My mother had a book of German folk songs inherited from her father. There was a version of Die Lorelei in that book, but this is a whole new level of gorgeous.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=era5jL4wlx0&hl=en_US&version=3&rel=0] Continue reading
It’s been a pretty hellish week for a lot of people I know, and everyone knows that the solution to a really hellish week is cute fluffy animals.
Since this is a singing blog, I’ve gone one better: cute fluffy animals set to choral music.
Thank you, Gordon Hamilton and the Australian Voices, for providing the video we all needed right about now…
I’m currently obsessing – and I really do mean obsessing – about every Shakespeare-related opera ever written, but I am trying to resist the urge to write about every single one of them here this week, because I’m reasonably certain that nobody in the world is quite so fascinated by them right now as I am. Instead, I bring you this rather amusing bit of Broadway send-uppery that speaks to my heart right now, all about the sad lot of the alto.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLdWmq0W0KM&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0]
Isn’t it brilliant? I love the way she really is singing the alto line in every one of those songs, and in all honesty, those low notes are fabulous.
(and should my favourite choir director be reading this… well, I wouldn’t stoop to leaving hints in my blog, of course. That would be wrong.)
I seem to be in a French mood at the moment (but then, look what happens when I go into German). Actually this is mostly because I’m looking for repertoire for my next exam, and thought it might be fun to do a little set of Shakespeare-themed songs (I already have Fear no more the heat o’the sun on my list). This one might be a little high for me (it goes to a D, and while I got to a D flat comfortably for my last exam, I don’t know that my voice goes higher than that reliably – certainly not for so long).
But that doesn’t matter for Monday music. I’m sharing this one basically because it is really, really cute.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAHO0er9A8k&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0]
This is taken from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, and it’s actually filmed in Verona and on a balcony, which really is priceless, even if the singing wasn’t amazing. Though the random blonde is a bit disconcerting. Also, technically, the balcony (while gorgeous) shouldn’t be there for this scene, as it occurs before the ball. But if one is trying to be iconically Romeo and Juliettish, a balcony in Verona is clearly the way to go. And Rocío Ignacio’s voice is just lovely, and suits this piece beautifully.
Something about this waltz reminds me a lot of Sempre Libera (not the start, but once you get about 3 minutes in, you’ll see what I mean), which was written by Verdi about a decade earlier. This isn’t in any way a complaint, incidentally – I think they are both gorgeous pieces of music.
Here’s another version of Je Veux Vivre, this one sung by Jane Powell, and obviously completely out of context, though I have no idea what the context actually is. I really enjoy the light purity of Jane Powell’s voice – she’s a very precise singer, and one I really enjoy listening to, though her French accent is fairly awful.
If you’d like to see a version of this actually in context, here’s a recording by Angela Gheorghiu that should do the trick. And if you prefer your Shakespearean opera with cross-dressing – and really, who doesn’t – here’s Elina Garanca as Romeo Bellini’s version of the opera (really, everyone did a version of Romeo and Juliet, and none of them stuck to the plot – in this song, Romeo is disguised as a messenger, offering Lord Capulet Romeo’s hand in marriage for Juliet, as a replacement son after the death of Tybalt…). How gorgeous are her low notes? And her high notes, for that matter…
I’ve been mainlining Shakespeare-themed operas all weekend, and have had the Chanson de Stéphano from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette in the brain all evening. I figured I’d find a proper version to listen to, and found this one, which is so gloriously wonderful that I had to share it with you immediately!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRkXRG5AClo&w=420&h=315]
… because even I have certain qualms about putting rude words in German into the title of my page.
I have a rather wonderful picture book called Faithfully Mozart (currently buried behind stacks of boxes), which is more or less his biography shown through the letters he wrote throughout his life and through a CD of music referred to in his letters. The letters are full of music gossip and opportunities that haven’t worked out and compliments paid to his music and the loveliness of his dearest wife, Constanze, and also fart jokes. Mozart did love a fart joke. In fact, he enjoyed jokes of all sorts, and he even wrote a quite lengthy symphonic musical joke, which was apparently hilarious at the time, but doesn’t make much sense to modern ears, as a lot of the rules he was gleefully breaking are pretty much ignored in much romantic and later classical music. (It does sound kind of bizarre and unbalanced and not quite right, I think, just not especially funny. Maybe one has to know a lot about music theory to recognise all the things he shouldn’t be doing? Oh, alright. The minuet is fairly amusing.).
You can tell I’m not coping with the weather – I can’t stick to a point to save myself and keep getting distracted. I blame the heat, which is making my brain melt out of my ears. Anyway, Mozart also wrote a number of silly and/or rude songs, and, much like those written by Henry Purcell and his baroque drinking buddies, they still sound like rather gorgeous classical music, despite their lyrical content.
A case in point: Continue reading
Here’s something bright and bouncy to make you dance on a Monday morning! It’s by Bizet, who is best known for the opera Carmen, and is clearly fond of Spanish musical styles – this one is a Bolero, and utterly gorgeous, and it must be said, I am terribly cross that one of my fellow singing students found and laid claim to this before I could – I really covet this piece of music!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZZzlHUPB0k&hl=en_US&version=3&rel=0]
I had no idea until recently that Bernstein had written an opera based on Voltaire’s Candide. Cunegonde’s aria, Glitter and Be Gay, is the only piece from it that I have heard so far, and it’s absolutely brilliant fun.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVsLMxam21I&hl=en_US&version=3&rel=0]
I’m planning (hoping is more accurate, at this stage) to do the Trinity ATCL exam this year, so I’m currently collecting repertoire suitable for a recital. This piece of music is one I ran across a few years ago, and the title immediately piqued my interest. It isn’t often that you see the word ‘expostulation’ in a song title, after all.
Then I heard it, and fell completely in love.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eN-tvmXkNY&hl=en_US&version=3&rel=0]
I can’t decide whether this is an act of genius or a travesty, but I think you’ll agree that it definitely belongs in the Friday Fun category…
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vbJgF-F5ZA&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0] Continue reading