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A Man and His Baby
When a couple steps forth with a baby in tow everything in life is stable and normal. People hold open doors, hard shopkeepers “chuck” and go all gooey before catching themselves and generally life is an easy ride. But gentlemen, when he who dares...
Add More Spark to a Chug-Along Life! (i-mail saga)
Article Title: Add Spark to a Chug-Along Life!
Author Name: Doug C. Grant
Contact Email Address: doug @dougcgrant.com
Word Count: 776
Category: Motivational/Humor
© Doug C. Grant, 2002
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Publishing...
Diego Velasquez
Diego Velasquez is one of Spain's most celebrated and
influential painters, born in 1599 he rose to become the leading
artist in the royal court of Phillip IV. Velasquez came along
during the contemporary Baroque period and went on to become...
Does It Take "Soft" Skills to Win the BT Global Challenge?
Have you heard of the BT Global Challenge? It’s known as the world’s toughest yacht race because it’s sailed “the wrong way” ‘round the world—against prevailing winds and currents. All kinds of waves and weather conditions are likely to be...
Full Disclosure
Direct Answers - Column for the week of April 21, 2003
I hope you can talk me out of this bad feeling. I watched the Michael Jackson program where he was talking about how he was treated by his father. I had hushed the bad memories to the back...
Grown Up Pirate Party Ideas
Grown Up Pirate Party Ideas Yo ho ho, and a bottle of rum is the cry of the pirates. Of course, rum is not what you want to serve at your child’s pirate party but what about a pirate party for adults? Try using these pirate party ideas for pirate...
Helpful Suggestions for Purchasing Sunglasses
There are so many styles to choose from, just how do you pick the best sunglasses for you? Following are some important points to consider.
Sunglasses are a necessary form of protection for anyone venturing outdoors. Sunglasses protect our eyes...
Jules Obtains the Jewels
Jules Obtains the Jewels
Jules Asner, the current cohost of E! News Daily, along with Steve Kmetko, had a golden opportunity to be the first one to host E!'s “Wild On" adventure series. The series was originally titled “Sex on the...
Putting Spirit First: Goals For Your Soul
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matt. 6:33
If you've ever set very many goals, you've probably had at least one goal that you just can't seem to reach. You
can't seem...
Thanksgiving - Understanding The Holiday
Thanksgiving to most folks means family and friends and Turkey, or maybe beer and football. Many do not know or even care about the significence of the Holiday. Way back in the 1600's a group of people who were members of the English Separatist...
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What Happens In Las Vegas, Happens Everywhere!
What Happens In Las Vegas, Happens Everywhere!
Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com
To read this entire feature FREE with photos cut and paste this link:
http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/classic/vegas04/finale/finale.html
Gambling, drinking, and lust: the Las Vegas Philharmonic ended its 2004-2005 season with musical works reflecting our city’s three core values..
On the Town is a 1944 Broadway musical (and later a movie) whose songs were written by legendary American composer Leonard Bernstein. The Philharmonic opened with three dance tunes from this story of three sailors looking for action while on liberty in New York. Lively, jazzy, and stylish, the songs perfectly embody the vibrant energy of the great city. On the other hand, the plot sounds like most bachelor parties right here in Vegas.
Poker, anyone? In 1936 Igor Stravinsky wrote Jeu de Cartes (“the card game”). In this beautifully orchestrated “ballet in three deals,” the queens do a flirtatious dance and the pompous joker makes recurring mischief before being ultimately defeated by a royal flush. As in Samuel Barber’s tone poem about Prometheus, the music describes a scene and action, but while Stravinsky’s music makes for great listening, I often couldn’t tell the queen from the joker. Remind me to stay out of the casinos around here.
Bejeezus: n. 1. a spirit of calm and safety existing within most humans and just waiting to be scared out.
If you’ve heard the first part of Carmina Burana on classical radio stations or in movie soundtracks, you’ve probably also heard it replayed in your worst nightmares. “Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi,” is the apocalyptic opening that cries out, “Monstrous fate . . . you plot against me by trickery, so that my naked back is exposed to your lashes.” Imagine those words belted out in Latin by a chorus of almost one hundred people from the Las Vegas Master Singers and Las Vegas Philharmonic Chorus, backed by the orchestra with five booming tympani drums. When “Fortuna” ended, I was still too riveted to snicker at the audience member who broke the inter-movement silence by exclaiming, “Wow!”
It may not surprise you to learn that the lyrics of Carl Orff’s 1936 masterwork are taken from poems written in a Bavarian monastery in the Middle Ages. (The title means “Songs of the Benediktbeuren.”) The twist is that the poems — written mostly in Latin, with bits
of Old German and Old French — are satirical and quite pagan, and they deal mostly with themes of gambling, drinking, and springtime lust. Some dreams are the same all over.
Carmina continues with “Primo Vere.” It is a song of spring, but the somber tone suggests that the monks are expecting to be smitten by a vengeful God for even thinking about those young women with fresh tan lines. Fortunately the mood soon brightens, with the sonorous baritone of guest vocalist Anton Belov carrying melodiously over a string accompaniment: “. . . and the bright fields laugh with flowers.” By the end of the section, the music is happy to the point of silliness, and the final words are “I’d still prefer instead, to have the Queen of England lying in my bed.” Still sound like monks’ poetry? I hope the queen was much younger then.
“I am the abbott of Cuckoominster!” Belov sings whimsically in a section called “In the Tavern.” However, the most musically stunning part is a lament sung in very high, tight notes by guest tenor Matthew Garrett, accompanied by flutes suggesting waterfowl: “The lake was my home, and I was beautiful — when I was a swan. Oh, misery! How black I am and thoroughly roasted!” Given that this is a tavern song, thoroughly toasted may be more accurate.
The next section, “The Court of Love,” features the surprisingly rich voice of guest soprano Suzan Hanson: “There was a girl, who looked like a rose; her face shone, her mouth blossomed. Ah!” There’s a lot of playful back-and-forth between soloists and chorus in this section, and the entire work is structured in repeating blocks that give it a wonderful rhythmic quality. An exuberant finale (“abundant Venus!”) deceives the listener, leaving him unprepared for the sudden reprise of the nightmarish “Fortuna” section at the end: “Lament with me, all of you, for fortune strikes down the strong man!”
What a buzzkill.
To read this entire feature FREE with photos cut and paste this link:
http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/classic/vegas04/finale/finale.html
Rob LaGrone, Jetsetters Magazine Editor – Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com To book travel visit Jetstreams.com at www.jetstreams.com and for Beach Resorts visit Beach Booker at www.beachbooker.com
About the Author
Robert LaGrone, Jetsetters Magazine Correspondent. Join the Travel Writers Network in the logo at www.jetsettersmagazine.com
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