RIP Anna Russell

[Helene]

Satirist Anna Russell died earlier this week, at age 94. The New York Times has published a (not very well copy edited) obituary in today's edition:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/obituari...?ref=obituaries

I know that "I'm not making this up, you know" was her signature line, but for me, her Ring of the Nibelungen piece is the funniest piece I've ever heard, and I'm torn between two co-favorite lines: "She's his aunt, you know," and "who's the only women he's ever met who isn't his aunt." (The latter is probably not word-for-word accurate, but my CD is at work.)

Pace, Anna Russell.

[Paul Parish]

O she was a FUNNY woman.

She could could be funny with almost no material -- the lines themselves weren't usually funny, it was the timing and the juxtapositions, and the puncturing of pretensions. She was a Pythoness/Trockadero of the opera.

The lines coming back that made me laugh the most aren't funny out of context -- "this beautiful... corsage"; "love sure took the ginger out of her"

Who'd have thought we'd live into an era when the stuff she made fun of is NOT enshrined, when the genteel tradition is so thoroughly at bay that the people who're trying to create a new civility have to use completely different materials, when the WIlliam Tell overture is universally known as The Lone Ranger - -well, if it's even known as that.

And she was only 94.

[sandik]

She had phenomenal timing. And a great, great voice, not just the singing, though that was remarkable lovely, but her personification of the society/club woman was so wonderful.

[ViolinConcerto]

She was "Dame Edna" before what's-his-name was Dame Edna!

When I saw the obit earlier today, I copied it to send to friends, and realized that not too many of them would know who she was...... To paraphrase both the Times and Paul Parish, not many people these days have the broad familiarity with the arts that would enable you to understand Anna Russell and/or the Trocs!

Should we blame the lack of music and arts education or television? Or what?

[dirac]

She was "Dame Edna" before what's-his-name was Dame Edna!

When I saw the obit earlier today, I copied it to send to friends, and realized that not too many of them would know who she was...... To paraphrase both the Times and Paul Parish, not many people these days have the broad familiarity with the arts that would enable you to understand Anna Russell and/or the Trocs!

Should we blame the lack of music and arts education or television? Or what?

As Rothstein says in the obit,

Ms. Russell’s was a career that could only have been a success at a time when classical music culture was near the center of popular awareness and public education.

You can't really tell from the online link, but the obituary takes up a significant section of the page and it's accompanied by a good sized picture.

[bart]

The last time I saw Russell was at a packed performance in Carnegie Hall, in a program mostly about opera: its practioners, fans, and mindset. You didn't need to be an opera insider to get the points. The audience -- quite mixed as to age -- roared with laughter. How often has THAT happened in Carnegie Hall? A remarkable lady.

[richard53dog]

My favorite of her lines was when she described the Rheinmaidens as "a kind of aquatic Andrews Sisters" in her synopsis of Wagner's Ring.

Alas, not only do fewer people today know who the Rheinmaidens are but the Andrews Sisters are also fading from consciousness .

She made a film of Hansel and Gretel about 50 years ago; actually she just supplied the voice for the Witch as all the characters were marionettes. The film used a very adbridged version of Humperdinck's music for the opera of the same name and was a huge favorite of mine.