Orquesta Tipica Sexteto de Diez

It would be well beyond facts to make the claim that every comedian is also inherently musical. However, I expect the exceptions would be a meager number when compared to those comedians who are, or in the case of comedians of yesterday, were endowed with significant musical abilities. Consider Steve Martin, today as much musician/banjo player as comedian. Even the recently departed Phyllis Diller played piano, apparently well enough in her younger years to consider a career in music. And what about Charlie Chaplin, who wrote music for his films?

This consideration of comedians as musicians is prompted by a postcard I recently pulled out of a box of Mexico memorabilia. It pictures a mural called "Comedians of the 20th Century." I'm not sure who painted the mural, but I believe it might be in San Miguel Allende. Pictured, from left to right: Will Rogers, Danny Kaye, Bob Hope, Cantinflas, Rafael Mendez, Buster Keaton, and Laurel & Hardy. Conducting, of course, is Charlie Chaplin. I'm not sure who the harpist is, but perhaps it is Harpo Marx. There's plenty of detail here to keep one engaged for quite some time. I especially like the humor of the group's name: Orquesta Tipica Sexteto de Diez (Sextet of Ten).

It was no less than Charlie Chaplin who crowned the Mexican comedian Mario Moreno, better known throughout Latin America as Cantinflas, "the world's best comedian." I think the title of best "musical" comedian might have to go to Danny Kaye, but perhaps Cantinflas would have run a somewhat close second. The musical scene in the 1952 Cantinflas movie, "Si Yo Fuera Diputado (If I Were a Deputy)," is pure joy. Here we find Cantinflas slipping past security to get backstage at a concert hall. The police are in hot pursuit, eventually leaving Cantinflas no where to go except, unwittingly, onstage. He's trapped, with no choice but to conduct the concert.

Hope you enjoy this excerpt as much as I did.

James Baker - host and producer of Itinerarios: Music with Latin American Roots.

Daniel Catán, 1949-2011

Mexican composer Daniel Catán, known for his operas “Il Postino” and “Florencia en el Amazonas,” died Friday, April 8 in Austin. He was 62. Catan was born in 1949 in Mexico City, and was the first Mexican composer to have an opera produced in the United States.
His opera “Il Postino” premiered in Los Angeles in the fall of 2010. The opera was based on the Oscar-winning film, and book by Antonio Skarmeta. Placido Domingo took the role of exiled Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who befriends a young postman.

Catán was to be in Houston this past weekend for the University of Houston Moores School of Music production of "Il Postino." The final performance was scheduled for this evening at 7:30. Earlier this spring, Catán's opera "Rappacini's Daughter" was staged at the University of Texas in Austin.
At the time of his death, Catán was working on another adaptation. His next project was to be an operatic version of Frank Capra’s “Meet John Doe,” commissioned by the University of Texas.

Last fall, KPAC’s James Baker spoke to Catán about “Il Postino” and his orchestral music.

Part 1: http://audio.tpr.org/itinerarios11091502.mp3
Part 2: http://audio.tpr.org/itinerarios11091501.mp3

Catán in February, 2011: http://audio.tpr.org/itinerarios1102.mp3


You can also listen to an interview with Catán on this page, from KPAC's Classical Spotlight: http://www.tpr.org/classicalspotlight/2011/02/cs1102241.html

Classical Spotlight: OLÉ!

Classical Spotlight roves from Round Top to Madrid, plus some Country Roads and Gold from one of today's leading composers!

SASym leaves on a jet plane
A Tribute to the Music of John Denver
November 19 & 20, 2010 8:00 p.m.
San Antonio Symphony
Trinity University's Laurie Auditorium
Michael Krajewski, conductor Jim Curry, singer

Benefit for a great cause
SA Mastersingers Concert for Alzheimers
Friday & Saturday November, 19 & 20, 2010 8 PM
John Silantien conducting Robert Cohen’s Alzeimer’s Stories
First Baptist Church, San Antonio (11/19)
First Presbyterian Church,Kerrville, TX (11/20)

200 & 100 Years celebration
Mexico 2010 November 20, 2010
Youth Orchestras San Antonio & Juventud Sinfonica de Monterrey
Municipal Auditorium 7 p.m.
Tickets required - to get your free ticket, call the YOSA office at 210.737.0097. 
San Antonio's Office of Cultural Affairs presents a festive celebration for the bicentennial of Mexico's Independence movement and the centennial of its Revolution in a concert shared with the Juventud Sinfonica de Monterrey.

OLÉ!
Walden Chamber Players, joined by the Trinity Chamber Singers and soloist, Dr. Linda McNeil
Sunday, Nov. 21, at 3 p.m. Ruth Taylor Recital Hall
The program, subtitled "Boccherini in Madrid," will feature 18th-century repertoiryincluding several Boccherini quintets, the Turina Oracion del Torero, and vocal works. Enhancing the cultural scope of the afternoon, students from Trinity's Madrid Summer Program and the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures will offer commentary on Spanish architecture, history, poetry, and daily life between the musical selections.

Schütz happens
Sunday November 21, 2010 at 4:00 pm
The Houston Chamber Choir, The Whole Noyse and Houston musicians perform works by Heinrich Schütz, the Master of Baroque Dresden. The founder of the Academy for Early Music in Bremen (Germany), Dr. Manfred Cordes, will conduct. In 1991 he was awarded his doctorate for his thesis on the relationship between tonality and emotion in the music of the Renaissance. In 1994 Dr. Cordes was appointed Professor of Early Music at the University of the Arts in Bremen, where served as Dean from 1996 to 2005 and was named Rector in 2007.
Reservations on line or call 979-249-3129

Light & Gold
Eric Whitacre has dazzled the composition scene for some time, but makes his conducting debut with a new Decca recording, Light & Gold.  The grammy nominated composer spoke to host John Clare about the new work, and about his project, The Virtual Choir.