Baroque Chick (and Baroque Chic)

I blogged about it before, 11 years ago in fact: there is rock in baroque. I was thinking about it when I listed to soprano Jeanine de Bique singing L'alma mia fra le tempeste, from Handel's Agrippina. Never seen the opera, but fell in love with this aria right away. It's barock all right. And if there is rock in baroque, it means there's rock chicks and baroque chicks as well. Jeanine de Bique is the latter. In an elegant emerald dress, which makes her performance baroque chic. Did I tell you she was one of my favourite sopranos?

An aria for a lazy Sunday

On a lazy Sunday, I often listen to opera. I am doing this right now and I thought I would share it with my readership. This is from Handel's Giulio Cesare. A rather modern take by Danielle de Niese, who plays/sings Cleopatra. I am always a bit skeptical about Danielle de Niese's often pop star-like  mannerism when she sings. I mentioned it the very first time I blogged about her. I know she has also been very much criticized for it. On the other hand, opera will not survive if it remains stiff and formal. And I grew rather found of Danielle de Niese. She may not be the greatest soprano ever, but she has plenty of charm and confidence. And for some reason, her rather carefree attitude reminds me of a pleasant Sunday or a pleasant weekend of far niente. I know, I trivialize the great Handel. But this performance is a delight, all the same.

Barock

I once said on Facebook: "There is rock in baroque" to a friend who was into both. Which is very true, and a new great unknown line immortalised on Vraie Fiction. About two years ago, I illustrated this principle with a piece from Rameau that the same friend had uploaded.I wanted to illustrate it again, and I was wondering with what piece of baroque music. And then it struck me: why not more Handel, to remember he composed more than The Messiah? So here is Da Tempeste, from Giulio Cesare, interpreted by, well, Danielle de Niese. I hesitated a lot to have this one, because I find very irritating the way de Niese moves on stage. As in: she moves too much and like a pop star. Someone should remind her sometimes that she is a soprano, not some two bit pop singer.But I forgive her because of her enthusiasm about Handel's music (listen to what she says about it here). Anyway, am I the only one to hear the rock beat? This is pure barock.

Handel for Saturday

We are getting closer and closer to Christmas, so I thought this blog needed a bit more Christmas music. I thought a piece from The Messiah was in order. I could have uploaded a Christmas carol, but I really wanted some Handel tonight, something that is not exclusively Christmas related (I listen to it during Easter just as much, maybe more) yet fits the season and the wait. There will be Christmas carols in the upcoming days. Tonight it is For Unto Us a Child is Born. I think I found a good enough version on YouTube. I hope you enjoy.

Handel for shopping

I went to the shop to buy myself clothes (socks) this afternoon, somewhere close, not a big shopping center. Yet I find the experience always tiredsome. I ended up food shopping too, so it was more exhausting and much longer than I expected. I don't like shopping, in sum, except book shopping. But I found this clip on Youtube, which I have decided to put here, which almost makes me at peace with shopping, at least before the Christmas season. Basically, it is a flash mob singing the famous (too famous?) Hallelujah of Handel's Messiah. Sure, it is not the greatest interpretation, but it is still fresh and full of energy, and the source material is obviously much, much, much superior than the usualy rubbish we find in shopping centers usually. And it is the right music for an end of November that is coming into the Christmas season but is not quite there yet.

Now as my readers know I am very much a Godless man. I am fairly sure the singers in this flash mob are not (well, maybe some). But I appreciate the aesthetic and the music. I do not hear angels singing like Handel alledgedly did, but it certainly makes me transcend the mundane and the trivial of a grim shopping afternoon.

An aria for this melancholic day

Well, we have today a rainy, even stormy day, the first storm of the spring, with lightning and all. I find it better than late snow. I was wondering what music to put on this blog for such circumstances. I don't want to put Vivaldi's spring here, that would be too obvious. Easter is coming soon and I guess something out of Mozart's requiem could be fine for a gloomy weather, but I put on this blog my share of sacred music in the past. Then I thought: why not some Handel? Two days ago, it was the anniversary of his Messiah, which would certainly suits the coming Easter (at least as much as it does Christmas, the holidays which it is usually associated with), but I want something profane. So I am putting here the aria from his opera Rinaldo, Laschia ch'io pianga, maybe its most famous aria.

I have first heard the aria in a scene(which you can see here on Youtube) from the movie Farinelli, a musical melodrama based on the life of the castrato. A very good scene from a not quite great but underrated movie. But maybe I am easily impressed when it comes to opera. Nothing beats Amadeus, however Farinelli was quite watchable. I loved the aria then, I love it even more now that I can understand it. It has a beautiful melancholic feel to it, perfect for gloomy days. It is here interpreted by Danielle de Niese, who I think sings Handel beautifully:

Musing on Valentine's Day

I probably won't be able to blog on Valentine's Day, so I might as well blog about it now. It is not too early for it anyway. Valentine's Day is not my favourite holiday, but I do like it. Well, some of it anyway, sometimes. The eating chocolates part especially. I guess once appreciate it more when he/she is in a couple, but even then one can easily be disappointed: expectations are too high, things don't go as planned (overbooked restaurants, burnt food, bad wine, feeling unwell, etc), or simply it is in the wrong day of the week (let's say a rainy Monday or a freezing Wednesday, or simply the eve of a big day). I'll rather keep my expectations low. It is one day that couldn't quite get Christianised, even though it has the name of a Catholic saint. Thinking about it, there is nothing saintly about Valentine's Day, except its name.

I decided to put here in advance a Handel song to celebrate the day. It is again sung by Danielle de Niese (it seems that I am developing an obsession with that soprano). I hate pop songs and I am usually not a big fan of romantic songs when they are not at least 100 years old, so it makes sense that this one is from the XVIIIth century répertoire. It is called Endless pleasure, Endless love. For a change, the song is in English. The lyrics are here, and you can find here a little bit of what de Niese feels about the aria and her interpretation of it.

Sexy opera

This is a sort of follow up to this post. I have decided to write this post for two reasons. First, because I want to reflect on opera and on its popularity a bit. Second, because I want to blog about something else than serious subjects all the time. I think I have been a bit harsh on Danielle de Niese when I wrote the first post about sexy opera. She does have a beautiful voice, but I still think she looks like and acts on stage like a pop star. That said, she does have a beautiful voice, and while I am sure it makes no difference to her whatsoever if on an obscure blog she gets criticised or praised, I thought I might as well be happy that new talents exist in the world of opera. Because opera might be a dying art. I say this with a lot of sadness, but let's face it, it is associated with fat sopranos strangling the cat or obese Italian tenors rolling their eyes while they are digesting their pasta, in other words people often see it as a tacky circus for snobs. It is sad, as opera, before being a show, is an art. It transcends the entertaining aspect. At least it does when it is done well. But yes, there is an entertaining aspect in it. When I first listened for the first time to Carmen and Don Giovanni, I enjoyed the drama just as much as the music. I still do, as they are really great, powerful dramas too. And the music is, in itself, profane, secular. When one listens to a song, he enjoys it on a physical level. So opera is, or at least can be, attractive and yes, sexy. Seriously, who would resist to Don Giovanni or Carmen? But I still think that the appearance of the singer is irrelevant to this sexiness. Natalie Dessay is quite plain, but her voice is absolutely to die for. So I decided to put a Handel song from the sexy Danielle de Niese here, but if you can see her, it is on still pictures, so you should not be too distracted by her appearance, and not at all from her gestures. The voice should be enough to please.