1 post tagged “opera”
It's 12:41am, and I have a listening exam in about ten hours. I'm completely unprepared! Such is life.
This entry is to gush about what I'm currently listening to. I so rarely get to sit down and enjoy opera, but as my music history class is currently at the time period where opera is at last peeking it's pretty little head out, I've gotten to listen to quite a bit of snippets lately. So, I'm madly in love with (what I've heard of) Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (feel free to read about that here) one of the most famous operas of all time. We're listening to three clips from the conclusion: a recitative, "Thy hand, Belinda," the infamous Dido's Lament ("When I am laid in earth"), and then the Chorus, "With drooping wings." I love the words to everything (as far as back-story goes, suffice it to say Dido realizes she cannot live without Aeneas after he is gone... so she doesn't):
Dido: Thy hand, Belinda; darkness shades me.
On thy bosom let me rest; More I would, but Death invades me; Death is now a welcome guest.
When I am laid in earth, may my wrongs create
No trouble in thy breast.
Remember me! but ah! forget my fate.
Stuff like this is what gets me through these damn listening tests, where one must be able to name composer (and their birth and death years), name of the work (and the date for that), name of the movement, and genre. Because I'm a loser and want people to hear this, I'm gonna see if I can't upload some of it. I'll try and upload Dido's Lament; unfortunately it's going to be split into two tracks, as the textbook CD set is really dumb.
