Sibelius
I have written about the American big bands, about Bobby Short and about Dorival Caymmi, the great Brazilian composer of songs of the sea. I also talked about George Gershwin and his opera “Porgy and Bess”. Maybe now it is time to talk about some classical music. In fact, I grew up listening to classical music. My father loved operas and loved Beethoven. And he loved Enrico Caruso. And occasionally we would listen to Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, etc. I did not inherit his appreciation for opera. It should be an adequate combination of music and theater, but most usually the theater part is poor. Most of the time good opera singers are poor theater actors. This is gradually changing, maybe influenced by the Broadway and London shows, who have demonstrated that there are good actors who can sing and dance. I saw an extraordinary performance of Carmen in Athens, at the Herodes Atticus open air theater (originally build on year 161), in which all of the performers, including José Ca