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It was on this date in 1536 that Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, was beheaded for adultery, incest and witchcraft.
Here’s a lament attributed to Anne, allegedly written during her imprisonment in the Tower of London.
And here’s Callas, captured at La Scala in 1957, in the mad scene from Donizetti’s dramatization. The audience, at the 9:14 mark, sounds like they’re going to take the place apart.
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It was on this date in 1980 that Mount St. Helens blew, killing 57 people, reducing hundreds of square miles to wasteland, and causing over $1 billion in damage.
Sounds worthy of a symphony to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLs7rT8AGe4
PHOTO: That ain’t cauliflower
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This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we focus on “The Virgin Spring.” No, not the Bergman film, in which Max von Sydow exacts terrible vengeance on those who… well, nevermind. See the movie.
Anyway, the show’s not about that. The spring in the film is a body of water, a symbol of rebirth and renewal, but we’re using “spring” in the purely seasonal sense, as we enjoy an hour of vernal expressions by Swedish composers.
We’ll hear the “Pastoral Suite,” by Gunnar de Frumerie, and two works by Wilhelm Peterson-Berger: first, one of the books from his collection “Flowers of Frösö;” then the “Earina Suite.” “Earina,” derived from the Greek “earinos,” meaning “spring-like,” according to the composer conjures a world of “cult deeds and magic rites… belonging to some undefined natural religion.”
The long winter dissolves in the lengthening days of “The Virgin Spring,” this Sunday night at 10 ET, with a repeat Thursday night at 11; or enjoy it as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.
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Godzilla’s coming!
Although I have a feeling we’re going be deprived of the out-of-sync dubbing and guy-in-a-rubber-suit-stomping-on-models that gave most of the earlier installments their charm, I am cautiously optimistic in that it looks as if at least they’ve tried to handle the latest incarnation with some integrity. We’ll see how overboard they go with the effects. But no superheroes or Transformers is a good sign. Also, it looks like they got some real actors. (R.I.P. Raymond Burr.)
To mark the release of the new film, this week on “Picture Perfect,” the focus will be on music from dinosaur movies. I know, I know, Godzilla isn’t strictly speaking a dinosaur. How many dinosaurs have atomic breath? However, in researching the show, I did come across an amusing article in Smithsonian Magazine, in which paleontologists speculate what dinosaurs may have been a part of Godzilla’s DNA. Before his radioactive mutation that is. Here’s the link, if you’re interested:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-kind-of-dinosaur-is-godzilla-45639768/?no-ist
Curiously, the article was written in 2012, so as far as I can tell it’s not a piece of Hollywood merchandising, making it either an admirable display of scientific integrity or a slow day in the newsroom.
We’ll hear music from the soundtrack for the new “Godzilla,” by Alexandre Desplat; also selections from “The Land Before Time,” by James Horner; “One Million Years B.C.,” by Mario Nascimbene; and “Jurassic Park,” by John Williams.
I hope you’ll join me for Godzilla and friends, on “Picture Perfect,” this Friday evening at 6 ET. You can listen to it then, or later as a webcast, at http://www.wwfm.org.
RRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
PHOTOS: King of the Monsters; Queen of the Fur Bikini
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This one is over the top even by Strauss standards.
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the premiere of Richard Strauss’ only full-length ballet, “Josephslegende” (“The Legend of Joseph”), which was first performed at the Paris Opera on this date in 1914.
The biblical story of the attempted seduction of Joseph by Potiphar’s wife was suggested by frequent Strauss librettist Hugo von Hoffmansthal, between their work on “Ariadne auf Naxos” and “Die Frau ohne Schatten.”
Strauss confessed in a letter, “The chaste Joseph himself isn’t all up my street, and if a thing bores me I find it difficult to set it to music. This God-seeker Joseph – he is going to be a hell of an effort!”
Perhaps it was to alleviate his boredom that Strauss bolstered his orchestration with four harps, organ, celesta, glockenspiel, xylophone, large and small cymbals, four pairs of castanets and a double-bass clarinet.
The composer himself conducted the premiere, which ran for seven performances. Vaslav Nijinsky choreographed and danced the lead. Sir Thomas Beecham conducted an additional seven performances in London. He had put up the money for the “Diaghilev” commission. However, with the war looming, Strauss never received his fee.
Follow the link to listen to the rarely-heard complete ballet.
The work also exists as a “symphonic fragment,” in reduced orchestration. But where’s the fun in that?
I must say, I had a blast Google image-searching for paintings of this one. Seemingly everyone painted Joseph and Potiphar’s wife.
PHOTO: “C’mere you!”
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