Whither Robbo?

I have a meeting out of town today, so no posting.

My destination is just close enough to make driving there at least plausible.  Thus, for a variety of reasons headed by the fact that I hate and fear flying so much, I will be getting on the road in just a bit.

Still, it’s better than three hours each way, over fairly mountainous country.  Plus, the forecast is calling for snow, albeit not that much. 

So if I manage to hit a deer or get wrapped around the hood of an 18-wheeler or otherwise prang the kite somehow, feel free to chuckle at the irony.

Cherubim and Seraphim? Eyes Down, Please

 This evening I watched (again) a nifty little program from Netflix entitled Monteverdi: Banquet of the Senses.

If you are the slightest bit interested in late Italian Renaissance musick (and just who isn’t?), I would recommend at least one viewing of this DVD.  It offers a pretty nifty history of the madrigal musick composed by Claudio Monteverdi during his time in the employ of those naughty Gonzagas at Mantua, and also during his subsequent stint in Florence.  Suffice to say that in the early 1600’s, there were a whoooole lot of hormones a’ poppin’ in Italy, and Monteverdi got the bead on them. 

There is also an interesting nod to the way in which the Church spotted this poppin’ and incorporated it for Her own purposes that would have been worth (I think) a deeper discussion.  Coincidentally, the two Monteverdi works with which I am most familiar are the opera L’Orfeo (buy it, damn you!) and the Vespers to the Virgin Mary (buy it, praise God!), both written around 1610 while Monteverdi was working for the Gonzagas.  There are definite musickal links between them, but I sometimes wonder if the substantive links – the interweaving of the sensual and the spiritual (discussed briefly in the program in the madrigal context) - aren’t worth a much closer look.

The program is put together by Anthony Rooley, one of the top Renaissance Musick enthusiasts out there.  I suppose I like is so much because it also features the talents of Emma Kirkby and Evelyn Tubb – so far as it is possible to fall in love purely with voices, I have done so with these two lovely ladies.

I warn you, though, that this is definitely a cable-channel quality production: the lip-syncing is perfectly obvious.  Also, the absence of subtitles may leave you scratching your head if you don’t have at least a smattering of Italian at your disposal.

But never mind: The musick is hauntingly beautiful, the visuals are marvelous and all in all it is well worth a viewing.