Of Bowie, big cats, Cool Britannia, Baranski, Benidorm, Osmond brother, bonking blockade, Beethoven, Bond and the Black Dyke Band

Immerse yourself...

Another snippets post today, dear reader:

• God news: Everything these days seems to be "an immersive experience" - dinosaurs, the Titanic, numerous Egyptian kings and queens, the Vikings - and now it's David Bowie's turn! You’re Not Alone [pictured above] features an hour-long 360-degree film directed by Mark Grimmer – lead designer for the V&A’s blockbusting 2013 exhibition David Bowie Is – and is showing at London’s “immersive exhibition space” Lightroom. The blurb on its website reads: "Featuring the artist as its sole voice, a story composed from hundreds of interviews spanning a five-decade-long career at the cutting edge of art and culture sees Bowie invite you into his way of thinking like never before." We'll be the judge of that!
• "Here, kitty, kitty" news: The audience at a circus in Rostov, Russia got more than they bargained for when a ginormous Bengal tiger took advantage as a barrier collapsed, leapt out into the auditorium and bolted for the door. Without eating any children. More's the pity.

[Photo: the fabulous IanVisits blog; click any pic to embiggen]

• "Cool Britannia" news: A new free exhibition 1996: A celebration of the wildest year of Britain’s wildest decade - 30 years on promises to bring to life the spirit of the year when Britpop, Girl Power and superstar DJ club nights were at their imperial height, with outfits worn by The Spice Girls [including Geri's Union Jack boots, above], previously unseen Oasis memorabilia, personal items owned by legendary record producers and DJs Paul Oakenfold, Dave Pearce and Judge Jules, and the art, fashion, sport, and politics of that so-called "Cool Britannia" era. It runs from 16 April to 19 September 2026 at the City of London Corporation’s Barbican Music Library. "But don't look back in anger, I heard you say..."
• Gay icon(s) news: The fantabulosa Christine Baranski (and the equally faboo Richard E Grant) are set to star in a revival of Noel Coward's Hay Fever at Wyndham’s Theatre (from 22nd September)! Miss Baranski's debut on the West End stage, apparently [although we did see her at the Royal Albert Hall in Follies back in 2015, but that doesn't count]...

• RIP, Elsie Kelly aka "Noreen" in Benidorm...

• ...and Alan Osmond, eldest of the singing brothers.
• Safe sex shortage news: Thanks to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and a shortage of raw materials, the price of condoms is set to rocket by 30%!
• Culture with a capital "K" news: This year's BBC Proms season programme has been announced - with 86 Proms across eight weeks, 20 international ensembles, 41 orchestras and choirs from across the UK, 42 Proms appearances from the BBC’s own orchestras and choirs, 20 premieres including 17 BBC commissions and co-commissions, and 14 Proms across the UK including residencies at Bristol Beacon and the Glasshouse International Centre for Music (Gateshead), and the first ever Prom in Mold, North Wales; highlights include the Proms debuts of The New York Met Orchestra, the Spanish National Orchestra and the Mahler Academy Orchestra, a Prog Rock Prom, an evening with Evelyn Glennie, a celebration of soul legend Marvin Gaye, a brass band Prom with the Black Dyke Band, and a Prom featuring iconic music from the James Bond films titled "Bond and Beyond". Phew!

• And finally: Happy St George's Day to our English chums!

Pull that string! [click to embiggen]

And the weather? Beautiful and sunny, but still a chilly wind.

Will you do the Fandango, the typewriter, or the arrows of desire?

That frock! [click to embiggen]

From the Financial Times:

At the end of the (Proms) season the BBC always likes to blow its own trumpet — this year it reported surging numbers for online viewing and listening — but what other festival of mostly classical music can fill a venue of 6,000 capacity (including standing places for Prommers) on so many nights over eight weeks?

The closing jamboree was the most fun Last Night for years. Those who get offended by classical music being mixed with rock, musicals and comedy, look away now.

Indeed. For in a second-half opener like no other I can remember [and we did only watch the second half of the Last Night of the Proms] - as opposed to something in the classical or romantic canon, the orchestra revved up for a tribute to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, which was released fifty years ago this year [gulp!], and the excellent lead singer Sam Oladeinde was joined by Sir Brian May on his guitar, and Roger Taylor on Britain's biggest gong!

Wow.

From one camp melodrama to another, as the BBC Symphony Orchestra launched into Shostakovich's Festive Overture, then followed it...

...with the arrival on stage of our soprano for the night Miss Louise Alder as "Eliza Dolittle", for a 60th anniversary tribute to My Fair Lady! [As I said in yesterday's blog post, this was the second time in two days we were treated to the greatest hits from the movie musical.]

Typically for The Proms, there always have to be some more avant-garde moments in any concert - and the final ever live performance by ace trumpeter Alison Balsom with some virtuosic riffs from Bernstein's Prelude, Fugues and Riffs certainly fitted that bill. There also has to be at least one premiere work, and Rachel Portman and Nick Drake's rather disappointing The Gathering Tree ticked that particular box.

However, in-between, there was another genuine treat in store - as comedian and "national treasure" Mr Bill Bailey dead-panned his way through Leroy Anderson's quirky classic The Typewriter:

He's faboo!

All that out of the way, it was time for our conductor Elim Chan to lead the celebrations and get the traditional flag-waving, party-atmosphere finale started, opening (as it always does) with the "Promenader-pleasing" Fantasia on British Sea Songs, arranged by the season's founder Sir Henry Wood, followed by the return of Louise Alder - in that frock! - with a remarkable rendition of Thomas Arne's Rule, Britannia!

Gob-smacking!

By this stage, we're on a roll, flags a-flapping - and straight into another beloved piece (and contender for "the best National Anthem we never had") Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, better-known, of course, as Land of Hope and Glory:

Our throats hoarse from singing along - in our living-room - it was time for the traditional conductor's speech, closely followed by the most famous and beloved of all hymns [if it can be called such, given that its words were from an allegorical poem by William Blake], Hubert Parry's Jerusalem:

With the singing of the (real) National Anthem [and we still can't get used to it being God Save the King, rather than Queen], that's generally it by the time we get to Auld Lang Syne - but no! - Mr Bailey (and the Royal Albert Hall's massive organ) had the last word...

For bringing us an utterly tremendous evening's entertainment, and indeed, for the previous eight weeks - all hail, the BBC!!

Bring me my arrows of desire!

The biggest party of the season - the Last Night of the Proms - certainly lived up to its reputation! Yesterday evening's eclectic concert included a bit of everything - from Saint‐Saëns to spirituals, from powerful Puccini arias to the Pink Panther, from William Walton to Welsh nursery tunes (arr. Grace Williams), and from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's wistfully appropriate Summer Is Gone to the Match of the Day theme (part of a faboo new work Extra Time by Ian Farrington).

This year's soloist, US soprano Angel Blue charmed the pants off the Promenaders, not least with her wickedly flirtatious Al pensar en el dueño de mis amores (Carceleras) (from a zarzuela (operetta) Las hijas del Zebedeo by Ruperto Chapi) [no video of the night, unfortunately, but here she is performing it in 2016], during which she tossed flowers into the audience and even handed one to our conductor Sakari Oramo, who then proceeded to try and conduct with it (until it broke)!

Musical arranger and star pianist Sir Stephen Hough was also centre-stage and, as an encore, performed a hilarious and breath-taking arrangement of tunes from the Sound of Music mingled with bits of Beethoven and Ravel, as well as providing superb accompaniment to Miss Blue's gorgeous vocals.

Following the interval, it was time for the real event - as the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and BBC Singers launched themselves into the traditional opener by the Proms founder Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs. Then it was time for Miss Blue to make her triumphal return - complete with Union Jack "joker hat" - for the first of the three songs that make up the finale [any of which could, and should, be our National Anthem], Rule, Britannia!:

...closely followed by a second, Land of Hope and Glory:

After that exhausting double-bill, it was time for Mr Oromo's conductor's speech - in which he compared the successes of the Proms season with the equally-triumphant-for-the-UK summer of sporting events, including the Olympics. Three cheers for Sir Henry, and it was on with the show! The triumvirate of flag-waving, sing-a-long numbers concluded with the classic Jerusalem:

With that, God Save the King, and Auld Lang Syne, it was all over for another year. After eight weeks of serious musicianship, and seventy-three concerts up and down the country, it was just what we deserved...

Class Acts

We're getting excited here at Dolores Delargo Towers, as the whole day on BBC Radio 3 has basically been a warm-up/coundown to tonight's Last Night of the Proms - the season-closing classical music extravaganza, flag-waving, sing-a-long fest at the Royal Albert Hall that we look forward to every year!

Meanwhile, in complete contrast...

...it's the 80th birthday today of one of the original "sex kittens" who took 1960s/70s US variety television shows by storm [and "Tacky Music Mondays" stalwart], Miss Joey Heatherton!

Here she is - replete with safety gays - on one of her suitably unsubtle numbers, by way of a celebration...

Joey Heatherton - My Heart Belongs To Daddy

Many happy returns, Joey!

The Prom, Prom, Prom! Where the brass bands play, "Tiddely-om-pom-pom!"

What do Daniel Barenboim, Doctor Who, Dvorak and Disco, Beethoven’s Choral Symphony, Benjamin Britten, Bruckner, Brahms and Burt Bacharach, Kirill Petrenko, The King’s Singers and the Kanneh-Masons, Sir Simon Rattle, Symphonie Fantastique, Sakari Oramo, Sarah Vaughan, Sam Smith and Smetana, Henry Mancini, Handel and Holst, Charles Villiers Stanford, CBeebies, Carmen and Clara Schumann, Antonio Pappano, Anne-Sophie Mutter, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Angel Blue, the Paraorchestra, the "Pathetique" (Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 6), Purcell and Puccini, as well as Mendelssohn, Marisha Wallace, the BBC Singers, VOCES8, Fauré, Nick Drake, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Laura Mvula, Yo-Yo Ma, Stevie Wonder, Wynton Marsalis, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, Verdi's Requiem, Florence and the Machine, Jules Buckley - and Rule, Britannia! - have in common?

Yes, of course - the mightiest musical "festival" on Earth, the BBC Proms Season has been announced, and every one of  'em is in the mix of delights on offer...

The Proms 2024 is coming!

Read a basic guide to The Proms, its history and other associated bits'n'pieces, courtesy of Country and Town House magazine.

The comprehensive guide to the entire season on the BBC.

The Proms Season opens on 19th July, and the Last Night of the Proms is on 14th September 2024. Enjoy!

And did those feet in ancient time

[click to embiggen]

A long-standing tradition of ours here at Dolores Delargo Towers is to celebrate the time-honoured end of the "Summer Season" with that flag-waving, patriotic sing-a-long, the Last Night of the Proms!

Traditionally it formed a key part of the annual Proms in the Park concert that "our gang" gathered for in Hyde Park, but that no longer exists. And what with COVID and the Queen's death there hasn't been a full Last Night with an audience for the past three years, so the anticipation for Saturday's event was palpable.

It was worth the wait! Madam Arcati and I only watched the second half of the evening's entertainment (on the BBC, naturally), which opened with a world premiere of Laura Karpman's theme for the forthcoming MCU film The Marvels. [We noted that the entire Royal Albert Hall audience was wearing snazzy LED bangles that changed colour - red, white and blue, naturally - in time with changes in the music; someone must have sponsored them, so we assume it was Disney and that's why the unusual inclusion of that corporation's film score on the programme.]

Our star "players" cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and soprano Lise Davidsen were both utterly remarkable, taking the eclectic selection of openers Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Deep River, a Hungarian showgirl's song Heia, heia, in den Bergen and the aria Cantilena from Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras in their stride, before the traditional "party" really kicked off!

The reliable lineup of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Chorus and BBC Singers proved once again that they are the best in the business, and "mistress of ceremonies" was American conductor Marin Alsop, commemorating the 10th anniversary of her being the first female conductor to lead the Last Night - and so the world-famous all-British finale-to-beat-all-finales began, of course, with the traditional "Sea Shanties".

All bobbed-out, it was time for the audience (and their klaxons and balloons and amusing costumes and all) to welcome Miss Davidsen back to the stage - wearing what could only be described as a scarlet battleship (she's 6'2", and towered over the orchestra, and especially the tiny Ms Alsop)! - to belt out Thomas Arne's most bombastic should-be-national-anthem:

An even bigger "audience sing-a-long" followed; Elgar's finest:

Marin Alsop's (mercifully short; some go on forever) "conductor's speech" focussed on her hope to see even more inclusiveness and diversity in the Proms, hailing its founder Sir Henry Wood as a pioneer of "progress" in this regard [to this day, there are always £8/10 tickets available to stand - or "promenade" - at every single one of the season's eight weeks of concerts, including this one] and, in thanking the participating ensembles in turn, elicited a huge ovation for the BBC Singers, only recently under threat from budget cuts.

This done, it was back to the patriotism [despite the presence of so many damned EU flags, given out for free by determined - and ineffably smug - campaigners for the "Rejoin EU Party"], with Hubert Parry/William Blake's "hymn", another national favourite:

And, with the (actual) national anthem God Save the King [the first time "King" has been sung at the Last Night since 1951] and the customary Auld Lang Syne (complete with red, white and blue ticker-tape), it was all over.

Same time, next year? I should bloody well think so!

---

PS We didn't see any footage of the rest of the season (although we listened to quite a few Proms on BBC Radio 3).

This would have been a great one to go and, see, I'm sure...

Vula Malinga - Tainted Love (Northern Soul at the Proms)

BBC Proms official site.

So please, don't fart

It may be my first day back in the office after the long weekend, but - pah!

Madam Arcati and I are off to a very special evening tonight...

...a live screening of the otherwise sold-out gala Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends: A Celebration, starring a panoply of glittering stars including Michael Ball, Helena Bonham Carter, Rob Brydon, Petula Clark, Rosalie Craig, Janie Dee, Judi Dench, Daniel Evans, Maria Friedman, Haydn Gwynne, Bonnie Langford, Damian Lewis, Julia McKenzie, Julian Ovenden, Bernadette Peters, Siân Phillips, Jon Robyns, Clive Rowe, Jenna Russell, Imelda Staunton, Charlie Stemp, Hannah Waddingham, Gary Wilmot and Michael Xavier!

Knowing the ill-behaved rabble that constitutes West End audiences these days (I blame Simon Cowell, Strictly and the whooping, hollering, baying audiences they encourage on TV), I sincerely hope this particular set of commands will be stricty adhered to:

Simon Russell Beale, Daniel Evans - Invocation and Instructions to the Audience (from The Frogs) [BBC Proms 2010 - Sondheim at 80]

Gods of the theatre, smile on us.
You who sit up there stern in judgment,
Smile on us.
You who look down on actors… (And who doesn't?)
Bless this yearly festival and smile on us.

We offer you song and dance.
We offer you rites and revels.
We offer you grace and beauty.
Smile on us for this while.
You who sit up there stern in judgment, smile on us.

We offer you song and dance.
We offer you rites and revels.
We offer you gods and heroes.
We offer you jokes and insults,
We offer you (we offer you) paeans and pageants,
Bacchanals and social comment.
Bless our play and smile.

Yes, but first…
Some dos and don'ts,
Mostly don'ts:

Please don't cough,
It tends to throw the actors off.
Have some respect for Aristophanes
And please, don't cough.

Please don't squeak,
We haven't oiled the seats all week.
You wouldn't want to miss a single work of Greek,
It's hard enough for us to hear each other speak
So please, don't squeak.

If you see flaws, please,
No loud guffaws, please,
Only because, please,
There are politer ways.
As for applause, please,
When there's a pause, please,
Although we welcome praise,
The echo sometimes lasts for days…
(Days…days…days…days…)

But first…
(Days…days…days…days…)

Don't take notes
To show us all you know the famous quotes.
And when you disapprove don't clear your throats
Or throw your crumpled programs, coins and coats
Or tell your neighbour scintillating anecdotes,
And please, refrain,
From candy wrapped in cellophane.

If we should get rhetorical,
Please don't curse.
Wait till it's allegorical,
And in verse!
If we should get satirical,
Don't take it wrong.
And if, by a sudden miracle,
A tune should appear that's lyrical,
Don't hum along.

When we are waxing humorous,
Please don't wane.
The jokes are obscure but numerous…
We'll explain.

When we are waxing serious,
Don't squirm or laugh.
It starts when we act mysterious.
And if you're in doubt, don't query us,
I'll signal you when we're serious
(It's in the second half).
(Half…half…half…half…)

But first…
Please, don't leave.
It only makes the actors grieve.
We may have something better up our sleeve,
So please,
Don't leave.

Don't say, "What?"
To every line you think you haven't got.
And if you're in a snit because you've missed the plot
(Of which I must admit there's not an awful lot),
Still don't
Say, "What?" (What?)

Do not intrude, please,
When someone's nude, please.
She's there for mood, please.
And mustn't be embraced.
If we are crude, please,
Don't sit and brood, please.
Let's not be too strait-laced -
The author's reputation isn't based
On taste.

So please, don't fart -
There's very little air and this is art.
And should we get offensive, don't lose heart,
Pretend it's just the playwright being smart.
Eventually we'll get to the catharsis, then depart.

And now…

But first…
We start.

I can't wait!

---

PS It was David Beckham's birthday yesterday.

[click to embiggen]

You're welcome.

Bring me my arrows of desire

It was with a palpable sense of relief last night that we welcomed the return of one of the eternal highlights of our "Social Calendar" - its final denouement, indeed - the Last Night of the Proms, in front of a (traditionally "rowdy") live audience again [and in the 150th anniversary year of Royal Albert Hall, no less]! The Madam and I, despite being on our own at home (not even a Zoom meet-up, as was the case with last year's "cut-down version"), grabbed our Union Jacks and cleared our voices for the traditional sing-along...

For once, there wasn't too much dross to sit through in the run-up to the finale, thank goodness [of course we only joined it in part 2, after the interval], as it opened with the jolly Juba Dance by Florence Price.

The duo of Tango numbers (Piazzolla's Libertango and Aníbal Troilo's Sur) featuring the rising star accordionist Ksenija Sidorova was actually rather brilliant [no footage our there yet; thanks BBC!]. The round-the-UK folk song segment, not so much.

Apart from the marvellous BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Singers and the genial conductor Sakari Oramo, the real star of the show, however, was Australian "James Corden looky-likey" tenor Stuart Skelton. He had already tackled Wagner in the first half, and in the second not only sang the traditional Brigg Fair (as arranged by Percy Grainger) and the aforementioned Tango elegy Sur, but also performed a sentimental version of Peter Allen's I Still Call Australia Home - wearing a sequinned shirt in tribute to the uber-camp singer-songwriter [see here] (who was, of course, immortalised by the lovely Hugh Jackman in the musical The Boy from Oz).

That done, the "fun bit" began - starting with the customary opener, Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea-Songs, with the audience all bobbing along to the shanties and doing the "fake dabbing-of-the-eyes" for "There's No Place Like Home" (Tom Bowling), before Mr Skelton returned to the stage, this time in full Aussie cricket gear, for the rousing Rule, Britannia!

BBC Symphony Orchestra, cond. Sakari Oramu, tenor Stuart Skelton - Rule, Britannia! [Last Night of the Proms 2021]

We'd hardly put our flags down for a swig of booze, and we were off again, singing along with gusto to the "National-Anthem-in-all-but-name" Edward Elgar's Land of Hope and Glory:

BBC Symphony Orchestra, cond. Sakari Oramo - Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D major; Land of Hope and Glory [Last Night of the Proms 2021]

After Sakari Oramo's heartfelt speech, highlighting the devastating impact the pandemic had had upon the lives and livelihoods of musicians and singers over the past year, as well as the traditional "three cheers" to the founder of the Proms Sir Henry, we headed to the finale, with that other magnificent sing-along number Hubert Parry's Jerusalem:

BBC Symphony Orchestra, cond. Sakari Oramo - Jerusalem (orch. Elgar) [Last Night of the Proms 2021]

And, with The National Anthem and the closing Auld Lang Syne, that was it for another year...

Utterly wonderful - and a tradition that should be preserved against "the slings and arrows" of hand-wringing "wokeness", self-delusional Europhiles and the rest!

Read about this year's Last Night of the Proms in detail, song by song, courtesy of the BBC.

A pride that dares, and heeds not praise, a stern and silent pride

Traditionally the event that closes the Summer "Social Season" for our little gang - not that there has been any "Season" to speak of, what with the cancellation of traditional highlights such as Eurovision (although there was a "socially-distanced" evening of programmes by way of replacement), Gay Pride and every live theatre or musical event in town - it will be interesting to see how the Beeb deals with tonight's Last Night of the Proms. There has already been a furore over the threatened rewriting of the lyrics of Jerusalem, and that instrumental-only versions of the classic patriotic finale numbers Rule, Britannia! and Land Of Hope And Glory would replace singers, but apparently the over-cautious PC-mongers at the BBC have been forced to go back on their original statement and they will now be sung in full.

Even without the usual flag-waving audience of Promenaders, I hope they do them justice. Lord knows, we need something to make us proud to be British once in a while...

We'll be singing along at home (via Zoom or otherwise)!

Land of Hope and Glory (Last Night of the Proms 2009)

Sarah Walker - Rule, Britannia (Last Night of the Proms 1989)

Jerusalem (Last Night of the Proms 2009)

Flag-waving?

You, dear reader, will no doubt know already that I am a long-serving campaigner for, and staunch advocate of, the rights and visibility of gay people (and related acronyms). I have hawked many a protest banner, been an active participant in many a rally - not least the Gay Pride March since 1985, from when it was still a valid political statement rather than today's rules-obsessed corporate wank-fest - gathered signatures for petitions against Section 28 and for the equal age of consent, protested the Pope and Putin, and worn both the pink triangle and the rainbow flag as a badge of honour. Out and Proud, indeed.

But what to make of last night's - ahem - Last Night of the Proms?

Far from wanting to sound like Violet, Countess of Grantham, I am patriotic, and a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to such matters. I love a good pageant - and the Royal Family always comes up with goods on that score - and I do believe that the closing session of the most important eight-week musical festival in Britain (and indeed the the world) is, has always, and always should be a moment when everyone who is British [English, Scots, Welsh, Northern Irish] has the opportunity to show their red, white and blue colours. And why the hell not?! Despite the best efforts of the hand-wringing middle-class Guardianistas to upset this with their free hand-outs of EU propaganda, the good old Union Flag is still the predominant visual symbol one expects to see on such a prestigious occasion. Of course, the flags of all nations have always been in evidence as well, but at least they, too, are symbols of nationhood.

US mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton is undoubtedly a fantastically-talented singer. She obviously has a deeply-held pride in being "different"; in being an outspoken advocate for women of her size, and for the visibility of those, like herself, who are bisexual. Good on her, if that is what she wants to do with her influential position as a rising star and public figure. She chose to wear outfits for her appearances on the Last Night in the "colours of bisexual pride", lavender, pink and blue. So far, an excellent way to get a message across.

But what possessed her, or the BBC, or anyone in charge of the night's classic finale, to raise the rainbow flag rather than the British one? She was singing Rule, Britannia [our "second national anthem"], ffs, not Over the Rainbow [which she actually did sing earlier]! I loved seeing rainbow flags in the audience, and especially around conductor Sakari Oramo's podium [where the world's cameras focus so heavily]. But for an American to fail to raise the British flag at this climactic moment of a British celebration was jarring to say the least. Just imagine if someone from the UK had done it at the American Independence Day Concert in Washington, for instance, while The Star-Spangled Banner was playing?

There are times, and - as I know - places where protest and making a statement are necessary, especially when there are so many examples of bigotry, persecution and criminalisation of LGBT people across the globe. Might I humbly suggest that while singing Rule, Britannia was not one of them?

There is no real footage of the Last Night online, so here's a whirlwind tour, accompanied by the traditional Hornpipe:

Last Night of the Proms in one minute

Once I get my sights on you

The BBC Proms season is fantastic and varied - and, as featured over at my Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp blog, includes Proms dedicated to Bernstein (including West Side Story and On The Town), Bach’s six Brandeburg Concertos and the WW1 centenary; the eight-week programme includes works by (among others) Debussy, Gershwin, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Rachmaninov, Mahler, Vaughan Williams, Dvořák, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Holst, Handel, Glinka, Grieg, Strauss, Ravel, Brahms, Wagner, Mendelssohn, Allegri, Verdi, Prokofiev, Elgar, Liszt, Sibelius, Mozart, Berlioz, Barber, Britten and Bruckner (and even Youssou N'dour) - and that's just scratching the surface!

Our little gang's focus, as ever, is slightly less highbrow. Not that we are averse to any or all of the composers above - and there is still a chance that we may (or may not) get to some of the classical extravaganzas on offer. However, Proms in the Park is the party to beat all parties, and, as always, we have our tickets!

Closing the Summer Season quite neatly, the 40,000-strong celebration-cum-festival [it has been described as "Glastonbury, but with more hip replacements"] has become an integral part of our own events calendar. Alongside Eurovision, New Year's Eve, our birthday picnic and Gay Pride, it is one of the big events we look forward to the most during the year - and we have seen quite an array of talent, such as Kylie Minogue, Bryan Ferry, Barry Manilow, ABC, Frankie Valli, Dame Kiri ti Kanawa, Steps, Neil Sedaka, Tony Hadley, Elaine Paige, Michael Ball, Bryn Terfel, Will Young, John Barrowman, Katherine Jenkins, Sharleen Spiteri and Texas, Jose Carreras, Dame Edna Everage, Rick Astley, Ray Davies, Lesley Garrett, All Saints, Earth Wind and Fire, Rufus Wainwright, Björn Again and (ahem) Rolf Harris... Whew.

This year, Auntie Beeb has once more pulled out all the stops - the headliners, hosted by Michael Ball, include Matt Goss from Bros, Lisa Stansfield, Joseph Calleja, Josh Groban and...

...Gladys Knight!

I hope she does this one:

Gladys Knight - License to Kill

...and I hope she brings her Pips! We love Our Glad, but - all my life, all I ever wanted was to be a Pip.

BBC Proms

An "Old Time Music Hall Prom"?

The 2017 season of the BBC Proms has been announced!

It is far too early, of course, to get any idea who may be appearing on stage at our much-anticipated end-of Season highlight, the closing night gala Proms in the Park on 9th September, but - as ever - there appears to be a wide-ranging and eclectic mix of stuff so far announced: from Simon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim and Lisa Batiashvili, to Jools Holland, John Wilson and Jarvis Cocker. Highlights include:

• The 'Godlike Genius' of Scott Walker - Conductor and arranger Jules Buckley returns for two Proms: a Late Night with the Heritage Orchestra, exploring the music of 1960s icon Scott Walker; and a concert with the Metropole Orkest, featuring the music of jazz giant Charles Mingus.
• In their Late Night Prom, Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stax/Volt Revue and pay tribute to this pioneering label that championed the funk, gospel and rhythm and blues movements.
• Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves and virtuoso trumpeter James Morrison join the BBC Concert Orchestra under John Mauceri for a double tribute to Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie in the centenary year of their births.
• Proms favourite John Wilson returns with his orchestra for the first European performance of the recently re-constructed stage orchestration of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!
• A tribute to Proms conductor Malcolm Sargent to mark the 50th anniversary of his death, with a recreation of his 500th Proms concert and a Last Night tribute.
• Marking the 450th anniversary of the birth of Monteverdi, French period-instrument ensemble Pygmalion and director Raphaël Pichon present Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 and I Fagiolini under director Robert Hollingworth dedicate the first of this year’s Monday-lunchtime Proms at Cadogan Hall to the composer.
• All four of Rachmaninov’s piano concertos performed across the season and a day dedicated to his music with the Latvian Radio Choir and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Thomas Dausgaard.

All this, and the Proms will (in addition to its regular and "not-so-regular" outreach performances at Cadogan Hall, Imperial College London, Peckham Multi-Storey Car Park(!), Southwark Cathedral and Tate Modern; as well as a visit to Hull, the UK City of Culture 2017) for the first time make an appearance at one of our fave venues in the whole world Wilton's Music Hall!

Here's the launch video:



Tickets for the Proms go on general sale at 9am on Saturday 13th May.

BBC Proms calendar 2017 [Friday 14th July to Saturday 9th September 2017]

A moment of calm

I think we could all do with some peace, every now and then.

Here's the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Sir Charles MacKerras at the BBC Proms 2009) and a masterful rendition of Venus by Gustav Holst, to do just that:

Holst: Planet Suite - Venus, Bringer of Peace

I feel a lot more mellow now.

Who knows? Not me. We never lost control

I sing with impertinence, shading impermanent chords
With my words
I've borrowed your time and I'm sorry I called
But the thought just occurred that we're nobody's children at all, after all

Live your rebirth and do what you will - Oh, by jingo
Forget all I've said, please bear me no ill - Oh, by jingo
After all, after all

The lyrics of David Bowie's nowadays-obscure 1970 album track After All (from The Man Who Sold The World) - done as a "sea-shanty" by the ensemble cast by way of a finale - sort of summed up the artistic endeavour that was the Bowie Prom that Paul and I went to see at the Royal Albert Hall late last night [and it did go on rather late; I didn't get home till 2am!].

Some, indeed, may well have accused the raft of arrangers (including Michel van der Aa, Jherek Bischoff, David Lang, Anna Meredith, Greg Saunier and Josephine Stephenson) who were called upon by the avant garde German ensemble s t a r g a z e [sic] and its artistic director and conductor André de Ridder to re-work and "re-imagine" selections from Bowie's vast and wide-ranging repertoire of such "impertinence" in meddling with a Master. There were definitely many examples of "impermanent chords" in some of the more - ahem - liberal interpretations of his music ["Did you recognise that?", Mr de Ridder said at one point. "That was 'Rebel Rebel'"; the arrangement, of course, bore no resemblance whatsoever to the original, so we were glad to be put out of our misery in that particular "guessing-game".]

Discordant and dissonant moments aside - you knew what you were letting yourself in for when the evening's performances opened with a new version of the already impenetrable scratchiness of Warzawa, upon which the entire string section was let loose with jarring consequences - the Prom was, thankfully, a lot greater than the sum of its parts. What it certainly was not, however, was a conventional panegyric. One suspects, from various opinions being bandied around the interwebs, that this disappointed some fans who had clambered for tickets for a "celebration" in the hope that it would be just that...

What made the evening great was not, perhaps, some of the indulgent orchestrations, but the brilliantly-talented performers.

Mr Neil Hannon (of The Divine Comedy) was very well-chosen for the opening Station to Station; his own vocal style echoing Mr Bowie's so closely at times it was quite scary. His This Is Not America, however, was almost (but not quite) fucked up by the inclusion of a verse done by a rapper...

Neil Hannon - This is Not America

His partner-in-crime/duettist, arch Bowie-ite and all-round fabulous performer Miss Amanda Palmer [formerly of the Dresden Dolls, who we so enjoyed at Patti Smith's Meltdown Festival tribute to Bertolt Brecht Stand Bravely Brothers way back in 2005] was herself a constant highlight throughout our evening. Indeed, her version of Heroes towards the end of the evening was utter bliss...

Amanda Palmer - Heroes

Unknown quantity Mr Conor O’Brien gave a rather lovely downbeat take on The Man Who Sold The World, but it was our beloved Marc Almond, the all-round audience-pleaser, who got the heartiest reception for his fine cabaret-tinged interpretations of Life On Mars and (later) Starman, which (despite stumbling over the words several times) were both excellent - in spite of the best efforts of the arrangers to steer the familiar into unfamiliar territory.

Another stunning performer who really made the evening something rather special was Miss Anna Calvi! Another of those artists I really should explore more, yet haven't (yet) - she has energy and power that belies her diminutive stature. This was more then evidenced in her wonderful Lady Grinning Soul, but the moment of all moments - the point at which I was reduced to breathlessness was her duet with the aforementioned Miss Palmer on David's final single while he was still with us - Blackstar:

Anna Calvi and Amanda Palmer - Blackstar

Paul Buchanan, lead singer with another band of whom I know very little, The Blue Nile, has a beautiful vocal style, and presented a most wonderfully emotional rendition of I Can't Give Everything Away (marred only by the moronic people next to us who I had to "shush" as they were determined to talk or use their phones all through it), as well as a rather interesting take on Ashes to Ashes:

Paul Buchanan - Ashes To Ashes

Laura Mvula was effervescent and sassy on Girl Loves Me, and even more so her jolly version of Fame. Counter-tenor Philippe Jaroussky, however, brilliant though he may be on Vivaldi, Monteverdi, Bach and Saint-Saëns, would never in a million years have been my choice for Always Crashing In The Same Car. It just made a sinister, deep and dark song sound like a parody.

And then came John Cale. The only man on the entire bill who was there when Bowie emerged, whose work with Velvet Underground David acknowledged in that famous sleeve note on Hunky Dory referring to Queen Bitch: "Some V.U. white light, returned with thanks." He was triumphant - taking Valentine's Day to a hugely synthesised new level, and giving Sorrow (with Anna Calvi again) the treatment it truly deserved in a reverent nod to The Great Man. His Space Oddity (with the lovely House Gospel Choir, members of whom I spoke to much later while we were all waiting for a bus home at Aldwych) was also great, if somewhat drawn-out in its repetition of the "sitting in a tin can..." stanza.

And so, with After All, and a rather cheesy - for obvious, audience-participation-reasons - Let's Dance to conclude, that was it.

In many ways this was a challenging experience, but the Bowie Prom was one I am very proud to say I was there for...

The Bowie Prom on the BBC website.

The review in The Guardian

Keep the beast in my nature under ceaseless attack

One of the bloggers I follow, Cookie over at Doing Hard Time in Shaker Heights, is feeling sorry for himself. The eyedrops he's on contain steroids, which means he "can't get no sleep". I was looking for something appropriate(?) to play - such as Faithless' timeless dance classic - when I came upon this instead - excellent orchestrated versions of Insomnia and other choons from the mega-clubbing '90s, courtesy of the BBC Proms 2015 "Ibiza Prom", with DJ Pete Tong and the BBC Heritage Orchestra.

Of course I love it...

Pete Tong and the BBC Heritage Orchestra - Insomnia (Faithless)

Pete Tong and the BBC Heritage Orchestra - Right Here Right Now (Fatboy Slim)

Pete Tong and the BBC Heritage Orchestra - One More Time (Daft Punk)

Pete Tong and the BBC Heritage Orchestra - Lola's Theme (Shapeshifters)

Brilliant! I wish I had been there.

Rule Britannia is out of bounds to my mother, my dog, and clowns

As the line-up for this year's Proms Season is announced, so we rejoice in the fact that Mr David Bowie will be celebrated in a Prom of his own on 29th July - featuring Anna Calvi and Amanda Palmer, among others.

Here, in anticipation, is the London Symphony Orchestra's own arrangement of Life On Mars:

London Symphony Orchestra - Life On Mars

Other highlights from the 2016 Proms programme include:

• A tribute to French conductor and composer Pierre Boulez, who died in January aged 90.
• US music legend Quincy Jones presents an overview of his career, from his solo works to collaborations with Miles Davis and Michael Jackson.
• A season of music inspired by Shakespeare, marking 400 years since the playwright's death.
• Bryn Terfyl performing the title role in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov.
• A celebration of Latin American music, to coincide with the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
• Ten cello concertos, starting with Elgar's Cello Concerto, performed by Sol Gabetta on the First Night.
• The John Wilson Orchestra performing the best of Ira Gershwin, marking the 120th anniversary of the composer's birth.
• A night of Gospel music, featuring a hand-picked selection of singers from the UK's leading gospel groups.
• All three of Stravinsky's landmark ballets for the Ballet Russes, performed over one weekend.
• Headlining the Last Night of the Proms is tenor Juan Diego Flórez.

Here's the launch video, for your delectation:

BBC Proms Season Launch 2016

The BBC Proms Season is on from 15th July to 10th September, but the headliners and other acts for our own "season closer" Proms in the Park won't be announced until Monday 2nd May.

A year in culture, Dolores Delargo Towers style

As you might tell, I am in a retrospective mood, dear reader. Any summary of any year is bound to be somewhat subjective - so you will forgive, of course, my indulgence in what we experienced of 2014 rather than any wider picture.

In a year when we lost so many of our cultural icons (more of that later, no doubt, in my annual "roll-call" of those who died this year), sport and Strictly Come Dancing were considered serious topics of conversation even in the broadsheets, and the so-called "Culture Minister" Ed Vaizey remarked that he preferred Classic FM to Radio 3, what constitutes a "cultural highlight"? In our world, anything that doesn't involve pop music or politics, I suppose...

Those of you paying attention to my previous "review of the year" will note that references to "music" did not include the "classical" end of that extensive artform. Yet we did have some excellent moments of that kind. The aforementioned Pet Shop Boys Prom was indeed a fully featured part of the prestigious BBC Proms Season - and Vince'n'Neil's A Man From the Future was a masterful symphonic work, worthy of many a composer beloved of the regular denizens of The Royal Albert Hall during that three-month extravaganza. It was sublimely realised, in conjunction with the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Dominic Wheeler and the elegant narration of Miss Juliet Stephenson, and a ground-breaking event that I truly appreciated. It was also the only "true Prom" I attended.

The Proms season ends, as it does every year, with the triumphal flag-waving finale encompassing Land of Hope and Glory, Jerusalem and Rule, Britannia! And this year (as every year for along time), we made it to our usual great vantage point in Hyde Park to watch it beamed in on the live screens - and to take part in all its flag-waving adrenalin-pumping grandeur. This year, the "Britannia" part was sung with the fine voice of Roderick Williams, and on stage at Proms in the Park we were also treated to some beautiful operatic singing by Pumeza Matshikiza and Vittorio Grigolo.



I concluded the year with two more classical events: Bach and Wagner at St John's Smith Square and the BBC recording of their tribute to Ron Goodwin - which made for quite a mix in the classical canon.

And what of the theatre? 2014 turned out to be another fine year, with both major and minor productions that we thoroughly enjoyed. Of the latter, there was the thought-provoking and utterly fab Rachael's Café and the masterful one-man performance of Didn't You Used To Be Derek Jacobi?. Simon Callow's Being Shakespeare was magnificent, as was our recent adult panto-substitute Mrs Hudson's Christmas Corker.

Of our major theatrical events during the year, the new - and awe-inspiring - Menier Chocolate Factory production of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins was an absolute highlight. However the big event of the entire year was most definitely our pilgrimage to pay a deferential tribute at the feet of the great Dame Angela Lansbury in Blithe Spirit. A once-in-a-lifetime experience, never, ever to be forgotten!

Speaking of iconic figures in our cultural landscape, John Waters' This Filthy World, Vol 2: Filthier and Dirtier one-man show wasn't half-bad, either. In complete contrast, we were honoured to see and listen to the venerable Dame Joan Plowright in conversation.

We managed to get a bit of art'n'history-type culture (with a capital "K") in, too. Of course.

Not least of such events were our visit to see the sumptuous Cheapside Hoard, our "Night at the Museum" at the Fin de Siècle Fantasy Egypt open evening in the Petrie Museum of Egyptology, the preview of the British Museum's massive Vikings: life and legend exhibition, or any of the events associated with the cultural milestone that is LGBT History Month.

Every month (well, almost) our literary desires have been sated once again by the wonders of Paul Burston's Polari - "London's peerless gay literary salon". With headliners and guest stars as diverse this year as Christopher Fowler, Maureen Duffy, Ali Smith, Neil Bartlett, Paul Bailey, Mari Hannah, James Maker, Karen McLeod, Sarah Westwood, Alex Marwood, (Sophie Ellis-Bextor's mum) Janet Ellis, Tiffany Murray, VG Lee, Helen Smith, Matt Cain, Diriye Osman, Susie Boyt and Will Davis (and many more) on the bill, it is an utter feast for the brain.



As a personal high point, 2014 was also the year that I was thrilled to get my first ever book review in print in a national publication - that of the wonderful Rupert Smith's Interlude (in Beige gay magazine)!

At the "lower end" of the cultural scale, we are not massive cinema-goers. If we deign to go at all, this usually involves something from vintage Hollywood at the British Film Institute or the like. But there was one "must-see" that drew me and some of our gang out this year - the spectacular cinematic triumph that is The Grand Budapest Hotel. Simply marvellous, daahlings! I also went on my own to see the documentary film of the V&A's ground-breaking David Bowie Is exhibition, but that - including films on telly, of which we catch very few - was about it.

So what about television? Very selective, dear. We don't watch Sherlock, Game of Thrones, Dr Who, soaps or police/crime dramas, for instance. "Reality TV" shows and so-called "talent" competitions are anathema to us. The closest we get to being "hooked" on a serial is - in common with the rest of the world - Downton Abbey, and, for sheer camp entertainment value, Benidorm. Other than that, anything by Sir David Attenborough or Andrew Marr, documentary series fronted by the likes of Michael Portillo, Dr Lucy Worsley, Dr Janina Ramirez, Neil Oliver, Professor Mary Beard, Andrew Graham-Dixon or any of that triumvirate of "factual-programme-totty" presenters Simon Reeve, Dr James Fox or Alastair Sooke, quiz shows such as QI and Only Connect, and Gardeners' World and Antiques Roadshow will do nicely, thank you.

Two TV programmes that we did watch stood out from the rest. In the centenary year of Wales' "Number 1 Son" Dylan Thomas, the magnificently-cast ensemble reading of Under Milk Wood was an absolute joy from beginning to end, and possibly the best tribute the man could have received.

The televisual event of the year, however, must have been the accurate-to-the-last-mannerism portrayal by Sheridan Smith of that [pause for over-used cliché] "National Treasure", Cilla Black! If Miss Smith doesn't win an award for this, then there is no justice.

Sheridan Smith - Anyone Who Had a Heart [Cilla]

There's probably loads more I could cover (radio, for instance), but as with all such summaries, one has to stop somewhere.

However, there are more 2014 recollections to come - stay tuned!

• See also: A year in music, Dolores Delargo Towers style

He dreamed of machines

Oh. Deep. Joy.

Last night, I was treated (by our good friend Paul, for my forthcoming birthday) to a most incredible evening - not just "a Prom" (in the glittering Royal Albert Hall), but THE Pet Shop Boys' Prom!

Opening with a heavily melodramatic orchestration of several PSB chart hits - Overture to Performance, masterminded by arranger Richard Niles - we knew we were in for a real treat. And when none other than the legendary Chrissie Hynde took to the stage to perform the next piece (“Four songs in A minor”), we were thrilled. As described admirably by Adam Sweeting in The Telegraph:

Chrissie Hynde teetered to the microphone in white blouse and tails, skinny jeans and high heels, like some sort of Nashville gunslinger.

She added the right amount of frayed world-weariness to Badalementi’s mooching, indigo-tinted arrangements. Love Is a Catastrophe felt like the aural equivalent of a bourbon hangover, while her duet with Tennant on Rent was piercingly bittersweet.

Pet Shop Boys and Chrissie Hynde - Rent (Proms 2014)

I couldn't help but think, however, that when it comes to the clipped, lyrical songs of Messrs Tennant and Lowe, a legendary diva with somewhat clearer diction might have worked a bit better.

It was a remarkable experience, nonetheless - but nothing compared to what was to follow!

For this was the world première of the Boys' classical meisterwerk - a tribute to the pioneering computer genius Alan Turing - A Man From the Future. Part Chris-Lowe-synthesiser-odyssey, part orchestral symphony, with narration by Oscar-winner Juliet Stephenson, the piece told the tragic story of the gay outsider genius from boyhood love and loss, through his amazing contribution to wartime code-breaking, to his persecution, death and eventual belated pardon by the establishment.

Mr Tennant stood in the sidelines as a part of the chorus, while the BBC Concert Orchestra (conducted by Dominic Wheeler) and Miss Stephenson took centre stage (the latter, bizarrely suspended in a commentary box in the proscenium). As the story unfolded, so the music mirrored the emotions - and throughout, He Dreamed of Machines...

Pet Shop Boys - He Dreamed of Machines

The whole eight-part composition was an utterly beautiful feast for the senses (and, given its subject matter, an emotional journey through a life ruined by bigotry).

I feel privileged to have experienced it.

A Man From the Future on the Pet Shop Boys website.

All the classics

From The Guardian:

A new work by the Pet Shop Boys exploring the life and work of wartime codebreaker Alan Turing is to get its world première at this year's Proms, the 120th edition of the world's biggest music festival.

Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe will perform A Man from the Future at the Royal Albert Hall in London as part of Prom 8 with the BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC Singers...

Pet Shop Boys' homage to Turing – who played a crucial role in breaking the German Enigma code during the Second World War – comes 60 years after he killed himself. Turing took his own life after he was prosecuted for his homosexuality. He finally received a posthumous pardon on Christmas Eve last year.

While Tennant and Lowe have performed snippets from the new work before, it will be heard in full for the first time on 23rd July. The Prom will also feature new orchestral arrangements of five Pet Shop Boys' songs by the film composer Angelo Badalamenti.

From their symphony, here's He Dreamed of Machines:

Pet Shop Boys with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra - He Dreamed of Machines

Other pop acts making their début at this years Proms two-month season of 92 concerts are singer-songwriters Paloma Faith and Rufus Wainwright. Here's the launch video for the BBC Proms season 2014:

BBC Proms season 2014

Mr Wainwright will also be appearing on stage in Hyde Park in September for the season-closing spectacle that is Proms in the Park - one of our gang's favourite events in our Season Calendar. But the big news is the headline act for that day-long outing... none other than '70s superstars Earth, Wind and Fire! Wow...

So, continuing today's "Thank Disco It's Friday" musical theme, here are the gentlemen themselves (much, much younger of course) with the able accompaniment of The Emotions (whatever happened to them?) and Boogie Wonderland:

Earth, Wind & Fire - Boogie Wonderland

I can't wait!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms

"Perhaps a piece of Mahler's..."

We went to a "proper grown-up Prom" last night - the first in several years. Our gang always arranges our grand annual picnic at Proms in the Park (for the Last Night), yet the whole of the rest of the season generally passes us by. But, Madam Arcati was determined this year to get tickets for one of the rare visits by Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic, and by being up and ready when the online box office opened, managed to grab seats for Hils, History Boy, Alistair and I.

If we were to pick only one Prom out of a season, this had to be it. And what a magnificent, emotionally draining sensory delight it turned out to be! With an opening half featuring Beethoven's Symphony number 4 - a delightful entrée, beautifully done - it was nevertheless the feast of the second half that the audience had come to hear!

Mahler's Symphony number 1 ("The Titan") is a beautiful Romantic (in the artistic sense) fantasy, loosely themed around four Lieder he had previously composed for a lost love. It is meant to evoke the windy forests of Mahler's native Moravia, the sunshine and the darkness, the folk songs and the forces of nature.

Sir Simon had the orchestra (and the audience) perfectly controlled (as only a musical genius can) and they played all four movements beautifully and brilliantly - there were periods when I (and I guess thousands of others at the Royal Albert Hall) were literally holding our breath.

Mere words cannot begin to describe the experience, but it has been a long time since a single evening's entertainment has so moved me...

Here is a fine recording of the First Movement:

Columbia Symphony Orchestra - Symphony No. 1, 1st movement (Mahler)

And here Sir Simon's predecessor Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic perform the marvellous Third Movement:

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Claudio Abbado - Symphony No. 1, 3rd movement (Mahler)

The Proms season continues until the Last Night on Saturday 11th September...