ART & Thoughts
Music
A Child of Our Time: Michael Tippett
A Child of Our Time is a secular oratorio by the British composer Michael Tippett (1905–98), who also wrote the libretto. Composed between 1939 and 1941, it was first performed at the Adelphi Theatre, London, on 19 March 1944. The work was inspired by events that affected Tippett profoundly: the assassination in 1938 of a German diplomat by a young Jewish refugee, … Continue reading
King of the Blues: Riley B. King (BB King)
“The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you.” ― B.B. King Riley B. King was born on September 16, 1925, on a cotton plantation near the town of Itta Bena, Mississippi, the son of sharecroppers Albert and Nora Ella King.] He considered the nearby city of Indianola, Mississippi to be his … Continue reading
Les Mille et une Nuits – Kees Van Dongen / Nino Rota
L’origine des Mille et une Nuits reste mystérieuse. Mais ce mystère, et la richesse d’un texte sans cesse augmenté, ont inspiré artistes et créateurs. Ce recueil de contes de fées, d’origine indienne et persane, remonte au Xe siècle. À l’origine, il ne comptait pas exactement 1001 histoires, mais un très grand nombre d’histoires. En effet, mille en Arabie … Continue reading
Brief Encounter (1946) Film
On a cafe at a railway station, housewife Laura Jesson meets Dr. Alec Harvey. Although they are already married, they gradually fall in love with each other. They continue to meet every Thursday on the small cafe, although they know that their love is impossible. Brief Encounter is a 1945 British film directed by David … Continue reading
Kerouac’s Last Dream: Ramblin’ Jack Elliott – Reinfried Marass
Kerouac’s Last Dream is an album by american folk musician Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, released in 1981. In his liner notes, Elliott writes “”I have been asked, sometimes, why I don’t learn new songs. These are old ones and I have sung them for a long time. They are good and I think they shall always … Continue reading
Shéhérazade – Maurice Ravel / René Magritte
Shéhérazade est le titre de trois poèmes pour voix et orchestre de Maurice Ravel sur des vers de Tristan Klingsor. Asie à Jeane Hatto « Asie, Asie, Asie, Vieux pays merveilleux des contes de nourrice, Où dort la fantaisie Comme une impératrice En sa forêt tout emplie de mystères, Asie, Je voudrais m’en aller avec ma goélette Qui … Continue reading
My Thoughts Fly To You – Love Poems: Carol Ann Duffy / Peter Seelig
Miles Away I want you and you are not here. I pause in this garden, breathing the colour thought is before language into still air. Even your name is a pale ghost and, though I exhale it again and again, it will not stay with me. Tonight I make you up, imagine you, your movements … Continue reading
L’écume des jours – Boris Vian
-Chloé, vos lèvres sont douces. Vous avez un teint de fruit. Vos yeux voient comme il faut voir et votre corps me fait chaud… Des billes de verre roulaient dans la rue et des enfants venaient derrière. -Il me faudra des mois, des mois, pour que je me rassasie des baisers à vous donner. Il faudra … Continue reading
Juan Gelman : a poet , a writer, a journalist
Juan Gelman (3 May 1930 – 14 January 2014) was an Argentine poet. He published more than twenty books of poetry between 1956 and his death in early 2014. Gelman received the Cervantes Prize in 2007, the most important in Spanish literature. His works celebrate life but are also tempered with social and political commentary and reflect his own … Continue reading
La Flûte enchantée – Die Zauberflöte / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The Magic Flute (German: Die Zauberflöte, K. 620) is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered in 1791 at Schikaneder’s theatre, theFreihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna. Act 1 Scene 1: A rough, rocky landscape Tamino, a handsome prince who … Continue reading
Venus in Furs – Leopold von Sacher Masoch / Lou Reed and more
“Beautiful, free, serene, and happy human beings, such as the Greeks were, are only possible when it is permitted to have slaves who will perform the prosaic tasks of every day for them and above all else labor for them.” “Of course,” she replied playfully, “an Olympian divinity, such as I am, requires a whole army of … Continue reading
Giuseppe Verdi: The Italian born a Frenchman
Addio, del passato bei sogni ridenti, Le rose del volto già son pallenti; L’amore d’Alfredo pur esso mi manca, Conforto, sostegno dell’anima stanca Ah, della traviata sorridi al desio; A lei, deh, perdona; tu accoglila, o Dio, Or tutto finì. Le gioie, i dolori tra poco avran fine, La tomba ai mortali di tutto è … Continue reading
El infierno tan temido – Juan Carlos Onetti / Piazzolla
El infierno tan temido es una película argentina de 1980, dirigida por Raúl de la Torre y protagonizada por Graciela Borges y Alberto de Mendoza. Se estrenó en Buenos Aires el 7 de agosto de 1980 y fue ganadora del Cóndor de Plata como mejor película de 1981. Musica Astor Piazzolla, basada en un cuento magistral de Juan Carlos Onetti. Una joven mujer envía a su ex esposo (Risso) y otras personas que éste … Continue reading
Jazz Baroness : Nica de Koenigswarter
The intriguing story of the eccentric Rothschild who turned her back on upper-class life to hang out in New York with the jazz stars of the day. On April 21, 1959, Baroness Pannonica de Koenigs-warter was sentenced to three years in an American prison and fined $3,000. The 46-year-old mother of five had been arrested … Continue reading
Life with Gustav Mahler
Life with Gustav Mahler (1901 – 1911) On 7 November 1901, at the house of her friend Berta Zuckerkandl, Alma met celebrated conductor Gustav Mahler who, as Director of the Vienna Court Opera, held one of the most powerful positions in the world of music. Alma Schindler, 1900 Gustav Mahler en route to the Vienna … Continue reading
ART & Thoughts 