I got a notification from this website to say that there would be a challenge to write a poem every day in April and after not writing any poetry at all for well over a year, I have decided to join in.
It's really a basic attempt to keep moving mentally - like a sort of brain jogging - but also because poetry and the art of using words economically can take a form other than the short cuts and abbreviations common in cell phone communications and is a wonderfully expressive medium!
Carry on reading for a bit more on the poetry exploit and performances of the famous tenor aria from Pagliacci (hence the title of this post).
So what will be the first poem of 30?
Tradition dictates that April 1st is the day of the fool, so why not join in the foolishness? I will publish but not in this mail. My lamentably neglected poetry blog is HERE and the new poems will be posted as I write them.
Listen twice to this wonderful aria: Vesti la giubba (On with the motley) sung here in English and presumably a live recording. By the way, the first really dramatic tenor high note was recorded as being heard in 1832 (i.e well after Beethoven's opera "Fidelio" was composed. The role of Florestan (see recording in this post) cannot be sung. without those incredible high notes, so Beethoven, who suffered from almost total deafness in later life, was truly a prophet!)
If you just want to listen to Kaufmann's voice in the Fidelio recording, move on about 4½ minutes. Beethoven wrote a long introduction to transport the viewer into the prison in which Florestan is languishing. (He is later rescued by a lady, Leonora, disguised as a man so that she could get in! - That's opera for you! The stage lighting is very poor, unfortunately.
Jonas Kaufmann is a bright star in the modern operatic heaven!
It's really a basic attempt to keep moving mentally - like a sort of brain jogging - but also because poetry and the art of using words economically can take a form other than the short cuts and abbreviations common in cell phone communications and is a wonderfully expressive medium!
Carry on reading for a bit more on the poetry exploit and performances of the famous tenor aria from Pagliacci (hence the title of this post).
So what will be the first poem of 30?
Tradition dictates that April 1st is the day of the fool, so why not join in the foolishness? I will publish but not in this mail. My lamentably neglected poetry blog is HERE and the new poems will be posted as I write them.
Listen twice to this wonderful aria: Vesti la giubba (On with the motley) sung here in English and presumably a live recording. By the way, the first really dramatic tenor high note was recorded as being heard in 1832 (i.e well after Beethoven's opera "Fidelio" was composed. The role of Florestan (see recording in this post) cannot be sung. without those incredible high notes, so Beethoven, who suffered from almost total deafness in later life, was truly a prophet!)
The second recording is a performance by the immortal Pavarotti.
There are three recording of his on YouTube snd I have taken the middle one. The date pf publishing says nothing about when he sang, of course.
He died in 2007 (and was born in 1935).
If you just want to listen to Kaufmann's voice in the Fidelio recording, move on about 4½ minutes. Beethoven wrote a long introduction to transport the viewer into the prison in which Florestan is languishing. (He is later rescued by a lady, Leonora, disguised as a man so that she could get in! - That's opera for you! The stage lighting is very poor, unfortunately.
Jonas Kaufmann is a bright star in the modern operatic heaven!
As a little light compensation, I include the recording of Lang Lang playing one of the standard piano "pieces" at least attempted by nearly everyone who plays classical piano, here at the breakneck speed I don't think Mozart envisaged. It's followed by Kaufmann singing the evergreen "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz" to Lang lang's piano accompaniment.
No comments:
Post a Comment