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Opera Spotlight

• Rethinking Elise HallApril 10, 2024
  On the 100th anniversary of her death, The Legacy of Elise Hall–now available from Leuven University Press– provides a new outlook on Hall’s life and legacy as one of the major performers and concertizers of the saxophone. In various dissertations, articles and books, most writing on Hall has been colored with misogyny, talks of herContinue reading “Rethinking Elise Hall”
• Nazis, Napoleon and the Saxophone, pt. 2, how Nazis weaponized gender to change the image of the saxophoneMarch 28, 2024
  In a previous post on the opera Napoleon by Edmund von Borck, I made the argument that this opera works as a piece of wartime propaganda. The only piece of the opera that doesn’t fulfill the propaganda use is the style of the music and the use the saxophone in the orchestration. Wasn’t the saxophoneContinue reading “Nazis, Napoleon and the Saxophone, pt. 2, how Nazis weaponized gender to change the image of the saxophone”
• Selmer high pitched alto saxophone, the mystery continues….March 18, 2024
  Last year, a reader emailed me to inform me on his unique Selmer Cigar Cutter saxophone pitched in E. It turns out it was a high pitched alto saxophone. Selmer was not in the business of manufacturing high pitched saxophones, based on the information from Selmer there were only 10 made in the year ofContinue reading “Selmer high pitched alto saxophone, the mystery continues….”