From the mundane to the sublime

One of the hallmarks of greatness at writing opera is the ability to take some mundane aspect of the plot, or somewhat banal text, and turn it into a beautiful aria.  It's one thing to create a great aria out of a poetic declaration of love, a fit of jealousy, sorrow, ambition or whatever.  But being able to create something sublime out of nothing requires genius.  To forestall the likely criticism of my thesis as so far described let me point out that, in the examples that follow, the number might in fact relate to a relatively significant plot element or character development.  But in such a case the text will deal with apparently ideas, or will use just plain ordinary words.

A few examples will suffice, although there are indeed plenty to go around.  And I mean no disrespect to any of the great opera composers not mentioned here.  Let's take as exhibit one, a piece of music so familiar that as kids, who knew nothing of classical music, let alone opera, we even bowdlerized its common name: Handel's Largo which we irreverently referred to as Handel's lager.  I've only recently come to really know this piece which more properly is referred to as Ombra mai fu from Serse, the story of Xerxes I of Persia, successor to Darius the Great.  Xerxes sings this aria in praise of the plane tree and the wonderful shade it provides:

Never was the shade
of any plant,
dearer and more lovely,
or more sweet.

There's a wonderful video and recording on YouTube with Cecilia Bartoli [recall that Handel wrote many of his lead male parts for castrato voices which are generally sung these days by women].

My next example is from Mozart and you might quibble with my interpretation of the text as mundane as it tells of lovely fresh breezes in a romantic setting.  Yet, the purpose of the letter which the Countess is dictating is to expose her husband's infidelity, it is not an outpouring of some noble emotion.  She's not even particularly upset -- she just wants to teach him a lesson.  But I don't think you can disagree with my assessment of the sublimity of the duettino from The Marriage of Figaro: Sull'aria che soave zeffiretto.  You may even recall one of my all-time favorite movies scenes, from the Shawshank Redemption, when Andy (Tim Robbins) broadcasts this over the prison P.A. system to the consternation of the warden and the wonder of Red (Morgan Freeman).

A little song on the breeze
What a gentle little Zephyr
This evening will sigh
Under the pines in the little grove.
And the rest he'll understand.

Easily the best sound quality that I found on YouTube is the recording (without video) of Jessye Norman and Mirella Freni. The balance, and playing, of the oboe and bassoon are just perfect.  Incidentally, there's a clip of Dame Kiri which should be the best but the sound quality isn't good.  In particular, the bassoon overpowers the oboe!  [I'll bet you never thought I'd say that!]

My final example is by Puccini from that intrinsically mundane seeming story about the canal people: Il tabarro.  Even the title refers to something seemingly (though not in fact) insignificant: a cloak.  But don't be fooled.  This is verismo opera at its absolute best.  What appears ordinary is loaded with passion, repression and violence.  This rather long aria and duet is known as E' ben altro il mio sogno (I have a different dream) and tells of very ordinary life in the suburbs of Paris (in particular Belleville).  Here are Teresa Stratas and Placido Domingo.  Giorgetta's aria starts at about 0:40 and the duet, some of the most powerful music Puccini ever wrote, starts at 4:12.  Here are the words of that section (my own translation):

But whoever leaves the suburbs wants to come back
And whoever returns cannot leave.
Over there Paris is crying out to us,
with a thousand happy voices,
about its eternal enchantment.

I hope I've convinced you that ordinariness or banality is no bar to glorious opera when at the hands of a real master.

Birthday fun

Exceat and the Seven Sisters, East Sussex, England -- by John Allen

While it's no fun having a zero in your birthday, we nevertheless made the most of it. Kim helped arrange for me to enjoy several of my favorite Bs: bassoon (playing Bach in Belmont), bridge, (draft) beer.  We made a weekend of it by overnighting in a super old inn in Marblehead: the Harbor Light Inn.  Added to that, the Patriots crushed the Bears on their home turf in their own weather (wind, snow).

I also wanted to share some photos with you from my cousin John who is a very talented photographer.  The one at the top, especially, is spectacular.  The one below was taken nearby during nature's icy grip early this month.

Icy Friston Church, East Sussex, England -- by John Allen

Central Florida

The "boil" pool at Blue Spring State Park

Way back when explorers were first getting to know Florida, they sent a party up the St. Johns river to find the source.  When they got to the area near present day Orange City, they followed the short tributary and found that it dead-ended in a blue pool that had occasional "boils" surfacing.  They had found the warm spring that feeds this little creek.  But the manatees had found it eons ago.  Manatees don't do well in cold water (below about 60F is deleterious to their health), so in winter they swim a couple of hundred miles up the river to this warm sanctuary.  The Blue Spring State Park provides a board walk along this stretch and we must have seen well over 100 individuals (which you can see if you look carefully in the photo below which Kathy took).

Manatees hanging out in the "hot tub"

As it happened, we also saw a Bald Eagle up close and personal when it swooped in just a few feet away (twelve perhaps) to harass a Cooper's Hawk, which later perched less than ten feet from us.  There was lots of other wildlife including alligators, anhingas, black vultures, white ibises, etc. etc.

We really had a very enjoyable morning there.  It felt really good to get out into the fresh air after all that bridge.  But it didn't stop Kim and I from going straight back in to the two-session open pairs at 1pm.  We did fairly well, although we definitely could easily have done better if tiredness hadn't intervened again.

The timeshare condo which we had this time at Cypress Point was really nice.  There was a very nice pool with large jacuzzi which was only a stone's throw from our door.  The apartment itself was palatial and included its own jacuzzi.  There were about five TVs altogether, none of which ever got switched on.  Furthermore, we also got lucky with the car from Alamo.  Not only are there no lines now (because they have an automated check-in kiosk) but they are also on-airport.  When we got to the compact row, we could choose any car, including one of several minivans.  That turned out to be a great boon as we several times had quite a few in the car with us.  And all for less than $20 per day :)  Alamo gets kudos from us!

Chef Remy

Our favorite place to eat was Tommy Bahamas' which we visited three times.  It was a 15-20 minute drive so wasn't the most convenient for the tournament but was well worth it.  They do a $33 prix-fixe menu which has smaller portions than the regular a la carte menu: perfect for people who have to go back to the tournament and think!  I had a great Dark and Stormy on the one evening we weren't going back to play bridge.  We also ate at Roy's which was actually even better than Tommy's and Bahama Breeze which I liked more than my fellows.

Our day at Epcot was very enjoyable.  No lines, lots of fun, and two pretty good meals (Chefs de France and the brand new La Hacienda de San Angel).  The former was enhanced by a visit from Chef Remy (Ratatouille) - see photo above.  The firework show at the end of the day was really terrific - I think they've improved it quite a bit in recent years.  At right is a picture of two happy Disney-goers at the start of the day.  Note the magic sunbeam which was a good sign.