In Brief: Memorial Day Edition

Your regular Sunday roundup of links to Blogville and beyond.

• Everyone has been having fun with the LOLcats phenomenon, including Wonkette who came up with a political caption for a certain (temporary) resident of Washington: "LOL!!!1! AHM IN UR WITE HAUS, FUKKIN UP UR COUNTREE." Jeremy Denk asks his readers to add to his attempt on musical ones. The Ionarts contribution is at right. [Think Denk]


• Our favorite franco- and italophile tells a hilarious story about a French radio show trying to identify the best recording of Che gelida manina. Then she lets you listen to it -- and it's Carlo Bergonzi. [Vilaine Fille]


• Peter Conrad previews an upcoming exhibit at London's Tate Modern, Dalí and Film, in which the surrealist's paintings and scenes from films are compared. [The Guardian]


• We have reviewed powerhouse soprano Alessandra Marc, whom I called "an extremely potent dramatic soprano, the hydrogen bomb of the female register." La Cieca's latest installment of Unnatural Acts of Opera is La Marc singing the role of Silvana in Respighi's 1934 grand opera La fiamma. [Parterre Box]


• Anne-Carolyn Bird has been in the Washington area for several days, but has she called me? Well, she is somewhat busy, preparing a role in the upcoming production of John Musto's Volpone with Wolf Trap Opera. Unfortunately, on opening night (June 22) I will be settling into the summer residence of Ionarts in Siena, Italy. When's the dress rehearsal, ACB? [The Concert]


• Daniel Ginsberg, the talented young music critic with the Washington Post, published a great piece on Heinz Fricke, music director of Washington National Opera, which uses references to the recent film about the East German secret police's surveillance of artists, The Lives of Others, as a frame of reference. Nice work, Daniel! [Bloomberg News]


• Alex Ross's travelogue article, visiting several orchestras in middle America, was a brilliant idea. His blog has pictures. [The Rest Is Noise]