There are incidents in daily life sometimes which set fire to trend of thoughts and emotions.
Last night it happened when I opened my Apple laptop, then my facebook page. One of my dearest young friend was having a Callas sort of update booster vaccin with the latest Maria Callas Youtube uploads and sharing all his love and admiration. Back to Traviata, Visconti 56 in Milan,it was glorious and 'rare'. All of a sudden I had to do my own trip to 53, my favourite Rai-Traviata, where the tenor is not as brilliant as Gianni Raimondi but Maria here is even more Traviata than in the years 55 and 56. Her voice has a lighter touch and a sharp taste, almost like an unripe apple with soft curves, but the pang of emotion felt there is tremendous. When she floats on'Alfredo, Alfredo di questo core' the frailty of her voice and the tears of humiliation and love, sung there, are flooding in the curves of the musical themes. Her voice dominates the whole architecture.LINK
What I will never understand from some singers like Angela Gheorghiu is this constant need to challenge Maria.(pride?...hubris?...)
Therefore I have never liked Angela Gheorghiu's affected way of singing. Her last Cd is just the proof of her oversized ego. Her attire on this Emi advert is also the signature of her bad taste. What a fake...
I did not celebrate on this blog the 16th of sept. But it was on my mind. As Maria's voice is often in my personal "radio"...Last night, I opened my treasure box and made my journey to Callas Untouched Island.
This morning, our homage to Steeve Jobs, as we have been faithful Apple users, and glad to be since the first Apple 2 +.(1977)
Good morning, Yvette!
ReplyDeleteThis is a touching tribute to both Callas and Jobs. I have to admit to never being able to enjoy Callas ( no idea why, just one of those personal musical taste things ) But I am a recent convert to Mac and all things Apple and I have to say that Steve made an excellent job of enabling us to enjoy our various cyber-journeys.
Our hot weather has disappeared and things are sort of back to normal in England!!
Thank you Eyes! your message made me realise I made an error.. I came back from the sea front in Marseilles, spent the afternoon strolling along the coast (in town, down the 'Corniche' and people were bathing and swimming. Tomorrow apparently there will be a severe drop, 21°C instead of 29, 30°C in the afternoon. Yes,I am not a great computor expert but I have to say Apple world is a fantastic means of pleasure. I call my Aple my open window onto the world. (Wish I could send you my picts of the sea (today) ... I cannot believe it was so blue, quiet and smooth...)I Hope everything 's fine over the Channel for you!
ReplyDeleteCiao Yvette & Eyes,
ReplyDeleteCallas was an acquired taste for me, I think mostly because I don't prefer the high soprano voice type and the first recordings I heard her in were the bel canto ones. Once I really listened, tho, she was spectacular. :oD She meant every note she sang, even the weird ones.
Gheorghiu... I rather like in as Marguerite in Faust, though I have a hard time with her Tosca... even when given plenty of diva-leeway. :( That she was imprudent enough to overtly criticize Callas' interpretation while implying that she knows how the role should be played better sure didn't help. I don't think she is anywhere nearly as versatile, and she doesn't sound like she gives you everything the way Callas always did.
That said, I once saw a video clip of her singing an aria from a Romanian opera in a concert and really liked it. Haven't been able to find a recording of it, though.
Hope all is going well with your October! :oD We're having a surprise couple days of cold weather here, too. Weird. I'm being quite love-bombed by the merry mormons, tho. All this attention is starting to freak me out a bit. :oP
Cheerios from California,
Dearest friend... Did you really read my nasty bit ... I know I am biased because I went to Monte Carlo(2005) to attend her Marguerite and she put her diva act at the end and wanted to stop the conductor and the whole thing... as he carried on she left... just like that. This is so unprofessional and unbelievable. So, I simply do not like the type of singer she is, I can just about agree that she sometimes does nice things! but on the whole she is never 'naturelle'. With Maria Callas, I never think that she actually is a 'soprano'. I must analyze that... sometimes her voice has nothing pleasant in it and yet she is stunning.
ReplyDeletehallo Yvette, am a little late catching up with all this :-). i went for apple the first time this Feb and have been *loving* apple since. However i remain reserved just because of stories i recently learned about the inhumane working conditions in china to make it possible for us in the western world to enjoy apple products :-(. i know it's the same for all other products, not just apple, sadly.
ReplyDeletehttp://au.ibtimes.com/articles/25271/20100528/china-taiwan-foxconn-apple-dell-hewlett-packard-iphone-ipad-assembler-contractor-technology-electron.htm
also, am not sure why but i have not gotten around to listening much to Callas. I think it has a lot to do with association. She was before my time, and for us youngsters and beginners (or maybe just me), we are somehow more caught up with current singers. I think the bad speakers I had been using listening to Callas doesnt help though since it made for more headaches... vivalavoce does broadcast a lot of callas' recordings, i'll give it a try this time on my shiny speakers :-). have a wonderful weekend!
Working conditions in China for the huge US firms are appalling and you are right to spread the news. I watched a TV report about Nike in China and that was sad too. We can hope for better working conditions and regulation laws on manual work.I was told that although the Apple components are made in China, when they want to buy them it is even more expensive for them than for us in Europe. Big business...
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