Klarinet Archive - Posting 000908.txt from 2000/08

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: [kl] I promise, etc
Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2000 08:33:18 -0400

I promise...

...not to make blanket sallies (!) at juggernauts like opera whilst
surrounding too large quantities of unprocessed red wine late at night;

...not to forget that I queued to get tickets for the Ring at Covent
Garden *twice*, once all night;

...to remember that the 'Queen of the Night' aria reduced me to tears in
the orchestra last week;

...to tell you an amusing (to me) completion, the day before yesterday,
of a story that started three decades ago:

Thirty-two years ago:-) I was given my most startling professional
opportunity to that date by a man called Mansel Bebb, who was at the
time the orchestral manager of the English Chamber Orchestra.

The gig was to play first clarinet in the ECO recording of Don Giovanni,
with Joan Sutherland as Donna Anna, conducted by Bonynge, her husband.
Naturally, I immediately got the score and a recording, and learnt all
the clarinet bits.

The best bit, I thought, was the bit at the end, the dinner scene, where
a little band plays excerpts from other operas to accompany the food,
before the arrival of the Commendatore.

*However*, when we got to that part, some *other* clarinet players
turned up, and *they* got to play what I'd been looking forward to.

Of course, there are other nice clarinet bits -- 'Mi tradi', for example
-- but still....!

But Mansel Bebb is now the orchestral manager of the Philharmonia
orchestra, and last week he rang to ask whether I was free to play
in....the stage band for a recording of Don Giovanni....

So the day before yesterday it was the turn of the *Phiharmonia* first
clarinet to be upstaged in a recording.

I wonder how long he'll have to wait for his revenge?

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

"Tolstoy found the Opera 'absurd'. Is this a reflection on the
genius of Tolstoy?" (Cambridge University Scholarship Entrance, general paper.)

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org