Tag: Music

Lost in Translation: Modernizing Opera Subtitles | November 19 2025, 02:31

This must be about my tenth staging of Le Nozze di Figaro. And I still can’t understand why no one ever bothers to make modern, well-constructed subtitles instead of something that resembles a product of prehistoric “Google translate”. Every single line is translated from Italian in such a barbaric way that it’s about to make one’s eyes bleed. And for what reason? The Italian is certainly not modern either, but if you undertake to translate, then do so in a way that the meaning can be grasped within those tens of milliseconds when your eyes dart to the screen. Now, you land on a text that takes a minute to chew over… Every woman makes me change colour… Instead of make me blush or make me pale… If you are fain to dance… And all that stuff.

Instagram’s Nostalgia Marketing: Channeling t.A.T.u for Teen Engagement | November 12 2025, 12:51

Instagram advertises accounts to teenagers with a girl strongly resembling a young Lena Katina from t.A.T.u 😉

Switching from Sony to AirPods Max: A Cautionary Tale on Counterfeits | September 22 2025, 20:44

I made a gift for myself yesterday and bought Airpods Max. I already had Sony WH1000XM3, but I didn’t quite grow to like them. They don’t perform well with multiple devices, especially Macs, and although I find the sound quality decent, I prefer the sound in the Airpods, initially thinking it was due to the codecs, which indeed are a bit chaotic. Sony supports all – SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, and LDAC. Apple devices (Mac, iPhone) do not support aptX and LDAC. Of all the advanced codecs available to Sony, the only one Apple devices can utilize is AAC. Exactly the same codec found in Airpods. But the sound to the ear is noticeably different.

Regarding the new ones, I realized I would be earning an eternity plus still, of course, I decided to buy used. For popular items, if you have a lot of time, you’ll definitely find some in excellent condition and for half the price. And here’s what I found out in the process: nine out of ten “half-price” headphones are fakes. The same situation applies to Airpod earplugs. Sometimes they are of very high quality, but like any counterfeit, they have serious flaws, but as many reviews say, the average ear won’t notice the difference, as counterfeiters don’t skimp on the audio path.

Eventually, I watched a ton of videos on how to distinguish fakes from genuine ones, and managed to buy Airpods in perfect condition yesterday for $180 when their price is $500.

Interestingly, checking the serial number on Apple’s website is no longer a cure-all because they’ve learned to reuse serial numbers from stolen ones. Most importantly: never buy a sealed box. Its outer part is counterfeited such that it can only be differentiated by the slightly less neatly wrapped film. In unpacked “ears,” the differences are more noticeable. The main thing – the headphones must pair with the computer using Apple’s proprietary protocol, which the counterfeiters have not yet been able to replicate.

Popup on iPhone upon first connection: Genuine — with a “Connect” button. Fake — no button, connects via Bluetooth settings.

The material of the headphones — should be metal. Fake — plastic, because metal is more expensive to manufacture. Snap your fingers on them, there should be a specific sound (try it in the Apple Store) — but most importantly, it should be the same on both sides. On the fake, it’s different and distinct.

The material inside the box: Genuine — cardboard (possibly recycled). Fake — plastic. Although cardboard is sometimes used too. An unreliable indicator.

Wrapping of the headphones: Genuine — in paper material. Fake — in plastic or without wrapping. Also unreliable.

Case — Interior material: Genuine — soft, changes color when touched, has text. Fake — hard, does not change color. This is quite a reliable aspect, because fakes will not use more expensive leather.

Noise when shaking: Genuine — noiseless. Fake — the button moves, noise is heard. Ear cups: Genuine — strong magnets, do not fall off. Fake — weak magnets, easily detach or fall off. Screws inside the cups: Genuine — dark. Fake — silver or light. This only works if you have seen the genuine ones. The difference is impossible to describe in words.

Noise cancelation (ANC): Genuine — activates only on the head. Fake — works in any position (even on a desk). Of course, it’s also poor, but detecting this is difficult unless you have the fakes on hand.

We must also check for Spatial Audio. It requires an accelerometer inside. Of course, fakes do not install one – it’s almost unused and why unnecessarily make the design more expensive. But in Spatial, it is used (you move your head – the sound shifts back and forth).

In short, when I was traveling yesterday, I was almost sure I wouldn’t buy anything. But — I got lucky.

Speaking of the Airpods themselves, they have some drawbacks that have been known for several years. I’m okay with them. The headphones are heavier than they could be, they don’t fold as they might, they bump against the chin when worn around the neck, and it’s not very comfortable to wear them that way, the price is high (but okay for used), strange case, and the protective case is huge, half the size of a backpack. Among the very important pros for me — support for multiple devices and perfect integration with Apple devices, good noise cancellation (almost like Sony’s), premium materials, and perfect build quality.

From Opera to Oblivion: The Fascinating Journey of Lorenzo Da Ponte | September 22 2025, 18:53

We just finished watching Le Nozze di Figaro with Nadezhda in a serialized mode and today we’ll continue with Don Giovanni, also in a serialized mode, because no one has the time. So, both of these operas were written by an American 🙂 I mean the librettos. Turns out, Lorenzo Da Ponte, an Italian librettist, emigrated, naturalized in the U.S., lived here 33 years, taught Italian literature at Columbia University in New York, founded an opera theater in the USA, which became the precursor to the New York Academy of Music and the New York Metropolitan Opera. Really an interesting dude. His real name was Emanuel Conegliano. A Jew by birth, who became a Catholic priest, a friend of Casanova, and a supporter of Rousseau’s ideas. Before moving to the U.S., Da Ponte successfully juggled teaching and a small business, earning not so much from lectures as from owning a brothel for aristocrats which he maintained. In the U.S., he kept a grocery store in New Jersey and tried selling medicines in Pennsylvania. Lorenzo Da Ponte died on August 17, 1838, in humiliating poverty, a few blocks away from the boarded-up building of his theater. His grave in one of the New York cemeteries, which was not marked, eventually got lost. Essentially, the same post-mortem fate befell his friend Mozart.

The Maunder Minimum’s Impact on Stradivari’s Unique Violins | September 18 2025, 21:20

I stumbled upon an interesting scientific hypothesis from 2003 regarding why Stradivari violins (and those of his contemporaries) are so unique. Traditional hypotheses—about the secrets of the varnish or the aging of the wood—prove insufficient. According to this hypothesis, the entire blame lies with the Maunder Minimum, a period of reduced solar activity occurring from 1645–1715, during which the tree growth rate slowed down due to the climate, meaning the wood was denser. The hypothesis suggests that amidst the perfect combination of altitude, humidity, and temperature, this environmental shift provided material with unique properties, ideal for resonant soundboards.

Stradivari was born a year before the Maunder Minimum began. His “Amati Period” (1666–1690), “Experimentation Period” (1690–1700), and “Golden Period” (1700–1720), during which he perfected and produced his best instruments (see Henley 1961), all coincided with the Maunder Minimum. Cremona’s craftsmen during this period used the only wood available to them, i.e., from trees growing during the Maunder Minimum. Neither before nor after this period was such wood available. And, probably, it is nowhere to be found in the world even now.

But really, modern violins are also quite something. Two-three hundred years ago, musicians extracted the maximum from an instrument through trial and error, whereas now it is done through meticulous calculation of sound. It is almost impossible to differentiate violins by their sound anymore, and the difference lies in the realm of individual preferences, rather than an undisputed objective worse-better.

Revisiting Antalya: 25 Years Later and Family Bonds | September 15 2025, 15:56

I’m back from Antalya. I was there last time 25 years ago. This time I met up with my mom (she’s from Russia) and showed her Turkey №2. Turkey №1 was last year (Istanbul). Here are some photos from this trip. All taken on an iPhone (I brought a camera too, but was too lazy to carry it around).

Russian pop music is no longer blasting from every speaker, but Modern Talking and similar genres are everywhere, until midnight. I was lucky to rent a hotel just 9 steps away from a night bar that quiets down at midnight, but no worries, we got used to it quickly and the music is decent. The city has many Russians, not only because it’s easy to get there, but also because Turkey offers citizenship for $400K — a sum many Russians can afford for a “passport”. But there’s really nothing to do there. You can tour all the natural sites within the first year or two, and then it’s just a very boring city. No museums, no cultural activities, except for more Modern Talking from the bars. So, at a minimum, you need not only to go there for the passport but also actively use it to live somewhere else.

My mom did great, handling all those hills and boats, and had a lot of impressions. Actually, she has only been abroad in Riga and twice in Turkey, last year in Istanbul and this year in Antalya. I really hope for her 80th birthday next year we’ll go somewhere else where Russians don’t need a visa.

The Ingenious Spy Device Gifted in Friendship: Unveiling The Thing | September 01 2025, 01:03

Today in the museum I saw The Thing in person – simply a brilliant espionage device. In 1945, a group of Soviet schoolchildren presented a large wooden Great Seal of the United States to the U.S. Ambassador in Moscow, Averell Harriman, as a “gesture of friendship”. The seal was beautifully hand-carved and hung in the ambassador’s office for a whole 7 years. And it leaked secrets!

No batteries involved! It was all very clever, especially for 1945.

Essentially, it was a passive radio relay or “parasitic resonator”. Inside the wooden seal was a small metal cylinder with a membrane and an antenna-rod.

Soviet operators directed a specific frequency radio wave (about 330 MHz) into the ambassador’s office.

Inside the device was a cavity resonator, tuned to the same frequency. It “responded” to the radio signal and began to retransmit it back.

On one side of the cylinder was a thin flexible membrane. It vibrated from the sound in the room (voices, footsteps).

The vibrations of the membrane altered the capacity and resonance parameters of the device, slightly shifting the reflected radio signal by frequency and phase. This was the modulation of speech onto the external signal.

Outside the building (like in a KGB car nearby), the retransmitted signal was received and the sound modulation was extracted – effectively capturing the overheard conversation.

Why was this almost impossible to detect? The device had no battery and emitted nothing by itself. It “came to life” only when irradiated with an external radio signal. In standard radio monitoring checks, it remained “dead”. Essentially, it was akin to an ancestor of the RFID tag – a passive device that operates only on external request.

But most interestingly, the inventor was Leon Theremin, the same person behind the musical instrument “thereminvox” (played with hands in the air).

His biography reads like a novel. In the early 1920s, Theremin went to the U.S., patented his thereminvox instrument, and collaborated with RCA; his New York studio was visited by Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein, Gershwin, and other notable personalities. It is written that he visited the USSR – Already in 1926, he demonstrated television at the Kremlin.

At that time, televisions with screens the size of a matchbox were being created, but his television had a huge screen (1.5 x 1.5 m) and a resolution of 100 lines. In 1927, the scientist demonstrated his installation to Soviet military leaders K.E. Voroshilov, I.V. Tukhachevsky, and S.M. Budyonny:

state minds watched in horror as Stalin walked through the Kremlin courtyard on the screen.

This sight so frightened them that the invention was immediately classified and quietly buried in the archives, and television was soon invented by the Americans.

Eventually, in 1938, he secretly returned to the USSR, but was soon arrested as a “non-returnee” and sent to the camps, but his talent was still used in the so-called “sharashka” – on projects together with Sergei Korolev, including the development of radio-controlled apparatuses and listening systems, including the aforementioned “Great Seal bug”.

Concert Weeks: From Pink Martini to Postmodern Jukebox | July 30 2025, 03:40

I have two weeks of concerts. Today — Pink Martini! Next week Postmodern Jukebox, and this past weekend was a great piano concert (Beethoven, Shostakovich, Chopin, Rachmaninoff at the Washington Piano Festival). Facebook cuts out the sound from concert recordings, so I’m attaching a cool video that’s already been cleared (or missed) by Facebook from some Pink Martini performance, featuring Thomas Lauderdale with Hunter Noack, who is either his wife or husband, and I’ll try to add my own in the comments