I was invited to an acquaintance’s home this evening for a literary and operatic evening. The invitation said that the evening would be the first in a series of private performances they were planning, where both classical music and classical literature would be presented. It sounded like a nice idea, so I went along, just out of curiosity.
What I experienced was an unbelievably wonderful private concert (we were probably about fifteen or twenty people in total) given by an accomplished voice student from the Luebecker Conservatorium. The singer was Ella Aradovskaja. (She comes from one of those Russian States that I stupidly don’t know where it is located, let alone how to spell its name.)
She sang various lieder, opera and operetta arias, accompanied by an outstanding pianist. She sang in German, Italian, Russian, and, I believe, Hungarian (though I might be wrong on that one). She sang with passion and with such warmth in her voice that it brought tears to my eyes. What a gift to have sat in the living room and heard her in such close proximity.
No wonder this was the most common form of performing music hundreds of years ago. Yes, of course, this happened only in aristocratic circles, and the audience tonight was anything but aristocratic. Yet, there was one moment when Ella was singing a song called, The Lark (in Russian) when I closed my eyes and was transported back in time and place. How divine!
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