Remember the Ladies
CD: Arleen Auger with Dalton Baldwin: Love Songs
A few years back some wise programmer at one of our local public TV stations filled up its schedule on Super Bowl Sunday with episodes from the British series Grafters, the better to give local Anglophile football widows (and there are probably more of them than you think) an unimpeded view of romantic adventures starring Robson Green.
Perhaps a similar act of sensitivity -- or mercy -- is bringing us a full slate of Jane Austen-themed works on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre, beginning this Sunday. Romance is definitely on the menu this time as well, as the line-up includes the wildly popular 1995 miniseries of Pride and Prejudice and the 1996 Emma, both adapted by Andrew Davies. The other productions are new to American audiences and will no doubt spark lively discussions about/comparisons with previous films of Austen works. I'd also hope that they'll have viewers curling up with their own copies of Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, and other delights. See the link below for details on the Austen programs.
In in a similar vein, if you walk into the Dupont Circle Olsson's, just about the first thing you encounter is a literary and media shrine to Jane Austen. All the novels are there, of course, plus DVDs of the film adaptations, as well an assortment of books inspired by the author's works and life. We're missing the J.A. action figure at the moment, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone was writing Desperate Walkers: A Jane Austen Guide to Fitness even as I type this.
With such energy and inspiration abroad in the land, I wanted to revisit another woman artist whose a body of work reflects both emotional resonance and universal appeal. I'm thinking, of course, of the American soprano Arleen Auger, particularly her album Love Songs, from the Delos label. It's one of those rare recordings that remains fresh, even revelatory, years after its release.
It is also, not unlike the Jane Austen novels, very much absorbed with the different moods of love. This is an intimate album, and not simply because the music is stripped down to the natural beauty of Auger's voice and Dalton Baldwin's delicate piano accompaniment. The union of artistry and emotion is almost palpable. You feel as well as hear the melancholy, the regret, the uncertainty, the quiet prayer of the lover.
I like the variety of the material, too; there are some refreshing surprises. As you would expect, there's Schubert, Schumann, and Mahler, but Auger also proves she has a way with Copland and Britten. And how many albums can you name that feature the juxtaposition of works by Noel Coward and Stephen Foster? And while I find "Del cabello mas sutil" from Obradors particularly pleasing, the works from Quilter (including "When Soft Voices Die") are also delicately beautiful.
And I hadn't really considered the significance of Lerner and Loewe's "Before I Gaze at You Again" since I listened to my parents' copy of the Broadway cast album of Camelot back in the day. The story is that Auger and Baldwin did not intend the song to appear on the album but recorded it on impulse. Bless their spontaneity. "Before I Gaze at You Again" is the song of a woman who trusts neither herself nor her heart, but here, in the unveiling of romantic secrets, the singer releases the beauty and emotion of her voice. It's a moment of appropriate melancholy and vulnerability, and a tribute to the sensitivity of the artist.
A few years back some wise programmer at one of our local public TV stations filled up its schedule on Super Bowl Sunday with episodes from the British series Grafters, the better to give local Anglophile football widows (and there are probably more of them than you think) an unimpeded view of romantic adventures starring Robson Green.
Perhaps a similar act of sensitivity -- or mercy -- is bringing us a full slate of Jane Austen-themed works on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre, beginning this Sunday. Romance is definitely on the menu this time as well, as the line-up includes the wildly popular 1995 miniseries of Pride and Prejudice and the 1996 Emma, both adapted by Andrew Davies. The other productions are new to American audiences and will no doubt spark lively discussions about/comparisons with previous films of Austen works. I'd also hope that they'll have viewers curling up with their own copies of Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, and other delights. See the link below for details on the Austen programs.
In in a similar vein, if you walk into the Dupont Circle Olsson's, just about the first thing you encounter is a literary and media shrine to Jane Austen. All the novels are there, of course, plus DVDs of the film adaptations, as well an assortment of books inspired by the author's works and life. We're missing the J.A. action figure at the moment, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone was writing Desperate Walkers: A Jane Austen Guide to Fitness even as I type this.
With such energy and inspiration abroad in the land, I wanted to revisit another woman artist whose a body of work reflects both emotional resonance and universal appeal. I'm thinking, of course, of the American soprano Arleen Auger, particularly her album Love Songs, from the Delos label. It's one of those rare recordings that remains fresh, even revelatory, years after its release.It is also, not unlike the Jane Austen novels, very much absorbed with the different moods of love. This is an intimate album, and not simply because the music is stripped down to the natural beauty of Auger's voice and Dalton Baldwin's delicate piano accompaniment. The union of artistry and emotion is almost palpable. You feel as well as hear the melancholy, the regret, the uncertainty, the quiet prayer of the lover.
I like the variety of the material, too; there are some refreshing surprises. As you would expect, there's Schubert, Schumann, and Mahler, but Auger also proves she has a way with Copland and Britten. And how many albums can you name that feature the juxtaposition of works by Noel Coward and Stephen Foster? And while I find "Del cabello mas sutil" from Obradors particularly pleasing, the works from Quilter (including "When Soft Voices Die") are also delicately beautiful.
And I hadn't really considered the significance of Lerner and Loewe's "Before I Gaze at You Again" since I listened to my parents' copy of the Broadway cast album of Camelot back in the day. The story is that Auger and Baldwin did not intend the song to appear on the album but recorded it on impulse. Bless their spontaneity. "Before I Gaze at You Again" is the song of a woman who trusts neither herself nor her heart, but here, in the unveiling of romantic secrets, the singer releases the beauty and emotion of her voice. It's a moment of appropriate melancholy and vulnerability, and a tribute to the sensitivity of the artist.
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