(Tuesday, 12th May 2020)
An unusually ordinary day.
The usual routines of Tai Chi, some writing, reading of the news, eating resting, followed by Hallmark of Harmony rehearsal in the evening. Always refreshing, always a laugh, always a chance, in our half-time ‘tea-wine-beer-water-break’ in small Zoom groups to have a catch up with different members. They’re such a good bunch of human beings, with whom for the last nearly six years in one of the UK’s (well, this year, the best) choruses, I have shared some truly memorable experiences, which nothing and no-one can take away from us.
P.S. we shall also, arguably, be the UK’s best chorus for another year, since the annual convention at the end of this month has been cancelled and everything put back a year ... therefore, as reigning champions, we shall not be allowed to compete in next year’s event, instead being asked to do a show, as our swan song. So we won’t be able to compete again until May 2022! Ah well, life could be worse.
P.P.S. There’s more than a slight rumour we shall be preparing to sing another song on line at some point in the near future. But for now, we await the release of our first online offering ...
Today’s music, offered by Ms Burton-Hill, is Gaetano Donizetti’s ‘Una Furtiva Lagrima’ (a furtive tear) from L’elisir d’amore. Donizetti was a leading proponent of a fashionable operatic style known as ‘bel canto’ (beautiful singing). It is entirely appropriate that, in this link, it is sung by the inimitable Luciano Pavarotti. Donizetti was a prolific composer of seventy-five operas during the course of his career, along with 16 symphonies, 19 string quartets, 193 songs, 45 duets, 3 oratorios, 28 cantatas and a slew of instrumental concertos, sonatas and chamber music. L’elisir d’amore, a comic masterpiece, was the most opera produced in all of Italy during the last ten years of his life.
However you may be affected by anything I've written here, do let me know by leaving a comment below or, if you prefer not to, talk to a loved one, a friend or someone you trust.
The usual routines of Tai Chi, some writing, reading of the news, eating resting, followed by Hallmark of Harmony rehearsal in the evening. Always refreshing, always a laugh, always a chance, in our half-time ‘tea-wine-beer-water-break’ in small Zoom groups to have a catch up with different members. They’re such a good bunch of human beings, with whom for the last nearly six years in one of the UK’s (well, this year, the best) choruses, I have shared some truly memorable experiences, which nothing and no-one can take away from us.
P.S. we shall also, arguably, be the UK’s best chorus for another year, since the annual convention at the end of this month has been cancelled and everything put back a year ... therefore, as reigning champions, we shall not be allowed to compete in next year’s event, instead being asked to do a show, as our swan song. So we won’t be able to compete again until May 2022! Ah well, life could be worse.
P.P.S. There’s more than a slight rumour we shall be preparing to sing another song on line at some point in the near future. But for now, we await the release of our first online offering ...
Today’s music, offered by Ms Burton-Hill, is Gaetano Donizetti’s ‘Una Furtiva Lagrima’ (a furtive tear) from L’elisir d’amore. Donizetti was a leading proponent of a fashionable operatic style known as ‘bel canto’ (beautiful singing). It is entirely appropriate that, in this link, it is sung by the inimitable Luciano Pavarotti. Donizetti was a prolific composer of seventy-five operas during the course of his career, along with 16 symphonies, 19 string quartets, 193 songs, 45 duets, 3 oratorios, 28 cantatas and a slew of instrumental concertos, sonatas and chamber music. L’elisir d’amore, a comic masterpiece, was the most opera produced in all of Italy during the last ten years of his life.
However you may be affected by anything I've written here, do let me know by leaving a comment below or, if you prefer not to, talk to a loved one, a friend or someone you trust.
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