November 10 - Nothing to Be Done

Like Estragon (the incredibly talented and chamelion-like Meghan Dibble above -- last year in my opera on Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot --



who's much more her fabulous-looking self as Nurse / Eurydice in Antigone, here with Alix Jerinic, as Antigone's Handmaid), the day is mostly sitting around, thank goodness, after eight days in a row driving to Berkeley and San Francisco for rehearsals and performances, not that I'm complaining. So it's blog and kinda sorta life catch-up (Antigone pictures new and old at markalburgerworks.blogspot.com, by clicking on Op. 88), and the farthest that Harriet and I travel is to the grocery store and a 2/3 price NYT, not bad.

Right, and orchestration of page 7 for Moses and Aaron: XXI.

October 5 - Berkeley Heroes Sandwich

,

The days are full, and this one will eventually lead to the University of California at Davis, where last Monday I caught up with the prospect of Bette's disability (via cellphone in the redwoods) and reviewed the score of Aaron Copland's Music for the Theatre for orchestrational advice.



Today begins finding the old transposition (beginning down a third on Bb from the original D) of Antigone: XII. The Pride of Oedipus for Micah (who has now joined our rehearsals as of today, above). Also, a new shifting -- m3 south -- for XX. I've Had Them Laid, plus email all the midi files to William Loney for choreography.


And, yes, the Berkeley Chamber Arts rehearsal, with our assembled forces for Antigone, including Meghan Dibble (Eurydice / Nurse), Eliza O'Malley (Antigone), Kimberley Anderman (Ismene),


directed by Harriet March Page, with Erin Lahm (Guard), Adam Broner (Chairman), Michael Desnoyers (Haemon / Guard / Messenger), Micah Epps (Creon), Terrence Bennan (Puppetmaster), Lisa McHenry (Page), and Alix Jerenic (Handmaid). Re-arriving next week are Maria Mikheyenko (Guard), Dalyte Kodzis (Handmaid), and William Loney (Guard). Perhaps I'll jump in as Guard at some point, too -- among one of our largest casts!


And Keisuke Nakagoshi at the piano, of course. John Bilata's Quantum Mechanic goes well, too, with both composer and librettist in attendance and a burgeoning subtext romance for Mrs. Schrodinger and the Mechanic. John takes the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra scores to Martha Stoddard after rehearsal, as she has agreed to conduct in my stead during this scheduling times of collisions with Opera Apocalypse performances.



Afterwards, another fine singer from San Francisco Conservatory auditions for us,


then Harriet's off to Melinda's while I head home, past the Claremont Hotel,


through the Caldecott Tunnel,



to the Orinda side,


aside the Shakespeare Festival Hills,



and eventually to Davis, again, to receive instrumentation advices from the Igor Stravinsky Threni (filling tank on way back [at the least expensive price in these times and places -- $4.46 / gal] by dark, derelict trucks),



for Amazing Joseph: VI. Why Don't You Do Something?, first page of which is orchestrated upon return.

August 22 - Gradations

Up the Oakville Grade in Napa for a walk before heading to Marin, etc.,



after a small Goat Hall / San Francisco Cabaret Opera board meeting with Harriet and Meghan.


The Grade starts as a left turn from California 29, with views north of Mt. Saint Helena,



and evidently shelters a government nuclear emergency somewhere in the back country, to wit:

"Oakville Grade, Napa CA

Continuity of Government operations plans provide the capability to maintain essential government services and emergency functions in the most serious of events affecting national security.

A secret underground installation near Oakville Grade is used by the United States Government for Continuity of Government in case of nuclear attack or other disasters, direct satellite communication, , and secure communication links in the event of a disaster.

This heavily protected concrete facility replaced other installations, including those at Benicia, and an underground facility in an old railroad tunnel at Ukiah. This remote area of Napa was considered to be safe from the nuclear fallout from the San Francisco Bay Area. The Oakville Grade structure is near the top of a mountain. Aerial shots taken over the 87 acre Bureau land near Oakville Grade have been reported to show large cement bunkers with large concrete doors, a new road, freshly graded, and some underground facility.

The facility is the result of recommendations by the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Commission's Commercial Satellite Survivability Task Force, which resulted in 1988 and 1989 initiatives to ensure secure national and international communications and continuity of government in case of war or disaster.

It is less than entirely apparent how accurate this account is, but it is included for the sake of completeness, since it might be true."

[http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/facility/oakville_grade.htm]



O.K., so off we go, by a horse,



from a parking space midway (yes, parked on the wrong side of the road near a washout),



between the intersection of Mt. Veeder Road,



with a scrimmed vista of distant Bald Mountain west in Sonoma County



to the crossing of Dry Creek (this stretch of road is actually signed as the latter) and back to the car (still misparked).



From here, on to Marin over the roller coaster of Trinity Road, through Sonoma Valley (of the Moon) by Glen Ellen near Jack London State Park, over the mountains on 116, down Lakeville Road to 37 and 101 to The Magic Flute in the Terra Linda section of San Rafael, to pick up a full score of G.F. Handel's Israel in Egypt, for orchestrational advice while scoring Israel in Trouble, Op. 54 -- which, unlike Georg Frideric's recalls Jacob, rather than Moses....



Contouring around San Rafael Hill on the Robert Dollar Drive with sightlines to the fog-bisected East Bay,



the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge,



East San Rafael and the 101 viaduct over Corte Madera Ridge,



Mission San Rafael / Saint Raphael's



and Mount Tamalpais



to the San Anselmo post box, then late lunch and grading first fall 2008 theory quizzes at Celia's.



Home via Pleasant Hill and a relatively long stop at the lab, gradually recording instrumental versions of Iliad Songs: III. Achilles and



The Wind God: XIII. We Almost Mutinied,



followed by orchestration by degrees, in residence, of Israel: I. If It Is Thus, Rachel's musical scream-in-labor of the unborn rivalry of Esau and Jacob.



Also, while still at school, post Op. 95 Animal Opera: An Orwellian Comedy: II --

a. Will There Be Any Sugar
b. Drive Away Man
c. The Seven Commandments

-- at myspace.com/markalburger (pictured is the Alliance of Pigs and Men from the Goat Hall production several years back).

June 22 - Singing Byrds of a Feather

Byrd is the word (Renaissance William's Sanctus from the Mass for Four Voices) at St. Gregory's today in SF today, then To Everything There Is an Audition at Chamber Arts for Goat Hall San Francisco Cabaret Opera auditions with



Meghan Dibble,



Suzanna Mizell,



Alix Jerinic, Alex Katzman, and Harriet March Page. Lots of wonderful singing -- from auditionees Suzanna, Alix, Jillian Boye, Sasha Joggerst (Tiger Brown down in Santa Cruz, as noted a while back), Erin Lahm, Allison Collins, Annemarie Ballinger, Robin Hansen, Ayelet Cohen, Elizabeth Russ (Polly Peachum in same), and Shauna Fallihee -- and more next week at the same time, as we begin casting for



Mice and Men (Act V, Scene 2 B page 6 prepared for publication, incidentally)



Antigone,



Diocletian,



The Countess Cathleen, and fine works by the likes of Henry Purcell, Peter Josheff, and others.

June 13 - Waiting for Pogo

Nothing to be done when Friday the 13 falls on a Friday this month,



so here's Meghan Dibble (Estragon) and Eliza O'Malley (Vladimir) singing the opening of Waiting for Godot (with more at markalburgerworks.blogspot.com - dated February 1, 2005).




Nothing to be done but watch the beautiful/horrible/incredible documentary War/Dance (re the ongoing strifes in Northern, reaching down to Central, Uganda) with Harriet, be grateful for Crystal's safe return from such striken places as Soroti (which up to several years ago was perceived as far enough south to be secure), and mindful of the perils of the inumerable.



Nothing to be done but prepare page 20 for publication of Mice and Men, Act V, Scene 2. Hm, people waiting....

May 31 - More Of Mice and Mordake

Page 11 of Mice and Men: Act V, Scene 2 prepared for publication, then off to see



Meghan Dibble (of Estragon Waiting for Godot fame, as well as Steven Clark's Dionysus and the Child in Sheli Nan's Saga among other wonderful roles) briefly (cooling heels with newspapers and blogging, while she and Harriet have a meeting re upcoming auditions) in the foggy-windy Monterey district of San Francisco,



with, nonetheless beautiful views south from her balcony (close to this vista, which is actually from higher up on the slopes of Mt. Davidson, SF's high point),



then off again to see the wizard Erling Wold's brilliant



Mordake, with the one-and-only John Duykers (of Mao renown in John Adams's Nixon in China, Pilate in Erling's Sub Pontio Pilato, leading roles in SF Opera productions including the Virgil Thomson Mother of Us All several years back) in this beautiful, intriguing, and ominous production -- written up soon at 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com, 21st-centurymusic.com, and 21st-Century Music -- featuring altered recorded music by our own San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra conducted (though uncredited -- Erling has extended his apologies, cheerfully accepted) by yours truly.