The night before last, I decided just before I went to bed that I would have a quick look at some of my HTML (i.e. web-writing) templates to see if there was one I could easily adapt to make a little playlist for my presentation to the Classical Music Appreciation group. Making the initial template was very easy so I thought I would just ‘populate’ the first line of the table which would be Cherubino’s aria from ‘The Marriage of Figaro’. This I managed to do fairly quickly, even though it was getting late by then but I did find a good YouTube clip which shows off the youthful Cherubino played in the way that it ought to be i.e. with a light, clear adolescent voice. I should have stopped at this stage, but I pressed on and managed to find a recording of the Countess bemoaning the fact that her husband had seemingly abandoned her in favour of younger women. The recording I came across was that made by Kiri Te Kanawa which I have always regarded as practically definitive. But then, in the course of my researches, I came across a rendition by Renée Fleming which some would argue was the most expressive rendition of this aria. In addition, the clip of video contained several bars before the main aria in which the Countess is expressing her rage and exasperation at her husband’s antics before the much more poignant ‘Dove sono’ which follows. By this stage, I had assembled three clips but was in full flight by now so added a couple of arias from Don Giovanni before concluding with the magnificent trio from Cosi fan Tutte which is (n English) ‘May the breeze blow softly’ In practice, my progress in obtaining clips of video was delayed because I was trying to find definitive performances or outstanding singers and a setting which illustrated the aria. After all, the whole point of Don Giovanni trying to persuade a girl whom he espies in a balcony window to succumb to his blandishments is lost if the videoclip shows neither the girl nor the balcony! So eventually, I had assembled the six clips together into my programme and I was pretty pleased with the whole. But there was both a downside and an upside to my efforts. The ‘downside’ was that after I had transferred my script to my own webspace, YouTube managed to insert a quick advert before each clip that was played but this was quite a small price to pay under the circumstances. The ‘upside’ was that at the conclusion of each clip, and sometimes after another advert, another rendition of the same aria was available as a follow-on. This means that members of the group who are interested can watch two performances and then compare and contrast the two and see which they prefer. To cut a long story short, I was up until about 3.30 but was very satisfied with my night’s/morning’s work which I needed to prepare in advance anyway as our next meeting is the day after my return from holiday. I have a little more work to do which is to run off some of the libretto and/or write down the screen captions that accompanies some of the video clips so that fellow group members can follow the sentiments being conveyed.
This morning, I did oversleep a little ad had a rather lazy morning as I had so little sleep the night before. So I abandoned my Tai Chi class but did go down and have a coffee and biscuits with one or two of the regulars. Yesterday was the day in the month in which the two community police people turn up and make themselves available for anybody who might need some advice. It was the most beautiful day outside and my son and daughter-in-law availed themselves of it to walk down into town. We all had a mushroom soup for lunch, made in the soup maker and are going to eat a rolled pork joint together in the evening. This afternoon, we spent some time as a family going through past collections of holiday ‘snaps’ working out which to retain and which to throw away. I was pleased to find a photo which a colleague (not myself) must have taken of Meg dancing on a taverna table in Thessaloniki, Greece which Meg knew she would never be in a fit position to do again. Finding some more photos of Meg I her youth was a little painful but this was only to be expected.
Donald Trump’s utterings seem to be becoming more and more bizarre. He says he is not putting boots on the ground in Iran – while seeming to leave himself room to change his mind. In a meeting with Japan’s prime minister, he also took another swipe at NATO – while claiming he didn’t need any help in the Middle East, anyway. And we have the strange situation where Trump would rather like European ships to possibly bear the brunt of any attacks on the Straits of Hormuz but is unwilling to let American ships get into that position (presumably, the sinking of an American ship would be a loss that was too much to bear) It now appears almost certain, as the war escalates, that a massive blow has been inflicted upon the world economy. A prolonged war could do calamitous damage to the global economy. In just one day and night, Iran has hit energy targets in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Israel. So much for its military being defeated, or its leadership decapitated after almost three weeks of bombardment. One attack alone on the Ras Laffan gas plant in Qatar, using just a handful of missiles, did an estimated $26bn worth of damage and will, we are told, take years to repair. Even less liquid natural gas will now get to market, jacking up prices. The cost of gas for European consumers has already leapt 30%. Here in the UK, a debate is going on whether it would sensible or not to allow for more exploitation of the oil and as deposits in the North Sea which may be worth a temporary resurrection if the blow to world trade turns out to be as serious as predicted. Or own gas prices are predicted to actual fall for a month or so but after that we can expect see rapidly rising gas and oil prices. The way in which airlines will play out this crisis is interesting as the costs of aviation fuels are bound to rise substantially.