The producer of my first movie took this on his patio near the hot tub. Sorry, but he kept the nude shots.
My youthful attempt to emulate Marlene Dietrich in Blonde Venus
PS – If you’re looking for my id, here it is.
John Wilson, Conductor 2018
If this were a Joan Crawford movie she’d have given him the damn gold cigarette case by now.
Portrait of John Wilson by Sasha Gusov
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson
From August, 2018. Cantara, former ASCAP solfeggist and 70s porn actress turned memoirist, has fallen hopelessly in love with a man at the other end of the world, an English, middle-ranking orchestra conductor—who plays, on the side, Golden Age of Hollywood music and The Great American Songbook—by the name of John Wilson.
Not because he’s a fellow creator (he doesn’t create, but reconstructs, orchestrates and arranges the music of others)—not because of his looks (he’s peaky, scrawny, blinky; his gray-green eyes lack luster; he’s got a facial tic, pores like craters, lousy posture, enormous feet, the limbs of a stick insect and the hands of a hod carrier; his nose is an equilateral triangle; his famous cleft chin, supposedly his best feature, always looks slightly askew; his ultra-short mousy hair can’t conceal the fact he’s already going gray; he sweats like a stevedore on the podium; and for the past few years he’s taken to wearing geek glasses)—and certainly not for his intellect (his fatuous pronouncement about the needlessness of lyrics in The Great American Songbook makes me want to smack the back of his head like the whippersnapper he is and send him home with a note).
So what is it about him?* I’ve only been aware of his existence since 30 April and in love with him since 4 May, 2018; since then my feelings have been an insane mixture of tenderness, gratitude, annoyance, and lust. The tenderness I understand: I’ve spent enough time in Hollywood to understand the position he’s in… As far as gratitude, here’s his concert version of “The Trolley Song” using the original 1944 orchestration(!)— thank you thank you thank you, John. Even the raging lust I get.
But whenever John gets himself in the way of the music it drives me nuts. It’s crystal clear to me the times he does this because I’m in love with him, dammit, and because he’s a musician I pay attention to the music. Truth to tell, the only times John really gets himself in the way are when he’s conducting his own hand-picked group which is dedicated mostly to music from Golden Hollywood & The Great American Songbook, and cannily named The John Wilson Orchestra.
Listen to John’s new orchestra the SINFONIA OF LONDON here
Whether he gets himself in the way indeliberately or on purpose I cannot entirely tell, but I’m starting to. With a little patience he isn’t that hard to read, my bonny John Wilson. After countless times listening to his recordings and broadcasts; pouring over his interviews; watching him conduct (in video clips, mainly from the annual BBC Proms); watching him conduct other orchestras besides his own (ditto); and, most important, learning to separate the showman from the musician, I’m starting to understand his type of intelligence and his musical capability, which is actually pretty sizeable. His ear (the way he hears things, not his purported perfect pitch) is intriguing and his industriousness is admirable. I am definitely not buying into the PR excess—he is not “a superstar”, “a guru”, “charismatic”, “legendary”, “a conducting icon” or, God help us, as proclaimed by the BBC, “the nation’s favorite” (!!!). But his musicianship at times is kiiind of brilliant.
* Update 10 August 2019: I’ve just read up on what it is about him, and now I’ve got science to back me up. It’s John’s fault.
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
The Story So Far: Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits
Anyroad, like a good Dr Watson I have compiled a list:
Listen to John’s new orchestra the SINFONIA OF LONDON here
JOHN WILSON – HIS LIMITS (Updated September 2021)
Knowledge of/affinity for/talent with:
- English Light Music – Affinity natural; knowledge vast; repopularized Angela Morley, Arnold Bax, Edward German, Eric Coates, Robert Farnon, etc etc etc; recorded over a dozen albums of English light music with Naxos, Chandos etc; wrote arrangement of Fantasia on British Sea Songs for Last Night At the Proms, 2003; creditably conducted Sir Arthur Sullivan’s “Overture di Ballo” (audio download here; but you have to see my darling conductor in action at the Royal Festival Hall in 2011 on my YT playlist here. The BBC told him to bring out his personality and so he did my bonny, kind of)
- English Light Music, Gilbert & Sullivan Division – Creditably conducted Yeoman of the Guard at the Royal Festival Hall in 2009 and Ruddigore in 2010 (my favorite G&S, as “Basingstoke” was the safeword my boyfriend and I used during bondage games); creditably (I’m sure) conducted a concert performance of Trial by Jury with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, spring 2019
- Classic Repertoire – Re-formed the Sinfonia of London and recorded with them Korngold’s symphony and violin concerto; conducted RAM Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s 6th, January 2020. Pinch-hit conducted Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony in Dublin with the RTE October 2019. Claims special affinity for Rachmaninoff: Creditably conducted Rach’s 3rd in Birmingham 1 Dec 2021. Recorded so far 3 albums in a set of Copland, which doesn’t interest me right now. Creditably conducted Beethoven’s Pastoral as well as Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with the RTE Orchestra in Dublin. But Mahler. Yeh, I’d like John to eventually work up to Mahler’s 2nd (which TONALLY is up his alley). Only by the time he does get to it years and years from now I’ll probably be dead…
- Classic Repertoire, English Romantics Division – Creditably conducted Walton, Delius, Elgar, Britten; deep affinity for Ralph Vaughan Williams (it’s that Sehnsucht, my bonny)
- Opera – Creditably conducted Madame Butterfly for the 2016 Glyndebourne tour; creditably conducted Porgy and Bess fall 2018 at the English National Opera; creditably conducted Massenet’s Cendrillon at Glyndebourne, summer 2019
- Film Music – Creditably conducted a program of “British Film Music” for the 2007 Proms; transcribed by ear complete MGM “lost” movie musical scores including The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me In St Louis and Singin’ In the Rain, resulting in 350+ (John’s count as of 2016, although his count confusingly goes up or down in successive interviews) pieces of programmable material (for the Proms, for example)—many of which are now of course part of The John Wilson Orchestra repertoire—while the complete scores are now available to orchestras worldwide for symphonic and live-to-screen concerts
- Big Band/Big Swing – In his early 20s John cut his teeth on this type of music, starting with his stints conducting his Royal College (he’s a 1994 alumnus) / Royal Academy colleagues in the fancy palm courts of the hotels Grosvenor House and Royal Park (Times music critic Clive Davis gave the young students a “golden”—John’s word—review) plus Pizza On the Park, actually a swanky cabaret, and The Boatyard, a trendy restaurant in Essex; recorded 8 dance/swing albums for Vocalion; nominated for Grammy 2006 for the soundtrack of the biopic Beyond the Sea (which is really the first time I heard The JWO but didn’t know it)
- Jazz – John has absolutely no idea what jazz is, yet recorded a thoroughly awful and dishonest album with Richard Rodney Bennett entitled Orchestral Jazz
- Broadway and The Great American Songbook – DON’T get me started here. I’m blogging about this below.
All the rest is just Cantara trying to sort out where bonny John fits into her inner life. Which as it turns out is in every nook, every cranny…
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
My 2012 Memoir, A Poet from Hollywood: Love, Insanity, Stephen Gyllenhaal, and the Creative Process
Reprint, originally published 2012. PDF download available here.
EXTRA! Mister Grumble and Stephen Gyllenhaal in Brentwood, 2007
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
Give a Girl a Break (MGM, 1952): The Movie That Clinches My 3-Degrees Connection to English Conductor John Wilson
From Simona Wing to Gerard Damiano to Helen Wood to Andre Previn to John Wilson—Cantara’s three degrees from her beloved conductor.
Give a Girl a Break (trailer here) is a US 1953 musical comedy film starring Debbie Reynolds and the dance team of Marge and Gower Champion. Helen Wood, Richard Anderson, Kurt Kaszner and a young Bob Fosse have featured roles. At only 88 minutes, Give a Girl a Break shows residual elements of the big project it started out to be, with a passable score by Burton Lane and Ira Gershwin, direction by Stanley Donen, and musical direction by Andre Previn.
Degree rule: You have to’ve personally worked with the person in the next degree. I worked with Damiano in his 1981 porn classic Beyond Your Wildest Dreams as Simona Wing; Damiano wrote and directed 1972’s Deep Throat, which Helen Wood (as Dolly Sharp) was in; Helen Wood co-starred in the musical Give a Girl a Break, on which the musical director was Andre Previn; Previn worked on the 2012 Proms My Fair Lady with my beloved John Wilson.
Above Marge, Debbie and Helen: The overture to the 2012 Proms My Fair Lady, with John conducting The John Wilson Orchestra in his own arrangement of Andre Previn’s orchestration of the film score.
GIVE A GIRL A BREAK is available in its entirety here
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
Pinoy Alert: The Gold at Olympics 2021 + A Film Trailer You as a Filipino Have Got to See
The Philippines have never won the gold in 97 years until now—consequently, we get to hear The Philippine National Anthem (Julián Felipe-José Palma, 1899; lyrics below) played at the Olympics for the very first time. So I went over to YT to find a good version of the national anthem (which I once used to be able to sing not only in English but Tagalog learned phonetically) and I found THIS on YT and it’s—it’s—well, it’ll make you want to swell with pride if you’re a true Pinoy. Really. It’ll knock your socks off. For all you others: This is a very tuneful, very singable national anthem entitled “Lupang Hinirang” and it’s placed very dramatically and effectively in this short produced by the big broadcast company in the PI.
Here’s the audio of the short above
Bayang magiliw Perlas ng silanganan Alab ng puso Sa dibdib mo’y buhay Lupang Hinirang Duyan ka nang magiting Sa manlulupig Di ka pasisiil Sa Dagat at bundok sa simoy At sa langit mo’y bughaw May dilag ang tula At awit sa paglayang minamahal Ang kislap ng watawat mo’y tagumpay na nagniningning Ang bituin at araw niya’y kailanpama’y di magdidilim Lupa ng araw ng luwalhati’t pagsinta Buhay ay langit sa piling mo Aming ligaya nang pag May mang-aapi
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
To My Beloved Conductor John Wilson on His 50th and 51st Birthdays and Beyond; Plus John+His Sinfonia of London Play British Classics at the BBC Proms, 2022
John, fire of my loins —
Above this 2023 NYT news shot of my shining, desired one: The entire 2022 BBC Proms concert at the Royal Albert Hall, John and his Sinfonia of London performing British Classics: Ralph Vaughan Williams – Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis; Huw Watkins – Flute Concerto; Arnold Bax – Tintagel; William Walton – Partita for Orchestra; Edward Elgar – Enigma Variations Oh John, John…you and Elgar together…
On three out of your last five birthdays, awful things happened in my country that couldn’t be ignored (the worst happening on your 48th in my own old neighborhood) so I’m sorry I didn’t have anything amusing to post after your 47th. Because you share the same day of birth as my father (you were born the year he died) I had thought what I’d be doing is alternating birthday congrats to you with memories of my dad, like this one…
Well, that didn’t work out. Things and events are crowding so fast…and I can’t catch up to the connection—association—context of it all fast enough…
But there is one thing I want you remember through all this global mishegoss: I’m still in love with you as much as I ever have been. In fact the more I learn about you, the more it makes me love you. Even through your clunkers, John, John / Glorious John.
If you were my boyfriend and you had a struggling rock group, there’d be posters on every lamppost in San Francisco. But you (and your people) must have figured that out by now.
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
Directed by My Old Boss, Rouben Mamoulian: The Room at the Inn Scene in Queen Christina (MGM, 1933) Just for the Man I Love, Conductor John Wilson
I have been memorizing this room. In the future, in my memory, I shall live a great deal in this room.
Find this scene on my YT channel here and apologies for the quality of the vid but it was the best available. Underscoring for Mamoulian‘s classic is by the esteemed 1st music director at MGM, Herbert Stothart. Stothart’s adorable “Donkey Serenade” is featured in The MGM Jubilee Overture, written in 1954 by 2nd music director Johnny Green and restored to the repertoire by my bonny. I’m moving to your rhythm, John.
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
My 2019 Amazon Review of Waving, Not Drowning by Lev Parikian; Plus My Beloved John Wilson and His Sinfonia of London Play Kenneth Fuch’s Yummy Cloud Slant
There must be 17 people in the entire world for whom this book has any relevance. I am not one of them.*
I, however, have fallen hopelessly in love with an English, middle-ranking orchestra conductor, and this book was on his Facebook Likes List, and since nowadays I will follow (almost) anywhere my beloved John Wilson leads me, here we are. Why else would I not only purchase, but listen to, 58 Fanfares Played by the Onyx Brass and Geraldo’s Greatest Dance Hits—which nonetheless I have come to adore?
John rehearses The Sinfonia of London in Kenneth Fuch’s Cloud Slant. And if you think I’m hanging around enjoying too much of a good thing, read the first three words of Chapter 1 of Lenny Bruce’s How to Talk Dirty and Influence People.
What the argument of the esteemed late fictional dirigent, “Barrington Orwell” speaking through his still-living amanuensis, Lev Parikian—son of the noted violinist Manoung Parikian—seems to be is that the career of an orchestral conductor is not a happy one. It is of course a hazardous profession, notorious for causing insanity, emotional instability, ruined health and, in at least one case I read about in Slipped Disc—when a woman in Brighton rushed the stage during a performance of Rodgers & Hammerstein and stabbed the conductor with a no. 2 Dixon-Ticonderoga shrieking, “You have desecrated the music of my people!”—homicide. But Orwell, or Sir Barry if you prefer, so reverences the lofty position he himself holds that he places the blame for dirigental woes everywhere but on the dirigent himself: on the uncooperative/disrespectful weather; or concertmaster; or soloist; or composer; or entire orchestra—choose one. Or all. I’m surprised he didn’t bring up Bernstein vs the BBCSO, but maybe the English were right on that one.
Unfortunately, in no way has this slight volume helped me better grasp the mind of my beloved, although it managed to identify his type. When not on the podium he wears neither Armani nor Hugo Boss but rather attires himself in jeans, trainers, horn-rimmed glasses and, because of his preternaturally long arms, blue bespoke shirts. I think he’s about 11 stone. Apparently off the podium he’s a combination of The Scholar and Mister Shouty-Scary. On the podium, in full formal dress, he is a god.
Which brings me to the theory of which I am the author: The conductor exists not for the orchestra, not for the composer living or dead (Good grief! Whoever had that idea?), but for the audience. Whether from a box at the opera or from the floor at the Royal Albert, the conductor is the friend, philosopher and guide we require and as such (except for that dishy second-desk violinist with the golden locks) ought to be our sole focus. Yes, it is a weighty role that demands an enormous amount of conviction and honest purpose in those foolhardy enough to accept it. But remember that it is We, the People, aka The Audience, who ultimately hold a conductor’s success or failure in our own sweaty hands.
*And by the way, I got that Stevie Smith reference. I have my own Stevie reference in my memoir, Mamoulian In Mind…
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
On My Beloved English Conductor John Wilson—Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto—Sehnsucht—and Why I Write
From July 2023: I write in order to have a place in which to report on three things—connection, association, and context. Otherwise I’d just talk to God, and She knows these things already.
If you passed him on the street you wouldn’t look twice. He doesn’t have the most scintillating intellect, either… But his qualities as a musician have stirred and inspired me and sometimes when he conducts I feel so close to him I can almost smell his hair. This Sunday he’s going to be conducting Rach’s Piano 2 and I’m going to go to pieces.
Find the entire film BRIEF ENCOUNTER on my YT channel here
And if Eileen Joyce’s rendition isn’t enough for you, here’re two from Anna Fedorova at the Concertgebouw:
From Jeremy Paxman’s 1998 The English: A Portrait of a People:
Take David Lean’s 1945 tale of forbidden love, Brief Encounter. The couple meet in the tearoom of a railway station, where she is waiting for the steam train home after a day’s shopping. A speck of coal dirt gets caught in her eye and, without a word of introduction, the gallant local doctor steps forward and removes it. The following eighty minutes of this beautifully written movie depict their deepening love and guilt each feels about it. …
As Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto comes and goes in the background, their affair unfolds, measured out in cups of tea in the waiting room of Milford station. … Being English, Celia Johnson feels no animosity towards her husband, whom she considers “kindly and unemotional”. Trevor Howard, equally trapped in a dry marriage, also expresses no hostility towards his wife and children. But the two of them are in the force of a passion they can hardly control. “We must be sensible,” is the constant refrain. “If we control ourselves, there’s still time.” In the end, despite all the protestations of undying devotion, the romance remains unconsummated…
What does this most popular of English films tell us about the English?
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
Rachel Bloom Sings Her Hugo-Nominated Love Song to Her Favorite Spec-Fic Author, “Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury”
I love this girl, a kindred spirit. Discovered her through her small-screen series, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015-2019). Came for the Filipinos, stayed for the Jews and the music. Oy, the songs! [Explicit “JAP Battle” version here, with dance moves. I got almost all the Jewish references, by the way, the rest I looked up.]
Click here for this VERY dirty, very funny picture of Rachel going all penilingual on spec-fic legend Ray Bradbury (a friend of my old boss Mamoulian, by the way).
And simply note that there’s nothing subtle about Rachel’s devotion to one particular maestro of the pen. And you think I’m the only crazy one out there.
The comedy short Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury was nominated in 2011 for a Hugo Award—you know, from the prestigious World Science Fiction Society, so this isn’t just any old piece of porn. So laugh your ass off, or shut up.
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
For the 7th Anniversary of When I Fell In Love With John Wilson: The Waltz You Will Get to Know VERY Well at Glyndebourne This Summer, John
Celebrating May 4th! Before you overdose on Franz Lehár, my bonny conductor, I want you to keep in your thoughts the woman who longs for the taste of you and the touch of you and the scent of your hair and your sweat, before I go and paint a mustache on Danielle de Niese.
Above the lovers: Renee Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky sing the most famous love waltz of them all, “Lippen schweigen” from Die lustige Witwe, or The Merry Widow (1905).
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
Anne Brontë and Monty Python
What shocking secret did teenage Jane learn on her wedding day! cried out the back of the Scholastic paperback on sale at school when I was 11, which got me to pony up the ninety-five cents to buy Charlotte’s Jane Eyre and find out. What merciless revenge did Heathcliff wreak on his in-laws! got another ninety-five cents out of me to buy Emily’s Wuthering Heights when I was 15. But it wasn’t until I was 19 when a sketch on Monty Python proclaimed Arthur Huntingdon’s shameless conduct against his wife that I was stoked to read Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. It was worth the wait, I was finally old enough to appreciate it. The guy was scum.
From season 3, episode 9 (starting at 2:38) of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the Housing Development Sketch*:
A modern construction site where various fictional characters from 19th century English literature are at work: a saucy dairymaid from Thackeray’s Barry Lyndon mixes cement; a crinolined lady from Trollope’s Barchester Towers carries a shovel; the beadle from Dickens’s Oliver Twist pushes a wheelbarrow; farmers from Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles lay bricks.
Voice Over (Michael Palin): This new housing development in Bristol is one of the most interesting in the country. It’s using a variety of new techniques: shockproof curtain walling, a central high voltage, self-generated electricity source, and extruded acrylic fiberglass fitments. It’s also the first major housing project in Britain to be built entirely by characters from 19th century English literature!
In a half-finished concrete shell, a little girl in a shabby dress is working on top of a ladder.
VO: Here, Little Nell from The Old Curiosity Shop fits new nylon syphons into the asbestos-lined ceilings— (shot of electrical wiring) But here’s the electrical system which has attracted the most attention! (cut to Arthur Huntingdon in blue safety helmet studying blueprint) Arthur Huntingdon, who Helen Graham married as a young girl, and whose shameless conduct eventually drove her back to her brother Lawrence in Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, describes why it’s unique.
Huntingdon (Eric Idle): Because sir, it is self-generating. Because we have harnessed here in this box the very forces of life itself. The very forces that will send Helen running back to beg forgiveness!
*Postwar building scandals were a major issue in England in the 60s-70s. Check out the seminal BBC series, Our Friends In the North.
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
Odo Wins Kira’s Heart with Cole Porter on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; Plus Other Classic Tunes Sung by Hologram Vic Fontaine aka Real-Life Classic Hollywood Dreamboat James Darren
Vic Fontaine appeared in the 6th and 7th seasons (the war with the Dominion story arc) of the US TV series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Portrayed by James Darren, he is a holographic representation of a 1960s-era Las Vegas Rat Pack–style singer and entertainer, as part of a program created by the space station’s playboy physician Julian Bashir and run in the holosuites at Quark’s bar. Vic made his first appearance in the episode “His Way”, and returned later in the sixth season in “Tears of the Prophets” and throughout the seventh season. Fontaine was a provider of romantic advice to the crew, helping to get Odo (René Auberjonois) and Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) together, as well as aiding Quark (Armin Shimerman) and Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) in moving on from their rivalous love for Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell). In “It’s Only a Paper Moon” he also helps Nog (Aron Eisenberg) recover from the loss of his leg (in “The Siege of AR-588”). Returning the favor in “Badda-Bing Badda-Bang”, the crew help Fontaine get his bar back after it’s taken over by the holo-Mafia. The crew return to the bar one last time in the series finale, “What You Leave Behind”, for the celebration party following their victory over the Dominion. The character of Vic was praised by critics, who said that the premise should not have worked but did, due to both the writing and Darren’s performance.
In the episode “His Way”, Odo thinks the Kira he’s dancing with is not the real Kira but only a hologram Kira, which gives him the freedom to express his deepest feelings for her. Above this adorable mixed-race (she Bajoran, he Changeling) couple: Porter’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” which debuted in the film Born to Dance, MGM 1936, in which Virginia Bruce declares in song her raging desire for a very sheepish-looking James Stewart in white tie and tails. Something I would never, ever, ever subject you to, my beloved conductor John Wilson, light of my life, fire of my loins. Even in white tie and tails.
- “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” / Cole Porter from the 20th episode of the 6th season, “His Way”
- “Come Fly With Me” / Sammy Kahn, Jimmy Van Heusen from the 20th episode of the 6th season, “His Way“
- “Here’s to the Losers” / Segal-Wells from the 26th (season finale) episode of the 6th season, “Tears of the Prophets”
- “I’ll Be Seeing You” / Fain-Kahal from the 8th episode of the 7th season, “The Siege of AR-558”
- “It’s Only a Paper Moon” / Harold Arlen, Yip Harberg, Billy Rose from the 10th episode of the 7th season, “It’s Only a Paper Moon”
- “The Best Is Yet to Come” / Cy Coleman, Carolyn Leigh from the 15th episode of the 7th season, “Badda-Bing Badda-Bang”
- “The Way You Look Tonight” / Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields from the 26th (series finale) episode of the 7th season, “What We Left Behind”
from This One’s From the Heart
James Darren, vocalist
Concord, 1999
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor: Jacqueline Du Pré, Cellist with Daniel Barenboim Conducting the London Philharmonic
Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor, his last notable work, is a cornerstone of the solo cello repertoire. Elgar composed it in the aftermath of the First World War, when his music had already gone out of fashion with the concert-going public. The piece didn’t achieve wide popularity until the 1960s, when a recording by Jacqueline du Pré caught the public imagination and became a bestseller. This film recording is from a 1967 program from the BBC.
Jacqueline Du Pré (1945-1987) and her husband Daniel Barenboim—the most romantic, tragic musical love story of my generation
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
Pete Townshend’s Dad Cliff and The Squadronaires Perform “Rock’n’Roll Boogie”, 1956
From November 2018: Who I Am: A Memoir by English progressive rock composer Pete Townshend of the Who (Harper, 2012).
The Squadronaires, “Rock’n’Roll Boogie”, 1956.
“In 1945 popular music had a serious purpose: to defy postwar depression and revitalize the romantic and hopeful aspirations of an exhausted people. My infancy was steeped in awareness of the mystery and romance of my father’s music, which was so important to him and Mum that it seemed the centre of the universe. There was laughter and optimism: the war was over. The music Dad played was called Swing. It was what people wanted to hear. I was there. …”
“As the son of a clarinettist and saxophonist in the Squadronaires, the prototypical British Swing band, I had been nourished by my love for that music, a love I would betray for a new passion: rock‘n’roll, the music that came to destroy it.”
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
“June Is Bustin’ Out All Over” from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel, Played by The John Wilson Orchestra, Conducted by John Wilson, BBC Proms 2010
There was one number in the entire JWO Salute to Rodgers & Hammerstein at the Proms that was worth a damn—only one, but it’s a doozy.
“June Is Bustin’ Out All Over“
from Carousel (20th Century Fox, 1956)
Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II
Rodgers & Hammerstein at the Movies
Warner Classics, 2011
An impressive list of orchestrators went into the making of this film musical number, including Nelson Riddle, Earle Hagen (“Harlem Nocturne” for Ray Noble in 1940; then That Girl Theme; The Dick Van Dyke Show Theme; and The Andy Griffith Show Theme, with Herb Spencer) and John Williams; you can hear the layers and layers of gorgeous sound in bonny John Wilson and his Orchestra’s rendition.
This clip is from the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, 2010, but really, listen instead to the cut above from The JWO’s 2011 recording. It’s really ravishing.
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
My First Music: In Praise of My First Record Stash—6 Great American Songbook Songs “Co-written” by Billy Rose (1899-1966)
From December 2018: I got my first record collection when I was 3 1/2. We had just moved into a little bungalow in Northeast Minneapolis and the previous owners had left a stack of old, old 45s and 78s—Patti Page, Rosemary Clooney, Nelson Eddy, Rudy Vallee etc etc which my mother, heaven bless her, let me keep for myself to play on my kiddie phonograph. This, friends, was my first true introduction to The Great American Songbook. But wasn’t until I started working at ASCAP (at 18) where I had to learn the names of the melody and lyric writers the name “Billy Rose” came popping up (year is date of recording):
- Without a Song / Noah Stewart Vincent Youmans, Edward Eliscu, Billy Rose (2012)
- I’d Rather Be Blue Over You / Barbra Streisand (jukebox version) Fred Fisher, Billy Rose (1968)
- It’s Only a Paper Moon / The Nat King Cole Trio Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg, Billy Rose (1951)
- Great Day / Sarah Vaughan (1961) / Vincent Youmans, Edward Eliscu, Billy Rose (1961)
- Cheerful Little Earful / Ella Fitzgerald Harry Warren, Ira Gershwin, Billy Rose (1962)
Above: Would You Like to Take a Walk? by Harry Warren, Mort Dixon, and Billy Rose, sung by Rudy Vallee.
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Symphony in F-sharp—John Wilson Conducting the Sinfonia of London (Chandos, 2019)
I was an admirer of Korngold ever since I played violin in The Snowman in the orchestra in junior high (reduced score of course; here’s the full score of the Entr’acte), then as a solfeggist at ASCAP in NY around the time RCA was coming out with Charles Gerhardt‘s definitive recordings of Captain Blood, The Sea Hawk, Robin Hood, etc. Then years later in San Francisco I inherited a friend’s collection of Andre Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra, which included Korngold’s Symphony in F-sharp.
Maybe it was from associating the Previn recording with my friend’s death, but I grew to detest the sound of late Korngold. He began to sound false to me—the result, I reasoned, of all those corrupting years in Hollywood. And Previn was his perfect interpreter, of course, two Hollywood minds as one, you might say. Doesn’t, in fact, the first movement sound like a medley of The Ten Best TV Cop Show Themes and Their Underscorings? And then the ringer in the Adagio: The Private Life of Elizabeth and Essex (John Wilson+Sinfonia of London), so recognizable from the movie.
Bette Davis portrays Queen Elizabeth, Errol Flynn her faithful but ambitious lover in this sumptuous costume drama. Warner Bros, 1939
The complete THE PRIVATES LIVES OF ELIZABETH AND ESSEX is available to watch here
And so I was content to continue in this apprehension, until Chandos came out last week with a new recording of Korngold’s symphony, played by the newly re-formed Sinfonia of London and conducted by—wait for it—John Wilson. By now, I think I’ve made my feelings clear about John just a little. Whenever he gets really irritating though there’s one thing that I do: I make myself remember the times my bonny lad has absolutely astonished me. The first time was fourteen, fifteen years ago in a screening room in LA when the band from nowhere just ripped into that hack hit “Beyond the Sea” and made it truly soar. The second time was a few years later when I heard the sound, THE EXACT SOUND!!!, of that ultra-Judy number from Meet Me In St Louis, “The Trolley Song”, only bigger, more vibrant, more—present.
This is the third time. Who would have thought that a smaller, tighter orchestra, conducted by someone coming in without preconceptions but with a determination to follow through with the composer’s intent, could make a composition sound like an entirely different composition? John said somewhere once that he endeavors to give each musical piece he “takes on board” its correct coloring (which I might believe if he weren’t so maddeningly inconsistent) but here he does the remarkable: Where Previn colors all over the place, trying to make the music into something it’s not, John colors very little. Rather it sounds like, as I say, he actually worked out the composer’s intent to carry him through, and it’s pretty clear that Korngold meant for Symphony in F-sharp to take its rightful place in the Great Central European Repertoire, with its traditional wealth of tonal expressiveness.
So why oh why do some people insist this piece is movie trash? Is it because of that handful of notes from E+E? I swear to God I didn’t hear any other filmic callbacks, and I’m pretty good at catching tunes. But so what if there were? Korngold, unlike the majority of movie composers, retained legal possession of his studio work, which gave him the freedom to rework any of his past themes and phrases as he saw fit. He certainly wasn’t thinking of the flicks once he returned to Europe. Maybe his attachment to these notes was purely sentimental. We’ll never know. It’s a mystery, and I choose to believe that John, consummate musician, respects that mystery.
Anyway John, my signal, my flame, as you’ve done with so many other composers, thanks for leading me back to Erich Korngold. It’s a wonderful recording, a keeper, now the standard against which I’m judging every Korngold Symphony in F-sharp out there (and there are a lot of them, not just Previn’s, as you know), and I would’ve bought it even if I weren’t crazy in love with you.
I Moderato
II Scherzo Allegro
III Adagio Lento
IV Allegro Finale
NOTES for Korngold: Symphony in F (Chandos, 2019) can be found here.
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
Two Horror Queens: Composer Elisabeth Lutyens (1906-1983) and Actress Veronica Carlson (1944-2022)
She was eaten by cannibals, bitten by Dracula, and raped by Victor Frankenstein. I adore her.
I am talking of course about English model-turned-actress Veronica Carlson, the most delectable of all of Count Dracula’s victims. Her movie career wasn’t long, but she made a lasting impression on countless adolescents in the 60s, many of whom, now grown, still look forward to watching Dracula Has Risen from the Grave for a really good stroke session.
Hammer, the film studio where Carlson did her best-known work, worked wonders when it came to dignifying luridness, which is what you’d expect from the Brits, wouldn’t you? The British were never sexier than in the 60s. I miss that.
It’s Veronica Carlson’s deeply sexy love-trance gaze at kindly Peter Cushing that makes this publicity pic spring to life. Photo session was done following shooting of their utterly gratuitous, dramatically unfeasible but vigorous rape scene in Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1965, Terence Fisher, dir), which made the most of the gorgeous Hammer star’s drawing power.
As for Elisabeth Lutyens, she tells her own story in this short interview with the BBC. Her work for Amicus films is best exemplified by her theme for Dr Terror’s House of Horrors, above. But this short piece is much more to my liking and demonstrates her superior musical gift.
“Lament of Isis on the Death of Osiris”
composed by Elisabeth Lutyens, 1969
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
A Laughs and Tenderness Break: Molly Picon Sings “Oyfen Pripetchik” in Car 54, Where Are You?
We certainly all need some tenderness and a couple laughs right now. Below, the wonderful, luminous Molly Picon—who worked with legendary actor-producer-director-impressario-rival-to-Jacob-Adler-Stella’s-dad-model-for-Max-Bialystock-grandfather-of-Michael-Tilson-Thomas Boris Thomashevsky—sings “Oyfen Pripetchik” (MM Warshawsky 1848–1907), an enduring, evocative song from the past that everyone at a certain time, in a certain place, seems to have known the melody and all the words to. From season 2, episode 6 of the TV comedy masterpiece, Car 54, Where Are You? (Entire episode on my YT channel here. And really, dig the punch line ending.)
Below, a lovely rendition from Israeli singer Chava Alberstein.
Oyfn pripetchik brent a fayerl, Un in shtub is heys. Un der rebe lernt kleyne kinderlekh Dem alef-beyz. Zet zhe kinderlekh, Gedenkt zhe, tayere, vos ir lernt do. Zogt zhe nokh a mol un take nokh a mol: "Komets-alef: o!" Lernt kinderlekh, lernt mit freyd, Lernt dem alef-beyz. Gliklekh is der Yid, wos kent die toyre Un dos alef-beyz.
Could you say no to this woman?
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
Three Songs from the Great Yiddish Songbook: “Bei mir bist du shoen” Sung by the Barry Sisters; “Rumania Rumania” Sung by Tosca; and “Lekhayim” from the 2018 Yiddish Fiddler On the Roof
I have a heavyweight posting coming so here’re some nice tunes to tide all of you over:
“Bei mir bist du shoen”
by Jacob Jacobs and Sholom Secunda (1932)
sung by the Barry Sisters
“Rumania Rumania”
by Aaron Lebedeff (1925)
sung by Tosca Donati
“Lekhayim”
from Fiddler On the Roof (Grey dir, 2018)
Entirely in Yiddish
by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (English, 1964)
translation by Shraga Friedman
Complete cast album here
Boris and Bessie Thomashevsky, because the guy refuses to leave.
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- “Cantara Christopher Gives Her Beloved Conductor John Wilson Crib Notes on Todd Field’s Screen Masterpiece, Tár: Love, Teshuvah, and Filipinos Will Save Western Music”
FULL DRESS // A gifted mesmerist—a sinister composer—a naive young conductor from the north…inspired by an episode from the life of Rachmaninoff // DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK POSTER
"I'll Be Dead Before You Break My Heart" 