Above: Une philosophe, by Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier, c.1878
Another wonderful article from Artsy: LINK
Category: Blog
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Au cimetière
Above: Sunset Chapel in Acapulco
Cemeteries have always fascinated me. As a teen-ager in the little town, I used to take my girlfriend to the local cemetery to make out. No one would think to look for us there, though we sometimes heard other couples nearby on moonlit nights.
A great article – with photos – from Artsy here.
Eleanor Steber – Au Cimetière from Berlioz’s LES NUITS D’ETE
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Abscheulicher! wo eilst du hin?
Elizabeth Connell as Leonore in Beethoven’s FIDELIO.
Abscheulicher! – FIDELIO – Elizabeth Connell – Met bcast 2~16~91
“You monster! Where will you go?
What have you planned in your cruel fury?
The call of pity, the voice of mankind,
Will nothing move your tiger’s heart?
Like storm-driven ocean waves,
Ire and anger rage in your breast.And yet, a rainbow on my path still shines,
Which brightly rests o’er sombre clouds:
It looks so calm, so peaceful to me,
reminding me of happier days
And soothing thus my troubled heart.Come hope, let not the last bright star
be obscured by doubt!
Illuminate my goal, however far:
Through love I shall reach it still.I follow my inner calling,
I shall not waver:
Strength I derive
From my marital vows.
Oh you, for whom I have endured so much:
If only I could penetrate
Where malice has imprisoned you,
And bring to you sweet comfort!
I follow my inner calling…
In faithfulness and love, I shall triumph!” -
Sleepwalking Scene
I’ve re-discovered Montserrat Caballe’s atmospheric recording of the Sleepwalking Scene from Verdi’s MACBETH. Elizabeth Bainbridge and Sir Thomas Allen provide world-class support as the Gentlewoman and Doctor.
Montserrat Caballe – Sleepwalking Scene ~ MACBETH – w Elizabeth Bainbridge and Sir Thomas Allen
LADY MACBETH
A spot…still here.
Out, damned spot! I curse you!
One, two, it is time!
You are trembling? You do not dare to go in?
A soldier, and a’feard?
For shame! Come…hurry!
Who’d have thought that old man
could have so much blood in him?DOCTOR
What did she say?LADY MACBETH
The Thane of Fife,
was he not a husband and father?
What happened?GENTLEWOMAN and DOCTOR
Oh, horror!LADY MACBETH
Shall I never be able
to clean these hands?
There’s blood here still.
All the perfumes of Arabia
could not cleanse this little hand.
Alas!DOCTOR
She sighs…?LADY MACBETH
Put on your nightgown. Come, wash yourself!
Banquo is dead, and the dead
cannot come back from the grave.DOCTOR
This too?LADY MACBETH
To bed, to bed …
What’s done cannot be undone.
Someone is knocking! Come, Macbeth…
let not your pallor accuse you.GENTLEWOMAN and DOCTOR
What terror…!
Lord, have mercy on her…
Oberon's Glade 