Moved!

If come here in the past few weeks, you may have noticed there’s nothing here.

There is a reason! It is not that I have abandoned you!

I have moved my web related shenanigans to www.danieljohnkelley.com- my fancy new website.

If you’re looking for a way to contact me, do it there!

Mortier & City Opera & Winter Jobs

The New York Times has announced that Gerald Mortier, who was to become the general manager of the New York City opera in 2009 has pulled out due to financial difficulties. 

Mortier was brought in to liven up the New York City opera- taking it away from standard rep and towards something more edgey- something to compete with the new Gelb-ifcation of the Metropolitan Opera no doubt. However, the first full season was not meant to start until 2009, and in the meantime the company was to present only a handful of concerts in spaces around the city- as the New York State Theatre, NYCO home, is renovated.

When I heard that City Opera was suspending their season this season, and only doing a few concerts here and there my thoughts immediately when back to the people I knew when I worked for the city opera. 

For the winter break of my junior year of college, I worked in tele-sales for the New York City Opera.

This was as crappy as it sounds and looks, in terms of the job. I’m not quite sure why I have a picture of this- I think I had just gotten a digital camera for Christmas and was going a little nuts.

Despite the crappiness of the job, however the people I met during this time were a diverse cross-section of New York City artist types. There was a counter-tenor who had just finished work in Germany as Katisha from the Mikado in drag. There was a life-long opera patron- a woman from the upper east side whose husband had recently died and was looking to do a little something for herself. There were recent graduates of opera programs, musical theatre actors in between tours, a playwright looking for a temporary gig before heading off to work in Bulgaria, and a host of other artist types looking for something flexible to pay the bills.

I imagine, since there is no season to speak off, and NYCO is slashing administrative staff left and right, that the call center is gone, yet another casualty of the economic downturn.

My hope is that this new news doesn’t spell the end of the New York City Opera- for the big reason of producing opera in New York, obviously, but also for the smaller reason of providing artists with a little bit of the ol’ money so they can actually go out and do their thing. I know there was  quick turnaround there (sales is not fun), but there were several people who had been there for quite some time. I wonder what they’re doing now.

  

Internet Power

I would say I know a bit about opera. I go to the opera regularly and I know the standard canon and a few obscure things here and there.

My knowledge of symphonic music, however, is almost nil. This is something I’m going to try and remedy a bit in the coming months.

I’m currently reading Alex Ross’s The Rest is Noise, a guide to the twentieth century music. So far it’s a really fascinating read about the lives of the various composers, the world surrounding them, and a very accessible analysis of their music that I (with my Music Theory I background…) can understand more or less.

The beginning of the book focuses on Mahler and Strauss, and their competitive friendship. He writes in the book of how, when Mahler was in New York, he preferred to ride the subway rather than be chauffeured around as the European ambassador of culture that he was. Something about the idea of Mahler being on the subway struck me as interesting, so I decided I would listen to his symphonies first.

This is where the magic of Internet comes in. Having decided this, I logged into Emusic, where my monthly membership allows me to download 30 tracks a month, and promptly downloaded the first 6 symphonies of Mahler. I find the ability to do this incredibly exciting.

I had a similar experience a month ago when I was trying to find an opera with a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte but with music by someone other than Mozart. Lo and behold, they had one. An adaptation of Taming of Shrew with music by Martin Y Soler, who nobody has ever heard of, but who Da Ponte mentions with great affection in his apocryphal autobiography.

So off I go to listen to Soler and Mahler and whoever else I can rustle up. See you in six months.

Oh blog, my neglected blog

The title says it all, yes?

The main reason for this is that I have new, more powerful website in the works with all sorts of bells and whistles that will make me look like a real boy with a real website. In the meantime, however, here is where I will hang my hat.

The Impending Moustache finished its month-long run at the PIT last Friday- the final show being our biggest crowd ever at the PIT. We had to bring out an extra row of chairs! It was a good show.

We also had a group of high school kids from a drama criticism class organized by High 5 come and talk with us and see the show. We had never really talked to anyone about (nor has anyone been particularly interested in)  our process in public before, so it was interesting experiment. The kids got more curious the more we talked, so I suppose that’s a good sign.

You can see some videos from show here:

Review- Ten West & C’est La Nuit Qu’il Faut Attraper La Lumiere

My review from the Brick’s Clown Theatre Festival is posted- two shows in one night! Ten West from LA and C’est La Nuit Qu’il Faut Attraper La Lumiere from France.

Check it out here.

And then for Pete’s sake go to the clown festival!

I’ve been going since they first started in 2006, and it only gets better.

As proof, check out this promotional video of the opening day pie fight from way back then. I’m in it! I’m the doofy gangly guy in the back in the blue shirt. See how fun:

Good news

Hello! Once more I am negligent about updating this blog. But here we go again.

In good news, my new short play The Legend of Sunshine is being produced in NYC this coming November by the New York Theatre Experiment, as part of Capture the Flag: A Festival of New American Plays in November. The company re-staged classic American photos, and asked playwrights to submit plays based around the images. My photo was this one:

The photo is by Leah Reddy, and its a re-imagining of the classic picture of the Marlboro man. The play I wrote is a modern western mythologizing the ban on public smoking in NYC, as told by subway musicians. It’s a little different than my other work, an experiment of sorts, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes.

In other news, my sketch group The Impending Moustache begins our new show, “The Worst of Us” on the 26th. It’s at the PIT, and its the culmination of all the sketch-i-ness we’ve been doing all summer. We’re pretty excited.

We were also accepted into the Ars Nova A.N.T. Fest, chosen to be one of thirty acts out of over 200 applicants. Everything I’ve seen at Ars Nova has been completely awesome, so I am really pumped to be part of this festival.

So the fall is going to be busy- and busy is good. I went to see some clown shows in the clown theatre festival this past weekend too, and I’ll be posting those reviews once they’re written and posted. Let me just say i love clowns.

Review- FACE (Every Good Boy Does Fine)

My NYC Fringe review of comedy/jazz improv troupe FACE (Every Good Boy Does Fine) is up on Nytheatre.com.

Check it out here.

And then check them out in the fringe. They’re great. 2 shows left!

Review- Operation Adelmo: Hours of Operation

My review of the NYC Fringe show Operation Adelmo: Hours of Operation  is up on nytheatre.com. 

Check it out here. 

A Dynamic Duo in Paris

Check out Premiere Opera’s podcast excerpt of a concert held in Paris about a month ago- featuring Tenor superstars Juan Diego Florez and Rolando Villazon. Florez sings the uncharacteristic “Ah! Leve-Toi” from Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet, and Villazon sings “O Souverain” from the underrated Le Cid by Massenet. The excerpt finishes with the duet “Ah vieni, nel tuo sangue” from Rossini’s Otello- a two tenor duet! Florez recently recorded this with Placido Domingo on his album Bel Canto Spectacular.  

Check it out here.

What I’m going to see in the Fringe

August is just around the corner (hello August!), and that means it’s Fringe NYC time.

Fringe NYC is that time of year when picking what show to see in New York becomes even harder, if that was even possible. Here are a few shows that I’ve heard about that are in the Fringe that could be awesome:

• All Hail the Great Serpent- The merciless sketch group Murderfist is attacking the Fringe with their unique brand of a horrifying comedy. For anyone who doesn’t know Murderfist- they don’t just take risks, they are a risk. Think of their sketch comedy show like the trojan horse- it looks like a comedy show, but then they come out and attack you. I’m excited to see what they come up with for the fringe.

Check out their website here

Check out their fringe preview on nytheatre.com here.

• Hidden Fees*- The Moscow-art trained company Studio Six is presenting a newly translated comedy about life in contemporary Russia. I’ve seen the work of a couple people in the show, and have meant to check out the company’s work, as the shows they do seem awesome, but have yet to do so. I’m looking forward to this one!

Check out their website here.

Check out their nytheatre.com preview here.

• Wish We Were Here- I’ve been hearing nothing but good things about solo-performance artist Michael Phillis. His latest show is about a slacker who is trapped forever with a genie because he wished for infinite wishes. Magic! Who doesn’t like magic? It sounds like it should be a bit of fun!

Check out his nytheatre.com preview here.