Tag Archives: Claude Debussy

Wagnerian Bicentennial

Posted on May 22, 2013 by barczablog

We’ve come to the first of the three important opera composer birthdays in 2013. May 22:  Richard Wagner’s bicentennial October 10:  Giuseppe Verdi’s bicentennial November 22: Benjamin Britten’s centennial You may prefer Britten’s operas. You may point to the box … Continue reading →

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Topher and “The French Connection”

Posted on April 9, 2013 by barczablog

I couldn’t help understanding Topher Mokrzewski’s concert today at the Richard Bradshaw Auditorium (the intimate concert space in the upper lobby of the Four Seasons Centre) as a goodbye.  As is usual, the introduction told us a bit of the … Continue reading →

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U-Carmen eKhayelitsha

Posted on October 28, 2012 by barczablog

Last weekend I was fortunate to see U-Carmen eKhayelitsha, a 2005 adaptation of Bizet’s opera Carmen. The score is a mix of Bizet & South African music, which is only natural considering that the adaptation is set in a South … Continue reading →

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Debussy by Design

Posted on August 23, 2012 by barczablog

Today is Debussy’s 150th birthday, the occasion for a recent series of posts about the seminal composer & writer: Unfinished Sympathy (Aug 21) Debussy and the writers  (Aug 19) Debussy Sesqui (Aug 16) I’m going to talk about another aspect of the composer … Continue reading →

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Unfinished Sympathy

Posted on August 21, 2012 by barczablog

In the Tuesday gatherings of Mallarmé and his followers, poems, plays, or songs might be performed to an appreciative audience.  Nobody minded if the work being auditioned was unfinished.  A glimpse of a dream could be every bit as powerful.  … Continue reading →

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Debussy and the writers

Posted on August 19, 2012 by barczablog

Every now and then life gives us a glimpse of hidden meanings.  Maybe it’s all in our head, but even so one can’t help wondering.  Coincidences can seem like more than mere chance. In the 1990s I spent a few … Continue reading →

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Debussy Sesqui

Posted on August 16, 2012 by barczablog

“Sesquicentennial” –a word we don’t hear too often –means 150th anniversary. On August 22nd 1862, Claude-Achille Debussy came into the world.  In response I’m going to post a few times over the next week in my own personal sesquicentennial commemoration.  … Continue reading →

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Enigmatic Liszt

Posted on February 18, 2012 by barczablog

There’s more to Franz Liszt than most people realize.  If you ask a musicologist they’ll usually rattle off a series of truisms: one of the first great virtuosi for the piano, possibly the greatest pianist in history Wagner’s father-in-law Long-lived … Continue reading →

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Thank you, Rob Ford

Posted on January 14, 2012 by barczablog

I learned about gratitude in Martin Seligman’s book Authentic Happiness.  Dr. Seligman is a key figure in a new kind of psychology, called “Positive Psychology”, positive because it’s oriented not on disorders and dysfunctions, but on happiness.  I am not … Continue reading →

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The Descent of Psycho

Posted on January 11, 2012 by barczablog

I don’t know very much about Charles Darwin, but have always been fascinated by the profound reverberations set off in my head by the title The Descent of Man.  I am not a naturalist.  I understood that Darwin meant “descent” … Continue reading →

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