THE VOCAL RECORD COLLECTORS' SOCIETY

PRESENTS


COMPARE AND CONTRAST


By
CARY FRUMESS



Long-time attendee and first-time presenter Cary Frumess is looking forward to playing some of his favorite music to a semi-captive (only semi-captive, alas, the laws being what they are) audience, his first opportunity to proselytize since his eight years in record retailing (remember that?). First up in Ithaca (Record Runner, Discount Records, Midtown Records and Back to Rock) and subsequently in Manhattan (Rizzoli, Lincoln Center), Cary would commandeer the store turntable and subject the assembled Grateful Dead and Fleetwood Mac shoppers to Caballe and Callas. Cary believes he was instrumental (in spite of his vocal orientation – ouch) in bringing certain LPs to the best-seller lists (in the world of classical records, a couple of dozen sales would just about do it).

Now a psychotherapist by trade, Cary feels it is important for his professional image to create the illusion that he himself is mentally healthy and is grateful to be able to spend one evening a month in the presence of others whose extreme obsessive-compulsiveness almost normalizes his own.

Regarding his program, Cary tells us: “Lacking a PhD, and in a desperate grasp for respect, I will don the professorial robes I have not earned and ask the massed attendees to Compare and Contrast. Latecomers will be rewarded extra points on their final grades for exercising good judgement.”

Cary’s comparisons will range from the relatively conventional (for this organization, anyway – 200 “Che gelida maninas”, anyone?) to the slightly wacky. While the program is still in preparation at the time of this mailing, among the juxtapositions we may expect to hear are: a popular opera vs. the popular song it inspired; wonderful examples of the lowest and highest reaches of the male voice (tenors are somewhere in the middle); a certain English singer and a dead-on parody thereof (can you tell which is which?); the first half of an aria recording that helped launch a superstar vs. its second half – which has never seen the light of day on CD; two examples of ear-candy soprano-mezzo duetting, one legendary, the other a rarity; the opera singer who could have been a pop star vs. the pop star who could have been an opera singer (hint: it’s the same person), and, of course, much more.

We are assured by Cary that, while there will be some music to feed the soul (or at least whet the appetite), the emphasis will be on an evening of entertainment, and that his own aversion to tedium coupled with an increasingly short attention span ensures that any longueurs in the program will be short indeed!

Finally, after fifty-four years of VRCS programs, a presenter appears who has been thoroughly trained to treat our shared mania (denial is only further proof of its existence), and group therapy becomes yet another benefit of VRCS membership! Do plan to be with us for what we hope will be the first of many programs by Cary Frumess.


DATE: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2010
TIME: 7:30P.M. SHARP
PLACE: CHRIST CHURCH BASEMENT AUDITORIUM
PARK AVE. & 60TH STREET
N. Y. C.

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