Show-Stopping Aria Encored at the Met

All Things Considered, April 23, 2008 - Monday was an unusual night at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

It wasn't so unusual that tenor Juan Diego Florez dazzled the audience with nine high C's in a row in the aria "Ah, Mes Amis," from Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment. And it wasn't unusual that the crowd went crazy.

But then Florez did something that hasn't been done at the Met in 14 years—he sang the aria again.

Read all here.

Working on a new song with poem (lyrics) by John Burroughs

I've enjoying writing music to some of the world's great poetry including Ode on a Grecian Urn, She was Phantom of Delight, Daffodils, La belle Dame Sans Merci, Rumors from an Aeolian Harp and others. My attempts are to create singable tunes in a style that is accessible to the trained or untrained vocalist. I hope I capture the intended emotions even at this level of interpretation.

WAITING

by: John Burroughs (1837-1921)

Serene, I fold my hands and wait,

Nor care for wind, nor tide, nor sea;

I rave no more 'gainst time or fate,

For, lo! my own shall come to me.







I stay my haste, I make delays,

For what avails this eager pace?

I stand amid the eternal ways,

And what is mine shall know my face.







Asleep, awake, by night or day,

The friends I seek are seeking me;

No wind can drive my bark astray,

Nor change the tide of destiny.







What matter if I stand alone?

I wait with joy the coming years;

My heart shall reap where it hath sown,

And garner up its fruit of tears.







The waters know their own and draw

The brook that springs in yonder height;

So flows the good with equal law

Unto the soul of pure delight.







The stars come nightly to the sky;

The tidal wave unto the sea;

Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high,

Can keep my own away from me.