Diana Damrau – Queen of the Night
An evening pause: From Mozart’s The Magic Flute, performed by the Royal Opera. If the closed captions are off, turn them on, as they provide a translation.
As “the fat lady” has now sung, we can go off and enjoy the weekend.
Hat tip Blair Ivey.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
An evening pause: From Mozart’s The Magic Flute, performed by the Royal Opera. If the closed captions are off, turn them on, as they provide a translation.
As “the fat lady” has now sung, we can go off and enjoy the weekend.
Hat tip Blair Ivey.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Wow. What a fabulous aria.
John Winner: that particular aria is considered to be one of, if not the most, difficult arias to perform. It pushes the limits of Human ability. Excellence never gets old.
The Overture to the Magic Flute is one of my favorite pieces of music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om_qtZ-Hm7k
and the seconds from 4:40 to 5:15 is the best chunk of music ever written.
John Winner,
Ditto.
Blair Ivey,
Yes. Singing this is a bit like high-wire walking the Grand Canyon with no balance pole – there is absolutely no margin for error.
Saville,
I’ll have to disagree with your last observation. Those 35 seconds cited are not only not the best chunk of music ever written, they are not even the best chunk of music written by Mozart. Any given 35 seconds of the excerpted aria are superior – far superior.
Robert Zimmerman,
Frau Damrau can certainly be fairly described as an amply-built woman, but she is not fat. She is imposing. In that dress and makeup, in fact, she very much looks the part of someone waiting for someone else to say, “Oh thank you Mistress! May we have another?”
Dick:
Well yours is an opinion, sure. Not one that I share.
But for me while the singing part was difficult and her performance fantastic, that does not necessarily impart greatness to the composition at that point.
To me, the chunk of the overture, that I’m referring to, starts simply but boldly and then layer upon layer is added. Complexity as in a fine wine.
Far more enjoyable to me than the singing section we are looking at.
But what moves us is different for different people. So I would never say I disagree with you on this: I have no desire to imply error on your part.
I would say I have a different opinion.
Saville,
Perhaps the source of our differing assessments is that I am not a wine drinker.
Dick,
I doubt it.