Rainy days and Fridays...?
Just when you thought you had considered all of the possible streaming services - - last week I joined Medici TV, a streaming services that specializes in classical music and jazz. They had cleverly offered occasional free content during the shutdown and I watched Der Freischütz and Die Tote Stadt and enjoyed them. I've stayed on their email list since then, hoping they'd have more free stuff, but hey, they're in the Making Money business, right?
Early this week they sent an email saying they were streaming Handel's Theodora from Covent Garden. I was supposed to have seen this same production in February 2023 - - Richard and I planned a trip to London but it ended up working better for us to go in August 2023. I was disappointed not to have seen Theodora, which was starring two singers I had heard and loved (Americans Julia Bullock and Joyce Di Donato) and another singer I hardly knew (Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński). So I was excited that Medici was streaming it.
I hoped to pay a one-time fee (would you think $5?) to watch just that one opera but no, of course you have to be a subscriber to watch anything. They were having a half off sale so I signed up. Go figure I haven't watched Theodora yet (I'm going to watch it this weekend) but I watched a great production of my beloved Lohengrin and a fantastic 1974 concert by Sarah Vaughan and her trio in Brussels. She did a lot of songs I hadn't heard from her before, I admired that she was keeping things fresh and livening up her rep. The biggest surprise was "Rainy Days and Mondays." Sarah Vaughan and The Carpenters are two of my greatest musical loves and I never thought there would be an overlap.
I bet Karen and Richard Carpenter were pretty floored when they heard about this.
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