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after all the aching silence
Mar. 8th, 2015 09:18 pm11 days until the Vernal Equinox
What I mean by "I've never seen instagram change their URL format," what I mean is "instagram changed their url format recently but all the old images have their original urls. Unlike a certain other site."
King Roger was overwhelmingly beautiful. The musical equivalent of staring directly at an eclipse. The program mentions the influence of Strauss and Debussy and Rimsky-Korsakov and Scriabin. I could definitely hear echoes of Daphnis et Chloe in there, especially in the second act's dance. By the way, you had to use your imagination. I don't think anyone could have pulled it off in Symphony Hall, unless you moved the orchestra to the seats. There's the orchestra, eight soloists, and at least 150 choir members.
Think of Act I as Byzantine, Act II as Middle Eastern, and Act III as Greco-Roman. In fact, the chorus sings in Greek. A shepherd appears in the wilds of Sicily preaching a religion of peace, joy, and love, spiritual but not dogmatic, and King Roger brings him before him. The queen, Roxana, is intrigued but the church wants him put to death. Roger orders his execution but Edrisi pleads for his release. Roger confides to Edrisi that his fear of the shepherd stems from Roxana's enchantment. The Shepherd shows up in Indian clothing, his followers perform a dance and runs off with Roxana. The Shepherd is revealed to be Dionysus, brings everyone together in "almost unbearable joy" and everyone vanishes except for Roger and Edrisi. Roger sings a hymn to the sunrise.
The real life Roger II is similar in that he continued the Emirate's policy of multiculturalism and tolerance but this is pure fantasy.
It's a rarely-performed opera, but its message of tolerance is as relevant today as it was in the 1920s and it's message will sadly be forgotten soon as it was forgotten in its time, the horrors of Chełmno, Treblinka, Majdanek, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibór, and Bełżec began a few years after Szymanowski died.
if you want to listen to this and follow along in Polish, go here. The chorus in Act I sings in Greek.
http://trubadur.pl/biblioteka-trubadura/krol-roger
It's definitely fitting that I just finished Only Begotten Daughter (spoiler alert: it's about the daughter of God) and just started The Wall Around Eden (spoiler alert: Joan Slonczewski and Karol Szymanowski are both ethnically Polish).
The river was completely frozen. I'm looking out the window thinking "holy shitsnacks," and one of the women I sketched said it's been like that for a while.
I saw a guy dressed as The Joker and a woman dressed as Harley Quinn.
I had to get off at Symphony so when someone took a picture of the sketchbook page, they had to play Where's Waldo to find themselves. You know you've watched Archer too much when you say "I'm getting off" and think to yourself "phrasing."
I've never seen a Green Line train that packed at 10 PM. Inbound Green Line train at that. Usually, it's "ok, so there aren't any seats left. Fine." or "aww, everyone got on before me again."
A woman was singing on the platform at Park Street. Meanwhile, on another part of the platform, someone was playing guitar and harmonica at the same time. On the other side was a woman with neon pink hair.
A man and a woman each wearing cowboy hats had to get off at South Station or Downtown Crossing.
Some people were quoting a poem or set of stories, about how no matter how bad things seem, they could be worse and others have survived far worse. I only got one of their names: Rachel. There was an Emily but I'm not sure which one of them was Emily. I think there might be at least one Emma in the group, or perhaps Sarah. Maybe there was a Leanne or Sam. I don't know.
I'm going to delay the Grand Budapest Hotel/her burning question AGAIN to ask this because I think it's a good question.
burning question: when (if) you listen to lengthier compositions, do you prefer to always hear them from start to finish, or, like me, do you listen to them in smaller chunks?
What I mean by "I've never seen instagram change their URL format," what I mean is "instagram changed their url format recently but all the old images have their original urls. Unlike a certain other site."
King Roger was overwhelmingly beautiful. The musical equivalent of staring directly at an eclipse. The program mentions the influence of Strauss and Debussy and Rimsky-Korsakov and Scriabin. I could definitely hear echoes of Daphnis et Chloe in there, especially in the second act's dance. By the way, you had to use your imagination. I don't think anyone could have pulled it off in Symphony Hall, unless you moved the orchestra to the seats. There's the orchestra, eight soloists, and at least 150 choir members.
Think of Act I as Byzantine, Act II as Middle Eastern, and Act III as Greco-Roman. In fact, the chorus sings in Greek. A shepherd appears in the wilds of Sicily preaching a religion of peace, joy, and love, spiritual but not dogmatic, and King Roger brings him before him. The queen, Roxana, is intrigued but the church wants him put to death. Roger orders his execution but Edrisi pleads for his release. Roger confides to Edrisi that his fear of the shepherd stems from Roxana's enchantment. The Shepherd shows up in Indian clothing, his followers perform a dance and runs off with Roxana. The Shepherd is revealed to be Dionysus, brings everyone together in "almost unbearable joy" and everyone vanishes except for Roger and Edrisi. Roger sings a hymn to the sunrise.
The real life Roger II is similar in that he continued the Emirate's policy of multiculturalism and tolerance but this is pure fantasy.
It's a rarely-performed opera, but its message of tolerance is as relevant today as it was in the 1920s and it's message will sadly be forgotten soon as it was forgotten in its time, the horrors of Chełmno, Treblinka, Majdanek, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibór, and Bełżec began a few years after Szymanowski died.
if you want to listen to this and follow along in Polish, go here. The chorus in Act I sings in Greek.
http://trubadur.pl/biblioteka-trubadura/krol-roger
It's definitely fitting that I just finished Only Begotten Daughter (spoiler alert: it's about the daughter of God) and just started The Wall Around Eden (spoiler alert: Joan Slonczewski and Karol Szymanowski are both ethnically Polish).
The river was completely frozen. I'm looking out the window thinking "holy shitsnacks," and one of the women I sketched said it's been like that for a while.
I saw a guy dressed as The Joker and a woman dressed as Harley Quinn.
I had to get off at Symphony so when someone took a picture of the sketchbook page, they had to play Where's Waldo to find themselves. You know you've watched Archer too much when you say "I'm getting off" and think to yourself "phrasing."
I've never seen a Green Line train that packed at 10 PM. Inbound Green Line train at that. Usually, it's "ok, so there aren't any seats left. Fine." or "aww, everyone got on before me again."
A woman was singing on the platform at Park Street. Meanwhile, on another part of the platform, someone was playing guitar and harmonica at the same time. On the other side was a woman with neon pink hair.
A man and a woman each wearing cowboy hats had to get off at South Station or Downtown Crossing.
Some people were quoting a poem or set of stories, about how no matter how bad things seem, they could be worse and others have survived far worse. I only got one of their names: Rachel. There was an Emily but I'm not sure which one of them was Emily. I think there might be at least one Emma in the group, or perhaps Sarah. Maybe there was a Leanne or Sam. I don't know.
I'm going to delay the Grand Budapest Hotel/her burning question AGAIN to ask this because I think it's a good question.
burning question: when (if) you listen to lengthier compositions, do you prefer to always hear them from start to finish, or, like me, do you listen to them in smaller chunks?
