On one episode of #DAAS Kapital, Paul does a monologue to a bluesy accompaniment. I've been wondering for years what the blazes he was sending up and now, thanks to another send up (this time by #AnnaRussell), I've discovered what it is - apparently there was a form of poetry reading popular back in 1957 where people would get together and listen to people reciting poetry whilst a #jazz ensemble was playing in the background. It was called Poetry Readings in the Cellar.

I haven't decided whether or not I like it yet - but I can see why it was an experiment, and I can see why people send it up.

And there's an album, too, called "Poetry Readings in the Cellar" and it was recorded by Kenneth Roxroth and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. I found it on Spotify if anybody feels like checking it out.

#MythologyMonday #jewels #Wagner #RingCycle #opera

Top tip: Never steal gold from the Rhine Maidens and make it into a cursed ring. It only leads to Gotterdammerung and the world being consumed in flames. And a lot of competitive singing.

Let #AnnaRussell tell you all about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m69aPAo1rXE

Fancy writing a Gilbert & Sullivan opera? Anna Russell shows you how.
#opera #GilbertAndSullivan #AnnaRussell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsWlug0xqns

How to fake your way through Wagner's Ring Cycle, with the glorious Anna Russell.
#opera #Wagner #AnnaRussell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m69aPAo1rXE

Anna Russell, comedian, singer and satirist, was born in London #OTD in 1911.

She's best known for her famous send-up of Wagner's Ring, but here she is at Carnegie Hall in 1965, singing the praises of Folly in Dittersdorf's Arcifanfano, King of Fools, when the opera was given a new English language libretto by WH Auden and Chesler Kalman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZRLQgW0dSY&list=OLAK5uy_nxHFHkaAxM8Buvnxc08jgICag2vYy7leg&index=14

Newell Jenkins conducted: the cast also included the great Eleanor Steber.

@classicalmusic #AnnaRussell #Dittersdorf