Pour un instant...

 Bon, c'est toujours la  la Saint-Jean, notre Fête nationale, alors je partage de la musique québécoise. Comme je suis toujours en deuil de Serge Fiori depuis l'an dernier, je repartage un grand classique d'Harmonium. Dans des temps plus difficiles, comme c'est le cas ces jours-ci, leur chanson la plus émouvante vaut la peine d'être écoutée. En espérant que ça vous donne un instant de joie, ou du moins de calme, pour votre 24.

C'est notre tour...

C'est aujourd'hui la Fête nationale du Québec. L'an prochain, ça fera 20 ans que je la fête de l'Angleterre. J'essaie de transmettre à petit loup au moins un peu de québécitude. Petit à petit, année après année, ça fait son effet. Enfin bref, comme à chaque année sur ce blogue, je partage Gens du pays. C'est quand même un bel hymne national sans prétention.

Dixie (Harmonium)

Parce que c'est notre Fête nationale bientôt, je crois que c'est le temps de partager des chansons québécoises. Je suis encore en deuil de Serge Fiori depuis l'an dernier, alors je partage une toune d'Harmonium. Je dis toune à dessein, comme vous le savez si vous avez déjà écouté Dixie. Une chanson festive qui est quant à moi incontournable le 24 juin.

La St-Jean (et un peu de Paul Piché)

Ce sera notre Fête nationale dans un peu plus d'une semaine, je m'en voudrais de ne pas bloguer sur le sujet un peu avant le jour J. Le Québec, j'essaie de le fêter tous les jours, surtout en rappelant à mon fils d'où il vient, enfin d'où sont ses racines. Quand vient le mois de juin, je sors les drapeaux du Québec. J'écoute aussi de la musique québécoise. (En passant, pour la petite histoire, j'en écoute à l'année longue, pas seulement le 24 juin). Et ça m'est venu en tête: il faudrait que j'en mette un peu plus sur ce blogue. Donc, ben, comme j'ai pas mis de Paul Piché depuis 2022, voici une de ses tounes.

 

The Entertainer (Ragtime)

I rewatched The Sting recently. I have a few observations about it. Okay, mainly two. One, what a great movie, I never get bored watching it. I could start it again now and still be entertained. Two, what a great score the film has! Maybe nowadays it's actually more famous than the movie itself. Composed by Scott Joplin in the early XXth century, arranged by Marvin Hamlisch for the movie, it's just so perfectly atmospheric. So anyway, since I was thinking I share too little music on Vraie Fiction these days and since this is in my head a lot, I am sharing today The Entertainer. My brothers and I used to listen to it endlessly playing poker when we were teenagers. True story. But not with real money.

Une perdriole...

Nous sommes le premier jour de mai, c'est donc le temps de partager cette chanson, qui parle notamment du premier jour de mai (et des autres). Vous l'avez entendue déjà sur ce blogue, elle revient de temps à autre, au mois de mai. La photo de la perdrix, je l'ai déjà partagée aussi, ne m'en voulez pas, je croyais avoir plus de photos de perdrioles que ça. C'est un oiseau que j'associe surtout à l'automne, mais au mois de mai aussi, à cause de cette chanson.

Marquise, si mon visage, etc, etc.

Bon ben, c'est ma fête aujourd'hui, j'ai 49 ans (aaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!). Tradition sur le blogue, je partage les Stances à Marquise, version chantée par Georges Brassens. Mes traits un peu vieux se font de plus en plus nombreux et de plus en plus tout court. "Un peu" commence à être franchement un euphémisme. Dans trois ans, j'aurai le même âge que Pierre Corneille quand il a écrit le poème. Il me reste encore du temps, mais il file.

Mozart for Easter (Et incarnatus est)

 Happy Easter everyone! As usual, I share some music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. I shared his Et incarnatus est from his Great Mass in C Minor more than once, but it's just so fitting for today. Performed here by French soprano Julie Fuchs (Wolfie's favourite, because he finds her cute). And to accompany this post, a picture I took in Vienna. If you think it's not Easter-y enough, well, I think Mozart is always Easter-y enough, because it's his music I listen to at Easter and because he was the Christ of music.

(D'autres sirotent leur) Boisson d'avril

Nous sommes le premier avril, donc je partage Boisson d'avril de Groovy Aardvark. C'est une tradition sur ce blogue.

The Violin Thief

 I blogged last year about the theft of a 285-year-old violin worth £150,000 in a London pub. Well, there has been some development to the story since the man was arrested: he has been charged with theft. It was about time. As a music lover, the stealing of a rare and ancient musical instrument is to me both morally and aesthetically repellent. Hell, you could argue it is a crime against our civilisation's memory. That said, it could be the subject of a great crime story. Everything about it makes for a great drama. An atmospheric one too: he stole the violin in a London pub, after all. I'm sure there is a scriptweriter working on it at the moment. I'm kind of tempted to try my luck at it and write a short story on the subject.

Le synopsis de Cendrillon

 Un rappel pour les amateurs: l'Opéra du Royaume présentera Cendrillon de Jules Massenet du 28 mars au 2 avril. Ils ont présenté le synopsis de l'opéra, si vous êtes curieux d'en savoir plus.

Cendrillon au Royaume

 Petite annonce pour les mélomanes du Saguenay ou de pas loin: l'Opéra du Royaume présentera Cendrillon de Jules Massenet en mars. Avec Élisabeth Boudreault dans le rôle titre. Elle a le portrait de l'emploie et en plus elle est de la région. Marie-Ève Munger sera aussi de la distribution. Bref, on se gâte au Royaume.

Tamino and Pamina

First and foremost: happy Valentine's Day everyone! I am not the biggest fan, to be honest, because when you are single today, it is depressing and when you are in a couple, it is stressful. All the same, let's celebrate, with first  picture I took in Vienna. You may recognise Prince Tamino and Princess Pamina from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. AKA The Magic Flute. We stumbled upon this monument at complete random. I thought it captured beautifully their relationship. Of course, I could not celebrate today without Mozart's music. There's another reason why I wanted to share the picture: for me, their relationship perfectly embodies what true, lasting love should be. So here is their duet, or a part of their one duet in the opera, sung by my favourite Mozartian soprano Golda Schultz (don't tell the others) and tenor Ben Bliss. Mozart can be cynical about relationships, but not here. Yet he remains I think truthful: for love to work, it has to be teamwork.

Majestic Mozart

Well, it is still Mozart Week, so I am sharing more of his music. And a statue of Mozart himself: the one you can find in Vienna. It is often surrrounded by tourists, who just take pictures of it because, well, Mozart is a huge part of Vienna and Austria, maybe its most famous composers. And I was there as a pilgrim, a proper worshipper in fact. That said, like many other portraits and monuments to the man, I find this one strange at many levels. He looks atypically regal and Greco-Roman godly here. Maybe a tad Messianic too. As much as I'm a sucker for the monuments paying homage to him, I can't help but find them incomplete. There's a lot of Amadeus in this statue, but very little of Wolfgang, even less of Wolferl. There's no mischief. Anyway, this post would not be complete without a bit of music, here an aria from from Le Nozze di Figaro. Sung by Rod Gilfry. Tell me what you think of the music and the statue.

Verdi, l'opéra et notre monde

 Petit billet musical, encore une fois, sur l'opéra, encore une fois (mais pas sur mon compositeur préféré, assez ironiquement). Enfin donc, j'ai lu dans Le Devoir un texte d'opinion d'un certain Éric Cornellier, Ce que l'opéra peut encore apporter aux sociétés humaines. L'auteur utilise l'anniversaire de la mort de Giuseppe Verdi pour parler de la pertinence de l'opéra dans notre époque. Je n'ai pas remarqué l'anniversaire de la mort de Verdi parce qu'elle tombe sur un anniversaire de naissance d'un compositeur que je préfère beaucoup plus et que, ben, c'est pas mal ça. J'aimais plus Verdi quand j'étais plus jeune, mettons. Maintenant, même si j'apprécie certaines de ses oeuvres, je tends à le trouver un brin sirupeux. Mais dans tous les cas, c'est un article intéressant que je vous invite à lire.

Mozart, music and chocolate

Yes, yes, Mozart's birthday was yesterday, I know it came and it's gone. However, as it is still Mozart Week, this household will spend it listening to Wolferl's music and we will stuff ourselves with Mozartkugeln. We made stocks during our time in Austria and we are still getting through them. I tookthis picture in Salzburg, where Mozart as born 270 years ago and one day. They sell the stuff everywhere, in all sorts of varieties. But more on that in another post. I thought it would be fitting to share a bit of Cosi fan tutte. One of my operatic obsessions. It's about love and, yes, sometimes it is also about chocolate.

The Birthday of Amadeus

As you probably know by now, today is the birthday of of Wolfgang Johannes Chrysostome Amadeus Mozart, the heart of Mozart Week. I commemorate it a picture with his most famous (although not his most accurate) portrait, which I took in Vienna. I am also sharing a bit of his music, the Concerto for Flute, Harp and Orchestra. I thought I would give you a break from opera. And that a birthday needed something joyful and youthful.

Don Giovanni for Mozart Week

Because it is Mozart Week, I think it is proper to share more of Mozart's music. I took this picture in Salzburg, the city of his birth. As you can read beneath, it is a drawing of a stage design Don Giovanni, my favourite opera of Wolfgang. My favourite opera, period, in fact. I haven't shared an aria from DG for a long while, not since 2022, so it was about time. This is Mi tradi wuell alma ingrata, sung by Alexandra Lowe (a soprano I don't know all that much) and I hope you enjoy.

Cherubs and Cherubino

As you know if you are following this blog, we are during Mozart Week, a festival held in his native Salzburg to celebrate his birth and his life. As I am a big fan of Mozart, I'm celebrating it here too. I took this picture in Salzburg, during our last holiday in Austria. Which was, to me, a pilgrimage. It is a ridiculously allegorical portrait of Amadeus, but I thought it would be fitting for the aria I am sharing today. As there are cherubs visiting him from heaven (maybe to make sure he doesn't get naughty with the lady he is playing to?), I thought it would be fitting to put an aria from Le Nozze di Figaro. Sang of course by Cherubino, who here takes the voice and face of Israeli mezzosoprano Rinat Shaham. There are subtitles for your convenience.

Queens of the Night

Today is the start of Mozart Week, a music festival celebrating his work held in his native city of Salzburg. And I thought, what better way to show this blogger's love for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart than to share a picture of our last holiday in Austria and sharing an aria for good measure. So yeah, I took this photo in his birthday house, now a museum. These are two mannequins dressed like the Queen of the Night, one of the many emblematic characters in Die Zauberflöte. I also share her most famous aria, sung by Diana Damrau. One of its most iconic interpretations. Side note: which costume do you prefer?