Follow me on Twitter
My TweetsCATEGORIES for all posts
- Arts-a-Poppin' (154)
- Beginnings (62)
- Chamber Works (29)
- Cinema Scope (262)
- LGBTQ Alphabet Soup (92)
- Literary Lyricism (56)
- Live! On Stage (79)
- Melodies Linger On (142)
- Musicabilia (32)
- Notes in the News (291)
- Poe Musicabres (153)
- The Speakeasy Chronicles (79)
- The Teaching Artist (40)
- Two-fisted Touristing (157)
Archives
- January 2023 (8)
- December 2022 (6)
- November 2022 (8)
- October 2022 (8)
- September 2022 (8)
- August 2022 (8)
- July 2022 (8)
- June 2022 (7)
- May 2022 (9)
- April 2022 (4)
- March 2022 (6)
- February 2022 (6)
- January 2022 (5)
- December 2021 (8)
- November 2021 (4)
- October 2021 (6)
- September 2021 (4)
- August 2021 (5)
- July 2021 (10)
- June 2021 (6)
- May 2021 (7)
- April 2021 (6)
- March 2021 (6)
- February 2021 (5)
- January 2021 (5)
- December 2020 (6)
- November 2020 (9)
- October 2020 (11)
- September 2020 (11)
- August 2020 (6)
- July 2020 (8)
- June 2020 (7)
- May 2020 (8)
- April 2020 (8)
- March 2020 (8)
- February 2020 (8)
- January 2020 (8)
- December 2019 (10)
- November 2019 (10)
- October 2019 (4)
- September 2019 (5)
- August 2019 (5)
- July 2019 (5)
- June 2019 (5)
- May 2019 (5)
- April 2019 (5)
- March 2019 (4)
- February 2019 (5)
- January 2019 (4)
- December 2018 (4)
- November 2018 (4)
- October 2018 (5)
- September 2018 (6)
- August 2018 (4)
- July 2018 (6)
- June 2018 (4)
- May 2018 (5)
- April 2018 (4)
- March 2018 (4)
- February 2018 (3)
- January 2018 (5)
- December 2017 (4)
- November 2017 (4)
- October 2017 (5)
- September 2017 (3)
- August 2017 (4)
- July 2017 (5)
- June 2017 (7)
- May 2017 (4)
- April 2017 (8)
- March 2017 (6)
- February 2017 (7)
- January 2017 (8)
- December 2016 (5)
- November 2016 (8)
- October 2016 (7)
- September 2016 (6)
- August 2016 (8)
- July 2016 (10)
- June 2016 (10)
- May 2016 (6)
- April 2016 (7)
- March 2016 (10)
- February 2016 (13)
- January 2016 (10)
- December 2015 (12)
- November 2015 (11)
- October 2015 (11)
- September 2015 (8)
- August 2015 (10)
- July 2015 (10)
- June 2015 (13)
- May 2015 (9)
- April 2015 (10)
Blogroll
- Ashkenasi You Tube Channel Videos of excerpts from several of Ashkenasi’s musicals
- Speakeasy Songs Soundcloud demo recordings of songs from the musical “Speakeasy”
- Follow Notes from a Composer on WordPress.com
Notes from a Composer
“Speakeasy” Selections
Tag Archives: Opera
Watch OPERA KIDS on September 5 and beyond
“Opera Kids” is a documentary about the Creating Original Opera program that I had taught and also helped develop starting in 1990. I write about the film, directed by Max Sturm, who first experienced the program as a participating 5th … Continue reading
Posted in Notes in the News, The Teaching Artist
Tagged 5th grade, All Arts, Creating Original Opera, documentary, Kids, Max Sturm, Opera, Opera Kids, WNET
Leave a comment
OPERA KIDS – the movie
“Opera Kids” is a documentary about the Creating Original Opera program that I had taught and also helped develop with my colleagues at the Metropolitan Opera Guild Education Department since 1990. It was directed by Max Sturm, who participated in … Continue reading
Posted in Cinema Scope, The Teaching Artist
Tagged 5th grade, Acting, Brooklyn Children's School, composing, Covid 19, Creating Original Opera, documentary, film, Max Sturm, Metropolitan Opera Guild Education Department, Opera, Opera Kids, original, staging, teaching artist, trailer, writing
Leave a comment
NYSIFF FILM PANELS
The New York State International Film Festival held three different film panels over the course of its festival dates. I participated in all three. NYSIFF has posted all three panels on YouTube, so I can now share them here. If … Continue reading
CLASS 1-3’s FIRST GRADE OPERA – involving a magic carpet and a family transformed into chameleons
NYC’s schools closed due to the COVID 19 pandemic the week the three first grade classes at the Brooklyn Children’s School were scheduled to perform their operas, which the children had written and composed themselves. I still held … Continue reading
Posted in Notes in the News, The Teaching Artist
Tagged brooklyn, chameleons, Children's School, Covid 19, dungeon, first grade, gold, magic carpet, magic potion, Opera, school closure
Leave a comment
CLASS 1-2’s FIRST GRADE OPERA – of the moon and the earth and a celestial smash up
NYC’s schools closed due to the COVID 19 pandemic the week the three first grade classes at the Brooklyn Children’s School were scheduled to perform their operas, which the children had written and composed themselves. I still held out … Continue reading
Posted in Notes in the News, The Teaching Artist
Tagged brooklyn, chicken, Children's School, Crash, dragon, Earth, first grade, jaguar, Moon, Opera, school closure, sun
Leave a comment
CLASS 1-1’s FIRST GRADE OPERA – in which a dragon and a tiger meet in a dungeon
NYC’s schools closed due to the COVID 19 pandemic the week the three first grade classes at the Brooklyn Children’s School were scheduled to perform their operas, which the children had written and composed themselves. I still held out … Continue reading
Posted in Notes in the News, The Teaching Artist
Tagged baby, brooklyn, bully, Children's School, Covid 19, dragon, dungeon, first grade, music director, Opera, school closure, tiger
1 Comment
The TELL-TALE VEGAS / NYC / MOSCOW TRIFECTA that was – and then wasn’t
Thanks for Nothing, COVID 19 I was supposed to watch “The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre” in a Moscow movie theater today, in fact precisely while I’m typing this, “sheltering in place” this Saturday morning New York time, … Continue reading
Posted in Cinema Scope, Notes in the News, Poe Musicabres, The Teaching Artist
Tagged Brandon Ruckdashel, Casablanca, coronavirus, Covid 19, Cyrillic alphabet, Days of the Dead, first grade, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Las Vegas, Moscow, musicabre, New York, NewFilmmakers NY, Opera, pandemic, Reels of the Dead, school closing, sheltering in place, The Tell-Tale Heart
Leave a comment
No First Grade Operas – for now
Thanks for nothing, COVID19 On Friday I received the following email from one of the first grade teachers at the Brooklyn Children’s School: Dear Danny, The first grade operas have to be postponed. The DOE and our … Continue reading
Posted in Notes in the News, The Teaching Artist
Tagged Bill de Blasio, Brooklyn Children's School, Chameleon, closure, COVID19, dragon, Earth, first grade, Moon, New York City, Opera, original, school, tiger
Leave a comment
The Knight Marries the Prince
A Kindergarten Original Blesses a Quaker Wedding Friday morning I heard a wedding song I realized I would have to sing that night at an actual wedding. Class K-1 at the Brooklyn Children’s School was the third kindergarten … Continue reading
THE DAY I MURDERED MY HUSBAND – Tell-Tale Shoot Diary #3
Welcome back to the “Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre” film shoot diary, and the day I murdered my husband. Repeatedly. Take after take after take. Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” centers on a “very very dreadfully … Continue reading
Posted in Cinema Scope, Literary Lyricism, Poe Musicabres
Tagged assault, Austin Lepri, black and white, chamber piece, cinematography, Ed Elder, Edgar Allan Poe, eye, flashback, Jason Chua, movie, murder, musicabre, musical, Opera, pas a deux, set, short film, The Tell-Tale Heart, vulture
1 Comment
FIRST GRADE ALIENS RIDE PEOPLE’S HEADS!
Another Year, Another Silly First Grade Opera! Actually, another three first grade operas at the Brooklyn Children’s School, created, written, composed and performed by first graders themselves, under the direction of their teachers and their teaching artist Mister Danny. … Continue reading
Posted in Live! On Stage, The Teaching Artist
Tagged aliens, brooklyn, car wash, Children's School, dog, first grade, Opera, pet, silly, slobber, teaching artist
1 Comment
TELL-TALE REVEAL!
So what is the big new deal with “The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre“? OK! Aright! I know you’ve been on tenterhooks! The suspense has been killing you! But only figuratively. Not literally, … Continue reading
Posted in Cinema Scope, Literary Lyricism, Live! On Stage, Poe Musicabres
Tagged Cinema, Edgar Allan Poe, eye, horror, JahRockn, movie, musicabre, musical, nervous, Opera, recording studio, short film, stone dead, The Tell-Tale Heart, vulture
Leave a comment
TROLL AFFECTION!
How a genre and boundary bursting Swedish movie brought back to mind a certain LGBTQ friendly First Grade Opera Tune I just saw the movie “Border”, Sweden’s entry for this year’s Foreign Film Oscar, and let me say, right … Continue reading
Posted in Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, The Teaching Artist
Tagged Academy Award, Affection, Border, Brooklyn Children's School, first grade, Foreign Film, make up, nomination, Opera, Oscar, Sweden, Troll, wizard
Leave a comment
Sensual Statues in the Streets of Paris
Nude statues are all over Paris. I don’t know if statistically there are more nude statues there than in other European cultural capitals, or if the nude statues of Paris are particularly more sensual than elsewhere, or if it is … Continue reading
Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Melodies Linger On, Two-fisted Touristing
Tagged angel, Arts and Metiers, Bacchus, bastille, Beethoven, church, classical music, Fountain of Medici, jardin, Like a Prayer, Louvre, Luxembourg, Madonna, nudes, Opera, Paris, pieta, Romance, sculpture, Seine, sensual, sensual classics, Tuileries
Leave a comment
TELL-TALE SIGN…
Something’s coming… Something murderous, mad, musical… A pale blue eye… Cellos signing; moaning; screaming… His hideous heart… It’s all returning… But not the way it was… It will take on a whole … Continue reading
Posted in Cinema Scope, Literary Lyricism, Poe Musicabres
Tagged cello, Edgar Allan Poe, horror, madness, murder, music, musicabre, musical, Opera, The Tell-Tale Heart
Leave a comment
Another Year, Another Trio of First Grade Operas.
Three first grade operas have performed in their classrooms in front of an audience of parents, grandparents and loved ones. In three consecutive days 1-3’s “Diamond Kids”, 1-2’s “The Alicorns” and 1-1’s “Imagine” regaled audiences with stories, dialog, lyrics and … Continue reading