so regularly at the time, in’s nothing short of amazing that I could lay hands on that bit of information…

        on January 29, 2010 at 10:39 PM
• BETSY_ANN_BOBOLINK says:

  Mock if it suits you, but try to remember that long before YouTube (Yes, Cherubs, there was life before YouTube) Stefan Zucker, along with Edward J. Smith, Mike Richter, and others were responsible for rescuing from oblivion a lot of the treasures you hold most dear.

  on January 29, 2010 at 5:02 PM
• La marquise de Merteuil says:

  Christ – that is embarrassing …

  on January 30, 2010 at 5:05 AM
• Harry says:

  Some people don’t GET it regards the non talented, the over ambitious or the discredited :that have clothed themselves in all sorts of false and manufactured accolades…..It is the likes of a ‘Zucker-type’ person that forever claim ‘they were really responsible for everything, that ever successfully eventuates’. They bank on the fact that others do not have the time or the inclination to check out thorougly the innane claims they make. The Web is the new territory where they spin, weave, plough and peddle their unproven ‘personal – unique bullshit’.
  Worse, there are gullible fools that believe it.

  on January 30, 2010 at 8:00 AM
• jatm2063 says:

  She can’t even get through a Carmen in New Jersey? Oh dear oh dear. No wonder the MET hasn’t been using her. And Carmen really isn’t that difficult vocally.

  The last things I heard of her doing were Amneris and Azucena, that sort of thing. Unfortunately, she took on those roles just as the voice was starting to have problems, which is exactly the opposite of what one should do (sing them only in one’s prime).

  “And another one down, another one down, another one bites the dust.”

  on January 30, 2010 at 11:48 AM
• Lucky Pierre says:

  graves doing amneris? i can’t imagine.

  on January 31, 2010 at 2:17 PM