The vengeance of Hell boils in my heart

The eternal struggle between sunlight and darkness, between day and night - how utterly appropriate for this time of year...

And so it was that, with great anticipation, Hils, History Boy, Madam Arcati and I swished into the opulent grandeur of The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden for its latest revival of Sir David McVicar's classic [first staged in 2003] production of The Magic Flute [or, more properly, as it's sung in its native German, Die Zauberflote] (in its last weekend before it closes on Monday).

Mozart's last opera before his untimely death aged just 35, he deliberately chose to do it in Singspiel style - basically a "fairy tale" with spoken, as well as sung segments - with a bit of comedy, a bit of panto villainy, a smattering of satire, and a nod to his interest in secret societies thrown in.

As a sum of its parts, however, it's a work of genius...

"[It makes a] special claim on one's affections, because its libretto is high camp. It's a peerlessly silly masterpiece: sublimely lucid music arising out of a parodistic fairy tale that celebrates in all seriousness the exalted brotherhood of the Freemasons." - Pauline Kael

Speaking of camp, there are a couple of rather wonderful highlights amongst the beautifully-sung "heroic prince gets quest (with the "magic flute" of the title) to rescue beloved princess, prince loses princess, prince has to pass several trials, prince gets princess back, sunshine triumphs, everyone lives happily ever after except the villainess" plot - not least the comic sidekick Papageno's joy at the end of all the trials and tribulations to finally get his ideal (and similarly-named) girl [here in rehearsal (NB Huw played the role last night, but Stephanie Edwards played "Papagena")]:

Huw Montague Rendall and Elisabeth Boudreault - Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Papagena!

Of course, there is one spine-chilling moment that everyone's waiting for in this particular opera - and that's when the nastiest-of-nasty queens really shows what she's all about...

[Annie Fassea played the role last night - and was wonderful - but there's sadly no footage of her in the role, so this is the classic rendition - lyrics explained here]:

Diana Damrau - Der Hölle Rache (Queen of the Night aria) [The Magic Flute - Mozart]

Special mention must go the "star-crossed lovers" around whom the story revolves, Mingjie Lei as "Prince Tamino" and [the particularly good] Chelsea Zurflüh as "Princess Pamina", and to the much-maligned high priest "Sarastro", sung with booming magnificence by Timo Riihonen, as well as the camp-as-old tits "Three Ladies" Hannah Edmunds, Ellen Pearson and Emma Carrington.

Operas of this magnitude - this one's three hours' duration (with a 20-minute break) - are not for the faint-hearted or the weak-bladdered, however this production was so engaging and so brilliantly done, time passed really quickly. It really was a superb evening!

The Diva from Doncaster

Heavens! Miss Lesley Garrett, the "Diva from Doncaster" - the first modern opera diva to do "the crossover", landing her own BBC television show in the late 80s in which she gave the audience a potted history of certain pieces of classical music, then sang them, alongside myriad special guests as diverse as Elaine Paige, Renee Fleming, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Marti Pellow, Michel Legrand, Alison Moyet, Michael Ball, Maxim Vengerov and Ian Bostridge - blows out 70 candles on her cake today!

Gifted with a natural Yorkshire "down-to-earth" manner as well as a beautiful vocal tone, Miss Garrett is rightly regarded as a "national treasure", and lauded for her place in taking opera to the masses (a trend that has continued ever since with the likes of Katherine Jenkins and Russell Watson, and of course Classic FM today).

Here are some clips of the lady herself, firstly with two very special guests...

Lesley Garrett, Patricia Hodge and Lily Savage - Three Little Maids

Before she discovered grooming, here she holds her own alongside mezzo-soprano Ann Murray singing the traditional Rule Britannia at the Last Night of the Proms in 1990:

Lesley Garrett, Ann Murray - Rule, Britannia

And finally, her solo version of Handel's Tornami a Vagheggiar:

Lesley Garrett - Morgana's aria Tornami a vagheggiar (from Alcina by George Frideric Handel)

Happy Birthday, pet!

Lesley Garrett (born 10th April 1955)

Opera Queens, bathhouses and Vicky Edie - once more

The fact that it would have been the 110th birthday today of the celebrated soprano Miss Eleanor Steber has prompted me for a second time to re-visit an ancient post of mine [originally from my MySpace years, and relocated with all the others to my other blog Give 'em the Old Razzle Dazzle] from 2008. The original was in the immediate aftermath of a literary event I attended called "The Lavender Library", at which Mr Paul Burston had enthused about one of my own favourite books of all time, Queens by Pickles, from which I had just rediscovered...

...a passage from the chapter Cruising at the Opera in which "The Opera Queen" - who is "wild about applause, always yelling 'Brava' whilst all about him bellow their ignorance of gender" - has a bitchy conversation at the opera house with his friend:

Friend: "Just look at those diamonds! Look at them! She must be rolling in it! She looks a bit like Margaret Dumont, don't you think?"
Geoffrey: "Some women are so camp, aren't they?"
Friend: "What! They're hysterical! Talk about camp, dear - just give me Eleanor Steber at the Continental Baths! Have you got that album?"
Geoffrey: "Oh, I've tried everywhere. Everywhere! Deleted now!"
Friend: "Oh God, yes! I found mine in New York, actually. Ten dollars. I can't remember when I was so thrilled! Shall we have a little troll upstairs? You never know what you're missing in this place!"
Geoffrey: "I love walking up this staircase. It's so Joan Crawford, isn't it?"

Well, apart from being a brilliant observation of the interplay between queens - it could be Madam Arcati and I and our friends chatting - this set me thinking. Just who is/was Eleanor Steber? And could it be true that an opera singer (if that is indeed who she was) actually performed at the most notorious of the sex-club bathhouses in New York in the 70s? The home of Bette Midler and Barry Manilow (who started out as an act there)? So off I went on a web search to find out more...

Eleanor Steber, who died in 1990, was indeed an American operatic soprano - one of the first major opera stars to have achieved the highest success with training and a career based in the United States. Before her, most of the biggest stars of opera were European. Noted particularly for her performances of Wagner, Mozart, Puccini and Richard Strauss, she rose to prominence in the 1950s with the Metropolitan Opera, and performed at Bayreuth.

A bit of a high-living party-loving girl, her voice suffered towards the end of her career, but not before she paid a tribute to some of her greatest fans - gay men - by performing at the Continental Baths in 1973. And to top the whole search, I have found a copy of the original recording online!

Listen to or download the whole album as an MP3

Eleanor Steber live at the Continental - track listing:

• Mozart: Zeffiretti lusinghieri (from Idomeno), Ach, ich fuehl's (from Die Zauberfloete), Come scoglio (from Cosi fan tutte);
• Charpentier: Depuis le jour (from Louise);
• Puccini: Quando m'en vo (from La Boheme);
• Massenet: Scene and Gavotte (from Manon);
• Sieczynski: Wien, du Stadt meiner Traeume;
• Kreisler: Stars in My Eyes;
• Lehar: Medley from The Merry Widow;
• Puccini: Vissi d'Arte (from Tosca).

Edwin Biltcliffe, Piano; Joseph Rabb, Violin.October 4, 1973.

It is strange listening to this very old and very camp recording of a bygone gay era - before AIDS and the hysteria it whipped up closed bathhouses like this forever.

In particular, I found it very interesting how much Ms Steber's speaking voice must have influenced Bette Midler when she created her character Vicky Edie (from whence came my own epithet "Dolores Delargo the Toast of Chicago!").

But those reflections aside, I most enjoyed finding this beautiful vocal performance intact and online. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

And, SIXTEEN YEARS on from the original post, I still hope you do...

Eleanor Steber (17th July 1914 - 3rd October 1990)

I lived for my art

"La Divina", "the Bible of opera", "the definition of the diva as artist".

It's the centenary today of the most-lauded operatic soprano of the 20th century, Maria Callas!

Here she is, at her utmost peak of her powers...

Maria Callas - Vissi D'arte

Perfection.

Maria Callas (born Maria Anna Cecilia Sofia Kalogeropoulos, 2nd December 1923 – 16th September 1977)

[More Callas here, and at the label at the foot of this post, of course.]

Does it howl like a hungry Alsatian, or boom like a military band?

A view up my back passage - not a bad show of colour for November!

It's the 80th anniversary of the independence of Lebanon from France, 60 years since the whole world was shaken by the shocking assassination of President John F Kennedy, it is or would have been the birthdays today of George Eliot, Scarlett Johansson, General Charles de Gaulle, Jamie Lee Curtis, Hoagy Carmichael, Tom Conti, Robert Vaughn, Sir Peter Hall, Tina Weymouth, Boris Becker, André Gide, Terry Gilliam, John Bird, Mark Ruffalo, George Alagiah, Thomas Cook, Sumi Jo, Mick Rock, Mads Mikkelsen. Billie Jean King (who is 80 years old!)...

...and it is 110 years since the birth of one of Britain's most lauded composers Sir Benjamin Britten!

Here's one I wrote (by way of a tribute) earlier:

...how about I inject a bit of a bit of "class" into proceedings here at Dolores Delargo Towers, with this bizarre and pithy little number, adapted by Benjamin Britten from a poem by WH Auden?

And why not...?

Streetwise Opera - Tell Me The Truth About Love [from Benjamin Britten's Cabaret Songs]

Some say that love's a little boy
And some say it's a bird
Some say it makes the world go round
And some say that's absurd
And when I asked the man next-door
Who looked as if he knew
His wife got very cross indeed
And said it wouldn't do

Does it look like a pair of pyjamas
Or the ham in a temperance hotel?
Does its odour remind one of llamas
Or has it a comforting smell?
Is it prickly to touch as a hedge is
Or soft as eiderdown fluff?
Is it sharp or quite smooth at the edges?
O tell me the truth about love

Our history books refer to it
In cryptic little notes
It's quite a common topic on
The transatlantic boats;
I've found the subject mentioned in
Accounts of suicides
And even seen it scribbled on
The backs of railway guides

Does it howl like a hungry Alsatian
Or boom like a military band?
Could one give a first-rate imitation
On a saw or a Steinway grand?
Is its singing at parties a riot?
Does it only like classical stuff?
Will it stop when one wants to be quiet?
O tell me the truth about love

I looked inside the summer-house;
It wasn't even there:
I tried the Thames at Maidenhead
And Brighton's bracing air
I don't know what the blackbird sang
Or what the tulip said;
But it wasn't in the chicken-run
Or underneath the bed

Can it pull extraordinary faces?
Is it usually sick on a swing?
Does it spend all its time at the races
Or fiddling with pieces of string?
Has it views of its own about money?
Does it think patriotism enough?
Are its stories vulgar but funny?
O tell me the truth about love

When it comes, will it come without warning
Just as I'm picking my nose?
Will it knock on my door in the morning
Or tread in the bus on my toes?
Will it come like a change in the weather?
Will its greeting be courteous or rough?
Will it alter my life altogether?
O tell me the truth about love!

Excellent - if surreal - stuff.

It certainly is that!

Sir Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten OM CH (22nd November 1913 – 4th December 1976)

Viva la Diva

As I'm trolling off with chums to South Kensington for the rave-reviewed Diva exhibition at the V&A this afternoon, I thought I would dig out an old fave - the utterly remarkable Signorina LaLa McCallan!

She's a queen who knows an appropriate song for an occasion:

LaLa McCallan - Casta Diva

Fantabulosa!

[More LaLa here]

A trip to the moon on gossamer wings

After months of sulking, our Spanish Flag vine (Ipomoea lobata) has finally decided to put on a show!

Once again, it's been a slow start to Sunday. I didn't arise till 2pm today, having spent the whole of yesterday at John-John's, for another "Marvel-geek-fest-binge-watch" - we watched the whole series of Moon Knight [sometimes scary, sometimes emotional, and completely stunning!] and all six episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law to date [the series isn't finished yet; it's very quirky and takes a completely opposite tone to Moon Knight, with some quite funny moments].

How about a little double-bill of "Sunday Music", courtesy of a newly-discovered Czech diva?

Magdalena Kožená with Ondřej Havelka and his Melody Makers - Just One Of Those Things

Magdalena Kožená with Ondřej Havelka and his Melody Makers - Let's Misbehave

This new discovery came, surprisingly, courtesy of the BBC's classical music station Radio 3, so it's obvious that there is more to the lady's talents than performing Dance Band numbers - she is Mrs (or, more properly, Lady) Simon Rattle, after all, and here she is (in a rather odd video) showcasing her magnificent mezzo-soprano talents:

Magdalena Kožená - Cantata, BWV 30 [Bach]

Phew.

Tu crois le tenir, il t’evite

Yup. Back to work time again...

Aaaargh! The bloody alarm has gone off, for the first time in seventeen days, and Mama's not a happy bunny.

I'd much prefer to be in Regent's Park, having fun with "the gang" at our Grand Picnic:

To ease my confused head and semi-concious state, let's celebrate a centenary, shall we? Alongside a raft of fellow celebrants that includes the late, dearly missed influential DJ and music expert John Peel, as well as Cameron Diaz, Capability Brown, Raymond Massey, Denis Healey, Antony Gormley, Muriel Gray, Timothy Bottoms, brewer Samuel Whitbread, Fred MacMurray, Joan Blondell, Mary Shelley, Ernest Rutherford, Radio 4's Sue MacGregor and out-gay politician Ben Bradshaw, one hundred years ago today the fantabulosa opera diva Regina Resnik was born!

[click any pic to embiggen]

Resident diva at New York's Metropolitan Opera for almost forty years, she started out in dramatic soprano roles in the likes of Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Die Walküre, and eventually re-trained (as her voice matured) as a mezzo-soprano, with leading roles such as Carmen, "Mistress Quickly" in Falstaff and "Klytemnestra" in Elektra - as well as a notable turn as "Madame Armfeldt" in Sondheim's A Little Night Music [see here].

She even attempted to bring a touch of class to the USA's favourite variety showcase The Ed Sullivan Show in 1968:

Regina Resnik - Habanera [from Carmen by Bizet]

Now, that woke me up!

Well, almost...

Have a good week, dear reader. I won't.

Brassy

Just last week, I made an effort to inject some "class with a capital K" into this blog [courtesy of VOCES8]. Here's some more...

Bizet by a brass band? Who'd have thought that would ever work? But it does:

Mike Lovatt's Brass Pack - Carmen Suite

Fab!

Does its odour remind one of llamas, or has it a comforting smell?

Apropos of nothing at all - how about I inject a bit of a bit of "class" into proceedings here at Dolores Delargo Towers, with this bizarre and pithy little number, adapted by Benjamin Britten from a poem by WH Auden?

And why not...?

Streetwise Opera - Tell Me The Truth About Love [from Benjamin Britten's Cabaret Songs]

Some say that love's a little boy
And some say it's a bird
Some say it makes the world go round
And some say that's absurd
And when I asked the man next-door
Who looked as if he knew
His wife got very cross indeed
And said it wouldn't do

Does it look like a pair of pyjamas
Or the ham in a temperance hotel?
Does its odour remind one of llamas
Or has it a comforting smell?
Is it prickly to touch as a hedge is
Or soft as eiderdown fluff?
Is it sharp or quite smooth at the edges?
O tell me the truth about love

Our history books refer to it
In cryptic little notes
It's quite a common topic on
The transatlantic boats;
I've found the subject mentioned in
Accounts of suicides
And even seen it scribbled on
The backs of railway guides

Does it howl like a hungry Alsatian
Or boom like a military band?
Could one give a first-rate imitation
On a saw or a Steinway grand?
Is its singing at parties a riot?
Does it only like classical stuff?
Will it stop when one wants to be quiet?
O tell me the truth about love

I looked inside the summer-house;
It wasn't even there:
I tried the Thames at Maidenhead
And Brighton's bracing air
I don't know what the blackbird sang
Or what the tulip said;
But it wasn't in the chicken-run
Or underneath the bed

Can it pull extraordinary faces?
Is it usually sick on a swing?
Does it spend all its time at the races
Or fiddling with pieces of string?
Has it views of its own about money?
Does it think patriotism enough?
Are its stories vulgar but funny?
O tell me the truth about love

When it comes, will it come without warning
Just as I'm picking my nose?
Will it knock on my door in the morning
Or tread in the bus on my toes?
Will it come like a change in the weather?
Will its greeting be courteous or rough?
Will it alter my life altogether?
O tell me the truth about love!

Excellent - if surreal - stuff.

To boldly go...

Here we are again, dear reader. Back down to earth with a bump, and into week eleven of working from home - while outside, the sun keeps shining...

Never mind, eh? Today is the 75th birthday of the very lovely mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, one of our favourites here at Dolores Delargo Towers, so let's open the celebrations with her remarkable version of one of my favourite arias - the Song to the Moon:

Frederica von Stade - Mesícku na nebi hlubokém/Song to the Moon [Dvořák: Rusalka]

However, before anyone thinks I have gone all "cultural with a capital K" on this Tacky Music Monday, there is a helluva lot more to the Great Lady's repertoire than her exquisite operatic talents. She's also tackled Bernstein's On the Town, Kern/Hammerstein's Show Boat, Sondheim's A Little Night Music and plenty more "crossover" roles...

...including this marvellous Mistinguett number:

Frederica von Stade - Je cherche un Millionaire

And, in a final twist to the true meaning of "tacky", she also did this!

[with William Shatner, singing the Star Trek theme at the 57th Emmy Awards 2005]

She's a trouper, alright!

Many happy returns, Miss Frederica "Flicka" von Stade Gorman (born 1st June 1945)

She opened a new door

"She opened a new door for us, for all the singers in the world, a door that had been closed. Behind it was sleeping not only great music but great idea of interpretation. She has given us the chance, those who follow her, to do things that were hardly possible before her." - Montserrat Caballé

We missed celebrating the birthday of "La Divina", Maria Callas - one of the most influential opera divas of the 20th century...

...all hail!

Maria Callas - Oh Mio Babbino Caro

Maria Callas (born Maria Anna Cecilia Sofia Kalogeropoulos, 2nd December 1923 – 16th September 1977)

I make the goddam rules

"When music fails to agree to the ear, to soothe the ear and the heart and the senses, then it has missed the point."

"You are born an artist or you are not. And you stay an artist, dear, even if your voice is less of a fireworks. The artist is always there."

"I would not kill my enemies, but I will make them get down on their knees. I will, I can, I must."

"Don't talk to me about rules, dear. Wherever I stay I make the goddam rules."

It's been a very laid-back Sunday here at Dolores Delargo Towers (as it should be) - with so little daylight, it is difficult to really get a huge amount done.

So instead, let us put our feet up and wallow in the musical splendour of "La Divina" herself, Maria Callas, whose 95th birthday it would have been today...

Maria Callas - Ah non credea mirarti (Bellini - La Sonnambula)

Utter perfection. Sigh.

Maria Callas (2nd December 1923 – 16th September 1977)

More Maria Callas here and here.

I lived for art, I lived for love, I never did harm to a living soul

Just woke up from a long lie-in to the sad news that one of our favourite operatic voices, the lovely Montserrat Caballé is dead.

Needless to say, we adored her, and indeed "La Superba" was an "exhibit" in the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp back in 2014. It is a pity that the media can only bring itself to mention her as being famous for her (brilliant, admittedly) duet with the late, great Freddie Mercury, but such is the state of today's "culture", I suppose:

Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé - Barcelona

There is so much more in Señorita Caballé's immense back catalogue to explore. In my tribute to the lady earlier this year on the occasion of her 85th birthday, I featured her masterful performances of works by Donizetti, Verdi and Bizet. Here she is with probably the most beautiful performance ever of this famous aria from Puccini's Tosca:

Montserrat Caballé - Vissi D'Arte (Puccini - Tosca)

Vissi d’arte, vissi d’amore,
non feci mai male ad anima viva!
Con man furtiva
quante miserie conobbi aiutai.

Which, in translation, serves as a fitting tribute to its singer:

I lived for art, I lived for love
I never did harm to a living soul
With a furtive hand
so many troubles I encountered I soothed

Brings tears to the eye. As does this - her surprising choice to cover an 80s "modern classic" by fellow Spaniards Mecano:

Montserrat Caballé - Hijo de la Luna

...and finally, the gran dama at her glittering peak, with this performance from Donizetti's Guillaume Tell:

Montserrat Caballé - Sombre foret (Donizetti - Guillaume Tell)

It's becoming a bad year for divas (we lost María Dolores Pradera - as featured here way back in 2009(!) - in May; and, from different genres, admittedly, Morgana King in March, Liliane Montevecchi in June, Cats choreographer Dame Gillian Lynne in July, and (of course) Aretha Franklin in August), but for me, the passing of Montserrat Caballé is the saddest loss of all...

RIP Maria de Montserrat Viviana Concepción Caballé i Folch (12th April 1933 – 6th October 2018)

Love is a rebellious bird that nobody can tame

That greatest of living opera stars, María de Montserrat Viviana Concepción Caballé i Folch - better known, of course, as Montserrat Caballé - celebrates her 85th birthday today!

I think a master-class in vocal perfection is called for here, by way of a celebration of this milestone for the great diva:

Montserrat Caballé - Al Dolce Guidami [Donizetti - Anna Bolena]

Montserrat Caballé and José Carreras - Brindisi [Verdi - La Traviata]

Montserrat Caballé - Habinera (L'amour est un oiseau rebelle) [Bizet - Carmen]

L’amour est un oiseau rebelle
que nul ne peut apprivoiser,
et c’est bien en vain qu’on l’appelle,
s’il lui convient de refuser.
Rien n’y fait, menace ou prière.
l’un parle bien, l’autre se tait:
Et c’est l’autre que je préfère,
Il n’a rien dit mais il me plaît.

L’amour! L’amour! L’amour! L’amour!
L’amour est enfant de Bohème,
il n’a jamais, jamais connu de loi;
si tu ne m’aimes pas, je t’aime:
si je t’aime, prends garde à toi!

L’oiseau que tu croyais surprendre
battit de l’aile et s’envola …
l’amour est loin, tu peux l’attendre;
tu ne l’attends plus, il est là!

Tout autour de toi, vite, vite,
il vient, s’en va, puis il revient …
tu crois le tenir, il t’évite,
tu crois l’éviter, il te tient.

L’amour! L’amour! L’amour! L’amour!
L’amour est enfant de Bohème,
il n’a jamais, jamais connu de loi;
si tu ne m’aimes pas, je t’aime:
si je t’aime, prends garde à toi!

Translated into English:

Love is a rebellious bird
that nobody can tame,
and you call him quite in vain
if it suits him not to come.
Nothing helps, neither threat nor prayer.
One man talks well, the other’s mum;
it’s the other one that I prefer.
He’s silent but I like his looks.

Love! Love! Love! Love!
Love is a gypsy’s child,
it has never, ever, known a law;
love me not, then I love you;
if I love you, you’d best beware!

The bird you thought you had caught
beat its wings and flew away …
love stays away, you wait and wait;
when least expected, there it is!

All around you, swift, so swift,
it comes, it goes, and then returns …
you think you hold it fast, it flees
you think you’re free, it holds you fast.

Love! Love! Love! Love!
Love is a gypsy’s child,
it has never, ever, known a law;
love me not, then I love you;
if I love you, you’d best beware!

Well deserving of her nickname "La Superba", methinks.

Que cumplas muchos más, Montserrat Caballé (born 12th April 1933)

More Montserrat here and here.

Dream together

"Music is a way to dream together and go to another dimension."

The girl with one of the most assured operatic voices to emerge out of the late 20th century - renowned for making her debut at the age of 21, unusual for a true opera diva - the Italian coloratura mezzo-soprano, Signorina Cecila Bartoli hits fifty years old today!

It's Sunday. Go on, treat yourself - here's an hour of the lady's estimable (and most beauteous) moments...



Cecilia Bartoli (born 4th June 1966)

Totty of the Day (high-brow variety)...

...a recent discovery, the very cute Mr Anthony Roth Costanzo, counter-tenor and (at times nude - no uncensored pics unfortunately; this being the best out there) star of the recent English National Opera production of Philip Glass's Akhnaten.

But it's not to his usual world of high opera we turn today. Here (thanks to our friend Al and my erstwhile other half Madam Arcati) the lovely Anthony camps it up brilliantly on a rather unexpected version of Gershwin's I Got Rhythm (with help from his chums Elliot Peterson and Danny Lindgren):

Anthony Roth Costanzo - I Got Rhythm

Mash up of the day...

...Maria Callas vs Marni Nixon/Audrey Hepburn?

Tito Gobbi sings My Fair Lady

Who wins?

[Thanks to my erstwhile other half Madam Arcati for finding this!]

Where the white jasmine blends with the rose

Calendula and Osteospermum in the extensive gardens at Dolores Delargo Towers

MID-Summer already? It hardly feels like it has started yet...

What better way to celebrate the longest day of the year [it's all downhill from here, folks!] than with not one, but two magnificent voices - Dame Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne - on (what else but) The Flower Duet? Sigh.

Dame Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne - Flower Duet [Delibes Lakmé]

Under the dense canopy
Where the white jasmine
Blends with the rose
On the flowering bank
Laughing at the morning
Come, let us drift down together
Let us gently glide along
With the enchanting flow
Of the fleeing current
On the rippling surface
With a lazy hand
Let us reach the shore
Where the source sleeps
And the bird sings
Under the dense canopy
Under the white jasmine
Let us drift down together

A joy.

I mean to change my name Bloggs to Bloggini

Just because...

...we played it this afternoon, as part of our esoteric musical soiree to welcome Al and Mark as guests to the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers - it's our beloved Patricia Routledge, in an unexpected "audition":

Patricia Routledge - I Want to Sing in Opera

I'm getting so tired of these comedy songs
I want to sing something divine
I'm sure that I'm certain to shine
As a star in the opera line
I simply love Wagner, Mozart, Puccini
Their music is really tip-top
So I mean to change my name Bloggs to Bloggini
And see if I can't get a ‘shop'.

I want to sing in Opera
I've got that kind of voice
I'd always sing in Opera
If I could have my choice
Signor Caruso
Told me I ought to do so
That's why I want to sing in op'ra
Sing in op-pop-pop-popera Hurrah.

I want to play Carmen I just love the part
The music's so awfully sweet
And all prima donnas I beat
If in Faust I played fair Marguerite
I'd warble and trill like a human canary
In recitative or duet
But managers seem to be just a bit wary
My chance hasn't happened as yet.

I want to sing in Opera
I've got that kind of voice
I'd always sing in Opera
If I could have my choice
Signor Caruso
Told me I ought to do so
That's why I want to sing in op'ra
Sing in op-pop-pop-popera Hurrah.

I think she's in, don't you?