Roger Bourland
writes about music and life

102º at 8 pm, Palm Springs. Cicadas screaming. Stravinsky’s “Petrouchka” on the radio, Larry sanding. Bike ride at dusk finds a smoketree in bloom.

Photo by Larry Luchtel.

[This is a letter to my overseers for this commission, Tappan Wilder and J. D. McClatchy. I finished the opera today; it’s a CHAMBER opera that is only 15 minutes. There will be a total of three operas, all based on short plays by Thornton Wilder. If you’d like to hear a mockup instrumental version […]

Dear Prof Berlioz,
Thank you for the roses and the thoughtful if not naughty card. I have not completed your assignment because of the concerts last week, and well, y’know, I’ve just been caught up in it all. So, may we meet once before I go to Europe? I promise I’ll have a great piece of […]

This is where many of us heard Tiny Tim for the first time. Be sitting down for this.

Tiny Tim sings “Tiptoe through the tulips”

I’m making great progress on the opera, and I’m taking a break to introduce you to my host here in Palm Springs, Larry Luchtel. Larry has a new home here and is working hard to make it look even more fabulous than it already is. So I sit here and compose, and he works in […]

C’s tattoo; photo by Roger Bourland.

The wedding was one of the best I’ve been to. We met so many very interesting people from New York Pennsylvania, and DC, but it seems unlikely we’ll ever see them again.
It was a golden afternoon when we arrived at the location for the wedding. It was hosted by the […]

I’m in Palm Springs today. It’s 110 degrees fahrenheit. Good thing it’s air conditioned. The pool is 90 degrees. I hope to finish my first chamber opera on Thornton Wilder’s “Flight into Egypt.” Burn a candle. Think hot.
I’m taking the rest of the day off. So for the time being, while it cools down to […]

Dogs by Jon Swihart.

I have had the privilege of meeting and getting to know the work of painter Jon Swihart. Daniel commissioned Jon to paint our Italian Greyhounds, Giacometti and Cody, and yesterday we had a little stop-in party for friends to meet Jon, and see the painting and the dogs in person. (Jon told […]

The Hootenanay: photo by Daniel Shiplacoff.

This summer, Daniel and I get to go to some four weddings, people who are D’s age who have made the decision to settle down. Neither of us know Philadelphia, so when we heard the wedding was in Btown, we figured it was a suburb of Philly. We decided to […]

Photo by Daniel Shiplacoff

I muse here in these posts in a kind of thinking-out-loud process. I’m writing a book on the music of Rufus Wainwright, specifically, about his own music. Rufus as a performer is outside my current focus, but it’s sometimes impossible to separate the two flames.
Rufus Wainwright’s Judy Garland show was a success. There are two […]

Photo by Daniel Shiplacoff.

[Here are my notes for the 2nd half of the concert.]
1. That’s Entertainment!
Great opener; Rufus comes on with tux and top hat. Rufus turns the camp on high — if you didn’t know it was gay pride week, now you do.
2. I Can’t Give You Anything […]

(The gorgeous) Martha Wainwright: photo by Daniel Shiplacoff

Julia Shiplacoff picked up Daniel and me from the airport and drove us home. We were glad to be back in LA. And what was playing when we got in the car? It was Rufus’s “Greek Song” from POSES. I melted. Forgive me Rufus, but I would take […]

Photo by Daniel Shiplacoff.

I took notes on many of the songs and will include them for those who are interested.
FIRST HALF
1. Overture: The Trolley Song / Over The Rainbow / The Man That Got Away
The tone is set for the evening, the overture gives us 3 of the most famous songs and […]

Photo by Daniel Shiplacoff.
Rufus Wainwright recreated Judy Garland’s famous 1961 concert in Carnegie Hall this evening in Carnegie Hall to a sold out crowd. The orchestrations were done by Billy Mays, Mort Lindsay, and Nelson Riddle and adapted by Jon Charles and Christopher Jahnke specifically for Wainwright’s voice. The 40 piece orchestra was made of […]

I remember a little room in the back of my father’s church that was filled with old books. No one ever went in there. It had the smell of burning books (from high acid content, not fire). I loved to sneak into this room and look through them. These seemed peculiar to be in […]

Here is the first movement of “FOUR POETS” played by the Ives Quartet. My friend Richard Snyder said that I captured him perfectly. Said he could tell that I was obsessed with him at one point in my life. He was right. He showed me this photo which was taken by Alvin Langdon Coburn in […]

Here is a four minute reminder as to why we don’t want nuclear or nucyoolar bombs.

From “My Little Chickadee” with W.C. Fields. I love how Mae throws her eyes to the sky and then scans from left to right. She wasn’t really looking at anything. She was THINKING about something. Something naughty I bet. And those hips! O la la! I wonder whether her hat actually served as an acoustic […]