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Pushkin vs Tchaikovsky: The Queen of Spades

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"Your Queen is dead!" "No, your Queen is dead!" ♠  Comparing the two Queens of Spades  ♠ Whenever you go to an opera performance of Eugene Onegin in Russia, there are always those dissatisfied people in the audience who argue that the characters are all portrayed wrong, how all modern productions are wrong, and basically how everything is wrong because some things aren’t “according to Pushkin”. Once I overheard someone commenting on Andriy Zholdak’s production at the Mikhailovsky Theatre (which is one of my favourite productions of Onegin!!) how it was “historically incorrect”! What? You mean, they didn’t have front-loader washing machines and microwaves in the 1820’s? Are you serious?! If we were to only value an operatic work (and its productions) on its likeness to the original text, then Tchaikovsky would fail instantly, as the very first words we hear in the opera Eugene Onegin (where Tatiana and Olga are singing a duet together) aren’t even
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10 Random Tips for Student Conductors

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Which paw do we use to hold the baton with, Sergei Vasilyevich? I like writing notes and making lists - it's one of my nerdy hobbies. I also enjoy attending orchestral rehearsals and watching other conducting students' lessons (at the Con this is not only encouraged but generally expected). In the last few years of studying in Saint-P, I've been able to observe lessons and masterclasses by great local and visiting conductors including Yuri Simonov, Alexander Dmitriev, Alexander Polyanichko, Alexander Polischuk, Vladimir Altshuler, Bruno Weil, Jonathan Brett, Colin Metters, Mark Stringer and many others. Also I was lucky enough to be one of the active participants for Vasily Sinaisky's conducting masterclass with our Con orchestra. So I thought I'd share with you 10 tips and quotes from various teachers and professors in the past that I've found helpful as a conducting student (they're in no particular order by the way). Please note that I can't r
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Tolstoy and the Green Stick

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The Green Stick : A Symphonic Fairy Tale With A Vegan Message Tolstoy's grave - the location of the 'green stick'. Photo by me (2010). When the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy was a little boy, his brother Nikolai had told him about the legend of the mysterious  green stick which had a message engraved in it. That message contained the secret to universal happiness where all people would be free from illness and suffering. Although little Leo never found such stick, the idea of it captivated him throughout his adult life. Today, he is buried in the same location where he believed he may have been able to find that green stick - near the ravine in the forest of his family estate Yasnaya Polyana, south of Moscow. What could have possibly been written on that stick? I wrote a musical fairy tale for symphony orchestra based on this legend, literally titled  The Green Stick , which contains my interpretation of the secret message which was engraved on that
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