Take Off On Gossamer Wings

 As we listen Amira takes the dreamiest trips

to the stars - on the gossamer wings of her

imagination - and we promise we shall not

allow her to get lost in outer space, we shall

Always be there to share her dreams with

her, we’ll support any cause that appeals

to her fragile and vulnerable heart, we shall

never wound her sensitive feelings because

We adore everything she does as we feel so

privileged to watch her expressive features

as she sings, and then we see a thousand

moods play across her beautiful face during

A conversation& we are delighted when she

treats us with gentle consideration - we find

her a fascinating conversationalist with deep

wells of creative imagination - & then when

Amira sings, her moods are so intense, she

makes us feel her feelings - so we take off

with her on gossamer wings also…

Early Sunday Morning Prayer

When Amira appears on screen

and begins to sing, eyes closed

praising Mary, mother of God,

in supplication to pray for us

And orchestral harmonies start

rolling like wheels within wheels,

it becomes a soft prayer - until

Amira’s vibrato starts shimmering

Taking me with her, heart and soul,

her emotion of devotion is so real

it makes me feel my soul becomes

enclosed in her melodious prayer

To remain there, safely held within

until the hour of my death - then

my soul will rejoice with her song

unto my Heavenly Father On High

“Ave Maria” Gounod, Reykjavik

Lyrics:

Ave Maria

Liturgical

Ave Maria, gratia plena,

Dominus tecum,

benedicta tu in mulieribus,

et benedictus fructus ventris tui Jesus.

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,

ora pro nobis peccatoribus,

nunc et in hora mortis nostrae.

Amen.

.

Hail Mary

Liturgical

Hail Mary, full of grace,

the Lord is with thee,

blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, mother of God,

pray for us sinners,

now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

https://www.oxfordlieder.co.uk/song/3829

It Is Too Late And She Finally Dies

I cried my way through the 1983 Italian La Traviata film

by Franco Zeffirelli with the music of Giuseppe Verdi &

Soprano Teresa Stratas, tenor Plácido Domingo and

baritone Cornell MacNeil starring & singing their roles

 

The film opens in the Paris home of Violetta Valéry,

courtesan, sheets covering furniture in dimly lit rooms

creditors & appraisers removing artwork & furnishings

Violetta pale & bedridden, remembers happier times

 

I cried my eyes out on seeing Teresa Strata’s lovely

face, screen showing flashbacks to her lavish party

where she met Placido Domingo, a nobleman Alfredo

who has long adored Violetta from afar and after three

 

Months they are happy together when Alfredo’s father

Giorgio arrives to request Violetta end her relationship

with his son because of what her unsavoury reputation

is doing to his daughter – if this does not bring you to

 

Tears, nothing will ever do it to you – Violetta returns

to Paris where Alfredo humiliates her and by this time

I’m a nervous wreck – then she lies dying as Alfredo

appears and declares his love, but it is too late and

 

She finally dies after singing many a line – and right

at the end I noticed my mother watching with me has

been crying quietly just as I did, both of us not making

a sound for fear of giving offence – it was a beautiful

 

Film and nearly cost us our lives strangling ourselves

hiding our desperate sobs, weeping uncontrollably

Mandela's Outstretched Arms - Union Buildings

[Memoirs]

I used to ramble about during the lunch hour

wearing a large hat and a wet scarf over my

shoulders in the hot South African sun, went

up to the Union Buildings towards Mandela’s

 

Outstretched arms to thank him & wandered

back under the fir trees, picking up fir cones

for the kids back home, the days were bright

with silver sunshine on dappled grass where

 

I happily traced all my steps back under the

shade of the trees, listening to music on my

IPod and humming with Heino singing about

clover growing in summer and snow falling in

 

Winter - loving the rhetoric in these and the

nostalgic claim that beauty made him fall in

love because that described I felt about the

beautiful landscape in which I was roaming

 

[Internet Translation of Ade zur Guten Nacht]

"Goodbye - Good Night

Farewell and good night -

Now the end has come

Since I have to leave

[In summer, the clover grows

In winter, the snow snows

Then I'll come again] 2

 

The hills and dales are mourning

Over which I roamed

A thousand times

[That is what your beauty did

Making me love

With great longing"] 2X

https://lyricstranslate.com

 

Ade Zur Guten Nacht

Ade zur guten Nacht,

jetzt wird der Schluss gemacht,

dass ich muss scheiden.

[Im Sommer, da wächst der Klee,

im Winter, da schneit's den Schnee,

da komme ich wieder.] 2X

 

 

Es trauern Berg und Tal,

wo ich viel tausendmal

bin drüber gegangen.

[Das hat deine Schönheit gemacht,

die mich zum Lieben gebracht

mit großem Verlangen.] 2X

https://lyricstranslate.com 

The World Would Be Small And Safe

[Diary Notes]

When ironing I feel the warmth and comfort of

grandma Alice’s presence as if she may appear

and the world would be small and safe as it was

when she was in charge - every day she prepared

a school lunch for everyone and I used to help her

 

Ironing, day-dreaming so much I had a headache in

the end: grandma had everything organised, started

dinner right on time, determining who was to help 

cutting vegetables, if it was Peter Pan all was joy 

& fun, the sun came out and the world turned

 

Into a beautiful place, it was great to march through

life under grandma, wiping the paving outside, to 

know she would never let us down, always in time 

to pick us up after school, going to music lessons, 

collecting us again: ironing is one of the good 

Things in life - holding great memories of a time 

when life was so small, it revolved around grandma 

Alice and the treats she provided, her radio programmes 

and the jokes she repeated afterwards – thank you grandma 

for making us feel safe in our house…

Getting Robbed By Bureaucratic Officials

 A troll on the Internet singing her siren song, she thinks

Amira must give up her Stichting Gelukskinders to be

overseen by the EU – which means getting robbed by

bureaucratic officials like the Red Cross Fund is, money

just moves in a circle from donor to various foundations

where potentates take their cut before returning the

rest of the money, never helping the underprivileged

 

See Sir Terry Pratchett’s criticism of society’ mores in the

book “Going Postal” - brilliant satire, a lesson in  How-To-

Bring-An-Existing-Stichting-To-Bankruptcy, then blame the

founders for problems and bureaucratic officials taking

bribes leaving no money for the underprivileged - if kept

going under the auspices of such as Reacher Gilt, the

original founders are made into villains – so NO, dear

 

Troll BarbHO, the singer Amira and her valiant group of

Knights, Ladies and Troubadours know that corruption is

endemic in ALL Government institutions everywhere from

America, Europe and Russia to South Africa and the Red

Cross has been fleeced for such a long time: WE shall not

hand over governance of her Gelukskinders Stichting to

enrich bureaucratic officials and international fraudsters

 

South Africa teaches common sense, all charity work done

by private individuals since the Government robs everyone,

moulding themselves on the rest of the world: HERE we do

everything ourselves, even the paparazzi is a non-existent

plague in our beautiful land where the rainbow nation is 

fighting a corrupt bureaucracy trying to kill the Golden

Goose & destroying the middle class while relentlessly

 

Pounding the poorest of the poor, trying to lord it over the

uneducated masses existing in poverty in an enduring

socialist system to be fleeced mercilessly while the

misguided Government is continuing the disastrous

social experiments of the 20^th century….

Their Favourite Princess Amira

 All the Knights and Ladies attending the meetings

with their favourite Princess Amira, were grateful to

see that the fairies had given her gifts that made her

the most loving, kind and understanding singing Royal

they had ever seen, all her Loyal Subjects who had

come from afar to her castle to meet her animal friends

 

And see where she lives, to attend concerts in halls

where she gave recitals, were delighted to find that the

Nightingale were welcomed with open arms by all the

people in South Africa: the young singer’s intense inner

focus, emotional sensitivity & intuition made it possible  

for her to understand the visiting dignitaries and offer

 

Them the information needed to describe the greatest

of gifts she as a Princess received from the fairies at

her christening: Her ability to sing with a vibrato that

gave her power to change people’s hearts and bring

them nearer to God and each other - her loyalty to

those who gave her their trust, her affectionate care

 

For the gallant Sir Malcolm who wrote courtly Odes

and her supportive kindness for every visiting official

who needed help to navigate the stream of emotions

washing over them when her vision appeared, made

them aware that here was a Maiden led by devotion

to friendship, honour, hope and truth and her voice

 

With its powerful vibrato was a gift she received to

help her in leading her subjects who offered them-

selves as loyal followers and soldiers to her, to

achieve their dreams of great deeds also…

A Wonderful Form Of Joy In Itself

[Diary Notes]

Enthusiasm in an awful thing, trying to tell you

everything you turn away in disgust, I always

interrupt your thoughts and your voice as you

are happily meditating and explaining why you

feel you don’t want to meet people, as I agree

you quickly grow uncomfortable with my ideas

 

Conversation ends in a bitter declaration that

you can’t talk to me and I agree, by this time

so convinced of my own inability to converse

with any people on earth, I’m quite willing to

descend into the deepest cave to simply listen

to great artists like Maria Callas and my lovely

 

Amira, read my favourite authors and explain

my research subject to the lecturer whose job

is to format the essays these students have to

compile - & with your rejection of my theories

it is little wonder that I have changed into the

Sorcerer’s Apprentice who has to fantasize

 

About the Sorcerer if I desire any focal point

for my affections – which isn’t a bad thing -

come to think of it, the harder I work on my

studies, the more I master the art of my craft

and this is a wonderful form of joy in itself…

Solveig's Song The Only Lovely Point

The Peer Gynt story is devoid of any symbolism that

can enrich my dreams, the character of Solveig who

supposedly sees potential for good in Peer Gynt’s

character is totally without motivation: claiming that

a good woman like her would be able to love such a

liar, bogus poet, self-idolator, seducer, self-deceiver,

braggart, narcissist and egotist, is totally absurd

 

Peer Gynt never experiences self-improvement and

just gains awareness aware of his own emptiness,

a critic lamented the play exposes the modern world

as a place where truth is subjective and the world is

viewed through the prism of self, but I believe truth

has always been inter-subjective thought construct

and that everything has always been seen through

 

Various prisms whether of individual self or group

consciousness, thus since the Peer Gynt play just

illustrates meaninglessness, there is no beautiful

symbolism to enrich the scope of the imagination,

Solveig’s song the only lovely point in this fable...

 

Film Club Day - Because I Care

 [Diary Notes]

Waiting for my lovely Liebenberg friend who claimed

she was too ill to attend, but I told her it was important

the anniversary of your film club, last year at this time

we started watching films once a week and her voice

Changed, the illness seemed to lift with new life in her

tone – NO, the CharMaster said, don’t you force your

poor ailing friend to get out of bed – She’s NOT ill, I

said, she’s lonely and depressed – and now she is

Coming and I can’t wait, we’re going to watch the film

RED with Bruce Willis and Helen Mirre and we’re 

going to have fun-  and I forced her to get up 

because I really care!

Fields Of Unrolling Flowers Unfolding

[Fantasy]

I had so many dreams of visions last night, all about

fields of flowers unfolding, when opening a document

in my dream and leaving it to run, the words I typed

became a framework within which flowers started to

bloom turning into fields rolling with unending visions

of flowers unfolding: I repeat myself because every

 

New document became the same glorious vision, at first

I was scared to open every new document suspecting

sorcery of a different kind, even a complot or danger

ahead, yet when I opened the document & started typing,

the letters starting rolling to create more fields of unrolling

flowers unfolding, I stayed in my bed all night and did not

 

Have to get up with neckache or backache of worry and

fear, the visions kept going all night and it was the best

night of my life – and now I can sing “I’ve really slept all

night -  I’ve really dreamt all night, and still have dreamt

some more, I really closed my eyes, really slept all night:

I’ll never know what made it so exciting, why all at once,

 

My dreams were good; I only know when I, closed my

eyes last night, I slept and dreamt: Something GOOD”

“Nothing comes from nothing – perhaps I had a wicked

childhood, perhaps I had a miserable youth, but some-

where in my wicked, miserable past, there must have

been Something GOOD! -

[Two songs: My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music]

Write Myself Out Of This Atmosphere

[Diary Notes]

The pain in my right eye is worrying tonight, I need

to write myself out of this atmosphere; cleaning my

eyes with baby shampoo made a difference, but the

rawness is too much and I shall not try the shampoo

trick again - I pity myself and the butter chicken and

samosas we ate last night is worsening the situation

with a headache threatening and Maria Callas dying

in fluttering vibrato, the Lord of the Crocodile Castle

 

Is fluent in praising the Master-Knife-Maker sending

him a new example of his art: my right eye intruding

to such an extent I cannot create a fantasy to fill the

emptiness within, a person called Harold Bloom was

so kind to swoon creating a description of Peer Gynt

as a kind of bogus poet, a narcissist and an absurd

self-idolator, liar, seducer& bombastic self-deceiver,

his fairy tale means nothing to me - a terrible story -

 

Now a young Lindie Roux is constricting in my ears

as she sings CuCuRuCuCu Paloma - my right eye

still oozing, I’m convinced if I keep on writing there

will be a change -I will become a carefree dreamer

again; finding refuge in Regensburger Domspatzen

“Schlafe Mein Prinzchen Schlaf Ein” - although still

caught in 3-dimensional reality the beauty of their

song takes the feeling of desperation away, then 

Taking a look at the Amira fanpage and listening to 

Solfeig's Song, thank you Dafydd, and the solution 

is watching Giselle Ballet, a black and white clip - 

Scene and Pas de Deux 1962 with Margot Fonteyn 

and Rudolf Nureyev

 

https://youtu.be/c0Gy0GXP2Ug

Main Drawback Of Opera Today

Amira sang the long lines of La Vergine degli Angeli

with consummate ease, awakening my interest in

the opera “La Forza Del Destino” by Verdi: I read

The Guardian reviews of three performances and

the comments of witty members of the public; may

I present my findings for your entertainment here:

 

The main drawback of opera today is no costumes,

no scenery - it is boring - & add Verdi’s implausible,

sprawling, fatalistic tragedy of poor decision-making

and bitter comedy requiring vocal weight which is to

be delivered delicately; then Leonora disappears after

Act 2 returning in Act 5 to be killed in artificial tragedy

 

No amount of passionate delivery or the performance

of mean-spirited Melitone as sardonic and funny can

save this uneven play, the audience is seized by Don

Carlo’s vigorous malice, shuddering under the attack

of implausible coincidence; no way, stay away I say….

 

Symphonies Are Ever So Much Better

“La Forza Del Destino”

 

An Opera by Verdi – such a convoluted story

of blood, revenge and gory death, I have not

yet been able to extract a moral from the grave

proceedings that shock a normal person by 

 

Its emphasis on subterfuge and insistence on

defending the family’s honour by killing, to the

point of a brother stabbing his sister while he

lay dying – it is late at night and not the best

 

Time to reflect on the meaning of life, much

less on the lack of verisimilitude or reality in

Verdi’s operas, I have not found an aria I love

except “La Vergine degli Angeli” sung by Amira

 

All the rest just leave me cold and disappointed

by the lack of resonance in my mind and heart -

I doubt myself – where is the enchantment that

I can read into a text – where is the delight in

 

Music opera can bring – I conclude my music

teacher was right when she said she detested

opera, symphonies are ever so much better…