Verdi, the Kirov, and a little gratuitous Bush-bashing

Dave and his "partner" (I need to remember to ask them what business they're in) saw a performance of Gluck's "Orfeo et Eurydice" at the Lyric Opera last night while millions of other Americans watched our overachieving president make an ass of himself again on ABC News.

Is "overachieving" quite the word I want? Well, George is in a position he is profoundly unqualified to hold. I suppose that means he has overachieved.

Speaking of classical performances, the Kirov performance of Verdi's Requiem was stunning. As Philip Kennicott said in a review published in the Washington Post, "It was not just a performance rendered grand and dramatic, but a performance in which the conductor, Valery Gergiev, let his cast interact operatically, by instinct, as if they not only knew each other as musicians, but fundamentally understood each other's characters."

What I like about Gergiev and the Kirov is their tendency to strip the music down to its bare bones. I have a CD of theirs ("Rite of Spring") that is now my favorite recording of that work (I own about six others, including an interesting rendition on pianola, arranged by Stravinsky himself.) Anyway, the Requiem...it was like music from heaven.