The “Flower Duet” is a famous duet for soprano and mezzo-soprano from Leo Delibes’ opera Lakmé, first performed in Paris in 1883. The duet takes place in Act 1 of the three-act opera, between characters Lakmé, the daughter of a Brahmin priest, and her servant Mallika, as they go to gather flowers by a river. …
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Habanera (music or dance of Havana, Spanish: La Habana) is the popular name for “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” (“Love is a rebellious bird”), an aria from Georges Bizet’s 1875 opera Carmen. It is the entrance aria of the title character, a mezzo-soprano role, in scene 5 of the first act. It is based on …
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I listened to a well-known ‘hip-hop’ person recently proclaim himself to be the greatest artist that ever lived. Since this was such an utterly ridiculous statement it stuck in my head. That he could even remotely compare his binary tempos and coarse use of language to the aesthetic sensibilities that existed in famous works of …
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A little out of order regarding a larger thing I was working on, this is something I posted tonight on Spacebook… Yes, I am still aghast at the thought of “hip hop” being called music, much less an art form. This short piece was written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1722. Its intrinsic beauty is …
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If you ever wondered what was so extraordinary about jazz musician John Coltrane you will want to watch this. The most feared song in jazz, explained 10:49
Envy I wonder if the poppy shows The slightest envy of the rose? Or if the pansy wastes its time Regretting that it cannot climb? Do blossoms of a yellow hue Complain because they are not blue? Do birds which God designed to sing Envy the wild ducks’ fleeter wing? And does the sparrow sadly …
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PBS NOVA – Fractals – Hunting the Hidden Dimension 54:25 – Originally aired 28 October 2008 YouTube has apparently removed this video for Copyright violation. If I find a way to view it that does not infringe the copyright I will update the link. I myself happen to own this on Blu-ray as well as …
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Moved to companion site, Compendia.
In 1929, at the age of thirty, the Belgian artist Rene Magritte painted “The Treachery of Images.” The painting showed a pipe, written underneath with the paradoxical inscription This is not a pipe (written in French of course). When it was pointed out to him that what he had created was in fact a pipe, Magritte replied “OK, …
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