The following scenes from the Salzburger Festspiele recently evoked rave reviews among opera cognoscenti in attendance. Never in living memory had Mozart's beloved Die Zauberflöte been performed with such raw--even canine--passion! The leading men and ladies must have been influenced by Myrna & Gilbert's wedding.
In the role of the Queen of the Night, the lovelyLucia del Litorale del Nord
sang the daunting, arpeggio-
rich aria, Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen*.
Her performance drew no
less than three standing
ovations from the enthralled
audience!
*The Vengeance of Hell Boils in myHeart
(click on the link above and you can hear Diana Damrau's
rendition of the aria, which was performed in 2006
<----maybe that's the one that BUSTERIGO was impressed
by...violent little aria that it is!)
Mind you, this music is difficult! After all, it's Mozart! But dolce Lucia performed it exquisitely. Please make note of the similarity of la Luna to those kitty claws Lucia has been ingesting...
It's hard to convey in mere words the breathtaking drama with which the entrance of the Queen of the Night is accompanied. Her presence is associated with all sorts of Masonic symbolism (a female Yang to Sarastro's Yin). Basically, she sort of descends out of the sky, even though her realm is admittedly in the other direction (F. Scott Fitzgerald noted that the sign of a first-rate intelligence was the ability to hold in one's mind two mutually-exclusive notions and retain the ability to function. Mozart had a first-rate intelligence.). Psssst ....let it be known that BUSTERIGO has first-rate intelligence too!
Here's an artist's rendering of one of the original sets for the entrance of the Queen of the Night. A bit understated, don't you think?
Never in the history of Austrian opera had Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja* been sung with such exquisite sensitivity for its bird-besotted subject!
Make note of his most avian strut...and how he stands so hawk-like--he did learn this from his conformation experience -- lots of preening there.
BUSTERIGO was able to skilfully bring the audience "up close and personal" so that they could discern some of the "buff, buff, buff buff buffs" that he used to fill in the blanks where the consonant-laden German came to a pause. After all, he's just becoming semi-fluent in Italian! The audience was transfixed -- WHAT A PERFORMANCE!
* Click the above link to hear Detlef Roth as Papageno singing this aria.
And the score is...........
WHoOOOOoooo0000 way to go, Lucia and BUSTERIGO!!Persephone & Ms. Blue, on assignment for DWB World Service in Salzburg, Austria......
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9 comments:
Oh la flûte enchantée ! Quelle merveille. Buster est très romantique et Lucia très chanceuse.
Bisous
We are starting our day off feeling very cultured and very privileged, thanks to you and what you've shared.
Now we are even MORE disappointed we couldn't make it to Salzburg! We'll have to keep coming back to your page to watch and listen to the amazing perfomances.
Bravo! Bravo!
Jake and Fergi
Oh, il mio caro Busterigo, your mama and sorella have outdone themselves on this megagalattica multimedia bloggie entry! (We are sorry for the delay in responding to this magnificent posting. Because I, Lucia, was away in Salzburg for the weekend, la mia ragazza skipped town yesterday, too ... gadabout!)
I have to admit, my role as Astrofiammante was a challenge, despite the fact that la mia ragazza says my multi-octave voice – exercised frequently and with great gusto when I see uccelli, scoiattoli and cervi in my yard, along with the occasional leaf — was more than capable of handling the demanding range of the aria. (And she has the headaches to prove it. Heeeeeee!!!)
And you, my adorabile principe azzurro! Your Papageno was a fantastico marriage of exceptional vocalization and graceful prancing! And Tweeting your performance in real time to your followers was a stroke of sheer genius!! Who better to Twitter than a birdie boy! I was utterly transfixed – and so was the audience. Bravo, bravo!!
Mille grazie for making the Salzburg fine settimana so unforgettable!! Mwahhhh!!
Tanti baci!
Lucia
PeeEss: I love your new haiku. You are such a gifted poet, il mio dolce ragazzo!
Pewsephone and MsBlue,
Youw wepowting is fantastical, and bwought to life that fantastico evening. Mommi has been to the opewa since she was a little giwl(about 200 yeaws ago) and nevew has she heawd ow see anything as magnificent as the pawfowmances by Lucia divina and Bustewigo il magnifico.
Bwava and Bwavo!!
We wewe enthwalled!
smoochie kisses
ASTA
Oh, we are so so so disapawnted that we were completely oblivious to the wonders of La Flute Enchantee while we were in Salzburg. What exquisite pleasure that would have been for us to be with our beautiful dates -- Gabbi and Essex -- listening to the divine music.
But how thoughtful of you to provide the links so that we could listen to it from her dull suburbs back here at home.
Danke schoen!!
Wirey woofs,
Jake and Just Harry
Sorry, we meant our dull suburbs...
Jake and JH
Whoaaaaaa, Kerries ... what's this I saw on the Gooberstaniani blog about the three of you being under the weather?!?! Busterigo, a hole in your foot!?! (What happened, il mio dolce ragazzo!?!) Sephie, you had surgery!?!?! And Ms. Blue, you've been dealing with a cute pancreeeeeatitis but are now doing better??? Please forgive me a thousand times over for not being more aware!!
I know you are all in good hands with your humomm, but if you need an extra nurse, I, Lucia, will dash right over to the Nutmeg/Constitution State PDQ with a tote bag of soft socks and some Wilsons for il mio caro Buster, and big pillows for Ms. Sephie and Ms. Blue!! (And la mia ragazza says she will make an eggplant parmigiana that I can bring along for your hoomans.) In the meantime, I am sending lots and lots of AireZen your way and keeping both sets of my paws crossed for all of you!! Please keep me posted on how you're doing!
Tanti baci and abbracci, dearest blue darlings! Mwahhhh!
Lucia
What a brilliant performance!
Dad says that his hippo lathe can swing 8 foot, Buster!
Cross your paws that we see the sun today! Are you starting to grow fins yet?!
Love ya lots,
Maggie and Mitch
Hello Kerry Cousins,
On June 10 we want to post pics of our doggy friends on our blog. We'll all be wearing blue bandannas. Will you join us. It can be a group shot or individual ones, it's up to you. (We don't like to stand still for group shots). Please join us. You can send your pics to our mom and she'll add them to the post.
Your Portie cousins
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