Our mini Easter basket with painted eggs mainly in red but also made some blue, green and yellow ones which are hiding underneath. And some chocolate gianduia ones and a dark chocolate bunny in woolly jumper of white chocolate to share with my parents.
We just finished watching mass on tv.
May there be a peaceful and joyful Easter for everyone!
😚😚😚
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:
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
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 😀
Opera is Magic 