Elvira, painfully alone, sings these verses (“Qui la voce sua soave / mi parlava… e poi sparì”) in I Puritani, intoning one of Vincenzo Bellini’s sweetest melodies.
Even if my name is not Elvira and even if I am not a soprano, I would like to steal this lyrical phrase for the debut of our Blog.
Don’t worry: I won’t show off my high notes and I’ll merely write silently……
It’s just to invite you to follow together the “voce soave” of classical music, so dear to us all.
We will launch into some “close encounter” with authors, works, performers, episodes that have marked the history of this fascinating universe.
What do you think?
Vincenzo Bellini – Portrait by Giuseppe Tivoli
But………. but I have to reveal my preference immediately, so you can decide whether to close this page or stay with us.
Opera music… Yes, melodrama will have a little more space than other repertoires.
Why? For some secret reason, that goes around my heart. You know, that thrill that makes electricity flow through your body, cleanses your mind and brings you back to order? Well, it happens to me more often with vocal music, when you can no longer distinguish the poetry of the word and the poetry of singing.
With this, I’m not saying that I’m going to discuss whether it’s better Callas’ or Netrebko’s Violetta in La Traviata. No! Enough, stop please!
Caricature of Rossini on the cover of a French magazine
I mean, my suggestion is: let’s talk about Good Music. Let’s find a way to make our lives softer with some reflection, suggestion for listening, curiosities to exchange.
If then, together, we can understand the reason of this beauty … so much earned!
I will try to post my articles once a week: an appointment with us, as in those salons where Mozart, Haydn, Chopin, Rossini, Offenbach, Liszt, Maria Malibran, Bellini, and many other “sacred monsters” have passed.
Here: to greet you, I try to keep my word: I disguise myself as Natalie Dessay (😱🤣) for a proper gentle greeting.
