Miss Mussel is writing a piece about standing room culture and needs to chat with some regulars from opera houses around the world about what it’s like. You can leave good/bad experiences and tips for new standers/things you’d wished you…
The OM’s foreign correspondent sends these slices of brilliance from Cologne. Trude Herr (auf Deutsch) was a hometown girl, who had a great career as a character actress in German film and as a singer on the Berlin cabaret circuit….
Hello Fanbase and readers who are not yet acolytes of the OM. So, August was meant to be the 31 Days of Reviews except that it’s the 17th and only one review has been posted. The lazy days of summer…
In June, Miss Mussel interviewed Rufus Wainwright for the Los Angeles Times. We chatted a bit about the North American premiere of his opera Prima Donna as well as loads of other classical music stuff. As always, a pile of…
A variation on the classic ‘Will you go out with me? Check Yes, No or Maybe.” Well played, admen. Well played.
Comic by Ryan North
First heard on episode 4 of Miss Mussel’s new favourite TV show: Rev A cloud of witnesses. To whom? To what? To the small fire that never leaves the sky. To the great fire that boils the daily pot. To…
More personal comment to come. In the meantime, here’s what everyone else is saying. News/Obits: The Sydney Morning Herald | The Australian | The Age | The Guardian | The New York Times | Reuters | BBC | The Telegraph…
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Reader Birgit, whose husband plays in the horn section of WDR Köln, sends this amuse-yeux: “Two weeks ago, when they rehearsed the second act of Wagner’s “Tristan” for Semyon Bychkovs farewell concert, my husband’s American colleague started laughing when she…
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So here’s a good one: Richard Wagner goes to Paris in 1853 to visit saxomaphone creator Adolphe Sax. Why? Because he was working on the Ring Cycle and was searching for something (according to Wikipedia, at least) “that could intone…
Germans are usually regarded as being somewhat challenged in the comedy department. The following is an absolutely brilliant Pythonkomedie from members of the Musiker der Berliner Konzerthaus. [feed readers, you’ll have to click through for the video] Miss Mussel’s German…
It’s barely still Sunday on the left coast, but if Miss Mussel can keep from expounding on exactly what is so beautiful about the following 129 seconds and instead let you decide for yourself, she should be able to sneak…
Opera Chic brings news that makes Miss Mussel’s coeur canadien swell with pride. Québecois conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin will become the Philadelphia Orchestra’s eighth music director starting in the 2012/13 season. Nézet-Séguin currently has posts with the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand…
It’s that time of year again, apparently. After a one-year hiatus, the ASCAP Deems Taylor Competition for books and articles on the subject of music is back. Submissions of books and articles issued in 2009 are being accepted now until…
After a whirlwind tour last summer, Miss Mussel will sadly be unable to attend any of the Proms in 2010. There is something quite special about the festival although articulating that specialness is rather like trying to pick up the…
Over the last month, the OAE has been sharing images from their 2010/11 promotional campaign on their excellent blog. For inspiration, Chris Harrison of Harrison & Co. turned to the lowly gaffer tape. The results, photographed by Eric Richmond, are…
A rummage on Youtube has turned up the following televisual delight written by Jennifer Saunders, one half of the devastatingly funny comedy team French & Saunders. Ab Fab fans will know her as the indomitable Edwina Monsoon. Jam and Jerusalem…
It hardly seems possible but according to the OM archives, there has been no XKCD on this site since December 2009. Shock! Horror! Miss Mussel can do nothing but apologize immediately for letting the guest genius quotient fall so low….