note to king feddy

your Highness,

something i forgot to mention in our phone calls last week (and since
monday isn't a dead-lock for me, i wanted to pass it along now).

the oakland opera theatre (http://www.oaklandopera.org/) is doing a
version of duke ellington's only opera, "queenie pie," this month.
interesting in several respects:

* it was never finished. what's been put together is a series of rough
notes, with some additional capping orchestration. (duke's son, "don't
call me 'paul'" mercer did quite a bit of work on the 1st performance
along with the then-still-existing duke ellington orchestra.)

* it's very well acclaimed. robert palmer gave it a super-glowing
review in the new york times years ago (means more coming from him than
probably any other whitey because of his work/near-death experiences in
jamaica with lee "scratch" perry). it's supposed to be an order of
magnitude better than "porgy and bess," which, let's face it, isn't that
hard.

* it's hideously difficult to see live. and it's playing right in our
own backyard in what has to be the greatest city to see it on the west
coast (outside of compton).

i suspect the prince and the toe are too young to fully appreciate it.
but you might be able to convince the trouble and strife to either get a
sitter and go with you, or possibly watch the mutant off-spring in your
stead (although the emotional cost there might be prohibitively high).

i'm still not certain of my travel plans, but i *think* i'll be around
at least a day or two where i could work in a look-see to check it out.

your servant,
b1

p.s. this posted with the super-secret email address from my hiptop. if
you're seeing a post, it works!