“Silent Night – FC Bayern’s Christmas greeting 🔴⚪️” 😊

Enjoy… Jonas! 🤗

Happy Christmas everyone and happy holidays!

PS . I’m still a Liverpool fan though 😆

A thought from time to time…

Hi there,

not sure if anyone is dropping by at all at this stage, understandably. There is much i would like to write about, especially since there is so much i think about and so little i can do. So, i’m trying to maybe revive the blog a bit, sharing thoughts here and there, as and when i have time. I’m mainly trying to remember things i am fond of, things that mattered or that were pleasant distractions. Sometimes it’s just an image or music that prompt memories or things that make me wistful. I’ve aged a lot and i feel very old, but it also seems somehow odd.. to see people you have followed or known for years also get older.

For today, i bumped into Alejandro Sanz’ recent release and wanted to share it with you. I still love his voice and he may be older, but he’s still… Alejando Sanz 🙂 The song is called Bio and he talks about himself and his life, it’s somehow very touching in its simplicity.

Have a lovely weekend,

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OT Musical indulgence (‘Liebster blog’ nomination)

There was this kind nomination from Suzy at the Silverbluelining blog for the ‘Liebster blog’ (thanks Suzy! Sorry it took me so long!).

Apologies in advance as I won’t be nominating other blogs, most everyone I know has participated one way or another, but I’ll happily share my answers to the questions (and dig out some skeletons from my closet in the process 🙂 )

1. What does music mean to you?

It’s been part of my life for as long as I can remember! My first memories are of classical music, particularly opera, when I was 3. The performances on stage were like the fairy tales I used to love reading and I loved the singing and the melodies. I’ve never had to live without it and I hope I’ll never have to, it doesn’t have to be live on stage although that is certainly best, but even opera on the radio will do. It’s also been a great way to learn a bit of Italian 😉 But as you’ll see it’s not the only music I like. But I do think I am very partial to sung music, it’s the human voice that fascinates me and I am always more likely to listen to music which includes singing. And music has been my gateway to languages in general.

2. Keyword “romantic” – which three songs come to your mind?

Oh boy … watch out for tooth decay setting in when listening to these 😉

Somos novios in various versions/singers , this one is sung by Luis Miguel 

Bed of roses – Bon Jovi

And sniif sniiiff sniff.. Traviata/Verdi – ‘Parigi o cara’ here with Jonas Kaufmann and Christine Schafer

3. Your favourite video?

I’ve never been one to watch videos much and I still prefer concert versions or live performance ones, but the first one that came to mind and which I always liked is

Queen – I want to break free!

4. One, two, three favourite artists (music)?

This is like picking your favourite child! I caaaaan’t….. but there are those which always excite me, make me happy, make me emotional and I’ll always go back to :

Anything by Giuseppe Verdi, there isn’t an opera of his I don’t like! My first musical longing always goes to him.

The Beatles 🙂

And Jonas Kaufmann – my favourite version of the Flowersong from Carmen is sadly no longer online but here is one he sang later on. 

5. Your personal 2014 Top-3 ?

Hard to say as I’m not up to date with pop music these days, so my 3 highlights of the year in no particular order of preference are all classical, and they are these:

• Tristan and Isolde/Wagner at Royal Opera House with the amazing Nina Stemme and conducted by my favourite conductor, Antonio Pappano;
• Verdi’s Requiem with the orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia who are based in Rome and visited London this year, again with Sir Tony (Antonio Pappano);
• Donizetti’s l’Elisir d’amore at the Royal Opera House with the lovely and fun Vittorio Grigolo and Bryn Terfel

6. Favourite ever video?

See above 😉 but generally live performances or recordings of concerts, like Queen at Wembley

Or Bon Jovi in the old Wembley in 1995

1. Your top 80s hits?

Uh-oh…. Too many to count I think but here are a few, again in no particular order of preference as I can’t really rank them 😉

Bon Jovi – Livin’ on a prayer  as well as It’s my life, Wanted dead or alive, Always.. etc, you get the idea 😉

Queen – Somebody to love and a whole bunch more 🙂

Brian Adams Summer of 69 😉 remember that???

Abba – well anything of them since they were still around 😉

Bruce Springsteen – Born in the USA 

George Michael Freedom

Scorpions Wind of change 

Eurythmics Love is a stranger 

And this is early 90’s but nevertheless AHA Crying in the rain

And isn’t this a wonderful trip down memory lane? Ahhhhh… it’s been too long since I listened to this stuff, go on, have a go, you know you want to 🙂

But all throughout the 80’s I was also listening to this (different casts maybe but these are among my all time – desert island favourites ):

Verdi/Rigoletto – Bella figlia dell’ amore

Donizetti/ Lucia – Chi mi frena 

Gounod/ Romeo et Juliette “Nuit d’hyménée… il faut partir ,hélas!”

Massenet/ Werther – Un autre est son époux

Verdi/Don Carlo  – Dio che nel alma infondere

Verdi/ Un Ballo in Maschera- Eri tu che

Mozart/Nozze – Hai già vinta la causa 

And because i can’t resist it another bit of Donizetti/Lucia – act 2 duet between the siblings in the French version of the opera

And I’ll stop here as I can go on for a long long while 😉

8. Last song you bought or downloaded…?

Carmen Consoli Eva contro Eva

And also recently this Roberto Alagna and Lila Downs Historia de un Amor

9. Your first favourite band?

Holograf! Here a sample Romeo & Julieta 🙂

My longest standing musical pleasure probably 🙂 loved their music since they’ve been singing in the early 90.

Ochii tai (your eyes) , Sa nu-mi iei niciodata dragostea (don’t take away your love)

You could use this page which lists the text for machine translation from Romanian 🙂

10. If you could choose freely, which concert would you definitely go to?

Oh, there would be too many to choose from, but… given the trip down memory lane and truth be told I haven’t danced and sung as madly and had as much wicked fun as I did in the concerts of David Bustamante 🙂

Here David Bustamante –  Devuelveme la vida  :-p Don’t even dream I’m fibbing, I’ve got witnesses! 🙂

I’d love to go to a Juanes concert sometimes too (Juanes/ A dios le pido love this video too by the way) and an Alejandro Sanz one or La Oreja de Van Gogh  – La Playa (the beach).

And if I could just travel back in time I’d be at a concert of Maria Callas (soprano) and one of Franco Corelli (tenor)!

11. Film score/soundtrack you love most?

I’m not that big on film scores unfortunately, I notice them but don’t really separate them out from the original movie. There is one singer however which I liked a lot and I heard her on telly for the first time singing the sound track of a series, it’s a lot of popular Columbian songs:  Margarita Rosa De Francisco –  A Mi Pesar

But then again opera like Wagner, Verdi, Donizetti, Bellini make ravishing soundtrack music 🙂 or Giordano/Chenier.. remember Philadelphia?

Here were the rules for the Award (translated by Guylty J) Sorry for not nominating anyone, I do hope you’ve enjoyed some of the above 🙂 and have survived the more shocking bits 😀

1. Thank the person who nominated you and link their blog into your post.
2. Answer 11 questions which you have been asked by the nominating blogger.
3. Nominate 5 to 11 other bloggers who have less than 1.000 followers.
4. Add a new list of 11 questions for the nominated bloggers.
5. Paste these rules into your post.
6. Make sure your nominees know about your post and their nomination.