händel to start the night

Edit3:
Smorgy’s compilation including all videos + blogs.  read into the comment section for a translated review by Sergei too.
Edit2:
and Arashi‘s blog post on the experience.
and a playlist from smorgy of her concert in Moscow, clips courtesy of her fans dolchev and Deoniz. It’s so great she’s so genuine and relaxed in front of the camera. *love* the dress too! haven’t heard her sings Arsace (semiramide) or Farnace (Mitridate) since forever. not sure what all the comments this last year of her voice “problems” were about, she sounds off-the-chart gorgeous to me! link to Dolchev’s blog and Den!s’ blog.
Edit:
here’s a 30min documentary of Frau Kasarova’s outing and rehearsal in moscow, much much thanks to Deoniz. Head over to his blog (link below on stroll through town) for more photos as well. she sounds soooo great, love the voice, the hand tapping to music, knees rocking, boots, you name it. she seems so comfortable there. Also heard her mentioning Lenin a couple of times at the Red Square :-). i was once there too and can recite a couple of Lenin songs… (btw, what’s with the male-only contingent?)
___________
well, to my surprise it’s thursday! no, wait, it’s friday! y’all should try this sometimes, stay up 22-26 hours, sleep 10-14 hrs. it’s been quite an interesting 2 weeks, i have to constantly check date/time to figure out which day i’m in in case of meetings… BUT! paper is done! pending some last comments from co-authors, am ready to send it off. this long night will be dedicated to combing through everything spotting small mistakes.

And in case you are in the same boat as I am, not able to have a nice stroll through town with Frau Kasarova (!), we’ll just have to wait for reports from Moscow while going about our nights… I picked up a nice “small” pair of studio-recording speakers for the office. great replacement to the laptop’s head-ache inducing speakers. and just in time for Händel. One of the nicest things about recital cd of rare works is that you really get to explore different less-known operas/arias. I’ve been such a fan of a couple of tunes since the pick-up of sento brillar, and finally gotten around to hunt down a live recording of one of the operas: “Arianna in Creta”. As it turns out, this broadcast was on the EXACT day as the famous Agrippina tour to London, and BBC3 broadcasted one and not the other 😦 .

Here’s the first aria, fantastically playing currently on newly picked up speakers:

Onto the really cool tune which got me searching for the entire opera in the first place, with a chorus at the end:

Aria di Teseo………………………..Coro
Bella sorge la speranza……………Bella sorge la speranza
Lusinghiera nel mio seno………….Lusinghiera al nostro seno
Né fallace o menzognera…………Né fallace o menzognera
Più la crede il fido cor……………..Più la crede il nostro cor.
Già la calma io spero all’alma……Già la calma abbiam nell’alma
Né funesta ria tempesta………….Né funesta ria tempesta
Più rinnova il mio timor……………Più non teme il nostro amor.

rough (but good) translation:
The flattering hope rises beautifully in my breast,
the devoted heart no longer believes hope is deceptive or false
I wish my soul peace
I wish the soul
not even a disastrous, evil storm will renew my fear
nor will it renew my pain.

As it turns out, Händel used the same tune in another opera, “Oreste”, and in hunting down for that, i ran across this staging (which apparently got tons of boos) with german singing. who cares, there’s a nice whiteshirt, and the tune is irresistable still: