Me? I’m swamped with sweaty efforts to simultaneously move to a new house and bang a new syllabus into shape. Posting will be rare for a while.
But you? You should rush to your local movie theater this instant to catch the second and third parts of the NY Metropolitan Opera’s simulcast of Hector Berlioz’s most glorious opera, Les Troyens , IMO one of the very highest mountain-tops of 19th century romantic music.
Music that goes way beyond anything I talk about in the Rock Songbook, and a story that will do more for you than the Hobbit or such, being based on Virgil’s Aeneid .
It’s also on NPR right now. Stick it out if you tune in during one of the more stereotypical opera parts, for wonderful music is right around the corner.
In case you read this too late, you can sample a few highlights I linked in my old “Roll Over Beethoven?” Songbook essay from last year. One of these, the famous “love duet,” takes some of its words from one of the Belmont scenes from Merchant of Venice .
While I have you, can I ask you something? I’ll be quick.
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