The readers were the best thing about my previous blog. I’m proud of that. But for reasons I won’t go into – and were in any case disbelieved – I found myself depressed and closed the damn thing down. Luckily I do have other writing. Stumbling, knot-fingered at the keyboard I found myself humming a tune over and over. Knew it was Mozart, asked Mrs LdP who said: Dalla sua pace (On her peace of mind (depends mine too)), sung by the much put-upon Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, who should have paddled Donna Anna’s dithering backside several scenes earlier.
I Googled it and one YouTube option was by Pavarotti. I know he was a great tenor but I’ve avoided him because he’s always singing Verdi whom I can’t stand. But what does Pavarotti’s Mozart sound like? Bloody marvellous. Melodious at both ends, unforced, delicious when quiet. And I’ve heard Wunderlich and Gedda. This is what music can do. A familiar song, a new (titanic) voice, and you’ve got something different – including a tightened throat.
Mrs LdP says people liked my previous blog because it was eclectic (aka misguided, scatter-gun, indulgent). Thinks this one won’t work. She’s usually right (one commenter says she’s always right). Certainly the musical posts I did attracted little attention. And who wants to watch Jack Nicholson recovering from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest?
Give me, say, three weeks.
ONE FROM MY SHELVES Includes Embraceable You – not the one where he virtually expires through his soprano – but a foretaste.
TA-DA!
ReplyDeleteHello, Best Beloved. I am deleriously happy to find you here.
I know very little - no, be honest, Martha - I know nothing about classical music, except that I enjoy listening to most of it. One of the things I appreciated about you in your former guise was that you would write about music, which invariably sent me scrambling to YouTube or other internet sources to try to find what you were on about. Always, the search turned into an adventure, for which I thank you.
Never say die! Resurrection becomes thee.
That was quick. I hadn't finished designing the site when you arrived. Bad news, though. This is a site no one's supposed to want to read. We'll see
ReplyDeleteYay, he's back, arisen like the phoenix from the ashes! Welcome back to the fold. I'm not so knowledgeable as you are about music, though I love mostly classical and opera, so I won't be a critical reader, but look forward to the adventure, as Crow said.
ReplyDeleteI'm like a bloodhound on a trail. What can I say?
ReplyDeleteBecause of this post, I now know who LdP was, though not everything about him – yet. I am about to Google the American Systems, and plan to read the librettos he wrote (I understand the man could tell a good story). He introduced and championed Italian opera to America, but, of course, you already know that and tons more about him.
See what I mean? An adventure, every time! Grazie, signore!
That's the spirit, sir; glad to see your new avatar and blog. Know what I like in music, cannot play alick.Wow, Charlie Parker and Warren Zevon on the same page. Have you heard Randy Newman? Missus is right:eclectic.Music is another harder language to learn. I look forward to learning from your blog.
ReplyDeleteM-L: Not risen, nor in the fold. LdP is a completely different guy from boffo Barrett Bonden and this is a blog no-one's supposed to want to read. The next post will be about Phillip Glass's operas and that will put everyone off.
ReplyDeleteThe Crow: Did you notice where the earlier re-comment came from? It dates back to my all-in-French blog (now deleted) which attracted one single comment. Do you know who from? Right! Le corbeau fidèle.
Some day soon I hope you'll listen to the greatest opera ever written, for which he wrote the libretto. Mrs LdP (are you getting used to my new wife?) and I have heard it many times. After two or three times you'll cry, I promise, and I will cry vicariously.
RR: Delighted by your persistence. Music is hard, and writing about it is hard. But the idea's to impose rather more discipline on myself than WW required.
Recently listened to Three Places in New England so there'll soon be a reference to you=know-who.