Music
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Words from the Opera — When horror breaks one heart, all hearts are broken
Balstrode:We’ll find him, maybe give a hand. Ellen:We have no power to help him now. Balstrode:We have the power. We have the power.In the black momentWhen your friend suffersUnearthly tormentWe cannot turn our backs.When horror breaks one heartAll hearts are broken. From the opera “Peter Grimes“ op. 33Composer: Benjamin BrittenFrom the poem by George Crabbe
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A Requiem on Arrival
What happens to a newborn when touched, impressed, moved by the depth of music but without the release of tears? Where does the intensity land?
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“It is cruel that music should be so beautiful.”
It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature and everlasting beauty of monotony. Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) English Composer
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Truth cannot be known to mortals*
If truth cannot be known to mortals, why is the word in our vocabulary? *The words of Klytämnestra, in “Electra”.Opera in one act, by Richard Strauss (1864–1949).Clytemnestra, in Greek mythology, is a goddess, wife of Agamemnon, and mother of Electra, Chrysothemis, and Orestes
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Anna Bolena — tragically interrupted
Anna Bolena wrapped her long hair in one hand, lifted it above her shoulder, arm stretched, and walked decisively a few steps before an abrupt stop, swinging her black tail frontwards in an arch over her head where it hung before her forehead, as she took a drastic bow that exposed her neck to the…
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Words at the Opera — Hamlet
The wiser among us are the madmen. Hamlet / Grand Opera in five acts (1868) by Ambroise Thomas
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in this moment
…listening to the “Aeolian Harp” — a piece from 1923, by Henry Cowell (1897-1965). It is one of the first piano pieces composed for extended piano techniques, including plucking and sweeping of the actual piano strings. Black tea goes well with it.
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Words at the Opera — we know enough
Wotan: Your cryptic words fill me with awe. Stay, and advice me further! Erda: You heard my words. You know enough. Wotan (Odin), is the chief God in Scandinavian mythology, and leader of the possessed. Erda is the Norse Goddess of the earth.
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Words at the Opera — fear
Siegfried: Is it some skill I need? Tell me! What is this “fearing”? Mime: If you’ve never felt that, you don’t know what fear is. Siegfried: How strange a feeling that must be! “Siegfried”Richard Wagner — music and libretto
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When a Day foretells itself in Absence
That was the Richard Wagner week. The New York Metropolitan Opera streamed some of his masterpieces on a daily basis. Today I will be delighting in yesterday’s streaming of Parsifal. Knowing the schedule in advance, has allowed me to prepare each day accordingly, more or less around the operatic work. I knew, therefore, this day…
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The Imprisoned in Paradise School for an all encompassing Life with Circumstances
A fear began to simmer as twenty/twenty began. Twenty twenty is a symbol of good vision — actually, a common measurement for average good sight. By March, the entire globe was hiding, like true globalism in unexpected fashion. Very soon I embraced the idea of being imprisoned in paradise. Limitations became the opportunity to unfold,…
Sila Blume 