The DMMO Years The 2010 Summer Season A Time of Transition The 2010 summer season was a time of transition for the company. It was this season that Dr. Robert L. Larsen began transitioning out of active leadership of the company, which he co-founded with the late Douglas Duncan in 1973. Up to and including …
Category: Personal
Feb 19
My Musical Career | Part Seventy-Three
The DMMO Years The 2009 Summer Season The 2009 summer season was one of the most interesting and at the same time, one of the most poignant of my tenure with the orchestra. Most interesting because of the repertoire, which included three operas, but what three operas! First out of the gate was Puccini’s “Tosca“, …
Feb 16
My Musical Career|Part Seventy-Two
The DMMO Years The 2008 Summer Festival The 2008 Summer Festival season marked my tenth year and eleventh season as a member of the orchestra. All I could think of at the time was the usual, “My! How time flies!” It does indeed, especially when one is having as much fun as I did.With the …
Nov 12
My Musical Career| Part Seventy-One
The DMMO Years The 2007 Summer Season In many ways, the 2007 summer season of the Des Moines Metro Opera Festival was one of the most memorable. In terms of repertoire, this was a power-packed season. There were three mainstage productions, as was the norm for this period in the company’s development, plus the Artist’s …
Jul 30
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 …
Jun 25
My Musical Career | Part Sixty-Nine
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 …
Apr 01
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 …
Jan 20
My Musical Career| Part Sixty-Seven
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 …
Nov 03
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 …
Oct 14
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; …
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