Tim Ashley

Oh, excellent! Ad Astra is on Film 4 right now. Metaphysical sci-fi at its best, with a great performance from Brad Pitt, as an unhappy astronaut, searching for his father who is (literally) in heaven .......

Trying to buy a train ticket when you temporarily have no debit or credit card, and the ticket office is shut, and the ticket machine that takes cash is broken, is beyond Kafka-esque ....... 😬

YouTube video by strawmonkey22 A Te, O Cara - Luciano Pavarotti - I Puritani

Luciano Pavarotti singing A te, o cara from Bellini's I Puritani, with Joan Sutherland, Nikolai Ghiaurov and the LSO conducted by Richard Bonynge. Pavarotti was born on this day, 90 years ago.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMnC...

Always wise. And in this case, anyway, I just can't! 😊

It really does, doesn't it ........

Both ........

It's a wonderful film, almost Wagnerian, and among the greatest versions of Dracula ever done. Coppola is thinking of Der fliegende Holländer, which influenced Stoker: he wrote a play on the original legend; in the novel there are parallels between the arrival of Dracula's ship and the Dutchman's

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YouTube video by vicmanu Rossini - Semiramide - Act II Arsace - Semiramide duet - Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne (1965)

Joan Sutherland died on this day fifteen years ago. Too many astonishing performances and recordings, really, to choose just one, but her 1965 Semiramide is simply staggering. Here's the Act II duet with Marilyn Horne.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=prKb...

Today is World Mental Health Day. So please remember it's ok not to be ok. It's ok to talk about it. And it's ok to ask for help if you're struggling and need it. If I can, you can. And it can save and change your life.

😘

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Oh! Je ne le savais pas! Pardon, Frédéric! Les chaussures, sans lacets, sont très beaus et chics!!

Très beau. Un peu cher. Les bottines et les chaussures sont merveilleuses. J'aime la couleur. Timberland est toujours de haute qualité.

Goody-bag merch from Tory Conference branded "When Labour negotiates Britian loses" and signed "Kemi Badenoch".

It helps to be able to spell the country you say only you are competent enough to run.

YouTube video by T-JUBE RADIO Maria Jeritza: Arie der Leonore (La Forza del Destino) 1933

The great Maria Jeritza, creator of Strauss's Ariadne and Empress, and Korngold's Marietta, was born on this day in 1887. Here is some footage - from her only film, Großfürstin Alexandra (1933) - of her singing Pace, pace mio Dio! from Verdi's La forza del destino
www.youtube.com/watch?v=82n-...

NA is wonderful, and I love it. Mansfield Park is her darkest, I think,and by some way. A great, great novel ......

I know the feeling. But that actually *really is* my favourite Austen (except sometimes when I read Mansfield Park, lol ......)

😢 Triste ........

Bon samedi, Frédéric! 😘

Oh, Je le lirai un jour, Antonio, je te le promets!

Absolument! Chef d'oeuvre, je crois. Un opéra préféré. Je le connais presque par coeur ........

'C'est beaucoup de constance, et je ne me plains pas: et tu vas t'en aller, libre, loin de mes bras ....' Scène remarquable et merveilleuse.

YouTube video by aurora spiderwoman PATRICIA ROUTLEDGE 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue "Take Care of This House"

Patricia Routledge, in 1987, singing Take Care of This House from Leonard Bernstein's and Alan Jay Lerner's musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, which she created on Broadway in 1976. There will never be anyone like her. RIP
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BVC...

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Oh, dear. And all of it apparently umpteen months old, also. Parroting the line about 2 million more NHS appointments as well, I notice: I don't know where they are because you certainly can't get one down here ........

Incredible, incredible artist. She was my first Tosca, at Covent Garden in 1978 (with Bergonzi as Cavaradossi, imagine). One of the greatest performances I heard in my life, and no, as far as I'm concerned, has come remotely close to her in it since.

Merveilleux, Antonio. 🖤

YouTube video by jkircher314 Katerina Izmailova Vishnevskaya Shostakovich 1966

Dmitri Shostakovich was born on this day in 1906, So here's the 1966 Soviet film of Katerina Izmailova (his 1962 revision of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk) directed by Mikhail Shapiro, with a towering performance by Galina Vishnevskaya as Katerina.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A6K...

YouTube video by Graham Rankin "Ah ! Si la liberté". "Armide". Gluck. Frida Leider.

Gluck's Armide was first performed in Paris on this day in 1777. The great Frida Leider sings Ah! Si la liberté me doit etre ravie in 1929, with John Barbirolli conducting.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBNE...