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I was sad to learn that Michael Gough, Alfred in Tim Burton's Batman, has died at the ripe old age of 94. I have happy — if such a thing can be said of Chekhov — memories of seeing Gough as Firs in a production of The Cherry Orchard at the Aldwych in, I think, 1989. I remember being impressed by the stellar cast, which included Judi Dench and Ronald Pickup, and being really wowed by Chekhov's strange mix of farce and pathos — the perfect thing to appeal to a morose, literature obsessed teenager.
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From Yvonne Loriod's obituary in today's Guardian:

No doubt living with Messiaen, as with most geniuses, had its ups and downs, though the downs seem to have been very few. An unpublished letter of Darius Milhaud, written from Aspen, Colorado, says: "Les Messiaen sont ici. Comme toujours, charmants et impossibles." Given that Messiaen found the real world of timetables and electric plugs hard to crack, Loriod was called upon to be manager and travel agent as well as wife and interpreter. On his bird-listening trips she would be in charge of the tape recorder and would be expected to sleep in haystacks or barns in order to be up for the dawn chorus. Her demurrers at travelling to Bryce Canyon in Utah or New Caledonia ("wouldn't Assisi do?") went for nothing; although when it came to it, they both enjoyed these exotic trips enormously.

And from YouTube, a delightful little video of Messiaen enthusiastically demonstrating some fragments of birdsong with Loriod playing transcriptions on the piano:

Just wonderful.

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On the plus side, Alex Ross in conversation with Suzi Klein on today's Sunday Morning.

But on the minus side, the death of the incomparable Philip Langridge; a man of great range and versatility, able to sing Handel just as dazzlingly as Schoenberg. Here's Langridge on combining emotion and vocal brilliance in Comfort Ye and Every Valley the opening tenor recit and air from Messiah:


A sad loss.
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Today we had yet more bad news: our mentor in all things Blue has died unexpectedly. I only saw him a few weeks ago, full of brio and keen to sort out TSM for us, and now suddenly he's gone. That makes him the second of our gurus to die this year. And we're only two and a half months in.

My God.
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Shockingly, I've just discovered that Richard Hickox has died. And he was only on Music Matters on Saturday, enthusing about Riders to the Sea.

Truly sad news.
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I was saddened to learn of the death of the venerable Peter Coke who remains to me the definitive Paul Temple, pace Crawford Logan, whom I also like very much.

What I particularly like about Coke's performances is the way he brings out Temple's essential prickliness as a character. On the one hand, Paul is extremely generous and frequent jumps in with offers to help people, but on the other he can be irritable and difficult, petulant even, and Coke manages to put it all across with nothing more than a few strategically placed pauses. The way he answers the phone — a slight hesitation, an abrupt and standoffish hello, followed by either enthusiasm or coldness — is a perpetual delight. What I wouldn't give to be able to answer the phone like that!
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God. I've just discovered that Esbjörn Svenson has died. Talk about appalling.
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It seems as though Nick Clarke has died. This is very sad news: he was by far the best host of Any Questions, his interviewing skills were second to none — he always managed to get to the heart to the issue without lapsing into rudeness — and he always came across as being a nice guy. He's going to be much missed.
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Another passing, this time a sad one: Nigel Kneale, a towering figure of British TV and SF, has died. The Guardian has both an obit and a memorial piece by Mark Gatiss. Let's hope someone decides to repeat some of Kneale's work as a tribute.
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I find myself mildly surprised to learn that PW Botha has just died. I'd assumed, given that Spitting Image used to portray him as death's door back in the 80s, that the old monster had long since bought the farm, but obviously not.

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