Tag Archives: Opera

The Enchanted Island

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Mrs. Hoge and I just finished watching The Enchanted Island on PBS. It’s a pastiche of an opera that combined the stories of The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream with music by baroque composers such as Handel, Vivaldi, and Rameau. The Met’s production was interesting and, at points, delightful.

I particularly enjoyed Danielle de Niese in the role of Ariel and Luca Pisaroni as Caliban, the only bass role. Prospero was one of two countertenors.

Mrs. Hoge said that the ballet reminded her of the Fire Gang dance sequence in the Jim Henson movie The Labyrinth.

 

Which One Are You Using?

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What browser are you using? Odds are, if you’re not on a mobile device, it’s Chrome–unless you’re in the US or UK where Internet Exploder is still number one. (If you are on a mobile device, you are likely to be using Safari).

Safari and Chrome, which both are based on the open source WebKit project, really are the best browsers out there. Opera is nice, but always seems about one step behind these days.

If you’re using a Windows PC and still suffering with IE, give Chrome a try.

Irritating Web Sites

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I often check in with Instapundit looking for interesting links, and the Professor often has links to the NY Post and NY Times. Recently, I’ve found that the NY Post wanted me to use their app when I’m using my iPad or iPhone. I ran a similar problem today with the Times.

I don’t like to have to register in order to visit a web site, and I’ve found a work around for these two sites. They seem to be detecting that I’m running Safari under iOS. When I log in using another browser such as Opera, I’m not diverted away to app sales or registration screens.

Opera isn’t as pretty as Safari, but it works well and is a free download from the App Store.