http://www.ubs.com/1/e/about/sponsor/cultu...y/wedgwood.html

A museum-grade exhibition, instructive, beautifully mounted, entirely lit by natural light, and boasting an expensively produced brochure. On the down side:

- its subject matter isn't one to bring the crowds out;

- it's in a space carved out of a busy lobby in a location far below the sniffy radar of the usual gallery mob;

- there is no visible advertising to museumgoers;

- it keeps strange hours and is dark on weekends.

The net result is one of the city's best-kept secrets. Two of us went one mid-morning and had the place to ourselves. A great luxury for us, but the show deserves more attention.

Stu, everything you enumerate sounds like a positive to me. Thanks for dragging this out of the shadows.

UBS is on a culture kick, it seems, though with varying results. Last fall an acquaintance with retirement funds under management by that estimable firm got from them a pair of tickets gratis to the Boston Symphony, and invited me. I thought, goodie. That week the divine Levine had programmed a provocative pairing of the Grosse Fugue with Schoenberg, to show how Ludwig van's final thoughts were a hundred years in advance of themselves.

Alas, as it turned out, our maestro knew the UBS audience well enough to insert the ever-lovin' Beethoven violin concerto in place of the Grosse Fugue that night. And instead of Verklärte Nacht, we were basted with the New World Symphony. The audience, enthusiastic if naught else, applauded after every movement. (One of the cellists finally had to pretend to drop his bow at the end of each movement, to have an excuse to turn away from the footlights so we would not see him trying not to laugh.)

Stu, everything you enumerate sounds like a positive to me. Thanks for dragging this out of the shadows.

UBS is on a culture kick, it seems, though with varying results. Last fall an acquaintance with retirement funds under management by that estimable firm got from them a pair of tickets gratis to the Boston Symphony, and invited me. I thought, goodie. That week the divine Levine had programmed a provocative pairing of the Grosse Fugue with Schoenberg, to show how Ludwig van's final thoughts were a hundred years in advance of themselves.

Alas, as it turned out, our maestro knew the UBS audience well enough to insert the ever-lovin' Beethoven violin concerto in place of the Grosse Fugue that night. And instead of Verklärte Nacht, we were basted with the New World Symphony. The audience, enthusiastic if naught else, applauded after every movement. (One of the cellists finally had to pretend to drop his bow at the end of each movement, to have an excuse to turn away from the footlights so we would not see him trying not to laugh.)

To put in a good word for UBS, it's involved in more cultural activity than I would have guessed, not all of which inpires the kind of amusement you describe. Recently I watched a Decca DVD of an opera performance from Zurich that received financial support from UBS. Most notably, the star of the piece is Juan Diego Flórez, whose breathtaking performances of the tenorino repertory leave us opera queens in unremitting raptures while his Latino good looks fire our all-consuming lust.

For those who may not be aware of him:

http://www.jcarreras.homestead.com/FLOREZ1.html

http://www.jcarreras.homestead.com/FLOREZ1.html

Where is the 'swoon' avatar?

A thread on the Other Site took appreciative note of hot males now gracing the opera stage. Welcome change from the days when most could play Fafner without makeup.

Where is the 'swoon' avatar?

A thread on the Other Site took appreciative note of hot males now gracing the opera stage. Welcome change from the days when most could play Fafner without makeup.

So I went to that thread on the OS and found a link to the opera corner of barenakedmen. My stars and garters! Enough to make my high E flat crack.

my high E flat crack.

I would like to have written that.

But I'm being salacious again.

(...And last year's garden grows salacious weeds...)

I would like to have written that.

But I'm being salacious again.

(...And last year's garden grows salacious weeds...)

Your incorrigible salacity has earned the lash of my opprobrium, which is as harsh as my forgivenes is slow.

Have a nice weekend.

my opprobrium, which is as harsh as my forgivenes is slow.

Exquisite!

My rhetoric strives toward yours with ponderous speed.

Exquisite!

My rhetoric strives toward yours with ponderous speed.

Thank you. I wish you better luck than mine with your typos along the way. Never saw it until I read your post. Embarrassing.