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Orange Guard
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There were a number of ants coming into the house through a kitchen window, but they haven’t been there for the past few days since I sprayed the window sill with Orange Guard, a spray the active ingredient of which is made from orange peels. It seems like a safe product to use in a kitchen window.

“NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Steinway Musical Instruments Inc., maker of the iconic grand piano, said Monday it has bought ArkivMusic LLC, which sells classical music recordings online, for about $4.5 million.

“Steinway will pay $3 million in cash up front and make annual payments of about $500,000 over the next three years, according to a release.

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“ArkivMusic sells over 90,000 titles, including several out-of-print selections, the company said.”–cnn.com

I went to New York on Saturday May 10, 2008, to see Camelot at the New York Philharmonic in the afternoon and a recital by Dame Felicity Lott with Graham Johnson, piano, in the evening.

I got to New York around noon time and walked from Pennsylvania Station to Columbus Circle, where I had a salmon salad sandwich and a bottle of water at the Whole Foods supermarket. I then walked to Lincoln Center, where I planned to browse in the shop at the Metropolitan Opera, but it was closed, and I didn’t bother to find out the reason. It seems strange to me since they already have the space and the inventory. Wouldn’t they make enough on Saturday to keep it open with three or four employees?

Camelot began at two. My seat in row K turned out to be closer to the stage than I had expected, since they had removed the first few rows of seats and had extended the stage out into the space where they had been. So I had a very good view of all the singers. As on the television broadcast, Nathan Gunn was by far the star of the show. Gabriel Byrne may have been slighty better than on Thursday, but I have revised my opinion of his performance, and now I really don’t think it’s good enough. He really doesn’t speak all that well, nor act very well, nor hardly sing at all. I think I would do better, and my singing is pretty bad. All he has to recommend him is the fact that he is a celebrity, and the audience gets to feel they are seeing a celebrity for their money. Any actor in his forties chosen at random from any regional repertory company would probably do much better. Seeing Marin Mazzie from all sorts of angles, I found it even more obvious that she has a big mouth. She looks and acts like somebody who could play the mother of suburban teenagers in a TV show. Very mundane. We have to take it on faith that Lancelot is in love with Guinivere, because nothing on the stage suggested there would be any reason.

After the performance I took a walk to some of the stores on Fifth Avenue, and then I walked up Madison Avenue. I had a meal at a Viand Cafe on Madison Avenue–cream of broccoli soup, vegetarian lasagna, and a ginger ale. Then I walked over to Carnegie Hall for the Felicity Lott recital in Zankel Hall.

Before the recital began, I overheard conversation of one woman and two men in the row behind me. The woman said, “I think I’m going to like this one a lot more than the last one.” First man: “What was the last one?” Woman: “Gunn.” First man: “I didn’t go to that. From what I read, I don’t think I would have liked the projections or the dancer.” Second man: “Well, I give him an A plus for the attempt. I also saw him recently in Camelot and I don’t think anybody has ever sung those two songs better than he did.” Woman: “Yes, I agree. I watched the broadcast.”

The program for Felicity Lott’s recital was:

Dame Felicity Lott, Soprano
Graham Johnson, Piano

Felicity Lott is very much a true song recitalist, and the recital was a great pleasure. She communicates each song intelligently and seems very much aware of the audience’s presence and seems eager to please the audience. Her enunciation was always very clear. Her sound was always pleasant and at times beautiful.

The three Noel Coward songs and the three songs following them were all written for the French singer Yvonne Printemps. Graham Johnson spoke briefly about her before beginning the Coward songs. Although she was in a show in English with Noel Coward, her English was very poor. Felicity Lott sang the Coward songs as Printemps would have, with a French accent.

The audience response was very enthusiastic. There were three encores: “Life is very rough and tumble” from Bittersweet by Noel Coward (not written for Yvonne Printemps), Poulenc’s “Les chemins de l’amour” (written for Printemps), and from La Belle Hélène by Offenbach, “On me nomme Hélène la blonde” . . . “Dis-moi Vénus.”

I watched the broadcast of Camelot from the New York Philharmonic last night on PBS TV.  I never liked the book for that show, and I still don’t, but I enjoyed the performance because of the songs.  Nathan Gunn as Lancelot was the best of the singers, and he acted well too.  He was even better than I had thought he would be.  I thought Gabriel Byrne was good enough as Arthur.  Marin Mazzie as Guinivere would be OK for summer stock, but for a television broadcast she had too matronly a persona for the role and not an especially pretty voice.  Fran Drescher with her Nanny voice as Morgan le Fey was not funny.

The work on the house continues. Now three sides of the house have been sanded.