Category: Musical

My Musical Career | Part Seventy

The DMMO Years The 2006 Season As I begin to write about the 2006 season, I take a moment to reflect on the fact that I am at this moment sitting in a hotel room in Indianola, IA, having attended the opening performance of the 2024 Summer Festival. – Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Seviglia, and …

Continue reading

My Musical Career | Part Sixty-Nine

Yamahas and Me

The DMMO YearsThe 2005 Season The 2005 Summer Festival was interesting because it was quite varied. There were three mainstage productions in the summer portion of the season, and one winter production in December of 2005. There was one British opera, one French opera, one Italian opera, and one opera by an Italian American. It …

Continue reading

My Musical Career | Part Sixty-Eight

The DMMO Years – The 2004 Summer Season Having taken a break from writing about my years with the DMMO Summer Festival with the last post which was entitled “Have Drums Will Travel” and which dealt with how I was able to get established materially as a freelance musician – particularly regarding transporting my equipment …

Continue reading

My Musical Career| Part Sixty-Seven

Drums in Chicago

Have Drums, Will Travel – How I managed to get around with my drums The subtitle for this entire blog site is called “Have Drums, Will Travel. It is a tip of the hat to an old western entitled “Have Gun, Will Travel”, which starred the actor Richard Boone as “Paladin”. Eighteen or so years …

Continue reading

My Musical Career | Part Sixty-Six

The DMMO Years – The 2003 Season The 2002 summer festival was blockbuster, with three big productions back-to-back. Normally, one would expect that after such a season, the programming would be more conservative, especially with the expenses of the previous festival in mind. However, that was not the case with the 2003 Festival season, another …

Continue reading

My Musical Career| Part Sixty-Five

The Des Moines Metro Opera YearsThe Eventful 2002 Season The 2002 DMMO Summer Festival was one of those memorable seasons for more reasons than one. First, musically it was a blockbuster season. Three fantastic productions, all full of challenge. For this season, Dr. Larsen and the management decided to stage Puccini’s Turandot; Richard Strauss’s Salome; …

Continue reading

My Musical Career | Part Sixty-Four

Blank Performing Arts Center

The DMMO Years The 2001 Season The 2001 DMMO Summer Festival season was among the most memorable of my nineteen seasons with the company. For two reasons. First, the repertory was extraordinary. Dr. Larsen had chosen the repertory with care. In January 2001, the company presented an off-season production of Puccini’s La Boheme, which is …

Continue reading

My Musical Career | Part Sixty-Three

The Des Moines Metro Opera Years – The 2000 Season A Very Interesting Season One fact about the Des Moines Metro Opera (hereafter referred to by its acronym DMMO) that has been constant over the years, is that its repertory has never been boring. Each season has always had something of interest, whether repertory, casting, …

Continue reading

My Musical Career | Part Sixty Two

The Des Moines Metro Opera Years – Season Two My last blog post dealt with my first season with the Des Moines Metro Opera Festival – which took place during the summer of 1998. I had just began my terminal leave from the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, and considered myself fortunate to join up with a …

Continue reading

My Musical Career I Part Sixty-One

Blank Performing Arts Center

The Des Moines Metro Opera Years – Part One I ended my last blog post with my winning the taped audition for the post of Principal Timpanist of the Des Moines Metro Opera Festival Orchestra, a post I was to hold for eighteen years – or nineteen seasons. To recap, as a result of our …

Continue reading