And music too – dear music! that can touch
Beyond all else the soul that loves it much -
Now heard far off, so far as but to seem
Like the faint, exquisite music of a dream.
Image: Head of Apollo, recalling the Apollo Belvedere from the British Museum London. Marble, Roman copy of ca. 120-140 AD after a Hellenistic original. From Rome.
Video: A scene from Farinelli, a 1994 biopic film directed by Gérard Corbiau about the life and career of Italian opera singer Farinelli, considered one of the greatest castrato singers of all time. It stars Stefano Dionisi as Farinelli. Farinelli’s singing voice in the film was provided by a soprano, Ewa Malas-Godlewska and a countertenor Derek Lee Ragin, who were recorded separately then digitally merged to recreate the sound of a castrato. The music is Lascia ch’io pianga, an aria from Rinaldo opera by George Frideric Handel, first performed at the Queen’s Theatre in The Haymarket, London on 24 February 1711.
Text: The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan from Lalla Rookh published in 1817 by Thomas Moore (1779 – 1852).
Tagged: Apollo, Apollo Belvedere, aria, dream, Ewa Malas-Godlewska, exquisite, Farinelli, film, Gérard Corbiau, Handel, Head, Hellenistic, Lalla Rookh, Lascia ch'io pianga, music, opera, Rinaldo, Roman, Rome, sculpture, Stefano Dionisi, The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan, Thomas Moore
