Arts & Culture

Lasting works that are so much a part of our lives and the general culture have often had the most improbable origins; it is one of music's greatest ironies.

The arduous birth of Wagner’s "The Ring" is the stuff of legends, and decades of work, sacrifice and immense debt. Berlioz' "Les Troyens" was a desperate, singular throw of the dice urged on by his correspondence with Liszt's mistress and his lifelong love of Virgil. But what about Verdi’s overwhelmingly popular "Rigoletto"? What happened there?

Ever evolving...

Visitors to the Alamo were greeted by some mid-day busking (street performing) yesterday morning.  Dotan Negrin has been hauling his upright piano all across the country for more than two years, performing on streets from New York to here in San Antonio.

Parked illegally next to the Alamo, Negrin unloaded his Baldwin piano from a fire-engine red van.

The compact upright piano has a laminated map velcroed to one side showing all the places Negrin has gone on his travels.

Ah, the joys of Monday morning quarterbacking, classical style.