Classic Arts Showcase plays every morning on PBS before Sesame Street shows up.
My so far favorite, brief segment - they are all brief - aired via satelite 'SKY' when I lived in Puerto Escondido in the Mexican state of Oaxaca: At the Verdi home for elderly opera stars, in Italy of course, an old woman, still quite pretty and lithe, wearing a bathrobe, is slowly panned up to from a record label playing a fantastically beautiful aria. The old woman sits in an ordinary chair and silently listens attentively. We watch her face as the music continues uninterrupted. Very slowly she relaxes and listens uncritically.
At the conclusion of the aria the woman says with sincere, open-hearted glee and pleasure, "How beautiful!"
Of course it was herself she was listening to when she sang in performance many decades earlier.
Barry
2 comments:
hi barry-
you're right. There are some extraordinary moments to be savored on
Classic Arts Showcase. That's why it has so many loyal viewers. However, it isn't a PBS program. Many PBS stations carry it, as your local outlet does. The program was created and is paid for by Lloyd Rigler. The amazing artistry of the programming is the work of Jamie Rigler, who is the president of Classic Arts. If you enjoy it, you might want to let them know with an email.
long time CAS fan
Wow, what a surprise! Eight months
have passed since I made that journal
entry. I enjoyed your confirmatory words
that much the more. (Iffy grammar, what?)
Some months after seeing the piece shot
in Verdi's old folks home (God bless Verdi!)
I saw Pleisitzkia (sp?) straight on, and when
she was very young. Not quite as enthralling
as the 'dying swan' she did for Ed Sullivan
40 or so years ago, but revealed
nevertheless more of her mechanics and
breath-taking self control. I asked my Soviet-
trained dentist Clara if she'd ever seen that
dancer; ruefully she murmered, "Only on tape."
Thanks! (I will email; got an address?)
Barry
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