music, life, and other ramblings....

Two very different songs:

1957- Julie Andrews sings "The Lass with the Delicate Air", an old English folksong I sang in June for my recital. Perfect diction, as always.

And you are going to hate me for this--Julian Smiths absolute WORST song ever! It is so irritating, not funny, and obnoxious, that I think you should have it stuck inside your head too! I'm an extremely compassionate blogger. ;-)

So, on to less jovial subjects...or not. Joviality does indeed have its place.

Last night the other females members of our household and me went to see H.M.S. Pinafore as performed, in a simplified concert form, by the Cornell Savoyards of Ithaca, NY. They did a fantastic job! We really enjoyed it. I was in the chorus of this operetta in 2009. Lots of fun!

I performed with the Summer Savoyards, which is an amateur group which performs a different G + S each July. They're doing Patience this year, if anyone wants to go see it. We're going!

Gilbert and Sullivan is amazing! W.A. Gilbert wrote the witty and gently satirical lyrics and dialogue in the 1880s. It goes perfectly with the sparklings music composed by Arthur Sullivan, who also composed a "real" opera and the hymn Onward Christian Soldiers. For a sampling of G + S just go onto Youtube. 

From Pinafore's dialogue:

"I am poor in the essence of happiness, lady --— rich only in never-ending unrest. In me there meet a combination of antithetical elements which are at eternal war with one another. Driven hither by objective influences — thither by subjective emotions — wafted one moment into blazing day, by mocking hope — plunged the next into the Cimmerian darkness of tangible despair, I am but a living ganglion of irreconcilable antagonisms. I hope I make myself clear, lady?"

I love that line: "I am but a living ganglion of irreconcilable antagonisms." i can even pronounce it!  Ah, the joys of using and learning really long words, even if half the time no one can make out what you're saying....

Finally, as a suitable ending to a completely raggletaggle assortment of blatherings, a photo of a toucan. NOT MY PHOTO.