Simon Holden

Luxon:
Trusts Donald Trump
Doesn't trust Māori with Three Waters

what's the best email you've ever received? i'll go first.

why 100% complete one task when you can 64% complete many tasks

Richard Strauss: Salome, Op. 54, TrV 215 Inge Borkh · Album · 2015 · 38 songs

Such a mightily dark vision! Completely lacks the shamelessness of a lyric Salome, yet it offers so much! So imposing that it's a miracle Jochanaan doesn't just yield and dutifully decapitate himself so she could have at him.

open.spotify.com/album/54QmeQ...

A pretty great Falstaff on video, with Maestri in top form and a young (and kinda cute) Florez as Fenton. A very "trad" production but pulled off effortlessly. And no one conducts this opera like Muti

Puccini with Boom and O'Neill, Verdi, Mascagni and Leocavallo from Wellington - Schedule // - www.worldconcerthall.com Eliza Boom, soprano, Paul O'Neill, tenor, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by José Luis Gómez perform: VERDI: Force of Destiny, Overture. PUCCINI: From Tosca: Recondita armonia; Vissi…

Right now, #Puccini with Boom and O'Neill #Verdi #Mascagni and #Leocavallo from #Wellington https://buff.ly/40e91en #wch

YouTube video by Wigmore Hall A Special Selection of Schubert Song from Wigmore Hall

Season’s Greetings from Wigmore Hall ✨

Our Christmas gift to you is that six Schubert songs performed by Ailish Tynan, Anja Mittermüller, Marcus Farnsworth and James Baillieu at Wigmore Hall are available to watch on our YouTube now 🎁

📺 www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysY5OsNWFMM

Can't wait!

Merry Christmas! Some favourite Christmas music:

boulezian.blogspot.com/2015/12/merr...

The level of bad taste 😍😍😍 I didn't even know abou the Cole Porter! Tingling with excitement to get into it... Special Christmas gift for myself, perhaps

I love it. That Santa Claus is Coming To Town is a really special kind of horrific.

Christmas in Vienna 2024 Erwin Schrott, Jonathan Tetelman, Magdalena Kožená - Opera on Video PROGRAMM - Orchestra Medley (ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien) - Come all ye faithful (Wiener Sängerknaben, Wiener Singakademie) - Begrüßung (Stefan Jürgens) - Gaudete (Magdalena Kožená, Jonathan Tet...

Time for this yearly dose of glorious Christmas camp (including Kozena's truly demented Santa Claus is Coming to Town 😂): www.operaonvideo.com/christmas-in...

Been getting stuck into this French Vepres. Never heard of the singers but the men in particular are pretty great?! More interesting than the (pretty bland) Levine, better tenor than the Muti - is this my go-to recording now?

B&W photo of a lovely woman wearing an elaborate robe with her hair in an updo. She's smiling down at a Yorkshire-terrier-like lapdog who is gazing up at her excitedly

Frances Alda (born 1879, pictured here in 1909) was a star soprano who often sang opposite Caruso, clearly loved fashion and her dog, and in her old age wrote a book called "Men, Women, and Tenors", which is available for free on Internet Archive. archive.org/details/menw...

A delightful recording of a delightful opera!

I'm a pretty big Vivica fan and she's great here; technique is unreal! Probably more suited to Rossini, where the embellishments especially do it for me.

If you’re outside the U.S. it’s weird to immediately recognize the extreme American-ness of the UNH CEO murder and see how it's glossed over in the U.S. discourse:

He had a DIY gun made with a legally sold kit and shot the CEO of a healthcare company because of its egregious business practices.

Probably my favourite Cav (and favourite Karajan). Ravishing playing but also palpable sense of building tension towards the inevitable tragedy. Cossotto and Bergonzi are marvellous; the duet is ravishing but also devastating.

Wow that must’ve been quite the experience! Wonder what the playing was like 😀

YouTube video by Yuja Wang - Topic Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie: V. Joie du sang des étoiles

Maybe not as fun as Chailly, but I love this www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoVl...

Me: I will just relax for a few minutes by playing a mindless game on my phone

Phone: Cool, every 90 seconds you will just need to watch a little animated snuff film featuring a mother and child freezing to death, or a king slowly being crushed against a spiky wall by piles of falling rubble

A Low-key Proposal Form a Third Party around the United Healthcare Shooter, the antidote to the 2016 Harambe moment that sent America in a tailspin.

Incredible read 👩🏻‍🍳🤌🏻😘

open.substack.com/pub/basedfob...

Stylish but illegal monkey found roaming IKEA Photo of a small monkey in a tiny wool coat

happy stylish but illegal ikea monkey day to those who celebrate

Who benefits from children not learning about consent, Winston?
WHO?

#NowSpinning Solti’s Strauss Die Frau Ohne Schatten. I love all of the recordings I’ve heard, but the orchestra is frankly incomparable here. A stupendous tour de force. #classicalmusic

Should be a great role for Gens! Interesting that Petibon is singing Mere Marie now 😮

Elon Musk and Pete Hesgeth are the kind of tough alpha males that America needs, according to their mommies

All strength to the Korean people as they resist the nascent directorship of paranoid nationalism

Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Metropolitan Opera is a magnificent, must-see event — review Richard Strauss’s opera is staged and sung in New York with brilliance and clarity

My thoughts on the Met’s amazing Frau ohne Schatten, for @financialtimes.com

www.ft.com/content/390c...