Biting into Apple

Yesterday it was time to face reality, another holiday season was a wrap and it was time to dismantle all my colourful Christmas displays. I’ve always found the job depressing. However, the December memories will linger, prolonged by dozens of downloaded photos programmed to alternate on my computer screensaver.

Today, technological gear is a huge part of seasonal gift giving. Although the odd toy still appears under the tree for our grandchildren, electronic wonders like the e-reader are quickly replacing physical books.

I confess I find computer technology irresistible. Last Christmas Pat and I switched to the world of Mac. Although our first computer had been an Apple II back in the late 1970’s, like much of the world we’d succumbed to the lower priced competitors embracing Microsoft products and Windows 95. 

However, with the urging of our sons and my brother Terry, when it came to updating our aging computers, we decided to take the leap back to Apple. It’s been a stimulating experience. We now use Apple MacBook Pro Laptops when travelling and have replaced our laboring eMachine desktop with an Apple iMac sporting a 27” screen. Sitting before it feels like being on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. For transporting and listening to music I use the Apple iTouch, an amazing pocket-popping digital recorder about the size of a half deck of cards. 

This Christmas we replaced one of our cell phones that was obsolete due to discontinued batteries, adding the iPhone 4S to our arsenal of Apples. It’s a truly remarkable device. In fact I’m writing part of this blog using an application built into the phone that enables me to talk to it and have what I say printed as text. However, the real killer application on the phone is Sira, a program that lets my voice - commands, send messages and place phone calls. I can ask Sira questions and it understands what I say, knows what I mean, and even talks back. Other applications (Apps) allow me to read newspapers, check the weather reports, listen to music, and scan my emails from anywhere I am at that moment. I’m still discovering new Apps daily.

Pictured above is my computer work area. I use the piano to play musical scores into the computer and then print out the music for the individual musicians. On screen is the Overture to Hello Dolly, which I’m currently working on for accompanying Bard 2 Broadway’s summer theatre production. The musical is earmarked to open at the Village Theatre in Qualicum Beach the first week in July. Alongside is my Apple MacBook Pro Laptop, an iTouch and the iPhone. 

  

Reading through my ears

This holiday season I’ve discovered a use for technology that adds an entertainment component to the time I spend performing a number of tedious tasks. Such tasks on my list include vacuuming, washing floors and cutting the lawn. My discovery is the Audiobook, something that’s been around since the heyday of the cassette tape. Although I’ve always used recorded music to pass the time while cruising through mundane endeavors, I’ve never bothered to use the entity to read a book.

Audiobooks were originally invented for blind people who want stories in their lives. A person, often an actor or someone with a professionally trained voice, will read and record the entire contents of a book. Appropriately enough it was Walter Isaacson’s bestselling biography of Apple co-founder and former CEO, Steve Jobs, that sparked my interest. I received the 600-page tome for Christmas but before I started reading it I discovered a free copy in audiobook format available on the Internet. I downloaded it, transferred it to my iTouch and started listening. It’s been a revelation for my multi-tasking instincts. The earphone buds have been firmly planted in my ears while shopping, riding my bike, and yes, while steering the vacuum around the house. Incidentally, for anyone interested in the history of computers the book is a great read, or should I say in my case, a great listen.

New Year’s Eve

Pat and I with my brother Terry spent New Year’s Eve at the Chemainus Theatre Festival’s presentation of Countryside Christmas. Written by Nicolle Nattrass and Chemainus’ artistic director, Mark DuMez, it was a perfect way to wrap up the holiday season. After grazing the mouthwatering buffet in the dining room we waddled into the theatre just in time for the opening scene. 

Set in a small cabin on Vancouver Island, we were introduced to the Cornwall family who have for many years celebrated Christmas together with many wacky family traditions. Family conflicts ensue - think Chevy Chase in the movie Christmas Vacation. However, it’s the string of musical numbers slotted into the script that keeps the play alive with merriment. My ears naturally gravitated towards the backup musicians in the pit/loft. The Musical Director was Vancouver musician Nico Rhodes who wrote the arrangements and accompanied the show with some superb piano playing. Playing standup and electric bass was talented Nanaimo musician Marisha Devoin who I’ve had the pleasure of playing with on numerous occasions including a Timbre! Choir concert. Once Marisha lays down a tempo the roof caving in wouldn’t force her off the beat. Guitarist Nathan Tinkham was tasteful throughout. 

The cast of six actor/singers covered a wide range of musical styles from traditional carols to country rock tunes, with everyone contributing their own special twist to the wide selection of material.

I’m looking forward to the Festival Theatre’s upcoming 2012 musicals – All Shook Up featuring the music of Elvis Presley (Feb 24 to April 7) and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (June 15 to September 1). The Christmas musical is called The Gifts of the Magi and will run from Nov 30 to Dec 30. Unfortunately it won’t be performed New Year’s Eve. I find it a wonderful overture to welcoming in the New Year. 

Terry Whyte remembered

Sadly Port Alberni lost one its most treasured citizens recently. Last Saturday Pat and I, along with hundreds of others attended a Celebration of Life for Terry Whyte at Echo Centre. 

In a musical theatre production there are the supporting players, and at the top of the pyramid there are the stars. Within a given community you have numerous people that work conscientiously to create a better place to reside. They are the supporting cast that drives a community forward. Within that supporting cast there are citizens who play starring roles. In Port Alberni Terry Whyte was one of those individuals, someone who regularly placed the Alberni Valley in the spotlight both provincially and nationally.

Although Terry in no way would consider himself being the star in any of the roles he played in improving the quality of life in Port Alberni, he truly was a headliner. His dedication to protecting the rights of seniors, his participation in countless community groups, saving part of the old hospital to build Abbeyfield, all will leave their mark on the city’s marquee for years to come.

My wife Pat and myself as volunteer conductors aboard the Alberni Pacific Railway would run into Terry regularly at McLean Mill where he was a strong supporter of the National Historic Site. Between runs we’d share stories about Alberni Valley history and performing arts education. 

The last time I spoke with Terry was at the Timbre! Choir’s fall concert. Pat’s three sisters were in attendance along with her brother Dave who was playing drums in the show, our son Cory with his wife Dorianne, and our grandchildren Nathan and Matthew plus my brother Terry. It was a rare moment when so many of the family were in one location and Terry [Whyte] offered to take numerous photos of us together. 

At the Celebration of Life on Saturday, speaker after speaker extolled Terry’s tenacious efforts to extract funding from assorted sources for important community projects. The bottom line was he never took no for an answer. My daughter-in-law Dorianne mentioned to me after the service that she had approached Terry, who was the administrator of Fir Park Village at the time, about initiating Music Therapy sessions for the seniors living there. He thought it was a wonderful idea and asked the Board of Directors who turned it down as being unaffordable. Terry told Dorianne not to be concerned. “It’ll happen!” And it did. 

The curtain has fallen on an incredible human being.

Christmastime is Concert Time

Last Sunday evening was the final performance of this year’s version of the Yellow Point Christmas Spectacular. I’ve been a member of the band backing up the show since its inception five years ago. The brainchild of Katy Bowen-Roberts, the production has become a must-see for Vancouver Island residents during December. 

The Yellow Point Christmas Spectacular is a fast-paced mixture of song, dance and instrumental features covering a vast array of musical genres. As the piano accompanist within the five piece orchestra I’ve played everything from traditional Christmas carols through to pop standards by the Beatles and ABBA. This year, production numbers included Jerry Lee Lewis and Michael Jackson tributes. Another section featured ballet selections from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, music I’ve never played before. I confess it did take a little extra practice.

The musical director and arranger for the show is talented violinist James Mark who currently plays with the Vancouver Island Symphony and teaches at both the Nanaimo Conservatory of Music and Vancouver Island University. A new member of the backup band this year was Steve Jones who doubled on saxophone and guitar. Steve also teaches at VIU. I first met Steve many years ago when he was the band director at Klitsa Secondary School in Port Alberni. We both performed in a weekend band called The Cavemen led by trumpeter Bill Cave. Bill taught music with me for several years at Eric Dunn School before transferring to Kwalikum Secondary School in Qualicum Beach. Our drummer in the Cavemen was Rick Acres who unexpectedly came knocking at the stage door of the Yellow Point production during one of our matinee intermissions. It was great having a few minutes catching up on some old Cavemen memories. 

Rounding out our Yellow Point band was long time musical associate Michael Wright on drums and a gifted bass player named David Baird. Working together with the energetic young professional cast of singers and dancers (who came from Vancouver, Victoria and Toronto) through two weeks of rehearsals and 17 sellout performances not only contributed to my mental state of feeling young, but is a tremendously rewarding experience musically. Where else can you play Michael Jackson’s Beat-It one moment and Tchaikovsky’s The Sugar Plum Fairy a few minutes later? Unquestionably, the show kick-starts my Christmas Season. 

Christmastime is Nutcracker Time

I don’t in reality keep a bucket list. However, every once in a while I become conscious there are activities I’ve never got around to in my life and feel it’s high time I did something about it. One came about on Monday evening. Triggered through playing excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker in the Yellow Point Christmas Spectacular show, I became aware that I’d never attended a full-length performance of a professional ballet production - an embarrassing admission to make after having been involved in artistic endeavors for my entire life.

Scanning the movie theatre listings on Monday evening I spotted a trailer promoting a live showing via satellite from Moscow of the Bolshoi Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker. The production I saw starred Nina Kaptsova as Marie and Artem Ovcharenko as The Prince with choreography by Yuri Grigorovich, not that these names meant much to me. However, to the cheering Moscow audience they were obviously big names in Russia.  

Tchaikovsky composed The Nutcracker over a four month period in 1891, a large portion being written at sea on his journey from Europe to the United States. The ballet has become a beloved Christmas standard since its premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1892. Based on E.T.A. Hoffmann's fairy tale, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, the classical ballet is set in a nineteenth century Russian town one Christmas Eve. Uncle Drosselmeyer is seen performing magical tricks for the entire family. He gives his young niece Marie a plain looking doll in a red uniform. The doll, which has an unusual mouth, is actually a mechanical nutcracker.

However, in a jealous rage, Marie's brother breaks the doll and Uncle Drosselmeyer places it under the Christmas tree to recuperate. Marie is seen falling asleep under the tree with the broken doll wrapped in her arms and in the process enters a dream world where the Christmas tree flies up to the sky and all the toys come alive.

Unfortunately Pat was unable to join me as she was teaching some extra lessons to piano students before the Christmas break. I know she would have loved seeing the production. I enjoyed the evening immensely and can now understand why every young female ballet student dreams of dancing the role of Clara in The Nutcracker. More than likely it would be their first involvement in a big, full-length work with elaborate sets and costumes and a live orchestral score, or their first experience of performing with older, professional dancers and the incomparable thrill of taking to the stage before a large audience.

Christmastime is Movie Time

During December the major movie studios invariably launch an array of new films. Many are vying for an Academy Award nomination before the year-end deadline. For a movie fan such as myself it’s a virtual film feast. So far I’ve seen The Muppets, Hugo, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol with Tom Cruise. This is the 4^th installment of Mission Impossible done for the big-screen. I love the fact that Lalo Schifrin’s original iconic theme music from the old TV show written in 5/4 time is still being used throughout the score.    

On Wednesday Pat and I with my brother Terry saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Both of them had read the best-selling book so they were tweaked differently to the plot than I was, having not read it. No matter, as I found the movie riveting from start to finish. However be warned, this is not your normal holiday film with an R-rating for “brutal violent content including rape and torture, strong sexuality, graphic nudity, and language”. 

The unseen films I’m looking forward to seeing this holiday season are War Horse, The Artist, My Week with Marilyn, The Iron Lady, The Adventures of Tintin and Midnight In Paris. Two ‘turkeys’ that I’d recommend you skip are New Year’s Eve and The Sitter. Why they even got to the production stage let alone released to theatres is beyond my comprehension. 

Christmastime is Memory Time

I always grow wistful, looking back on a year from the vantage point of December. Recollections of Christmases past flood my mind and nostalgia pervades all. My first snowfall, winter skating at the top of the hump at Loon Lake, hiking a few short blocks from home into the woods to chop down a Christmas tree, prying open crates of mandarins when the easy-peeled oranges travelled via steamship from Japan in wooden boxes, wrapping gifts without scotch tape, community and school Christmas concerts, turkey dinners with family – I cherish every memory.

World War II had just ended and electric trains were once again to be found in toy stores. In the photo above my brother Terry and myself are playing with a model railroad that suddenly appeared on Christmas morning. The layout, set up by our father late on Christmas Eve, consisted of a 4X8 sheet of plywood painted green with an oval of “027" gauge railroad track tacked firmly to its surface. Our father being a medical doctor had even constructed a miniature pedestrian overpass out of wooden tongue depressors. That simple layout expanded over the years into a major model railway operation only to be torn down when my parents moved to a smaller home after I graduated from high school.

Getting married in the 60's didn’t suppress the boy within as I undertook the construction of a model railway layout in the spare bedroom of our first apartment. Whenever we had visitors stay overnight, they got the master bedroom and my wife Pat and I slept on a foamy beneath the sheets of plywood supporting the railroad. Pat mentioned to me in later years just what she was thinking as she lay there looking up at the various trestles criss-crossing above her - “This must be true love. Who else would put up with this?” 

Today my train collection has been boxed away. However, at this time of year I’ll invariably get a box or two out of storage, have a quick look at a few pieces and reflect how that single gift on a December 25^th morning in the mid-1940’s sparked in me a life-long love of trains.

Pictured above is the British built Hornby steam locomotive from my first model train set. It now graces our living room Christmas window display.

Two homes in our neighborhood combined their lighting display with Santa climbing between their roofs via an extended ladder.

My father in the late 1940’s jig-sawed this group of carolers from a 1/4 inch piece of plywood. I still display it every Christmas at my front door.

Thursday evening was cold and clear as Pat and I wheeled our way westward over the hump before hitting the inversion layered fog bank upon entering the Alberni Valley. Happily the outdoor Christmas lights gave a colourful radiance to the blanket of white. The event we’d come for was a carol-sing with Timbre! at the Harbour Quay Farmer’s Market. Not exactly a concert hall setting as you can see by the photos. However weather wise it was a vast improvement over last year’s torrential rainfall that had me fearful I was going to light up like a Christmas tree from the power cords lying amongst the puddles leading to my electric piano and amplifier.

The thermometer was dipping just below zero on Thursday evening as I tinkled the keys with frozen fingers for Timbre!’s carol sing at the Harbour Quay Farmer’s Market in Port Alberni. Note my wool gloves with the fingers cut out.     

It’s Christmas Eve day morning as I finish this blog. Tomorrow morning after opening presents Pat and I will light our Teen Choir Christmas Candle. When we presented our final Candlelight Concert 13 years ago some of our choir parents melted down all the candle stubs that had been saved and left over from several years of rehearsal use. The melt was molded into a handsome candle which we light each Christmas Day. The candle is so large it reminds me of the visionary image of the Wyoming mountain known as Devil’s Tower that Richard Dreyfuss created in his living room in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. When we light our own mountain of wax it tends to burn somewhat like a volcanic display, heating up the whole living room in the process but most importantly enveloping us with brilliant memories of our years with the Teen Choir.  

Pat and I wish you all the very best this holiday season. 

Merry Christmas!

Timbre! Choir presents Yuletide Favourites

This coming Sunday, Dec 11 at 2:30 pm in the ADSS Auditorium the Timbre! Choir presents their annual Christmas concert. The concert has traditionally been one of the Alberni Valley’s most popular musical events of the holiday season. 

This year my wife Pat as musical director has chosen a potpourri of both old and new carols. Excerpts from Messiah by Handel will hold its traditional place in the program alongside such new compositions as Faith Hill’s very popular A Baby Changes Everything, which will be sung by soloist Michelle Weckesser backed by the choir. Some carols from the famous British composer John Rutter have been programmed. Other soloists include Stacie Panton, Lynn Beamond, Ron Barker and Counter-tenor Allan McPherson.

Tickets are now available at Rollin Arts Centre, Echo Centre, Somass Drugs, Salmonberry’s and at the door. Check out Timbre!’s website at www.timbrechoir.com 

Accompanist for the concert will be Vancouver pianist Sarah Hagen.  Hagen is a sought-after soloist and chamber musician who has performed in concerts across Canada as well as in the United States, France, Italy, Germany and Sweden.  Closer to home, in 2006 she was awarded as the Comox Valley's Cultural Ambassador of the Year and has been on faculty at the Comox Valley Youth Music Centre for over 10 years. 

Christmas time is music time

This time of year, as has been the case for decades, represents a very busy time for me in my chosen profession of music. The musical roller coaster always kicks into gear around Remembrance Day when for 35 years I put together school bands to play the Legion sponsored ceremonies held in Port Alberni’s ADSS Auditorium. Since retiring 13 years ago I’ve continued to be involved in a musical capacity on Remembrance Day by playing a dance with the Arrowsmith Big Band in the Canadian Legion Hall in Parksville. However, the tradition was severed this year when a windstorm whipped through the Oceanside area causing the power to fail just before the event got underway. The Legion Hall had to close down for the remainder of the day losing, I would guess, one of their most lucrative days for lounge revenue. 

The months of November and December always issue in a host of concerts for all performing organizations and I love to take in as many as I can shoe-horn into my own schedule. One took place on November 19^th when Pat and I hopped aboard an afternoon ferry to the mainland so we could catch the premier performance of a new chamber version of Vancouver composer Larry Nickel’s inspiring Requiem for Peace. Pat had been invited to the performance having known Larry for many years through choral workshops he’d done for Timbre! and her former Teen Choir in Port Alberni. Timbre! had also performed many of his compositions including the first commissioning he’d ever received.  

Requiem for Peace was a re-working of a composition that Larry had written for full symphony orchestra and concert choir as a doctor of musical arts candidate in composition at the UBC School of Music several years ago. In the performance we attended at the Chan Centre, the Vancouver Chamber Choir under the direction of Jon Washburn presented Requiem for Peace in cooperation with the UBC Museum of Anthropology’s powerfully moving exhibition "Hiroshima" by Miyako Ishiuchi, which featured 52 photographs of clothing and personal items belonging to victims at Hiroshima. The entire evening was truly inspiring.

Returning to the island the following day via an early morning ferry, I just had time to get to a performance I was playing with the Arrowsmith Big Band in Parksville and was thankful the ferry didn’t crunch the dock at Departure Bay as it had a few days before, cancelling a number of sailings.

Following our afternoon big band performance in Parksville, I scooted home to meet Pat and my brother Terry in order to make it in time to Nanaimo’s Port Theatre to attend a touring performance of the Vancouver Arts Club Theatre’s production of The Buddy Holly Story. Wow! What a high-octane show. Zachary Stevenson as Buddy Holly was fabulous, displaying relentless energy from bar 1 through to the final curtain.

The next day I was up at 5 am and driving over the hump through a light snowfall to Port Alberni in order to work aboard the Alberni Pacific Railway for a day of conductor training with students from BCIT. The APR is the favoured location for BCIT conductor practicums as it is a railway with mileage, unlike the other training location that the Burnaby based institution uses in Squamish where the students are limited to yard-work experience only. This day the weather was dreadful with a heavy cold rain mixed with periods of sleet. By day’s end the students were soaked to the bone, which definitely gave them an authentic feel of winter railroading. I was lucky, spending most of the day in the dry diesel locomotive cab as an extra pair of eyes on the fireman’s side for engineer Rollie Hurst.

PHOTOS ABOVE: BCIT students training to be conductors practice coupling cars and throwing switches in the McLean Mill rail yard.

Wrapping up the BCIT railroading day, it was back over the hump to Cedar, south of Nanaimo, to begin rehearsing for the Yellow Point Christmas Spectacular. This is my 5^th Christmas playing piano for the production. After meeting the cast who hail from Vancouver, Toronto and Victoria, it was down to work preparing for a Preview Performance on December 7^th and opening night on December 8^th. There are 17 performances before closing on December 18. If you’re interested in attending you can check out the show’s website at www.yellowpointchristmasspectacular.ca

Timbre! Choir celebrates 39th season

The Timbre! Choir with conductor Patricia Miller, kicks off their 39^th singing season on Sunday, November 6 at 2:30 pm at the ADSS Auditorium with Love, Laughter, and Legends – From Broadway to the Beatles. 

Opening the concert will be a rollicking tribute to the most famous rock band of all time – the British quartet known as the Beatles. The group’s first single Love Me Do was issued on October 5, 1962, which led to the phenomena known as  "Beatlemania". It was in 1964 when American showman Ed Sullivan who was passing through the London Airport, noticed the Beatles returning from a tour to Sweden. Hundreds of screaming girls had jammed the airport viewpoints to welcome home their music idols. The aggressive British media was out in full force taking pictures. Sullivan realized there was something special about the four mop-haired youngsters and booked them on his NBC network TV show "The Ed Sullivan Show". That show received the highest ratings in the history of television up to then. Can’t Buy me Love, Penny Lane, Let it be and Hey Jude are just a few Beatle hits that Timbre! has included in their tribute to the Fab Four. 

Following the Beatle tribute will be Theme From Spider Man, the theme song for the popular comic book and movie character. This is a swinging rendition that was a huge hit for singer Michael Buble, making it a perfect fit for Timbre! and my jazz trio who will be accompanying the choir. Playing will be David Auld on drums and Brian Anderson on bass. Port Alberni guitarist Doug Gretsinger will join with us for the Beatle selections.  

Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz is also on the program but this version is based on Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s unique Hawaiian-style arrangement. Michelle Weckesser will sing the haunting Think of Me from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera.

Richard Rodgers’ contributions to the musical theatre of his day were extraordinary and his influence on the musical theatre of today is legendary. His career spanned more than six decades, and his hits ranged from the silver screens of Hollywood to the bright lights of Broadway, London and beyond. Composing more than 900 published songs and forty Broadway musicals, Rodgers was the recipient of countless awards, including Pulitzers, Tonys, Oscars, Grammys and Emmys. On the second half of the concert Timbre! will perform selections from many of Richard Rodgers most beloved shows including The Sound of Music, South Pacific and Oklahoma.

Closing the afternoon concert will be music from the Tony award-winning Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof.  The choral medley showcases hit songs such as If I were a Rich Man, Sabbath Prayer, Sunrise, Sunset and Tradition. It’s a given that any performance of this memorable musical has to include a fiddle. Filling this role will be Oceanside violinist Marjorie Cullerne. Cullerne is well known on the island’s east coast where she has been a core violinist with the Vancouver Island Symphony since its inception in 1995.

PHOTO: Timbre! begins their 39^th season on Sunday, November 6 at 2:30 pm at the ADSS Auditorium with Love, Laughter, and Legends – From the Beatles to Broadway. 

Single Tickets and Season Passes for all three shows are now on sale at Echo Centre, Somass Drugs, Salmonberry’s, Rollin Art Centre and at the door. 

Getting the message out

With the provincial government’s decision to exclude adult performing arts organizations from applying for gaming grant funding, the Port Alberni Orchestra & Chorus Society of which I’m treasurer has had to drastically cut their budget. One item that had to be trimmed was newspaper display ads. However, the newspapers in the Alberni Valley have continued to print our articles about upcoming concerts in their Entertainment Sections and the members of our society are most appreciative for their continued support for local performing arts groups. 

When one is presenting musical events you have to get the message out, otherwise in all likelihood you’ll be playing to an empty hall. We’ve continued to print posters, asking local businesses to place them in their windows and on bulletin boards. However, our greatest effort to get the message out this fall has been the use of the internet.

If you’ve received this blog via your email inbox you’re likely on my list of readers, which is now approaching 300. Perhaps you could forward it on to your family and friends and build the list even more. 

As part of our efforts to let people know about upcoming concerts I’ve been tinkering with the development of a website for the Timbre! Choir. I’ve now got it up and running and people can check the website for not only information about upcoming concerts, but access an expanding photo page. The website seems to be working and already we’ve learned that tickets are being sold to folks who’ve never attended a Timbre! concert. We’re pleased about that.

Please click on the link below to view Timbre!’s new website. 

www.timbrechoir.com

ViewPoint from top of the Hump

Phantom plays Nanaimo Theatre

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera is known as the longest-running musical in Broadway history and in London as the second-longest-running West End musical. The musical has played in some 25 countries and 149 cities and sold more than 100 million tickets worldwide, making it one of the highest-grossing entertainment events of all time.

Last week on Monday evening (Oct 3) with my brother Terry, I attended a simulcast via satellite beamed from the Royal Albert Hall in London to the Galaxy Theatre in Nanaimo of the 25^th Anniversary Celebration of The Phantom of the Opera. I wish my wife Pat had been able to accompany us as I know she would have loved it. Pat was on the west side of the hump preparing the Timbre! Choir for their upcoming concert on November 6^th entitled Love, Laughter & Legends (Music from Beatles to Broadway). Details await a future blog.

In the entertainment business anytime something is incalculably successful, critical backlash seems a given. There are among fans of musical theatre, especially those most serious about the art form, who despise much of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s work, opting instead for the more complex compositions of composers such as Stephen Sondheim. The argument runs that much of Webber's work is shallow and many are saddled with ridiculous plot lines - eg Starlight Express, Evita. However, as a lover of musical theatre such criticisms have not dampened my affection for The Phantom of the Opera since first seeing it. At last count I reckon over the years I’ve attended at least nine or ten live performances of the opera/musical including one in New York.

Last Monday night I trotted off to the Galaxy Theatre well before the posted curtain time to stake out good seats. I’m glad I did, as there was an unbilled preshow film history of how The Phantom was put together by the original production team. Film clips taken during the first rehearsals at Webber’s estate and opening night in London’s West End were fascinating to watch. 

Returning home after the simulcast it wasn’t long before the anti-Webber community on the net was slagging the show. Amazing to me was the fact that they’d bothered to attend in the first place. However, for me the event was a wonderful celebration of musical theatre. Yes the work was loaded with a ton of fiery special effects including the infamous crashing chandelier. Still there is a component to this show that remains the secret of its phenomenal success. It’s because the character of the Phantom is so mesmerizing as the perfect anti-hero. 

I was envious of those in London viewing the production in the flesh. Regardless of the time zones, even in the confines of the Nanaimo movie theatre the electrifying energy in London’s Albert Hall could be felt. Seeing it on the big screen was nothing less than mind blowing. The cinematography was amazing with various angles and brow sweating close-ups. At one point I actually saw tears rolling down the faces of the leads.

The huge orchestra perched high above the stage was of a size that would never be affordable, let alone crammed into the average musical theatre pit. The cast at over 200 produced a wall of sound that gave the opera a vitality that could never be experienced in the boundaries of the normal Broadway and West End musical theatre venue. It truly was magnificent.   

The costumes were absolutely stunning with camera close-ups showing the smallest details right down to the feathers in the Phantom's fedora to the intricate bead work on his cape, something many in the 5000-plus audience at the Royal Albert Hall would never be able to see without a powerful set of binoculars. An item I found very useful when I attended a Boston Symphony Prom’s concert in the hall two years ago. Christine's wedding dress was beyond description. At play’s end Maria Bjornson, who designed the costumes and passed away some years ago was given fitting recognition during onstage celebrations that took place after the performance. 

Andrew Lloyd Webber spoke and introduced his ex-wife Sarah Brightman who had sung the role of Christine on opening night 25-years ago. Joined onstage by John Owen Jones (the current Phantom in London), Colm Wilkinson (former Phantom Toronto), and Peter Joback (the new Phantom for London effective March 2012), Brightman performed the haunting Phantom Theme. Michael Crawford the original Phantom also made an appearance. It was a very moving moment.

Googling this past weekend, I found more reviews of the event popping up online - many contrary to my take on the show. Hey, everyone is entitled to their opinion but really, those who cannot bring themselves to praise such a wonderful production in my opinion need to open their minds and hearts to the shear beauty of this particular presentation. 

For those who missed The Phantom of the Opera, there is an encore performance scheduled at the Galaxy in Nanaimo at 1 pm on Saturday, Oct 22. Tickets are available online at cineplex.ca or anytime the Galaxy box office is open. 

Photo: Sierra Boggess sings the role of Christine in the encore performance of The Phantom of the Opera scheduled at the Galaxy in Nanaimo at 1 pm on Saturday, Oct 22. 

TV presentation a gem

A few weeks ago I was blindly channel surfing and stumbled upon a CBC biopic based on Richard Gwyn’s book entitled John A: Birth of a Country – Volume I which I read last year. I was riveted to the TV screen for the next two hours. Without a doubt it was the best historical drama I’d seen on the CBC since Pierre Berton’s The National Dream appeared almost 4 decades ago. The following week I tuned in at the same time expecting to see the next episode. I was disappointed when I learned that I’d been watching a pilot film, not the beginning of a historical series based on the life of our country’s first Prime Minister Sir John A Macdonald. 

Reading MacLean’s Magazine this week I learned columnist Andrew Coyne had also stumbled across the unpublicized pilot and had this to say. “At a time when the CBC network is blanketing the airwaves with ads for Battle of the Blades and other bilge, you’d think it could spare some of its PR budget for a project as important as this. It is just too much like the CBC to turn what ought to have been a moment of triumph into a fiasco. Fortunately, there is a remedy. We’ve seen the pilot. Now green-light the rest of the series. Give it a decent time slot. And maybe tell the odd person it’s on.” 

I couldn’t agree more. In the meantime, I’m enjoying reading Richard Gwyn’s Nation Maker – Sir John A. MacDonald: His Life, Our Times – Volume II.

Let there be light

I went looking for light bulbs last week, ones I hoped would save me from firing up a flashlight when groping around the corners of my office. I know it’s all about energy conservation, but those bureaucratic geniuses who’ve forced us to install all those weirdly shaped expensive light bulbs have finally sent me on a quest – to find some of those old bright 100-Watt incandescent bulbs. I did locate a few in a store that the bulb hoarders hadn’t found yet and I’m still keeping my eyes open. 

Although basically I’m onboard the conservation bandwagon, I find the new light bulb technology frustrating. In a nutshell, for folks of my generation there’s just not enough light emitting from the low wattage bulbs to satisfy my tired eyes when reading. And don’t get me going about the bathroom. By the time the fluorescents inside the decorative globes above the mirror warm up I’m through using the facilities and have switched off the lights. 

However, I do have a hallway in my home that has plenty of light, although the area is fraught with danger. The hallway fixtures receive halogen bulbs which have directions attached telling me not to touch the bulb with my naked fingers or it voids the long life warranty and can cause the bulb to explode. Further warning text instructs me to be sure to use only in an enclosed fixture in order to protect people and surroundings from hot flying fragments. More forewarning counsels me not to break the bulb as they contain mercury. Yikes! Imagine, every time the bulbs need changing I have to reach for my safety glasses and leather work gloves. 

I know Hydro is going to look at me with some distain when the power police read my smart meter and note that my power consumption has spiked slightly. Still, I continue to be on the prowl for another case of incandescent bulbs. O dear, I’ve become a hoarder.

PHOTO: It's not Halloween yet but I always get my orange coloured light display on the garden shrubs in time for the Thanksgiving weekend.

Steve Jobs was king of the computer world

Steve Jobs who passed away last week had a huge impact on my life as a musician. The tools I use to write and listen to music have been virtually reversed due to his inventive mind. 

I still have the first computer I ever owned, an Apple II, which I purchased sometime around 1979, a few years after Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak first introduced their Apple I computer to the world. Over the years I’ve owned Atari’s, HP’s, Toshiba’s and Samsung computers. With my two sons and brother’s urging, I finally made the move back to Apple purchasing an iMac to use as my desktop computer and a Macbook Pro laptop. I also acquired an iTouch to transport my music around in my pocket but haven’t yet sprung for an iPad or iPhone. Time and Pat will tell.

I haven’t purchased a CD or DVD in two years, relying instead on Jobs’ online digital music service, the iTunes store. Last week I took a gig preparing the orchestra music for Oceanside’s Bard-2-Broadway Society’s summer theatre presentation of Hello Dolly and wanted to view the movie version as well as listen to a recording of the show. Within minutes I had downloaded to my computer the movie and the original cast albums from both New York and London.

An article I read lately stated that the “impact of the iPods and iTunes on global music culture is equal to and arguably greater than the invention of the phonograph, the portable radio and any previous musical format from reel-to-reel and eight-tracks to the now nearly obsolete compact disc. iTunes revived the single, which most of the major labels had abandoned.”

There’s no doubt that Steve Jobs turned the music industry on its head with his marvelous creations. Today I love the speed at which I can purchase music online but confess I sometimes miss being able to peel the shrink-wrap off a colourful album cover and carefully lay the enclosed 12-inch recording on a turntable. I even remember when record stores had booths where one could spin and listen to a recording artist’s latest 78-rpm single before purchasing it. 

Sadly the local record store is more or less history and it seems that the bookstore could be next with the rise of the iPad and a host of other eReader devices. I will be very reluctant to give up the comforting feel of a physical book in my hands but love the idea I won’t need to lug a ton of tomes with me when travelling.