Martin Sheen in "The Subject Was Roses"

Acclaimed Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actor Martin Sheen is making a rare return to the stage in the Center Theatre Group's newest production, The Subject Was Roses. The play, which opens tomorrow at the Music Center's Mark Taper Forum, was written in 1964 by Frank Gilroy who won that year's Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The Subject Was Roses is an interesting psychological drama which follows the travails of a family whose son has just returned home from World War II. Sheen was nominated for a Tony Award for his portrayal of WWII vet "Timmy Cleary" in the original 1964 production. The a film adaptation was made in 1968. Sheen is perhaps best known for his role as "President Josiah Bartlet" on the hit NBC drama The West Wing.

CTG's production of Roses comes as a replacement for an originally scheduled production of David Mamet's Speed the Plow. The Subject Was Roses begins previews tomorrow and will run until 21 March. It stars actors Sheen, Frances Conroy (Broken Flowers, Six Feet Under), and Brian Geraghty (The Hurt Locker). Further details and ticket info here.

Happy Birthday, Alban Berg

Happy 125th birthday to that shockingly innovative member of The Second Viennese School!

Volpe Returns to the Met

The Metropolitan Opera's longtime former managing director Joseph Volpe has been re-hired by the Met to help the storied opera company renegotiate its contracts with musicians' unions. Volpe, who began his career at the Met in 1964 as a carpenter, retired from the Met in 2006 after 16 years at the company's helm. Volpe's return was apparently precipitated by growing concerns among the Met's administration that its impending talks with AGMA (the American Guild of Musical Artists who represent the Met's principal singers, choir, directors, etc.) and with the orchestra's union could result in a strike. "I've asked Joe to take on this assignment because of his knowledge and extraordinary experience in successfully dealing with our unions over many years and because of his proven skill as a negotiator," said Peter Gelb, the Metropolitan Opera's current general manager. (Full story here.)

Who Dat? N'awlins!

Let's go Saints! Tomorrow the Indianapolis Colts will face off against the New Orleans Saints in the 44th Super Bowl. As a proud and loyal son (actually, grandson) of New Orleans, I cannot but help feel an overwhelming affection for that vibrant city which has known more than its fair share of sorrow. I am by no means a huge sports fan, but while pundits insist the smart money will be on the Colts, I'll be cheering and cheering LOUD for the Saints and for the city that nourished and inspired generations of my grandmother's family.

Below is a clip from the classic 1947 film New Orleans featuring the song "Farewell to Storyville" (sung by Billie Holiday). Storyville was NOLA's infamous "red light" district until its gradual decline in the 1920s. Perhaps the only good thing to come out of Storyville was the distinctive form of jazz music played in its brothels and speakeasies. Enjoy the song!

Black History and the Arts: Online Resources

There is a wealth of resources online for those interested in further studying the history of Black Americans in the Arts. Here are just a few which you may find useful and interesting... Here is a partial list of composers of African descent on the AfriClassical.com website. Here is a link to the Sphinx Organization which organises the annual Sphinx Competition, a showcase of the best Black and Hispanic classical instrumentalists.

Several years ago PBS' "Great Performances" series aired a documentary chronicling the little-known history of Black opera singers. Aida's Brothers and Sisters: Black Voices in Opera shines a much-needed light on the amazing accomplishments of those artists who risked much to break down racial and cultural barriers in the world of opera. The film is also available for purchase on DVD. I'll be taking a closer look at two of my favourite singers, legendary sopranos Grace Bumbry and Kathleen Battle, next week on the blog. Enjoy this clip from Aida's Brother's and Sisters...

The Oscars: Nominees and Picks!

The nominations for the upcoming 82nd Academy Awards were recently announced. You can find a full list of the nominees on the Oscars' official website. The ceremony will be broadcast live on ABC Sunday, 7 March beginning at 5pm (Pacific) and will be hosted by actors Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. For those of you curious about my taste in films, below are my Oscar picks. These are not so much the films/actors I think will win but those I think should win...

Best Picture

An Education

Best Actor

Morgan Freeman (Invictus)

Best Actress

Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia)

Best Supporting Actor

Christopher Plummer (The Last Station)

Best Supporting Actress

Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart)

Best Foreign Film

El Secreto de Sus Ojos

Best Animated Feature

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Best Documentary

Food, Inc.

Best Costume Design

The Young Victoria

Best Original Score

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Best Original Song

"The Weary Heart" (from Crazy Heart)

Best Art Direction

The Young Victoria

Best Original Screenplay

The Hurt Locker

Best Adapted Screenplay

An Education

Best Directing

The Hurt Locker

Those of you hosting or attending Oscar viewing parties can download your own Oscar ballot, courtesy of the Academy's website.

Dame Helen Mirren, who won the 2008 Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, is tipped to again win the best actress prize for her role as Leo Tolstoy's wife in last year's The Last Station. (The film also stars Christopher Plummer and James McAvoy.) Mirren's competition includes the venerable Meryl Streep for her work in Julie & Julia.

An interesting coincidence... Two of the films up for Best Picture (Avatar & The Hurt Locker) were directed by James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow, formerly husband and wife.

Lastly, here's a neat little slideshow of photos from each of the films up for Best Picture.

Anne Rice Book Signing

Popular novelist Anne Rice will be in town this Saturday to sign copies of her latest book Angel Time. The event is scheduled to begin at 1pm this Saturday, 6 February at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena. Those wishing to receive a signed copy must first pay for the book then present their receipts for admission to the signing line. For more information click here.

Rice, who is a native of New Orleans, is perhaps one of this country's best loved writers of American Gothic literature. Her novel Interview With the Vampire remains a best-seller even today. Interestingly, Rice's life-long personal struggle with and ultimate return to the Roman Catholicism of her youth, as well as her frequent use of religious imagery and themes, prompts comparisons to the writer Graham Greene.

Blog Update: Facebook Fan Page

A few weeks ago I created a fan page for this blog on the popular social networking site Facebook. Readers of the blog who also have Facebook accounts can visit our fan page here and click "become a fan" at the top. The page is linked to the blog's Twitter account making it a great way to stay current with the latest blog posts, calendar updates, and other items of interest as well as interact with other fans of Note x Note. Check it out today!

Black History and the Arts: A Closer Look

Anyone who knows me knows that with respect to race and race relations my views are anything but predictable. I despise the "race card" and those who employ it. I bristle when called "African-American". I am not. I am Black. The phrase is an unfortunate misnomer which minimises or sometimes dismisses altogether the richly varied ancestries of Black Americans. (I, for example, am a MacAlistair and have Scottish forebears, a fact of which my late father was himself quite proud.)

I do not believe, as many like to assert, that we are living in a "post-racial" America heralded by the election of Barack Obama as president. Sadly, ours is still a society very much marked by prejudice, mistrust, and hostility between races. We have a tradition in this country of being achingly slow to recognise the value and importance of the disparate groups that make up our numbers, especially those who have historically been subjected to deep-seated and institutionalised bias.

It must be said, however, that great strides towards better understanding, acknowledging, and celebrating the achievements and contributions of the varied races and ethnicities which make up this nation continue to be made. One area of particular interest to me, for understandable reasons, is the little-known history of Black involvement in the Arts in general and classical music in particular. A simple Google search of the words black, classical, and music reveals a wealth of information concerning the rich history of Black composers and classical musicians.

As the nation begins its yearly celebration of the history of Black Americans, I will devote a fair amount of time to covering the history and contributions of Black classical musicians, past and present, and the importance of the Black contribution to the development of classical music. I will do my best to share with you Black classical music resources of particular interest and to bring you the stories of Black musicians and artists who, even today, struggle to find a place for themselves in a field that has not always welcomed them. I hope you will find these articles of interest.

KUSC Pledge Drive: Lend a Hand!

91.5fm Classical KUSC is gearing up for its Winter Membership Drive and is looking for volunteers to help man the phones at its offices in Downtown L.A. Volunteers will only be required for the weekday portion of the pledge drive from 8 to 11 February. Two shifts are available, 8am to noon, or 2 to 6pm (the evening shift has been eliminated). Parking, training, and food are provided. You can download the shift schedule here and sign-up to volunteer here. Lend your support and help keep SoCal's last remaining all-classical radio station on the air!

REMINDER: Cello Events Today!

There's a lot going on in SoCal today. Here are two events worth special mention, especially for cello lovers...

Today at 2:30pm UCLA cello professor Antonio Lysy will give a master class at Metzler Violins in Glendale. Cost is $15, and there may be space still available. Also, at 7pm Los Angeles Philharmonic principal cellist Peter Stumpf will perform Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 2 with the American Youth Symphony at UCLA's Royce Hall. Admission is free. Check here for details.

Dies Natalis!

As a birthday present to myself there will be no blogging today or tomorrow! Instead, enjoy this excerpt from the cantata Dies Natalis by one of my favourite composers of the late English pastoral school, Gerald Finzi!

Mourning Salinger

Today it was announced that famously-reclusive American author J.D. Salinger died yesterday of natural causes at his home in New Hampshire. He was 91. Salinger is of course best remembered for his landmark and highly controversial 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, though his other books and collections of stories are perhaps more illustrative of his overall literary style.

The Catcher in the Rye was called everything from vulgar to subversive and was for several decades one of the most frequently-censored books in the United States. Catcher even today remains controversial yet wildly popular selling an estimated quarter of a million copies annually. Its representation of adolescent angst, among other themes, makes it a fine example of a literary form with an impossible name: Bildungsroman, or "coming-of-age story". (God bless the economy of the German language!)

The Huffington Post is collecting readers' favourite Salinger memories. A lovely tribute for an iconic and complex American author...

American Orchestras Summit

Adaptistration's Drew McManus has been doing yeoman's duty at the 2010 American Orchestras Summit at the University of Michigan. A well respected arts consultant, McManus was one of the featured speakers at the event and was most dutiful in reporting on the proceedings via his website. For those interested in arts administration, especially the state of American orchestras post-economic downturn, this is required reading...

Yo-Yo and Manny... the Reviews

While we wait for the L.A. Times and other local papers to post their reviews of last night's Disney Hall recital by Yo-Yo Ma and Emmanuel Ax, here's a thoughtful, if measured, San Francisco Chronicle review of the duo's appearance there on the 26th. The San Francisco recital was the final event in Ma's two-week residency with the San Francisco Symphony which also included concerto appearances and master classes.

For the latest reviews on last night's L.A. appearance, watch this space. I'll be updating with links throughout the day...

UPDATE: A little late, but here it is. Swed's review in the L.A. Times. He seems a wee bit dismissive of the shorter pieces on the program. In the hands of lesser musicians they would seem like mere trifles. Even so there is still considerable substance there, especially in Schumann's Fantasy Pieces... Whatever. I wish I could have heard that encore! [posted @ 5:35pm]