#ann murray

[parmandil]

Émile Paladilhe's Au bord de l'eau, sung by Felicity Lott and Ann Murray (accompanied by Graham Johnson).

[monotonous-minutia]

Listening to Ann Murray sing this is one of my favorite things. I love her Muse/Nicklausse more than ice cream.

[mezzowatch]

Ann Murray as Serse and Jean Rigby as Amstre in Handel’s Serse

[verdiprati]

I feel about 80% certain that Xerxes’ magic fingers in the Herheim production (capable of giving Amastre a seismically good hand job from 2m away) are a parody of the statue-toppling gag from the venerable Hytner production. And I approve.

[operasrsly]

Il tenero momento

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Lucio Silla 

Ann Murray Cecilio’s Aria

Il tenero momento Premio di tanto amore Già mi dipinge il core Fra i dolci suoi pensier.

E qual sarà il contento, Ch'al fianco suo m'aspetta,  Se tanto ora m'alleta L'idea del mio piacer?

~

The tender moment Reward of love so great, Already fills my heart With sweet thoughts.

And how shall that joy be, Which awaits me at her side, When the very thought alone So entices my rapture?

Image: Murray as Cherubino, via [x]

Translation by Camila Argolo Freitas Batista ([email protected])

[fire-and-fog]

Granada Holmes and classical music

In the Granada series Irene Adler has her own musical theme composed by Patrick Gowers. 

What’s really interesting is that Irene’s theme is inspired by and starts with a quote from Handel’s Dove Sei. It is also the aria she sings and plays at the piano when Holmes encounters her the first time and later he himself plays it on his violin. Andreas Scholl sings the aria very beautifully or you could listen to Ann Murray singing it.    

Another point of interest is that the original Italian text means: Where are you my beloved? Irene is singing this while she waits for her husband to be; Godfrey Norton.  

In the episode though, I noticed Irene singing the English lyrics:

Art thou troubled? Music will calm thee, Art thou weary? Rest shall be thine, Music, source of all gladness, Heals thy sadness at her shrine, Music, music, ever divine, Music music calleth with voice divine.

When the welcome spring is smiling, All the earth will flow’rs beguiling, After winter’s dreary reign, Sweetest music doth attend her, Heav’nly harmonies doth lend her, Chanting praises in her train.

Source: 

http://www.boysoloist.com/lyrics.asp?TrackID=22436&AlbumID=4262&

In any case she’s a very special woman with beautiful music to accompany her <3 

You can read the other post on the subject Sherlock Holmes and classical music here.

[monotonous-minutia]

this was my favorite thing when I was 13. Took me three hundred years to find it again. 

This is what made me fall in love with these two divas (though I heard it on the radio as a studio recording. It’s just as fabulous here).

When I wasn’t listening to opera I was listening to NPR’s “Classics by Request” program and this was the first (and only) song I requested and when I phoned the host she asked me why I wanted to hear it. I didn’t go into the whole falling-instantly-in-love-with-divas story so I told her Part 2, that it sounded exactly like my cats talking to each other. She asked how many cats I had, and when I told her four, she was very surprised at how many that was. I didn’t tell her there used to be more than that.

anyway here’s two of my favorite divas singing a really funny little duet.

[monotonous-minutia]

Apparently this was my #2 track. The first 2 minutes 48 seconds are the ones that matter.