2024 年 5月 19日
English is not a phoenetic language, I am told. Ok. So let's try this: Yesterday I was in the Langen woods. The beech trees looked magnificent.......
ランゲンのブナの木
Towering up, straight as a pole.......
The smooth bark, an artwork in itself.......
revealing mysterious holes......
full of rainwater........
But go to the end of this blog and you will see a coastline in the furthest corner of South West England.......where there is undoubtably a beach.
beech/beach.....beech/beach.....beech/beach.....beach/beech....where would you prefer to be?
英語は難しいかも知れません。ブナ材 (beech) はビーチ (beach) と同じ音 🤔.
Years ago, I had to open a reading of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night with the iconic words: "......If music be the food of love, play on....". It was damn difficult to get the tone right. Why? because the line is sooooo.........famous!
And it's a bit like this for the General (Il Commendatore) in Mozart's "Don Giovanni". He has to sing what must be one of the most famous lines in opera ..........a ghost's reply to an invitation...........
招待
😱
(menacing chords in the orchestra 🎶🎶).........
"Don Giovanni!!!...
You've invited me to dine with you
And here I am "
🗡️
Don Giovanni!!!
A cenar teco m’invitasti
E son venuto.
「ドン・ジョバンニ！！…
あなたは私を一緒に食事に誘ってくれました
そして私はここにいます」
The trouble is, this general is already dead ⚰️! (Don Giovanni murdered him because he complained that he had seduced his daughter). But Don Giovanni has brazenly asked his memorial statue to dinner........little expecting it (him) to actually turn up.........and give DG the chance to repent. But DG hold outs out to the end.......until........he is forced to take the offered hand of the ghost.........the chilly hand of death.......☠️
I couldn't resist giving you this link....with Samuel Ramey (Giovanni), Kurt Moll (Commendatore), Ferruccio Furlanetto (Leporello). This is good old-fashioned horror.........
モーツァルト「ドン・ジョヴァンニ」のラストシーン……。
But wait. I am not writing here about a highly acclaimed production in a famous opera house, but a place where artists are trained to produce opera. The Musikhochschule of Karlsruhe.
And to be honest, I wasn't expecting much when I drove down to Karlrsruhe last week. I was told by my son that it was "only a concert performance with piano". O.K. , the pianists have to practise accompanying an opera. The singers have to learn to act, as well as sing. The lighting guys have to hone their skills. And above all, someone has to learn how to produce an opera. This someone was Malin Schmelzer. And by goodness didn't she do a fantastic job.
And she didn't even have a fully equipped theatre. The Marstall in Karlsruhe is a former 18thc. barracks. The acoustic is good, but it was not meant to be an small opera house!.
カールスルーエ音楽大学でのモーツァルト「ドン・ジョヴァンニ」の演奏……。
But how I enjoyed the evening! Hakyeul Lee's (Don Giovanni) oily arts of seduction; Hengli Bao's (Leporello) hilarious servility; Donna Anna's (Flavio Sciullo) superb shocked piety; Donna Elvira's (Mariko Lepage) rage, Don Ottavio's (Felix Janssen) bumbling Bourgeoisie; Zerlina's youthful uncertainty (Michelle Sitko), Masetto's (Joshua Ruddock) youthful rage........and of course the Commendatore himself (Jiaqi Wang), whose thunderous bass line brings our libertine Giovanni to his rightful demise. All led by Bernard Bagger at the piano........👏👏👏👏👏 .......fantastic! Congratulations to all involved!!
それは素晴らしかったです!
The line up.......
It's in music colleges that our future musicians are made. And Karlsruhe is a superb example......
Now I am not a great fan of huge groups of walkers 🥾, tramping through the countryside with a dogged determination, rucksacks on the back and hiking boots stomping away. So on Ascension day (one of the many holidays in May in Germany) I took off down to Bavaria with just two walking companons, Phe and Kazumi. We were heading for Klingenberg am Main, with its Seltenbachschlucht, a narrow ravine which cuts through the hills and offers a way into the vineyards over the Main valley.......
先週末、バイエルン州クリンゲンベルクでハイキング
Strange stone Stupa lined the banks of the stream, more reminiscent of a Shinto shrine in Japan than in Lederhosen, beer-swilling Bavaria......
But actually there was no beer here. It's all vineyards, and the path clings to the side of the valley....
メインバレーのブドウ畑
There is a castle, and damsons in distress....well in theory....she looks quite happy if you ask me.......
フィさんは幸せです......
We eventually returned to Klingenberg, feeling rather out of place in this very Bavarian town.
But we found some Italians.....an Eiscafé.....and I had my first Spagetti Eis of the season......😋
今シーズン初のスパゲティアイスクリーム
Walking back over the bridge to the car we could see where we had walked.......🍇
Of course there are walks nearer home, although Offenbach is not the first place that I would call to mind. But hiker Tom had organized a 20km hike around Mühlheim at the weekend, so I went out of curiosity.....We met at the market in Offenbach, which meant walking past the charming Stadtskirche.......
オッフェンバッハの散歩
Our route took us past this sombre war memorial in the woods. I find these places always rather ambigious. Firstly we are reminded that all these young men died in service to their country. But what remains unsaid is the stupidity and narcisism of war. The power games........and here we are again today with nothing changed. Ukraine, Gaza.....pride, humiliation, power, greed and a blind eye to human rights. Just when we should be concentrating on the climate crisis. Have we learnt nothing?
戦争記念碑。 私たち人間は同じ間違いを繰り返します
Our route led us along the Mühlenwanderweg - the path of the mills....over the Rodau river.....
One hiker was spotted in Mühlheim, just sitting in the street.....what next....😄
とても暑い日でした....
Photo: Phe
.....and quietly flows the Main......( *pronounced like mine, not mane....please.......)
A scientist probes the physical properties of water....
......where enormous barges moor.............
...almost in sight of the Isenburg Palace of Offenbach.....
Random......
There has been a lot of talk recently about fantastic Northern Lights viewing in Europe. So off I went after dark, iphone at the ready.......but I must have chosen the wrong day. However, I did discover what my iphone could do in the dark.......
ランダムなメモ.........
Last week I wrote about China, so I was fascinated to be sent this photo from Beijing. It's like when you have only seen photos of the Palmengarten or the Römer in Frankfurt, and are then presented with a photo of Sachsenhausen on a Saturday afternoon. My friend must have taken a short break from practising the piano at home, and then taken this quick candid shot. She describes, quote: ".......volunteers, who just sit on the streets and watch around like security personnel, making people nervous......."
友人が北京の写真を送ってくれました。 警備員もそうかもしれない
If there are volunteers working at this park, then they will no doubt be happy to direct you to the nearest tea shop, where you can indulge in that Cornish speciality: Scones with clotted cream and jam. In the next picture II have transported you to the very end of south west England - near Helston in Cornwall. The island in the distance is St. Michael's Mount - only accessible by a causeway at low tide, rather like Mont St. Michel on the other side of the Channel in France.....Thank you Lucilla for the photo. (Tremenheere sculpture garden). There must be a beach somewhere.....
イングランド南西部のコーンウォール。
Photo: L.Lande de Long
Despite the very unpredictable weather, our town garden has been getting into the red.
Tasty Red.....
私の庭
....and Romantic Red.....
🌳 Thank you for reading "..The Invitation.."
".。。。招待. " を読んでくれてありがとう
Feel free to share the blog with friends.
🌳 よろしければ、リンクを友達と共有してください
🌳 And and I enjoy hearing from you...!
コメントすると楽しいです!
THE END
😉
終わり
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