RE: GG: Anna Russell

[St-Laurent Gilles <gsl@nlo.nlc-bnc.ca>]

Junichi,

You'll find an entry on Anna Russel in the

TITLE(S): *Encyclopedia of music in Canada / edited by Helmut Kallmann,
                       Gilles Potvin, Kenneth Winters
EDITION:  2nd ed. / Helmut Kallmann and Gilles Potvin, editors ; Robin
                       Elliott (English style), Mark Miller (jazz and
                       English-language pop music), associate editors.
PUBLISHER:  Toronto : University of Toronto Press, c1992.
DESCRIPTION:  xxxii, 1524 p. : ill., facsims., ports. ; 32 cm.

NUMBERS:  ISBN:  0802028810

If you do not have access to this useful tome, I can fax you a copy of the 
article.

Gilles St-Laurent
Music Division
National Library of Canada

 ----------
>From: owner-f_minor
>To: f_minor mailing list
>Subject: GG: Anna Russell
>Date: July 15, 1998 09:34
>
>I am still translating the interview-formatted linernotes
>for the Wagner transcription into Japanese:
>
>KH:  Well, now do these motives of yours relate
>thematically to the rest of the work?
>GG:  Well, Ken, I'll tell you.  I'd like to know the "Ring" cycle
>as well as Anna Russell does, so that I could say with assurance
>that they're really an inversion of the forge-motif, or something
>--but I don't, and they aren't--at least as far as I know.
>They're simply a very pragmatic solution to a very real problem--
>but, if I do say so myself, they do sound convincingly Wagnarian.
>
>
>Could anyone tell me who Anna Russell is?
>
>I made a search on Yahoo and found the following interesting site:
>
>http://www.radio.cbc.ca/programs/takefive/PERFORMANCE/A_RUSSELL/ANNA.html
>
>Here, you can listen to Anna Russell and a Canadian conductor Mario 
Bernardi
>singing the Scottish Rhapsody from Walton's Facade (REAL AUDIO).
>It is very amusing.  I remember GG and Patricia Rideout did the same.
>
>I understand she is a comedian-singer, a "musical catoonist",
>and there are some discs available.
>
>Moreover on the same site:
>
>>The Ring of the Nibellungs*
>>("the only grand opera that comes in the giant economy size")
>>Her analysis of Wagner's 'Ring' cycle, is her undoubted
>>masterpiece.  To call it funny is to understate the obvious.
>>More important, however, beneath the laughter is an accurate
>>musical and dramatic analysis of the tetralogy that countless
>>university lecturers might envy. And the better you know your
>>Wagner, the funnier hers will be.
>>*Included in "The Anna Russell Album?,"(Sony MKD 47252)
>
>So this is what GG refered to with Anna Russell.
>I understand she made a reduced (and funny) version of the Ring cycle.
>Could anyone tell me more about Anna Russell
>and her "Ring" cycle well enough to understand accurately
>what GG means in the interview and to add a footnote for it?
>
>Thank you in advance.
>
>Regards,
>
>Junichi
>
>P.S. I got to know she was born in 1911.  Is she still alive?
>Was/Is she fairly famous?  Particularly in Canada?
>I read Sir Earnest MacMillan used to invite her to his annual
>Chrismas concerts of TSO.
>
>****************************************
>  Junichi Miyazawa, Tokyo
>  walkingtune@bigfoot.com
>  (alias for: farnorth@mbc.sphere.ne.jp)
>****************************************
>  http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/3739
>
>
>
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