A nation of sheep
will beget a government of wolves.
—Edward R. Murrow
ailleurs
yes we can
Ma Famille
Tolle, lege
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25 February 2008
Pensée du lundi 25 février
A nation of sheep
will beget a government of wolves.
—Edward R. Murrow
24 February 2008
Sorrisi e canzoni VIII
- ¡ …y hasta con plan de salud !
- the opportunity to make C and la S smile
- the return of reading
- The minute you commit to living an authentic life, the world shifts. Friends fall away. Sometimes even family. But once you decide to be part of the energy that heals rather than destroys life, there is no other path. (Thank you, dear heart!)
- remembering who I am, and being supported in the process (thank you, V)
- knowing that AB is back at home, comfortable and healing beautifully (thank you, G-d)
- that so many friends are ready to stand by me in my great adventure
- You got me writing lyrics on postcards, then in the evenings looking at stars…
- Someday I’ll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me…
Pensée du dimanche 24 février
Non ti aspetto più,
neanche se quando ritorni
ritornasse un’altra estate.
Non ti aspetto più,
è passato molto tempo.
Le mie stagioni sono già finite.
Non ti aspetto più
e vado via da qui.
Oltre questo ponte,
un altro ponte,
e ancora un fiume,
e un altro fiume ci sarà.
Non ti aspetto più
e vado via perchè
oltre l’orizzonte
un altro mare,
e ancora un mare,
e un altro amore ci sarà…
19 February 2008
Pensée du mardi 19 février
…e poi viene un giorno
che a guardarlo passare
sembra il giorno di un altro
e di un altro le cose da fare
e di un altro la voce
e anche l’ombra sui muri
e di un altro anche i fiori
che ho preso per te
e sono fiori d’inverno
ma per un’altra stagione
oppure un altro ricordo
che adesso non so
nient’altro che fiori
cosa vorranno mai dire
a guardarli di nuovo
non dicono più
perché viene un giorno…
—Gianmaria Testa, “Nient’altro che fiori”
And then there comes a day that, to watch it pass, seems the day of someone else, of someone else the things to do, of someone else the voice, even the shadows on the walls, and even these winter flowers that I gathered for you. And they’re winter flowers, but for some other season, or for some other memory, of what now I don’t know—nothing but flowers, whatever might they mean? As I look at them again, they say no more. Because there comes a day…
Great news, New Yorkers: Gianmaria Testa will make one of his rare visits to the United States on 25 May, playing Joe’s Pub with flugelhorn virtuoso Paolo Fresu.
Gianmaria’s 1999 CD Lampo, a masterpiece bathed in moonlight and haunted by time’s dizzying rush, has been reissued (including English-language texts this time around).
“Nient’altro che fiori,” from Altre latitudini, features, among others, the great trumpeter Enrico Rava, one of the sexiest men on the planet, who plays Birdland 20–23 February along with pianist Stefano Bollani and other crack musicians. Rava and Bollani have a new ECM CD, The Third Man.
18 February 2008
Giuseppe Filianoti: Proust Questionnaire
One of this opera season’s most eagerly anticipated events is just around the corner: the March return to the Met of tenor Giuseppe Filianoti as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, the role of his sensational 2005 company début.
Filianoti, who opened yesterday as Tom Rakewell in Palermo (his role début), has been to hell and back since his last local appearance, in OONY’s L’Arlesiana in February 2007—and I’m not referring only to the diabolical operas in which he has sung. On the heels of an acclaimed Rome run of Werther, Filianoti fell gravely ill with peritonitis following an appendectomy and was forced to withdraw from some six months of engagements.
His first performances after his illness—as Hoffmann in Hamburg and in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem in Torino—were popular and critical successes, though Il Corriere della Grisi’s Adolphe Nourrit expressed reservations about the Hoffmann. Opera Today’s critic, instead, praised Filianoti’s “balls-to-the-wall phrases,” of which vilaine fille says: Wow, that must hurt.
Last month’s Mefistofele in Palermo reportedly found the tenor in fine fettle. (Yes, that’s Mefistofele in the photo and not That ‘70s Show). And, as all the world knows, Filianoti will open the 2008-09 La Scala season in the title role of Verdi’s Don Carlo (Italian-language, four-act version) under Daniele Gatti. (vilaine fille’s birthday is the day after Sant’Ambrogio; she is SO there.)
Werther, Hoffmann, Faust, Don Carlo… That’s mighty heavy rep for a young singer. (Soon after his Met début, Filianoti opined that it was “too soon” for him to undertake Don Carlo.) And Edgardo’s tessitura is killing…
En tout cas, we wish Don Peppino a hearty in bocca al lupo and bentornato a New York! Alas, what with the silly set in the new Lucia, he probably will not be able to make his entrance running, with his cape swirling behind him—one of vilaine fille’s most cherished memories from thirty years of opera going. Filianoti also portrays Edgardo in San Francisco later this year. His upcoming performances include, as well, Werther in Genova, La clemenza di Tito in Torino, and Nicias in Thaïs (venue TBA).
Since Don Peppino is that rare tenor who reads Borges and Sgalambro, we thought it only fair to have him answer a version of the Proust questionnaire. (The Italian-language original will appear in print in coming weeks; if it makes its way to the web, I’ll post the link.)
Buona lettura!
Your most marked characteristic?
Determination.
The quality you most like in a man?
Courage.
The quality you most like in a woman?
Intelligence and intuition.
What do you most value in your friends?
Good faith.
What is your principal defect?
Being an introvert.
What is your favorite occupation?
Reading.
What is your dream of happiness?
Living in total serenity.
What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
Losing those I love.
What would you like to be?
Alight with wisdom.
In what country would you like to live?
Southern Italy.
What is your favorite color?
Brown.
What is your favorite flower?
All of them.
What is your favorite bird?
The phoenix.
Who are your favorite prose writers?
Too many, I couldn’t decide.
Who are your favorite poets?
Dante, Shakespeare, Leopardi, Montale.
Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Edgardo, Achilles, Aeneas.
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Desdemona, Anna Karenina, Dido.
Who are your favorite composers?
All those whose music I’ve sung along with Britten, Debussy, and Monteverdi.
Who are your favorite painters?
Mantegna, Leonardo, Raffaello, and Caravaggio.
Who are your heroes in real life?
I have none.
Who are your favorite heroines of history?
Joan of Arc, Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
What are your favorite names?
Arianna, Flavio.
What is it you most dislike?
The abuse of power.
What historical figure do you most despise?
Hitler.
What event in military history do you most admire?
None.
What natural gift would you most like to possess?
The ability to read my own soul.
How would you like to die?
I don’t think about it.
What is your present state of mind?
In progress (answered in English).
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Those belonging to the people dear to my heart.
What is your motto?
Don’t borrow trouble.
Update: La sor romana answers the ever-pressing question, How many tenors does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
Sorrisi e canzoni VII
- perché la felicità si coltiva come un talento (grazie)
- sending and receiving Valentines
- gumption
- flashes of being who I am and doing what I love (with lots more to come)
- good sleep
- a spring in my step (for real!)
- other rewards of dumb persistence
- Tutte le stelle di questa montagna, così piccole e vicine saluterò…
- Something there is more immortal even than the stars,
(Many the burials, many the days and nights, passing away,)
Something that shall endure longer even than lustrous Jupiter,
Longer than sun, or any revolving satellite,
Or the radiant brothers, the Pleiades.
Pensée du lundi 18 février (Presidents’ Day)
And until 20 January 2009, we say, with brother Nick: A ognuno puzza questo barbaro dominio (This barbarous regime stinks in all nostrils), De principatibus, XXVI.
A safe and relaxing holiday to my fellow Statunitensi!
17 February 2008
Pensée du dimanche 17 février
And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.
—My sister Fred
14 February 2008
San Valentino
Love, like the light, silently wrapping all!
—Walt Whitman
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Whether your love be new or old, sad or glad, fleshly or of the spirit, or perhaps all of the above (why not?), vilaine fille sends you a baker’s dozen of musical roses and wishes you immense tenderness and joy.
- All you need is love
- Le ciel dans une chambre
- Carte da decifrare
- Architetture lontane
- Message personnel
- Mysteries of love
- Lady Marmelade
- Hallelujah
- Stormy weather
- I fell in love with a dead boy (pour moi-même)
- You are my sister (for S-C, MHS, RHH, AKS, JC, KMA, AF, GM, RS: I love you more than words can say)
- I’m not ready to love and Want
L’amour… supporte tout, croit tout, espère tout, endure tout. L’amour ne périt jamais.
13 February 2008
Pensée du mercredi 13 février
Acceptance is often touted as the right move spiritually, and I think that an awful lot of us waste years trying to accept the things we are meant to change…
Accepting the unacceptable creates resentment. Resentment creates rage. Rage turned inward creates depression, and depression is a great excuse for martyrdom…
When we ask for acceptance and don’t get it, it’s not because G-d is hard of hearing. It’s because the answer is no. We are not being told “Try harder.” We are being told “Stop trying.” We are being told “Move on.”
—Julia Cameron, G-d Is No Laughing Matter
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