I read this morning on the BBC that opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa says she will never sing in public again. “I don’t want to hear my voice,” said the soprano, 71, whose career has spanned more than half a century.
“It is in the past. When I’m teaching young singers and hearing beautiful young fresh voices, I don’t want to put my voice next to theirs.”
I don’t listen to much opera, but I do love Kiri Te Kanawa, whom I became a fan of after being introduced to her voice in Merchant-Ivory’s brilliant A Room With A View. Listen here to Dame Kiri singinging Puccini’s O Mio Babbino Caro” (“Oh My Beloved Father”), and Chi il Bel Sogno di Doretta.
Could anything be more beautiful? Thank you, Kiri Te Kanawa.
Gwedd fodern ar y byd gwerin yng nghwmni Pedair, Cerys Hafana ac Eve Goodman, rhai o berfformwyr mwyaf cyffrous y sîn yng Nghymru heddiw, o leoliad hyfryd Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru yn Aberystwyth.
A modern take at the folk scene in Wales today with Pedair, Cerys Hafana and Eve Goodman performing in the beautiful surroundings of the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Have you ever wondered why there seems to be loads of Irish and Scottish music, but nothing from Wales?
Did you know that Deck the halls is a Welsh tune? And did you know that it comes from an ancient Celtic bardic tradition? In fact we have a whole ton of music, songs, and traditions that have ancient origins, including the Mari Lwyd and the world’s oldest harp music. So why has no-one heard it before? In this video we’ll be looking at the past, present and future of traditional music and customs in Wales, and where you can find the good stuff.
A very special thanks to Phyllis Kinney, Harri Llewelyn, Gerard Kilbride, Gwen Màiri, Jordan Price Williams, Welsh Whisperer, Calan, Angharad Jenkins, Patrick Rimes, Gwilym Bowen Rhys, and Emily Jane Coupland for your knowledge and your support! Ffwrnes Gerdd clips by Gethin Scourfield-Gerard KilBride for S4C
I love lists. Make them all the time. I will even keep on file other people’s lists if there’s something about them that resonates. One of my favorites is a handwritten list of book titles Ernest Hemingway wrote for Arnold Samuelson, who once hitchhiked from Minnesota to Key West, to ask the writer how he too might become a writer. Hemingway gave him a list of sixteen classic books to read, including novels by Leo Tolstoy and E.E. Cummings.
I still haven’t read War and Peace or The Enormous Room, Mr. Hemingway, but I intend to.
The list below is special, not the least because it signifies a debut, the first voice other than my own to appear here on the Mischief Time Blog. Welcome, raconteur, bon vivant and all around good sport, Dai Bando!
Number two, the piece is in the tradition of those end-of-the-year lists that music fans like myself used to devour in such publications as the New York Times, Village Voice, Newsweek and Rolling Stone.
Lastly, as an artifact, it references an experience which, sadly, is not available to us in the current setting of late 2020 and the COVID-19 Pandemic: listening to live music in concert halls, nightclubs, arts centers, bars, cafes and festivals. May all of it return by the end of 2021.
– Wayne Cresser | Between You and Me
Dai Bando’s TOP 10 LIVE MUSIC EVENTS of 2015
1.Pokey LaFarge / The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA
– A Pokey LaFarge show is like watching Cab Calloway and Jimmie Rogers together onstage, only they’re both Pokey. Add a little Ernest Tubb, and maybe a little Ernest T. Bass, as well. Early in his set of western swing, Storyville jazz, and country blues, Pokey jumped off the stage at The Sinclair and offered me and my pal a communal swig from his bottle of whiskey. Later, he silenced an unfortunate group of local yokels who were shouting “USA, USA!” using only a smirk and a raised eyebrow from under the brim of his fedora. Song of the night? “Cairo, Illinois,” which is the best country song I’ve heard in some time.
