Anniversary Greeting to Maestro James Levine!!

Yesterday afternoon, while watching the delayed (cubist) MET Opera broadcast (on functioning public television WETA, if generally dyfunctional public radio WETA-FM in the Nation's Capital) from last March of Richard Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde', I realized that by far the largest share of my live and broadcast MET Opera memories, since a very cold and windy late December 1976 when I moved to New York City, have been under the careful and musically loving baton of James Levine. [After watching the Wagner, I provided my own encore by dusting off my 1989 self-recorded cassette of Maestro Levine leading Samuel Ramey and Jessye Norman in Bela Bartok's 'Bluebeard's Castle' (unfortunately in English) and Arnold Schoenberg's 'Erwartung' (in German).]

Happy Anniversary to James Levine on your 65th birthday, and with deep appreciation for your role in providing an invisible national classical Music Conservatory!

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Does anyone have any thoughts on the MET's 'Cubist' 'Tristan und Isolde' broadcast? I found it an exciting experiment. [If I were younger, I might compare the non-Cubist and Cubist video broadcasts of this fascinating -- generally successful -- MET opera production.]














Jessye Norman sings Franz Schubert's 'Winterreise' (as staged by Robert Wilson in Paris almost a generation ago); as does bass-baritone and German Classical Music Conservatory Professor Thomas Quasthoff earlier this year in Boston, accompanied by Maestro James Levine.

Can you believe that Washington, D.C. -- one of the self-proclaimed richest cities in the world -- still does not have a classical music and arts Conservatory?

Photo credits: (c) www.musicweb-international.com and (c) Michael J. Lutch and www.boston.com. 2008. All rights reserved. With thanks.