Tea, countertenors and song

[pallas_athena]

While some were off enjoying the splendours of Whitby, I spent the weekend tending to a sick countertenor. He had planned to come over from Lübeck to rehearse some Baroque duets for a future concert, but when he arrived the poor guy promptly keeled over with sinusitis.

He needed rest, so I left him to it. Meanwhile, I was able to spend a lovely afternoon in Oxford with monochromegirl and evilmattikinz. La Monochrome showed us around the university's Museum of Natural History, the building that inspired her to become an architect; hearing her talk about it certainly inspired me. There may be further invasions of Oxford in the future: I myself have had a vision, a vision of GOTHS ON THE RIVER. I'll punt, pvcdiva can serve tea, esdi_leanne can feed the ducks and everyone else can drink and look fabulous. How about it?

Otherwise, Countertenorfriend and I spent most of the weekend cooking, chilling on the sofa watching Blackadder, exchanging massages and singing love songs. "I feel married," I thought at one point. "To someone gay. Obviously."

When his voice had recovered sufficiently, we sang through Ino and Athamas's scene from Handel's Semele and the beautiful "Pur ti miro" duet from the end of Monteverdi's Poppea. Interestingly, both pieces end on a unison note. There is nothing in the world, I think, like the sound of a woman's and a man's voice singing the same pitch together. There's something about the two different qualities of voice arriving at the same note that sends shivers the length of one's spine. Handel and Monteverdi both knew about that, and Philip Glass also uses it to great effect in his opera Akhnaten.

Meanwhile, here's the programme for what looks to be a fairly riotous concert this weekend, also starring the lovely Peter Collins (baritone) and Guy Newbury (piano):

from Semele, George Frederic Handel:


Aria (Juno): 'Awake, Saturnia... Iris, hence away!'
Recitative (Juno): 'Somnus, awake!'
Aria (Somnus): 'Leave me, loathsome light!'
Recitative (Juno): 'Dull God, canst thou attend the water's fall'
Aria (Somnus): 'More sweet is that name'
Recitative (Juno): 'My will obey'
Duet (Juno, Somnus): 'Obey my will, thy rod resign'


from die Zauberflöte, W. A. Mozart:


Aria (Sarastro): 'In diesen heil'gen Hallen'


from Cosi fan tutte, W. A. Mozart:
Duet (Dorabella, Guglielmo): 'Il core vi dono'


from L'Italiana in Algieri, Gioacchino Rossini
Aria (Isabella): 'Cruda sorte'
Duet (Isabella, Taddeo): 'Ai capricci della sorte'

For an encore, we'll be doing my own little arrangement of "Over the Hills and Far Away" from The Beggar's Opera. If I can get it written out in time, that is. Ahahahaha.

Comments

[suetekh.livejournal.com]

/sigh/...I'm coming to Oxford for Art Week on the 17/18th May. We could do tea!

[fracture242.livejournal.com]

I have always wanted to recline and read poetry in a boat, but I've been told that this romantic 'film-style' cliche can't be accomplished due to the Mad Max type antics of the punters on the river. Still, we can dress up in Victoriana and recite poetry to each other on the lawn whilst drinking tea or wine and snacking on cucumber sandwiches and cakes. I wanted to do just such a thing for Easter once - I even had a friend all lined up who was willing to dress up as a giant pink bunny so that we could chase him through the woods with water pistols (I thought a bunch of corset-clad Victorian lovelies running around with water-pistols would look awesome) but then it rained and we had to cancel.

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'd say that reclining and poetry reading are very possible-- you just need to find a quiet stretch of river (of which there are many.) The Mad Max types are easily avoided because they tend to be crap at punting and thus can't get very far from the boathouse!

I'm delighted you're interested in this little scheme. Let's meet soon and compare notes on what the summer looks like.

[miriya-b.livejournal.com]

..."but then it rained" seems to be the key note of my time in Oxford this go-round -- so no punting for me, it looks like, before I leave the UK next Monday morning. :(

I have every confidence that you will be able to indulge in at least SOME version of your plans, when it is not raining --
and I highly endorse the planned chase of anthropomorphic-animal prey, having partaken with joy in the traditional Myld Hunt one spring in The Other Cambridge, for which my friend Mark acted as the Fox...

(from the listing of annual events for the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association at http://www.hrsfa.org/info.php:
-- Wyld Hunt: HRSFA strips down and runs madly about Harvard in pursuit of a freshman stag (who gets a free HRSFA membership!). Lots of woad and howling. The Wyld Hunt takes place on a Friday or Saturday October night, preferably during a full moon. Friday or Saturday night in April, somewhere in the Radcliffe Quad.
-- Myld Hunt: A genteel version of the Wyld Hunt, in which we dress up and stroll through the Square, potentially chasing a Fox, and then play croquet. The Myld Hunt takes place on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon in April or May.)

[fracture242.livejournal.com]

Wow - I had no idea. Wonderful as it sounds there is a problem though (and I know I'm losing major Goth points by saying this) - I'm absolutely terrified of the dark. I don't think even the enticement of hunting a furry could get me into the woods at night. Not after some of the horror movies I've seen...

[miriya-b.livejournal.com]

No worries! Sounds like the Myld Hunt angle is definitely the one for you, then (it's the one I know best, and it's a lot of fun)...though if you should ever find yourself around Harvard at the time of the Wyld Hunt, I don't think you'd have much trouble: the quads are pretty much the antithesis of woods, and the Cambridge streetlights and building illumination make the night not so dark at all...

...but for the woods elsewhere? eminently reasonable--if anything, Goths should have all the more reason to KNOW to be afraid of the dark!

[justpolina.livejournal.com]

Have a good one - I shall probably be still tending to the chickenpoxy offspring but I WILL come and see you do a gig again soon!