List of Bloggers
Monthly blog archive
- May 2012 (1)
- April 2012 (4)
- March 2012 (16)
- February 2012 (3)
- January 2012 (3)
About dramma per musica
Name
Robert KingstonBio
Where to begin? My name is Bob Kingston. I’m a librarian, free-lance musicologist, pre-concert lecturer, and self-professed opera fanatic living in Portland, Oregon. My operatic tastes are pretty eclectic, though I’m not a huge fan of French grand opera (who is?) and Gluck’s appeal totally escapes me. Radical or updated stagings don’t bother me in the least, as long as they succeed in bringing out aspects of the drama that I hadn’t noticed before. I’d rather watch something that generates a strong reaction–negative or positive–than sit through yet another thunderously dull production of Carmen or Rigoletto. I love collecting historic vocal recordings, and I often use examples of these in my classes and presentations. So, don’t be surprised if I post a clip of some obscure Russian tenor or Italian baritone from time to time.
James King (1925-2005)
On May 22, 1813, Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig, Germany, an event that, for good or ill, forever changed the way we think about and listen to opera. Exactly 112 years later, James King, whose reputation as America’s leading Wagnerian tenor was established during the 1960s and 1970s primarily through his performances of such roles as Siegmund, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, and Parsifal, was born about 5,000 miles away, in the small southwestern Kansas town of Dodge City. 
