Opera singer Jerry Hadley dies at 55

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070718/ap_on_en_mu/obit_hadley

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - Jerry Hadley, the world-class tenor known for his agile and lyric voice, died Wednesday, a week after he shot himself in an apparent suicide attempt.

The 55-year-old singer died two days after doctors at St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie took him off life support, said family friend and spokeswoman Celia Novo.

Hadley, who had been battling personal problems, shot himself with an air rifle July 10 at his home in Clinton Corners, 80 miles north of New York City. State police said he was found unconscious on his bedroom floor.

The Illinois-born Hadley sang everything from Mozart to show tunes, including appearing on a recording of "Show Boat" that was a best-seller.

He built his reputation tackling demanding work, including the title role in composer John Harbison's 1999 "The Great Gatsby" at the Metropolitan Opera. Leonard Bernstein chose Hadley to sing the title role in a 1989 production of his musical "Candide," and he sang the lead in Paul McCartney's "Liverpool Oratorio" in 1991.

Hadley was featured in the Leos Janacek's opera "Jenufa," which won a Grammy in 2004.

"I particularly admired the strength and sweetness of his voice in the lyric Mozart parts and the imagination and commitment he brought to contemporary works," James Levine, music director of the Metropolitan Opera, said in a statement.

"He was also a warm, generous colleague with a great sense of humor, who always gave his very best. ... We will miss him enormously."

Hadley started his career in regional companies. He was noticed in the late 1970s by Beverly Sills, then general director of the New York City Opera, which hired him. She died earlier this month.

Hadley also performed at Milan's La Scala, the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the San Francisco Opera, the San Diego Opera and the festivals in Glyndebourne, England, Aix-en-Provence, France, and Salzburg, Austria.

Hadley in recent years had been dealing with financial problems and was being treated for depression, police said after the shooting. He had been arrested in Manhattan last year in a parked car on a charge of driving while intoxicated. His lawyer said the singer never intended to drive because he realized he was tipsy, and the case was eventually dropped.

Composer Gian Carlo Menotti dies at 95

Composer Gian Carlo Menotti dies at 95
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070201/ap_en_mu/obit_menotti

ROME - Composer Gian Carlo Menotti, the founder of the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, died Thursday at a hospital in Monaco, his son said. He was 95.

"He died pretty peacefully and without any pain. He died in my arms," said Francis Menotti by telephone from Monte Carlo.

The Italian opera composer founded the annual creative arts festival in the Umbrian hilltown of Spoleto in 1957 and 20 years later, a similar undertaking, Spoleto, U.S.A., for Charleston, S.C., followed by one for Melbourne, Australia, in 1986.

Although Menotti's own later works were criticized as shallow, his English-language operas, including the written-for-radio "Amahl and the Night Visitors," have been enthusiastically received by audiences. By 1976, The New York Times called him the most-performed opera composer in the United States.

He won two Pulitzer Prizes for music: in 1950 for "The Consul," and in 1955 for "The Saint of Bleecker Street."

His Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto sought to bring together fresh creative forces in U.S. and European culture. The tradition launched young artists into impressive careers. Shirley Verrett sang her first "Carmen" there; in 1959, Patrice Chereau launched his opera career with a much-praised production of "L'Italiana in Algeri;" and Tennessee Williams' "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" premiered in 1962. From Spoleto's stages, dancers such as Paul Taylor and Twyla Tharp went on to shape the direction of contemporary dance.

Menotti said he was on the verge of giving up his direction of the cultural festivals several times — in 1990, he said he wanted to quit the South Carolina event because he was being "treated like the clerk."

He eventually did leave the U.S. festival, in October 1993, after a series of better disagreements with the festival's board about financial and artistic control.

But despite his frequent urges to leave, Menotti seemed always as engaged as ever — even more. "I feel like the sorcerer's apprentice — I've started something and I don't know how to stop it," Menotti said in 1981 in Spoleto.

Menotti, who lived between Monaco and Scotland, returned to the Spoleto festival every year to celebrate his birthday, including this past July.

Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory

Mr. Turkentine:

I've just decided to switch our Friday schedule to Monday, which means that the test we take each Friday on what we learned during the week will now take place on Monday before we've learned it.

But since today is Tuesday, it doesn't matter in the slightest.

Love Actually

"Beautiful Aurelia...
I've come here with a view to asking you...
to marriage me.
I know I seems an insane person because I hardly knows you
but sometimes things are so transparency,
they don't need evidential proof.
And I will inhabit here, or you can inhabit with me in England.
Of course I don't expecting you to be as foolish as me,
and of course I prediction you say no...
but it's Christmas and I just wanted to...check."

Andrews and Phillips-Osborne Schools Explore Potential Merger

http://www.andrews-school.org/events/merger.html

Representatives from The Andrews School and The Phillips-Osborne School have announced the possibility of a merger of the two independent schools. The prospect of a merger has been investigated several times in the past. This proposal was first considered by The Andrews School Board of Trustees on Tuesday, Nov. 14. The Phillips-Osborne School Board of Trustees will review and discuss the proposal at its next meeting on Nov. 29. Both schools today sent letters to parents explaining that a proposal for a merger is being considered. If the merger is approved by both Boards, the new entity would potentially be named The Andrews Phillips-Osborne School and would become Lake County's only coeducational, independent school offering education to students from pre-Kindergarten through grade 12.

David Rath , Head of School of The Andrews School, acknowledged that The Andrews School has struggled financially in recent years and has been exploring options for the school’s future. “Throughout this process, we have held onto our goal of continuing to provide quality education in an independent school setting for our students,” he said. “We all have a great deal invested in The Andrews School, but at the same time have to acknowledge that we face a tenuous financial future. Many believe this is the best option for our students.”

Kevin Smith, Headmaster of The Phillips-Osborne School, said that after facing enrollment and financial challenges in recent years, things have improved significantly. However, he said, “The legacies of both schools include very child-centered programs that seek to help each student reach his or her best. The potential combination of the institutions, with the addition of a coeducational upper school, could offer a truly unique and outstanding program in this region. I am confident that the Boards will make the best decision on behalf of the students.”

Both schools will host meetings with constituents from their schools to discuss this proposal in greater detail. The Boards are expected to make a decision before the end of the year. Details about a potential merger would be worked out after the vote.

“Change is not easy, and we recognize that,” Rath said. “At the same time, we must do what is best for our students, to ensure that they and future generations will continue to have the opportunity to attend a thriving independent school right here in Lake County.”

The Andrews School is a college preparatory day and boarding school for girls, grades 7-12, located in Willoughby. Andrews boasts an exceptional fine and performing arts program, state-of-the-art athletic facilities and a world class Equestrian Center.

The Phillips-Osborne School is a coeducational independent day school serving about 210 students from pre-school through grade eight. Located in Painesville, the school provides an innovative, integrated program of study that includes fine and performing arts, public speaking and a new global studies program.

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."

Jessica, age 8

The 25 Funniest Analogies (Collected by High School English Teachers)

http://writingenglish.wordpress.com/2006/09/12/the-25-funniest-analogies-collected-by-high-school-english-teachers/

The e-mail says they are taken from actual high school essays and collected by English teachers across the country for their own amusement. Some of these kids may have bright futures as humor writers. What do you think?

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a ThighMaster.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.