Moon, stars and city lights
A very happy birthday to mraltariel! Hope you're having a relaxing but stimulating day! And a happy Valentine's Day to those of you who do that sort of thing!
I'm in my usual frantic state a couple of weeks from going to press, and owe a lot of people messages and thank-yous. I'll try to get back on track in March.
But for now, I like to post a song for Valentine's Day, and this one's running in my mind - it's from Kurt Weill's Broadway opera, Street Scene (with lyrics by Langston Hughes and book by Elmer Rice). I first saw it on television, apparently in 1989, and this is the song that always stuck in my head, though the only line I could remember was "peaches and cream with nuts on the side". I saw it again recently at the Royal Northern College of Music, and thought the couple performing the number (Georgia Gardiner and David Thomas) were terrific; I've watched several versions on YouTube since, but none of them had the sexual energy of the RNCM pair, drunk and exhausted and snarking, but still ready to dance themselves into a frenzy on a swig of booze. Anyway, I haven't got them on video, so this is the version I first saw, with the English National Opera, though sadly the performers aren't named.
On checking the lyrics, I was delighted to find that the reply to "peaches in cream" is "You're apple pie with cheese on the side", which to me sounds pure Lancashire. (I'm not convinced those are the words she sings in this clip, though I can't work out what she is saying.) And the proper title, of course, is "Moon-faced, starry-eyed"; it suddenly struck me that this would be a good song for Amy and Rory, or maybe River and the Doctor. Not to mention the younger Brian Cox (with Robin Ince, perhaps, as an alternative theme tune for The Infinite Monkey Cage?)
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.
I'm in my usual frantic state a couple of weeks from going to press, and owe a lot of people messages and thank-yous. I'll try to get back on track in March.
But for now, I like to post a song for Valentine's Day, and this one's running in my mind - it's from Kurt Weill's Broadway opera, Street Scene (with lyrics by Langston Hughes and book by Elmer Rice). I first saw it on television, apparently in 1989, and this is the song that always stuck in my head, though the only line I could remember was "peaches and cream with nuts on the side". I saw it again recently at the Royal Northern College of Music, and thought the couple performing the number (Georgia Gardiner and David Thomas) were terrific; I've watched several versions on YouTube since, but none of them had the sexual energy of the RNCM pair, drunk and exhausted and snarking, but still ready to dance themselves into a frenzy on a swig of booze. Anyway, I haven't got them on video, so this is the version I first saw, with the English National Opera, though sadly the performers aren't named.
On checking the lyrics, I was delighted to find that the reply to "peaches in cream" is "You're apple pie with cheese on the side", which to me sounds pure Lancashire. (I'm not convinced those are the words she sings in this clip, though I can't work out what she is saying.) And the proper title, of course, is "Moon-faced, starry-eyed"; it suddenly struck me that this would be a good song for Amy and Rory, or maybe River and the Doctor. Not to mention the younger Brian Cox (with Robin Ince, perhaps, as an alternative theme tune for The Infinite Monkey Cage?)
Click to viewAlso posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.