Archives for August 28, 2012

As some of you know, I’m simultaneously revising Satchmo at the Waldorf for its transfer to New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre in October and working with Paul Moravec to revise The Letter for its New York premiere in February. (Operas have much longer lead times than straight plays.) I also have to write two Wall Street Journal columns, a Commentary essay, and a program note for the Long Wharf production of Satchmo at the Waldorf between now and Thursday morning.
Complicating matters still further is the fact that the lovely country cottage where Mrs. T and I are living during our stay in Lenox is so far off the beaten path that my cellphone doesn’t work there, nor do I have access to a wi-fi signal. I have to drive five miles to the nearest McDonald’s in order to pick up my e-mail and check my voicemail.
For all these reasons, I’ve got quite a bit more to do than I can easily handle this week, so if you’re trying to get in touch with me, please be patient–I may not get back to you until after Labor Day.

I know, I know, don’t read your own reviews, but the Boston Globe review of Satchmo at the Waldorf really is too gratifying not to pass on….

From 2008:

I was sitting on the couch eating a bowl of high-fiber cereal yesterday morning when the phone rang. It was Paul Moravec, my collaborator on The Letter.
“Can we talk?” he said. “I’m stuck on the high C in scene four. What do we do next?”
Translation: Paul is composing the fourth scene of our opera….

Read the whole thing here.

“A list of books that you reread is like a clearing in the forest: a level, clean, well-lighted place where you set down your burdens and set up your home, your identity, your concerns, your continuity in a world that is at best indifferent, at worst malign.”
L.E. Sissman, “The Constant Rereader’s Five-Foot Shelf”