Category: Uncategorized

New copies of Exhibits

On our website, copies of numerous (partly historical) exhibits can be viewed.
 


17.1.: New exhibits in the members only section:
“Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy – A Special Chapter in Music History”
“Franz Schubert – Not only a Songwriter”
“In the Footsteps of Richard Wagner”
 
Copies of exhibits (members only)

Stamp of the Month: November 2020

Bugs Bunny

To mark the 80th anniversary of the first screening of the Bugs Bunny short films, a series of 10 stamps with scenes from these comics was released in the USA. One of the stamps shows Bugs Bunny as a pianist in “Rhapsody Rabbit”. This animated short film was part of the “Merrie Melodies Series” and was produced under the direction of Friz Freleng. It was released in cinemas on November 9, 1946 by Warner Bros. Pictures. Like all short films in the “Merrie Melodies Series”, “Rhapsody Rabbit” was accompanied by a piece of music: Bugs Bunny plays Franz Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2”. The pianist was the American composer and arranger Carl W. Stalling (1891-1972).

USA 27.7.2020

 
By the way, there are 10 other Bugs Bunny short films with 14 other pieces of classical music: “Tales from the Vienna Woods” and “Blue Danube” (Johann Strauss II, in “A Corny Concerto”, 1943), “Hungarian Dances” (Johannes Brahms, in “Pigs in a Polka”, 1943), “Dreaming” (Robert Schumann, in: “Hare Ribbin”, 1944), “William Tell Overture” (Gioachino Rossini, “Bugs Bunny Rides Again”, 1948), Ludwig van Beethoven’s 7th (in “A Ham in a Role”, 1949), “Largo al Factotum” from “The Barber of Seville” (Rossini, in “The Long-Haired Hare”, 1949), “The Barber of Seville Overture” (in “The Rabbit of Seville”, 1950), “Minute Waltz” (Frédéric Chopin, in “Hyde and Hare”, 1955), “Dance of the Comedians” from “The Bartered Bride” (Bedrich Smetana, in “Zoom and Bored”, 1957), the Overture from “The Flying Dutchman”, “Pilgrim’s Chorus” from “Tannhäuser” and “Ride of the Valkyries” from “Die Walküre” by Richard Wagner (in “What’s Opera, Doc?”, 1957), and finally “Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna” by Franz von Suppé (in “Baton Bunny”, 1959).
 


Stamp of the Month: October 2020

Melina Mercouri

The Greek actress, singer and politician Melina Mercouri was born on October 18, 1920 in Athens. She died in New York on March 6, 1994. October 2020 will mark the 100th anniversary of her birthday.
 
Melina (actually Maria Amalia) Mercouri came from an upper class family. From 1939 she went to drama school and made her debut at the Greek National Theater in Athens in 1944 in an avant-garde play by Alexis Solomos. The reviews were that the actress was “too young, too tall, too blonde, clumsy, talentless”. After appearing in the provinces, she played briefly in Paris before getting her first film role in 1955. She became known to international audiences in 1960 through the film comedy “Never on

Greece 7.3.1995
Sunday”. For this role she received an Acting Award at the Cannes Film Festival and a nomination for an Oscar for best actress. The film song, composed by Manos Hadjidakis, received the Oscar for best film music. There are cover versions of this evergreen by Caterina Valente, Dalida, Lys Assia, Lale Andersen, Nana Mouskouri, Daliah Lavi and Andrea Berg, among others.
After the success of “Never on Sunday” Melina Mercouri starred in other films such as “Phaedra” and “Topkapi” and the lead role in the Broadway musical “Illya Darling”.
During the seven-year military dictatorship in Greece, Melina Mercouri lived in exile in France from 1967 to 1974 and made her criticism of the regime clear on the tours that took her as a singer around the world. After the overthrow of the military junta, she was elected as a member of the Greek parliament in 1977, from 1981 to 1989 and again from 1993 to 1994, Melina Mercouri was Greek Minister of Culture. The establishment of the annual European Capital of Culture goes back to her initiative.
 
The video shows Melina Mercouri performing on television in 1972 with her hit “Ta Paidia Tou Piraia” (The Children of Piraeus) from the film “Never on Sunday”.
 


 

New articles in our Library

The library of our study group contains an extensive collection of philatelic magazine articles from all areas of music philately. These articles can be read online by our members.
 


The new articles are, among other topics, about Ludwig van Beethoven / Lore Lorentz / Charlie Parker / Jimi Hendrix / Komitas / Walther von der Vogelweide / Wolfram von Eschenbach / “Queen”
 
Go to the archive (members only)

New Checklists

The members only section of our website contains a collection of checklists about various topics of music philately. The collection is constantly expanding and can be read online by our members.
 


New enhancements:
27.10.19: Theaters, concert halls, opera houses (updated)
2.3.20: Beethoven (new) / Verdi (updated)
29.3.20: Female dancers (updated) / opera houses (updated)
3.7.20: Clarinet (new) / Saxophone (new)
3.9.20: Ballroom Dance (updated)
 
Go to the checklists (members only)

New Articles on the Internet

The philatelic press occasionally releases articles about music philately on their websites. We regularly update the links to new articles which are known to us.
 


Read new articles about the following topics:
7.1.: The King’s Birthday: Vor 85 Jahren kam Elvis Presley zur Welt  
30.3.: Krzysztof Penderecki 1933-2020  
24.7.: Amália Rodrigues: 100. Geburtstag der Queen des Fado  
 
Go to the list of new articles