Four tickets. 😀 I love that joke.

A discussion of the current state of music theatre in general and the opera Detroit

I await with terror every one of these long musical evenings.–Friedrich Nietzche re. Wagner’s Ring

I just got my complimentary ticket for the annual ‘Wagner Competition’. I still receive stuff like this for some tangential reason because the Seattle Opera was one of the places I got a bit of money to write Detroit The Opera. And that reminded me. Now that some time has elapsed, I’ve been meaning to mention a few things regarding ‘Detroit’ as well as the state of music drama in general. I’ve been reluctant to talk about this stuff until now for fear of burning bridges. Well, that boat has sailed. If burning bridges can sail (on a sea of chocolatey metaphors.)

Like all arts organisations, the Seattle Opera faces an existential crisis. It has been led by Speight Jenkins for so long no one can remember ‘life before Speight’. But now […]

Part two of the ‘interview’ I did last week with long-time supporter Roger Corton. Part One may be found here.

RCWhat’s up with the Portugese in “I’ll Be Right There”?

JCHI had this dream about two lesbian women fighting.

RCSounds promising so far.

JCH(laughs). It was just these two ordinary women shopping in some city. The one is clearly a serious foodie. She’s obsessed with all these fancy ingredients. You know the type. Anyhoo, they’re about to get into their car on the street and they’re having an argument; in Portugese. But because it was a dream I could understand them. The one woman was complaining and worrying and fretting and she’s so upset she’s struggling with the keys to unlock the door. So the other woman just loses it. She goes round to the other side of the car and she just drags the first woman bodily away from the car, shakes her and says something like, “You don’t get it! […]

The first of a two-part ‘interview’ I did last week with long-time supporter Roger Corton. He’s collated e-mails I’ve received on the new record and then we sat down to do an interview of ten questions. (OK, due to my penchant for ‘digressions’ there are probably more than ten. 😀 ) Also–and this is big–Roger has agreed to take over some occasional web duties for me in the (perhaps vain) hope that I’ll have a bit more time for music making. This first baby step in ceding control: he’s elected to leave this text far more ‘raw’ than I would have done . Cheers!

RCBefore we get started, I know you hate doing this, so thanks. You know it’s for your own good, right?

JCHOK, Ma. I heard an interview with Chrissie Hynde the other day that just shocked me. It was the first time in maybe twenty years I heard an artist get, in any way, bitchy with the interviewer.

RCAnd that’s a good […]