Tentative steps towards normalcy

Well here we are. Three hundred and sixty four days since the nation-wide lock down. Fifty two weeks since our last PCO indoor rehearsal. Mid-winter 2021.

Yet the light at the end of the tunnel has grown a little brighter since yesterday. Hopefully some of you may have been able to get vaccinated. And it looks like many, if not all, of us will be vaccinated by the beginning of the summer.  If we hang on a little longer we can begin to see more of our family and friends in person, and, tentatively, to go back to those things that bring pleasure and joy into our lives. My fingers are crossed very tightly!

I also figured that the only way for me to consistently share some beautiful music and ease the PCO back into existence is to lay down a schedule and stick to it. Easier said than done, but I'll give it a try.

So here we go.

At least once a week - if not more than that, if I am lucky enough - I'll share with you all some short little musical gem that we can savor and help bring on the spring that is not too far away. An attempt to ever so gently exit our long hibernation.

Let's begin with what most people call the Largo from Xerxes by George Frederic Handel. I first played this piece as a flute student back in 8th grade in an arrangement for flute and piano which I found in a collection of famous melodies. I have never forgotten it.

Regarding the opera in which this aria is found, Serse (Xerxes is the English translation), as writer Raymond Tuttle puts it . . . "is the typical Baroque tale of misplaced affections. Serse (Xerxes), the King of Persia, is engaged to Amastre, but he really loves Romilda, the daughter of Ariodate, the commander of Serse's army. Romilda is in love with Arsamene, Serse's brother. Arsamene returns her love, but he in turn is loved Atalanta, Romilda's sister. Serse's and Atalanta's jealousy is the wheel on which the plot revolves. Elviro, Arsamene's tippling manservant, provides comic relief. Confused?" You are not alone!

This most famous aria from Serse, and perhaps Handel's most famous - or at least most beautiful - tune is the one that opens the opera, Ombra mai fu. Within the context of the story, King Serse sings about the admiration and love he has for the shade of his beloved plane tree.

Hanako Yamaguchi sums it up beautifully: "It is incredible how this simple plaintive melody that begins with a note materializing out of nothing, suspended in space, never fails to affect me profoundly. Whenever I hear Ombra mai fu, I am transformed. The work exemplifies the enormous power music has to lift and move one’s spirit. It is a moment of fathomless grace, and a nearly 300-year-old example of how being mindful can reveal the extraordinary within the ordinary."

The recitative that precedes the aria sets the mood:

Frondi tenere e belle / Tender and beautiful fronds
del mio platano amato / of my beloved plane tree,
per voi risplenda il fato. / let Fate smile upon you.
Tuoni, lampi, e procelle / May thunder, lightning, and storms
non v'oltraggino mai la cara pace, / never disturb your dear peace,
né giunga a profanarvi austro rapace. / nor may you by blowing winds be profaned.

And the simple text of the aria itself . . .

Ombra mai fu / Never was a shade
di vegetabile / of any plant
cara ed amabile / dearer and more lovely
soave più. / or more sweet.

First is an orchestral arrangement with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra

 And now how it was originally heard, in an amazing performance by counter tenor Andreas Scholl