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Saturdee
Opry Links # 84: Christmas Edition (2019)
Placido, Jose, Luciano
Saturdee Opry Links Christmas Edition!
Overture:
"Christmas Eve," from the opera by Rimsky-Korsakov.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTfeBxg15Jo&fbclid=IwAR0HDAozk81WCKtnpBUt-101dZ-EQr6i5QcPlQIq62B_zYvHd-8pEu209XM
1.
Saturdee Opry Links Christmas Edition opens with Metropolitan Opera stars
Lauritz Melchior, Amy Ellermen, Elizabeth Rethberg, and Ezio Pinza Dec. 14,
1938, singing "O Come All Ye Faithful" for poor children of the Henry Street
Settlement in New York. Founded in 1893 by social work and public health pioneer
Lillian Wald and based on Manhattan's Lower East Side, the Henry Street
Settlement still provdes a wide range of social service, arts and health care
programs to more than 50,000 New York children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfxEUhByHGY
About the Henry Street Settlement:
https://www.henrystreet.org/
2. A sublime recording by Beniamino Gigli of "Panis Angelicus," by Cesar Franck,
words by St. Thomas Aquinas. "May the Bread of Angels become bread for mankind.
. ." If only, if only.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiGg_0Wkr-A
About the piece, translation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panis_Angelicus
3. A little change of pace for our annual Saturdee Opry Links Christmas Special.
To quote the late, great, great, great Luciano Pavarotti, here is "Wawgeen een
the winder wonderlohnd. . ." with The Three Tenors. Charming. Really.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRR3MmO8xPI
4. There aren't too many clips of the wonderful but bedeviled Mario Lanza
singing live: just one TV appearance on the old program, "The Christophers"
(filmed in Rome), and a brief London Palladium concert, and that's it! Here he
sings "Ave Maria," set by Schubert, on "The Christophers." The performance is
preceded by "Santa Lucia," "Because You're Mine." "Ave Maria" begins at the 3:50
mark. Anyone who ever doubted the reality of his astonishing voice should be
persuaded by this clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EibPV8JA_g
History of the song:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ave_Maria
5. Is there any greater place in all human history to be on Christmas Eve than
the Cafe Momus in the Latin Quarter of Paris, around 1830? Book my table,
please. Rodolfo and Mimi, newly met, newly in love, join their destitute
Bohemian cohorts at the Cafe's Xmas festivities. How will they pay for their
wine and meal? Never mind that---something will work out. Here are the final
couple of minutes of that scene, in which all has indeed worked out: lovers have
been been reunited, bills paid, happiness abounds. All sing joyously, in chorus,
as a Christmas parade joins the throng. The music, start to finish, is just
astonishingly melodic. This is why so many people love this opera. It isn't just
the glorious music, which always amazes, or the poignancy of the story. It's the
chance to go to the Cafe Momus in 1830!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va4kNyfISgM
AND. . .for those who would like to see the entire scene (and I know means most
of you), here it is, with English subtitles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgFFnqB5TVQ
Better production, no subtitles (at 33:35):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSuL4u3bOpg
6. There is an aria from Handel's "Xerxes" that I like to post on SOL once in a
while, usually with the suggestion that it be the national anthem of every
country. That is "Ombra Mai Fu," which is a paean to a tree, to nature. I never
get through it without tears. An ironic choice for Christmas Opry Links, seeing
as millions of little trees are killed for the holiday. Still, they are killed,
uh, out of, uh, love. What? It's sort of "Oh no, Christmas Tree!" instead of
"Oh, Christmas Tree." Here is wonderful Lucia Popp, who was given only 54 years
here. "Never was a plant more dear or loving or gentle." Listen to how her voice
floats in, on the opening note.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ6udPPsMss
Translation:
http://www.aria-database.com/search.php?individualAria=1022
7. It's Christmas Eve in Paris, 1830. Rodolfo, a poet, sits alone in his rude,
drafty garret, shivering. He has burned his latest work in order to generate a
little warmth. His roommates, Marcello, Schaunard and Colline (painter,
musician, philosopher), have gone ahead to the Cafe Momus in hopes of somehow
cadging drinks and/or eating and skipping the check. Rodolfo is about to join
them when there is a timid knock at the door. It is his upstairs neighbor, Mimi.
Her candle has gone out and she asks him to re-light it for her. He invites her
in, and as he lights the candle, she drops her key on the floor. They grope
around in darkness, trying to find it, when Rodolfo's hand accidentally touches
the frail hand of Mimi. And with one note, Puccini stops everything, conveying
in that note the discovery of love. Rodolfo sings the aria, "Che Gelida Manina,"
or "how cold your little hand is," in which he explains who he is---how he is
poor, but a "millionaire in spirit," and how he has been captivated by Mimi. The
greatest love aria ever written, delicate, wrenching, soaring, rhapsodic.
Puccini at his greatest. Here are Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ9-Ch0ip-M
Translation:
http://www.aria-database.com/search.php?individualAria=36
And for fun, here is a rendition that stunned in its day, by the Polish tenor,
Jan Kiepura. It would still stun today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGI3PtkvVuA
About Kiepura:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Kiepura
8. "Ay! Para Navidad." The Three Tenors covered many styles in their big
Christmas concert of 1999, including this jolly rouser by Sergio Villar.
Domingo, of course, is a champion of Mexican song and Spanish zarzuela.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUjIMEb1lL8
Translation:
Spanish:
Nochebuena, nochebuena
ay, para Navidad
ay, mi paloma quebradeñitay...
te vendré a buscar
Te vendré a buscar
casi al aclarar,
charangos y guitarras
palomay, para festejar
Ay, mi paloma quebradeñitay,
te vendré a buscar
Una estrella se ha perdido
ay, para Navidad
y en la capilla de la quebrada
seguro estará
Seguro estará
para contemplar
esta nuestra alegría
palomay, de la Navidad
Y en la capilla de la quebrada
seguro estará
English: (via Google Translate)
Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve
oh for christmas
oh, my brittle pigeon ...
I will come looking for you
I'll come looking for you
almost clearing up,
charangos and guitars
palomay to celebrate
Oh, my brittle pigeon,
I will come looking for you
A star has been lost
oh for christmas
and in the chapel of the creek
sure will be
Sure will be
to contemplate
is our joy
Christmas palomay
And in the chapel of the creek
sure will be
9. Yes, I realize that Cher and countless others have thrown up all over this
tune, and you are free to skip it here. Yet I recommend against that. To hear it
intoned as it can be is quite an experience, and no one---no one---tops Jussi
Bjorling. The high note at the end is one of the most emotionally charged notes
ever recorded. Your hair will not only stand up, it will uproot and run around
in circles. The beautiful "O Holy Night" (French: "Minuit Chretiens!" or "Cantique
de Noël") was composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem "Minuit,
chrétiens" ("Midnight, Christians") by a wine merchant and poet, Placide Cappeau
(1808–1877). Jussi sings it in Swedish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofKk_Etapq4
About the music:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Holy_Night
10. FINAL CHRISTMAS BOW, OR BOW, IF YOU PREFER:
"Happy Xmas (War is Over)," by St. John the Beatleist. The Three Tenors. Note:
Luciano Pavarotti, born in Fascist Italy; Placido Domingo, born in WWII Franco
Spain; Jose Carreras, born in post-WWII Franco Spain. No wonder they sing like
they mean it. Chills here, and maybe a tear or two. Merry Christmas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5H9B4cvLHE
About the music:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Xmas
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