Links beyond this blog have been known to expire, sometimes rather quickly. I wish things weren't this way (but they are). I will do what I can to choose wisely (but don't say you weren't warned). Click away!
English singer John Reed in the 1966 D’Oyly Carte Opera Company production of The Mikado
English character dancer, actor and baritone, John Reed, who delighted generations in Gilbert & Sullivan’s D’Oyly Carte operettas, died on February 13, his 94th birthday. He is survived by his partner of 52 years, Nicholas Kerri.
Mr. Reed was born in County Durham, England, in 1916.
He joined D’Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1951 as a comic understudy. He
became principal comic baritone in 1959, where he performed and recorded
all the major roles in his fach, including Sir Joseph Porter in H.M.S.
Pinafore, Major General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance,
Ko-Ko in The Mikado (his favorite), the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe,
and John Wellington Wells in The Sorcerer. He also directed
and appeared with other companies.
Mr. Reed appeared on the Celebrity Series of Boston season 3 times as a member of D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, in 1962 at The Shubert Theatre and in 1966, and '68 at The Savoy Theatre.
Bob Israel reviewed our Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour concert from last Thursday, and since he thoroughly enjoyed the performance I can confirm that it is an excellent review (heh-heh). Seriously, it was good to have several revues of this concert, even if some were, inevitably, mixed. More reviewers, please.
I do have one factual error to point out (he said, pedantically): The Animals' "Down in Monterey" immortalized the Monterey Pop Festival, not the Monterey Jazz Festival.
It's pull-the-car-over music, it's um-what-were-you-saying? music, it's sit-in-the-driveway-until-the-track-is-over music, it's Kenny Barron, it's Kurt Elling, it's Regina Carter, it's Russell Malone, it's Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour at Berklee Performance Center TONIGHT. There are some - not many - but some, tickets left. And students? It's all arranged, there WILL be student rush tickets available.
All courtesy of your pals at Celebrity Series of Boston.
The Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet's Boston debut wound up Friday evening with two encores. The idea for the first, fittingly, came to the group during their visit to Symphony Hall in November (also a Celebrity Series of Boston performance, ahem). Members of the ensemble ran into Gunther Schuller roaming Symphony Hall (ok, I made the roaming part up, but they did meet Schuller) and decided to play his Blues for Wind Quintet when they returned the Boston.
The second encore came form the pen of Brazilian composer Julio Medaglia, a friend of the ensemble. Tango el Porsche Negro is a kind of tribute to a former BPWQ member's automobile.
