#a midsummer night's concert

[conarcoin]

sry if this is a little quiet i recorded it directly off the vod hjdjhjfhds. performance that casts spell of turning chat bi

#they were both so nervous but they did rly well :3 #a midsummer night's concert #connoreatspants #fanfan #qtcinderella

[xinhua-jun]

streamers singing the chorus when Ludwig points the mic at them got me so emotional

#ludwig ahgren #ludwig #qtcinderella #a midsummer night's concert #otv and friends #📌 #from the drafts

[opera-ghosts]

On this antique postcard we see the German Composer, Pianist and Organist Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847) and the birthplace in Hamburg. In his short life he compose many hundreds of works and some of this are in the repertoire until today in the concert halls all over the world.

#Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy #Felix Mendelssohn #composer #classical composer #Romantic period #Symphony #concerto #concert #piano #organ #overture #music #A Midsummer Night's Dream #Italian Symphony #Scottish Symphony #oratorio #Elijah #Violin Concerto #Violin #pianist #classical music #music history #opera #bel canto #Chamber music #Piano music #Songs #Conductor #Orchestra #Editor

[blackswaneuroparedux]

‘Pimpernel of the Hellenes’, ‘Major Paddy’, ‘Enchanted maniac’: Will the real Paddy Leigh Fermor please stand up?

Paradox reconciles all contradictions. - Patrick Leigh Fermor

So one evening I was baby sitting my nephews and nieces here in our family chalet in Verbier, high up in the Swiss Alps. It was my turn to baby sit as the rest of my family enjoyed the fantastic classical music concerts and events showcased at the two week long Verbier 30th Festival. The little scamps had gone to bed and my father and I watched an old British war movie on DVD, ‘Ill Met By Moonlight’ (1957). It was filmed by the legendary team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger based on the 1950 book ‘Ill Met by Moonlight: The Abduction of General Kreipe’ by W. Stanley Moss. 

I’ve seen the film a couple of times before, but until now never really paid attention to where the title came from. My father said it was from Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream’ And so it was. In the play, Oberon, the king of the fairies and the Queen are having a fairly bitter drawn-out fight over custody of a changeling Indian child, and this is how the pissed off king greets the queen when they run into each other, “Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania”. Oberon is basically saying "Oh Lord, it's you..." and Titania's response is basically a flippant middle finger. One of the best modern reasons to read Shakespeare: to throw playful erudite shade at others.

Anyway, the historical background of the film is the German invasion of Crete in May 1941.  After an intense ten-day battle, Allied troops were driven back across the island, and many were evacuated from beaches along the southern coast. Some Cretans and British officers took to the mountains to organise resistance against the occupying forces.  The German occupation that followed was especially brutal. Dreadful reprisals followed every act of resistance. The German commander, General Müller, insisted on taking 50 Cretan lives for every German soldier killed; he became known as ‘The Butcher of Crete’.

As a Classicist side note, there had been a close association between Britain and Crete since the early 20th century, when archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans had uncovered the sensational remains of a Minoan palace at Knossos. The headquarters of the British archaeological school in Crete was a large villa alongside the site, known as Villa Ariadne. Several archaeologists, who knew the island and its people well, went underground after the German occupation to aid the Cretan resistance. Continuing in this tradition, scholar and travel-writer Patrick Leigh Fermor, who had got to know Greece in the 1930s, joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE).

During the German occupation, Major Paddy Leigh Fermor travelled to Crete three times to help organise local resistance against the hated German occupation. On the third occasion, in February 1944, he was parachuted in with a specific mission to kidnap German commander General Müller, to boost morale on Crete along with his erstwhile SOE comrade Capt. W. Stanley Moss MC (aka Billy Moss) of the Coldstream Guards. However, just after they parachute in, General Müller was replaced by General Heinrich Kreipe, who transferred from the Russian Front. Thinking that capturing one general was as good as another, Fermor merrily go ahead with the daring kidnap operation.

It’s at this point that the narrative of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s ‘Ill Met by Moonlight’ (1957) picks up. Dirk Bogarde plays Paddy Leigh Fermor, David Oxley plays Moss, and Marius Goring plays the taciturn German paratroop general. Blink and you’ll miss the late great Christopher Lee making a cameo appearance as a German officer in the dentist’s room scene.

The film naturally takes some liberty with the facts but it’s a cracking yarn of high adventure and drama. Xan Fielding, a close friend of Leigh Fermor from the SOE in Cairo, was taken on as technical adviser. The fact the film was shot in in the Alpes-Maritimes in France and Italy, and on the Côte d'Azur in France, far away from the craggy valleys and mountains of Crete itself. The director Michael Powell spent some time walking in Crete to get to know the island, but decided that, with the confused and volatile state of Greek politics, it was not suitable to film there.

Looking back years after he had directed it Powell didn’t think much of his own film. By contrast, Paddy Leigh Fermor, who was on set throughout the film shoot, was very happy with Bogarde’s portrayal of him with Byronic glamour. Watching the movie again ‘Ill Met by Moonlight’ remains a classic and stands out from many British war films of the 1950s because of its realism. The British SOE men and the Cretan guerrillas look absolutely right for their parts. It is dramatic and full of suspense while filled with much boyish humour.

I was disappointed with one notable omission in the film that did happen in real life. According to Patrick Leigh Fermor, at dawn one day during the journey across the mountains, General Kreipe was looking at the mist rising from Mount Ida and began to recite, in Latin, the opening lines of Horace’s ninth ode:

Vides ut alta stet nive candidum Soracte nec iam sustineant onus silvae laborantes geluque flumina constiterint acuto?

Behold yon Mountains hoary height, Made higher with new Mounts of Snow; Again behold the Winters weight Oppress the lab’ring Woods below: And Streams, with Icy fetters bound, Benum’d and crampt to solid Ground

(John Dryden 1685)

Leigh Fermor picked up on the General, and recited the remaining stanzas of the Ode. ‘Ach so, Herr Major,’ said Kreipe when Leigh Fermor had finished. Both men were amazed to realise they shared a classical education and a love of ancient Latin poetry.

Leigh Fermor later wrote that it was as though the war had ceased to exist for a moment, as ‘We had both drunk from the same fountains before.’ It brought captor and captive together with a strange bond. The scene was not reproduced in the film, as Powell and Pressburger probably thought it would make the men sound too academic for a popular cinema audience.

Leigh Fermor and Kreipe met again in the early 1970s, on a Greek television show, and got on famously together. The General said Leigh Fermor had treated him chivalrously as a captive. They remained friends until Kreipe’s death.

After sharing a late night drink with my father after the film, I began to muse on the figure of Paddy Leigh Fermor, a family friend and someone I met along with his wife, Joan, as a little girl. My grandparents, and especially my grandmother, knew Paddy briefly from their days during and after the Second World War. 

My father shared a few stories about him when he and my mother visited his beautiful home in Greece, where even at his advanced age he remained the most generous of hosts and the most outrageous flirt. 

One of my memories was getting into his battered old Peugeot in the drive way and trying to drive it when my feet could barely touch the pedals. It wouldn’t have mattered in any case as the brakes didn’t work as he cheerfully said later as we careened around a dirt road to go around the mountains for a drive.

Many years later in April 2022, I tried to visit the home of the late Patrick and Joan Leigh Fermor - a sort of pristine shrine to their memory that one can also stay in any of the rooms as a vacation rental  - in the coastal fishing village of Kadarmyli in the Peloponnese, as part of a hiking and mountaineering sojourn around Greece with ex-Army friends. We couldn’t stay there as it was already rented out to other guests, and so we stayed higher up the mountain in a villa, but we swam in front of the Fermor’s home which was on the water’s edge.

You could never put your finger on Paddy Leigh Fermor. He hid behind his gift for telling yarns, and pulling Ancient Greek verses out of the thin air, as well as boisterously singing local Greek songs with a drink in his hand. 

Even after his death in 2011, the question keeps nagging as to who was Paddy Leigh Fermor?

The Dirk Bogarde film too seems to ask, who exactly is the ‘real’ Patrick Leigh Fermor - or the real anyone? Taking its title from a Shakespearian play concerned with dreams and disguises, magic and power, ‘Ill Met By Moonlight’ is all about questions of identity.

Under the film credits, we see Dirk Bogarde in uniform; then, unexpectedly, we see him in the flamboyant outfit of a Cretan hill-bandit. A title informs us that Major Leigh Fermor was also known by the Greek code-name “Philidem.” In other words, there are two of him (at least), and on one level the adventure the film is about to unfold reflects a conflict in his personality. It’s a conflict shared, unknowingly, by his Nazi opposite number, the fierce, arrogant General Kreipe (an unlikely “proud Titania,” but it’s true that he “with a monster is in love” – the monster of Nazism). Kreipe’s human side is so rigorously repressed by the demands of war and “glory” that he is genuinely unaware of it; ironically, this humanness, which constitutes the true manhood of this Teuton warrior, is revealed by a boy (equivalent to Shakespeare’s Indian Prince?) - who, in turn, is the most grown up person in the movie.

If “Philidem” appears under the credits, caped and open-shirted, a romantic dream-figure out of an operetta or a storybook, he is first seen in the film proper as a coarser, more down-to-earth version of the same thing – an ordinary Cretan peasant in a shabby suit, waiting for a bus. When he makes contact with the Resistance, his personality fragments further.

To some, he is the mystical Philidem, Pimpernel of the Hellenes and righter of wrongs. To others he is “Major Paddy,” the happy-go-lucky Englishman of popular movie myth conducting war as if it were a branch of amateur theatricals, a gentleman adventurer relying on breeding to get him through and making fun of the whole business. To Bill Moss (David Oxley), the newly arrived junior officer sent to assist him, he is the cool, fast-thinking professional soldier. And to himself? In his quietly passionate defence of Cretan life and culture, he seems someone else again: a scholar and aesthete outraged by the barbarism and folly of war, and by the moronic arrogance shown by his captive toward the Cretan people.

Whatever his persona, Leigh Fermor is a chameleon who never seems to change very radically in himself. Perhaps because he has this quality of seeming all things to all men – and being those things - he remains unfazed by the monolithic might of the German military machine. Fluent in Greek, he can also speak German like a German and is easily able to assume another disguise, that of a faceless Nazi officer. Although he and Moss make fun of themselves - “If only I had a monocle!” muses Moss when Leigh Fermor tells him he “looks like an Englishman dressed like a German, leaning against the Ritz bar” - they are able to effect the kidnapping with an ease that seems appropriately Puckish. General Kreipe is ignominiously thrust onto the floor of his own limousine, gagged, and sat upon by a couple of the peasants he so despises. Kreipe’s rage is compounded by his firm conviction that he has been snatched by “amateurs” - a belief Leigh Fermor and Moss slyly make no objection to, knowing how it will gnaw at his already shaky Master Race self-confidence.

Patrick Leigh Fermor, aka Major Paddy, aka Philidem, in the film’s closing moments, is far from being self-assured intellectual or dashing amateur adventurer or legendary outlaw of the hills. He’s just a tired man who wants to go home and rest up. “How do you feel?” asks Moss. “Flat” is the reply. “You look flat!” says Moss. “I know how I’d like to look …” murmurs Leigh-Fermor wistfully. Moss knows what he’s going to say, and joins in the litany: “Like an Englishman dressed like an Englishman – and leaning against the Ritz bar!” It’s easy to imagine them ordering drinks at that renowned watering-hole with all the suavity required by this little fantasy. 

Still, the film’s last images of Crete receding in the distance, until all we can see is the sea, suggests that maybe Major Paddy’s heart is really back in those hills in the “fair and fertile” land that has become as much a Powellian landscape of the mind for us as the studio-built Himalayan convent of ‘Black Narcissus’ or the monochrome Heaven of ‘A Matter of Life and Death’. And, as the film POV closing shots departs both Crete and this film, I began to think that being “dressed like an Englishman and leaning against the Ritz bar” would, for Patrick Leigh Fermor constitute yet another disguise. After all, he said he was of Irish aristocratic stock.

Traveller and writer Paddy Leigh Fermor is best known for two events. He’s known for leading the commando group in occupied Crete to kidnap General Kreipe. But he is also known for the boy who, at a mere 18 years old, set off with little money and a lot of nerve in 1933 to walk from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople.

Patrick Leigh Fermor was, in the words of one of his obituaries, a cross between Indiana Jones, James Bond and Graham Greene. Self-reliance and derring-do were lessons learnt from the cradle. When Fermor’s geologist father was posted to India, he and his wife left the infant with family in Northamptonshire and did not return until his fourth birthday. In retrospect, he took great delight in being sent to a school for difficult children and getting himself expelled from the King’s School, Canterbury, when he was caught holding hands with a greengrocer’s daughter eight years his senior. His school report infamously judged him ‘a dangerous mix of sophistication and recklessness’.

Sharing a flat in Shepherd’s Market, one of Mayfair’s seedier corners, Leigh Fermor schooled himself in literature, history, Latin and Greek.

He honed his character with the company of extraordinary people and the words of great writers - he had a prodigious memory for prose as well as poetry. He befriended literary lions such as Sacheverell Sitwell, Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford. His travels began aged ‘eighteen-and-three-quarters’ when he rejected Sandhurst Royal Military College in order to walk the length of Europe from Hook of Holland to Constantinople. He took with him Horace’s Odes and the Oxford Book of Verse though Leigh Fermor could recite Shakespeare soliloquies, Marlowe speeches, Keats’s Odes and as he modestly put it ‘the usual pieces of Tennyson, Browning and Coleridge’ from memory.

Leigh Fermor was then a self-made man in the most literal sense.

Setting off from England in 1933, Fermor resolved to traverse Europe living like a hermit; sleeping in bars and begging for food. But his manly charms and boyish good looks found him being passed like a favourite godson from Schloss to palace by European nobility and he developed a lifelong penchant for aristocratic company. I his own words, ‘In Hungary, I borrowed a horse, then plunged into Transylvania; from Romania on into Bulgaria’. Having reached Constantinople in January 1935, Fermor continued to explore Greece where he fought on the royalist side in Macedonia quelling a republican revolution. In Athens Leigh Fermor met Balasha Cantacuzene, a Romanian countess with whom he fell in love. They were living together in a Moldovan castle when World War Two was declared.

Fluent in Greek, Leigh Fermor was posted as a liaison officer in Albania. Recruited as a Special Operations Executive (SOE), he was shipped from Cairo to German-occupied Crete where he lived disguised as a shepherd in the mountains for two years. On his third expedition to Crete in 1944, Leigh Fermor was parachuted alone onto the island and made connections in the Cretan resistance movement. While waiting for his compatriot Captain Bill Stanley Moss to land by water from Cairo, Leigh Fermor hatched a plot to kidnap German Commander General Heinrich Krieple. He liaised comfortably with Cretan partisans and bandits to pull off one of the war’s greatest coups de théâtre.

Disguised as German soldiers, Leigh Fermor and Moss stopped Krieple’s car at an improvised check point en route back to Nazi HQ in Knossos. Abandoning the General’s car after a two-hour drive, Leigh Fermor left a note indicating that the kidnappers were British so that there wouldn’t be reprisals against Cretan nationals. When the abduction of the unpopular commander was discovered, a German officer in Heraklion allegedly said ‘well, gentlemen, I think this calls for champagne’. It turns out that General Kreipe was despised by his own soldiers because, amongst other things, he objected to the stopping of his own vehicle for checking in compliance with his commands concerning approved travel orders. It’s why for instance the German troops, both in the film and in real life, dare not stop the General’s car as it drove through the check points at Heraklion.

Krieple was evacuated and taken to Cairo and Leigh Fermor entered the annals of World War Two’s most devil-may-care heroes. With characteristic panache, when he was demobbed Leigh Fermor moved into an attic room at the Ritz paying half a guinea a night. But his first travel book, ‘The Traveller’s Tree’, was not about the European odyssey or the Cretan escapades and centred on Leigh Fermor’s adventures in the Carribbean. Published in 1950, ‘The Traveller’s Tree’ was an inspiration for Ian Fleming’s second James Bond novel ‘Live and Let Die’ (1954).

As a host and house guest, Paddy Leigh Fermor was much sought-after. At one of his parties in Cairo, he counted nine crowned heads. He was a confirmed two-gin-and-tonics before lunch man and smoked eighty to 100 cigarettes a day. His party pieces included singing ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’ in Hindustani and reciting ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’ backwards. In Cyprus while staying with Laurence Durrell, Leigh Fermor apparently stunned crowds in Bella Pais into silence by singing folk songs in perfect Cretan dialect. As Durrell wrote in ‘Bitter Lemons’ (1957), ‘it is as if they want to embrace Paddy wherever he goes’.

He struck up a partiuclar friendship with the famous Mitford sisters, especially Deborah Mitford, later ‘Debo’, the Duchess of Devonshire. It was at the Devonshires’ Irish estate Lismore Castle that ‘Darling Debo’ and ‘Darling Pad’ met and began to correspond. A characteristic letter from the Duchess in 1962 reads ‘The dear old President (JFK) phoned the other day. First question was ‘Who’ve you got with you, Paddy?” He’s got you on the brain’ to which Fermor replies of a broken wrist ‘Balinese dancing’s out, for a start; so, should I ever succeed to a throne, is holding an orb. The other drawbacks will surface with time’.

After the war he travelled widely but was always drawn back to Greece. He built a house on the Mani peninsula - which had been, significantly, the only part of Magna Graecia to resist Ottoman colonisation since the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Before his death in 2011 at the age of 96, he wrote some of the most acclaimed travel books of the 20th century.

His books contain some of the finest prose writing of the past century and disprove Wilde's maxim that "it is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating".

Charm, self-taught knowledge and enthusiasm made up for the lack of a university degree or a private income. His teenage walk across Europe and subsequent romantic sojourn in Baleni, Romania, with Princess Balasha Cantacuzene are proof enough of that. But the difficulty of capturing such an unconventional and glamorous life is made harder by the certainty that Fermor was an unreliable narrator.

He was also an infuriatingly slow writer. Driven by a life-long passion for words yet hampered by anxiety about his abilities, Leigh Fermor published eight books over 41 years. 

‘The Traveller's Tree’ describes his postwar journey through the Caribbean; ‘Mani‘ and ‘Roumeli’ (1958 and 1966) draw on his experiences in Greece, where he would live for much of the latter part of his life. But it is the books that came out of his trans-Europe walk that reveal both the brilliance and the flaws. ‘A Time of Gifts’ was published in 1977, 44 years after he set out on the journey. ‘Between the Woods and the Water’ appeared nine years later. Both describe a world of privilege and poverty, communism and the rising tide of Nazism, and end with the unequivocal words, "To be continued". Yet the third volume hung like an albatross around the author's neck. As the years passed, Fermor found it impossible to shape the last part of his story in the way he wanted.

Leigh Fermor was that rarest of men: a man determined to live on his own terms, if not his own means, and who mostly - and mostly magnificently - succeeded. Always popping off on a journey when he should have been writing about the last one, always ready to party, he was forever chasing beautiful, fascinating or powerful women, even when with his wife, Joan Raynor. She was the great facilitator who funded his passion for travel and writing, as well as women, from her trust fund. His love affairs were discreet but legendary.

Leigh Fermor was happiest among the rogues. Over a lifetime on the road, he sought them, and in turn they responded to his charm, nose for adventure, and his famous wit. He was a keenly-anticipated dinner guest - once outshining Richard Burton at a London society soirée, who he cut-off midway through a recital of ‘Hamlet’. As Richard Burton stormed out, the pleading society hostess said, “But Paddy’s a war hero!” to which Burton grouchily replied, “I don’t give a damn who he is!” 

His partnership with and then marriage to Joan Raynor was an open relationship, at least on Leigh Fermor’s side. Paddy saw in Joan his kindred spirit. Like him, she spent much of her youth travelling to where she pleased; largely in France, where the photographer and literary critic Cyril Connolly became besotted by her. Joan was the daughter of Sir Bolton and Lady Eyres Monsell of Dumbleton Hall, Worcestershire. She was not only stunningly pretty but also 'a beautiful ideal, with the perfect bathing dress, the most lovely face, the most elaborate evening dress', as the Eton educated Connolly described her. Joan also stood out from the upper-class beauties of her day in that she supplemented her mean rich father's allowance by earning her living as a decent photographer.

In 1946, she met Leigh Fermor in Athens, while he was deputy director of the British Institute. Joan met him at a time when he was then in a relationship with a French woman called Denise, who was pregnant with his child, which she aborted. The pair would travel to the Caribbean together under the invitation of Greek photographer Costas, falling madly in love.

She was the only woman that - after decades of sexual scandals - matched his own erratic behaviour. Stories of how they dined fully-clothed in the Mediterranean, dragging a table into the sea, as well as their myriad cats and olive groves, paint a restless couple, who, when not out articulating the peoples of their adopted homeland, kept themselves very busy.

The attraction between Paddy and Joan was instant. So many love affairs that Paddy indulged in seemed about as brief as the flame from a burning envelope and you expected this one with Joan to be too. But somehow, miraculously, it lasts. 

The two were apart a great deal, but in their case, absence did make the heart grow fonder. While Paddy was staying in a monastery in Normandy, supposed to be thinking monk-like thoughts that he would eventually put into his masterpiece A Time To Keep Silence, he was also writing sexy letters to Joan: 'At this distance you seem about as nearly perfect a human being as can be, my darling little wretch, so it's about time I was brought to my senses.' And: 'Don't run away with anyone or I'll come and cut your bloody throat.'

She tantalised him with descriptions of Cyril Connolly making passes at her; but she, like Denise, sounded a rather desperate note when she wrote: 'I got the curse so late this month I began to hope I was having a baby and that you would have to make it a legitimate little Fermor. All hopes ruined this morning.'

Fiercely independent - a trait that must have enamoured Paddy - they were best imagined as two pillars of a Greek temple, beside one-another but capable of holding up the roof of the world that they had built for themselves through the lens of ancient history and Hellenic culture. Indeed, it was said that they had a special ‘pact of liberty’. It is this unconquerable aura that led poet laureate John Betjeman to declare his love for her (he called her ‘Dotty’ and remarked that her eyes were as large as tennis balls). For Cyril Connolly, the photographer she shadowed, and with whom she had a scandalised affair during her first marriage, she was a “lovely boy-girl” and Laurence Durrell named her the ‘Corn Goddess’ because of her slender figure and short hair. But of all of these worthy candidates, it was the warrior-poet Patrick Leigh Fermor who finally won her heart.

To Joan, who described herself as a ‘lifelong loner’ in her diaries, her companionship with the uncomplicated Paddy was a relief. They had no children, nor did they want any - or so Paddy claimed. But those who knew Joan suspected she did want children but it never came to pass; and so she became a devoted aunt or dotted on other friends’ children. For both of them their dozens of cats gave them the next best thing to paternal satisfaction. Still, her morbid fascination with photographing cemeteries painted a much darker side.

Joan Raynor’s inheritance subsidised his peripatetic life at least until the enormous success of ‘A Time of Gifts’ in the late 1970s, which in turn created a new market for his previous volumes about Greece, ‘Mani’ and ‘Roumeli’.

With Joan’s tacit consent, Paddy enjoyed amorous flings, discrete sexual affairs with high society women and sampled the low delights of the brothel. This activity rarely made it into his private letters, but the exceptions could be piquant. Writing in 1958 from Cameroon, where he was on the set of a John Huston movie, he told a (male) friend: “ Errol Flynn and I . . . sally forth into dark lanes of the town together on guilty excursions that remind me rather of old Greek days with you.” In a 1961 letter to the film director John Huston’s wife, Ricki, with whom Leigh Fermor had been having sex with (and would die in a car crash in 1969). “I say,” the passage begins, “what gloomy tidings about the CRABS! Could it be me?” Riffing on pubic lice and their crafty ways, he conjectures that, during a recent romp with an “old pal” in Paris, a force “must have landed” on him “and then lain up, seeing me merely as a stepping stone or a springboard to better things” - to Mrs. Huston, that is. As comic apologies for venereal infection go, the passage is surely a classic.

Like most high flying lives, it was far from blameless. Wounded women were littered in his wake. Some British visitors to Athens were less than impressed by this Englishman who posed as “more Greek than the Greeks”.

Some Greeks shared their disdain. Revisionist historians criticised his role in wartime Crete, and warned their fellow Hellenes that for all his fluency and charm, Leigh Fermor was no latter day Byron. His unoccupied car was blown up outside his Mani house, probably by members of the Greek Communist Party which he had vocally opposed. The accidental fatal shooting of a partisan in Crete led to a long blood feud which made it difficult for Leigh Fermor to re-enter the island until the 1970s, and possibly explains why he chose to settle in the Peloponnese rather than among the hills and harbours of his dreams.

His own books had already eclipsed those incidents, not only among readers of English but also in Greece, where in 2007 the government of his adopted land made him a Commander of the Order of the Phoenix for services to literature.

Travel writers such as the great Jan Morris have described Leigh Fermor as the master of their trade and its greatest exponent in the 20th century.

When ‘A Time of Gifts’ was published in 1977, Frederick Raphael wrote: “One feels he could not cross Oxford Street in less than two volumes; but then what volumes they would be!”

They are not for everyone. Leigh Fermor wrote that written English is a language whose Latinates need pegging down with simple Anglo-Saxonisms, and some feel that he personally could have made more and better use of the mallet. His exuberance is either captivating or florid. It is certainly unique among English prose styles.

Artemis Cooper, his patient and careful biographer wrote that “Paddy had found a way of writing that could deploy a lifetime’s reading and experience, while never losing sight of his ebullient, well-meaning and occasionally clumsy 18-year-old self … this was a wonderful way of disarming his readers, who would then be willing to follow him into the wildest fantasies and digressions”.

Those fantasies and digressions took decades to express. ‘A Time of Gifts’ had arguably been 40 years in the making when it was published in 1977. Its sequel, ‘Between the Woods and the Water’, did not appear until 1986. The third and final volume has been awaited ever since. Following Leigh Fermor’s death, a foot-high manuscript was apparently found on his desk.

Once he knuckled down to it, Leigh Fermor loved playing around with words. He was one of our greatest stylists and he was devoted to producing un-improvable books. But writing did not come easily to him, at least partly because it was something of a distraction from the main event, which was living an un-improvable life of unrepentant gaiety and fun.

For forty odd years, a legion of friends and admirers would beat a path to Paddy and Joan’s door. Artists, poets, royalty and writers came, all taking inspiration from their erudite hosts. A visit was an act of communion, a sharing of ideas and stories.

Leigh Fermor influenced a generation of British travel writers, including Bruce Chatwin, Colin Thubron, Philip Marsden, Nicholas Crane, Rory Stewart, and William Dalrymple. Indeed when Bruce Chatwin died, it was Paddy who scattered Chatwin’s ashes near a church in the mountains in Kardamyli. 

When I was there in April 2022, I went to that same church to pay my respects.

But some of Paddy’s life energy was sucked out of him when Joan died in Kardamyli in June 2003, aged 91. It was related that Joan said to her friend Olivia Stewart, who was visiting: 'I really would like to die but who'd look after Paddy?' Olivia said that she would. A few minutes later, Joan fell, hit her head - and died instantly of a brain haemorrhage. Joan had often quoted Rilke: 'The good marriage is one in which each appoints the other as guardian of his solitude.' Now Paddy Leigh Fermor was all alone.

Leigh Fermor was knighted in 2004, the day of his birthday which he delighted in like a giggling schoolboy. But he missed Joan terribly.

For the last few months of his life Leigh Fermor suffered from a cancerous tumour, and in early June 2011 he underwent a tracheotomy in Greece. As death was close, according to local Greek friends, he expressed a wish to visit England to bid goodbye to his friends, and then return to die in Kardamyli, though it is also stated that he actually wished to die in England and be buried next to his wife, Joan, in Dumbleton, Gloucestershire. He stayed on at Kardamyli until the 9th June 2011, when he left Greece for the last time. He died in England the following day, 10th June 2011, aged 96. It was reported that he had dined in full black tie on the evening of his death. Paddy had style even unto the end.

A Guard of Honour was formed by the Intelligence Corps and a bugler from his former regiment, the Irish Guards, delivered the ‘Last Post’ at Paddy’s funeral. As had been his wish, he was buried beside Joan. On his gravestone in Dumbleton cemetery is an inscription in Greek, a quote from Constantine Cavafy: “In addition, he was that best of all things, Hellenic.”

Although Joan had passed away at the age of ninety-one, after suffering a fall in the Mani. Her body was repatriated to Dumbleton, the place of her birth - ironic that her dream was to be as far as she could possibly go from the rolling humdrum Worcestershire hills. But perhaps she intended to return all along. When Paddy was buried beside her it seemed that the ‘pact of liberty’ that these two lonely souls had forged themselves could be tested in the great elsewhere. Joan was more than his muse (as many of her obituaries were at pains to declare) but his greatest adventure.

To come around full circle from the movie ‘Ill Met By Moonlight’ (1957) that I saw that night in Verbier, my father told me that rather poignantly, General Kreipe, the German commander Leigh Fermor had captured - once an enemy, and later a friend - left behind notes and photographs from across his life. On one of those notes, it was discovered, the following was scribbled from a brief visit to Greece: “Somewhere, amidst all the disarray, was the story of Joan and Paddy, and” it concluded, “…of their lives together.”

His life with Joan and all that she meant to him was one part of the mosaic of who Paddy Leigh Fermor was. But it’s incomplete. 

Paddy didn’t like the idea of a biography, and neither did Joan when she was alive. But friends had persuaded them that unless Paddy appointed someone to write his life, he might find himself the subject of a book whether he liked it or not. In Artemis Cooper they couldn’t have chosen a better writer to chronicle Paddy’s life as a man of action and letters. Cooper, was the daughter of another accomplished diplomat and historian, John Julius Norwich, and grand-daughter of  Duff and Diana Cooper. As the wife of the historian Antony Beevor, she became a trusted friend of the Leigh Fermors. Cooper was too good of a historian to let her friendship lead her astray from being a faithful but serious biographer. Knowing this, she was told she could go ahead, but she had to promise not to publish anything until after they were both dead.

Paddy did not like being interviewed, and would keep her questions at bay with a torrent of dazzling conversation.  He was the master at deflecting discussions away from himself.

He was also very unwilling to let Cooper see many of his papers, though the refusal always couched in excuses. ‘Oh dear, the Diary…’ It was the only surviving one from his great walk across Europe, and I was aching to read it. ‘Well it’s in constant use, you see, as I plug away at Vol III,’ he would say. Or, ‘My mother’s letters? Ah yes, why not. But it’s too awful, I simply cannot remember where they’ve got to…’ It was quite obvious that he and Joan, while being unfailingly generous, welcoming and hospitable, were determined to reveal as little as possible of their private lives. 

While they were more than happy to talk about books, travels, friends, Crete, Greece, the war, anything - they would not tell her any more than they would have told the average journalist. But she persisted and got closer than most. He showed particularly gallantry in not talking about his romantic entanglements. But she soon twigged that anytime he described a woman as ‘an old pal’ it was a sure bet that he had an affair with her.

Intriguingly, Paddy liked to claim he was descended from Counts of the Holy Roman Empire, who came to Austria from Sligo. Paddy could recite ‘The Dead at Clomacnoise’ (in translation) and perhaps did so during a handful of flying visits to Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s, partying hard at Luggala House or Lismore Castle, or making friends with Patrick Kavanagh and Sean O’Faolain in Dublin pubs. He once provoked a massive brawl at the Kildare Hunt Ball, and was rescued from a true pounding by Ricki Huston, a beautiful Italian-American dancer, John Huston’s fourth wife and Paddy’s lover not long afterwards.

And yet, a note of caution about Paddy’s Irish roots is sounded by his biographer, Artemis Cooper, who also co-edited ‘The Broken Road’, the final, posthumously published instalment of the trilogy. “I’m not a great believer in his Irish roots,” she said of Leigh Fermor in an interview, “His mother, who was a compulsive fantasist, liked to think that her family was related to the Viscount Taaffes, of Ballymote. Her father was apparently born in County Cork. But she was never what you might call a reliable witness. She was an extraordinary person, though. Imaginative, impulsive, impossible - just the way the Irish are supposed to be, come to think of it. She was also one of those sad women, who grew up at the turn of the last century, who never found an outlet for their talents and energies, nor the right man, come to that. All she had was Paddy, and she didn’t get much of him.”  

And I think that’s the point, no one really got much of Paddy Leigh Fermor even as he only gave a crumb of himself to others but still most felt grateful that it was enough to fill one’s belly and still feel overfed by him.

Paddy never tried to get to the bottom of his Irish ancestry, afraid, no doubt, of disturbing the bloom that had grown on history and his past, a recurring trait. “His memory was extraordinary,” Artemis Cooper noted, “but it lay dangerously close to his imagination and it was a very porous border.”

Within the Greek imagination many Greeks saw in Paddy Leigh Fermor as the second coming of Lord Byron. It’s not a bad comparison.  

Lord Byron claimed that swimming the Hellespont was his greatest achievement. 174 years or so later, another English writer, Patrick Leigh Fermor - also, like Byron, revered by many Greeks for his part in a war of liberation - repeated the feat. Leigh Fermor, however, was 69 when he did it and continued to do it into his 80s. Byron was a mere 22 years old lad. The Hellespont swim, with its mix of literature, adventure, travel, bravery, eccentricity and romance, is an apt metaphor for Leigh Fermor’s life. Paddy Leigh Fermor was the Byron of his time. Both men had an idealised vision of Greece, were scholars and men of action, could endure harsh conditions, fought for Greek freedom, were recklessly courageous, liked to dress up and displayed a panache that impressed their Greek comrades. Like a good magician it was also a way to misdirect and conceal one’s true self.

What or who was the true Paddy Leigh Fermor?  

Like Byron, Leigh Fermor appeared as a charismatic and assured figure. He was a sightseer, consuming travel, culture, and history for pleasure. He was an aristocrat moving in the social circles of his time. He was a gifted amateur scholar, speculating on literary and historical sources. Leigh Fermor, Byron’s own identity, is subject to textual distortion; it emerges from a piece of occasional prose in his books and is shaped by the claims of correspondence on a peculiarly fluid consciousness. 

There is no hard and fast distinction to be drawn here between real and imagined, only a continuity of relative fictions that lie between memory and imagination as his biographer asserted. If there is a will to assert identity here, to disentangle fact and fiction, to give things as they really are and nail down the real Leigh Fermor then it is somewhere between the two. This is where we will find Paddy.

For many his death marked the passing of an extraordinary man: soldier, writer, adventurer, a charmer, a gallant romantic. As a writer he discovered a knack for drawing people out and for stringing history, language, and observation into narrative, and his timing was perfect. Paddy often indulged in florid displays of classical erudition. His learned digressions and serpentine style, his mannered mandarin gestures, even baroque prose, which Lawrence Durrell called truffled and dense with plumage, were influenced by the work of Charles Doughty and T.E. Lawrence. But one can’t compare him. I agree with the acclaimed writer Colin Thurbon who said, “There is, in the end, nobody like him. A famous raconteur and polymath. Generous, life-loving and good-hearted to a fault. Enormously good company, but touched by well-camouflaged insecurities. I would rank him very highly. ‘The finest travel writer of his generation’ is a fair assessment.”

As a child I didn’t really know who Paddy Leigh Fermor was other than this very cheerful and charismatic old man was kind, attentive, and took a boyish delight in everything you were doing. Only later on in adulthood was it clear to that Paddy was not only among the outstanding writers of his time but one of its most remarkable characters, a perfect hybrid of the man of action and the man of letters. Equally comfortable with princes and peasants, in caves or châteaux, he had amassed an enviable rich experience of places and people. “Quite the most enchanting maniac I’ve ever met,” pronounced Lawrence Durrell, and nearly everyone who’d crossed paths with him had, it seemed, come away similarly dazzled. 

I am equally dazzled - more smitten in retrospect - for alas they don’t make men like Paddy any more. But every time I dip back into his books I think I discover a little bit more of who Paddy Leigh Fermor was because I find him some where between my memory and my imagination.

#essay #paddy leigh fermor #leigh fermor #joan raynor #joan leigh fermor #greece #crete #second world war #SOE #war #british army #history #general kreipe #stanley moss #literature #author #writer #travel #explorer #wanderlust #travel writing #europe #mani #peloponnese #kardamlyi #lord byron #ill met by moonmight #film #movie #personal

[plusvanity]

For anonymous asks...

What would be your dream concert? Opening acts and headlining band? Some songs that would be a must-have on the set list? Where would you like for it to be held? Totally doesn't matter if the details are possible or not!! Wildest imagination!!

Man, I once had this amazing dream of living somewhere in Yorkshire (because London always sucked) sometime in 1991 (midsummer) and going to a Manic Street Preachers concert.

It was their 'Generation Terrorist' album debut tour and obviously, it was the most amazing thing that my (at that time heavily medicated) brains projected into the pellicle of my closed eyes.

James Dean Bradfield came on the stage with his iconic white LP, dressed in his sailor suit, shouting something intelligible in Welsh at the mass of punk and angsty pubescent audiece, then started playing 'Slash and Burn'.

Richey was there too. He had no fucking idea of how to play guitar even in my fucking dreams, but he had the energy of acting as he knew, bro. That's always something to appreciate about him.

The most orgasmic part of the concert was when they played 'Motorcycle Emptiness' and I shouted the lyrics louder and more passionate than I sing my country's hymn. Beautiful night in my brains. What else can I add, man?

At the end of the show, I had them sign on my 'Suicide is Painless' t-shirt.

#ask response

[ailendolin]

I thought I'd end the year with a list of good things that happened in 2023 because it's always important to remember the positive times:

January:

started sewing because of Ghosts and made my first cosplay

April:

searched for Easter eggs in the garden with my brother and his fiancé because you're never too old for an egg hunt

May:

met @iris-in-the-rain at West Horsley Place and had the most wonderful time exploring the House and taking silly pictures

visited Stonehenge, HMS Victory and the Mary Rose

met Amanda Tapping, one of my childhood heroes, at FedCon

July:

turned 35 and had my family come around for a visit

August:

Saw my first Shakespeare play at the Globe and it was fantastic!

met @plague-ghost-lover and had a wonderful time at Highclere Castle and in Avebury

saw the LotR Musical live on stage for the first time since 2008 and immediately teared up when hearing the Springle Ring again after all this time

September:

went on vacation in Austria for 35th time and saw my brother's proposal to his then-girlfriend and now fiancé

(sort of) got a promotion at work

October:

made my second cosplay and wore it to MCM - first time cosplaying at a con!

met Mat, Larry, Jim and Martha for the very first time, saw them twice on stage in one day

got my Button House Archives book signed by them and got a compliment on my cosplay from Martha

saw Jurassic Park in Concert at the Royal Albert Hall - my first time ever seeing it on the big screen!

November:

joined my local line dance group after not dancing for three years because Ghosts series 5 reminded me how much I loved it before the pandemic

December:

planned another trip to England to see Mat in A Midsummer Night's Dream

celebrated Christmas and New Year's with my family

All in all, 2023 was a fantastic year full of adventures, and I can't wait to see what new adventures 2024 will bring.

Guten Rutsch, as we say in Germany! See you next year!

#personal

[lonesomedotmp3]

4, 7, 14, 19 🫶🫶🫶

hi beth :) tyyy

4 - movie of the year

if I knew I would get this so much I wouldn't have listed so many movies the first time omg... instead I'm going to talk more about one that is simply speaking to me rn get over it.... literally love won <3 and kirsten dunst is there and she's so silly and charming and she accidentally shoots her crush with a crossbow and she writes little songs... and at the end the whole cast dances.to september by earth wind and fire while wearing cute outfits... the whole film builds up this musical version of midsummer night's dream with this insane ridiculous hardcore director and then at the end it's just another terrible high school production. and it's SO cute and ridiculous and asks questions like what if troy and lysander were boy band members <3 he was in love and he knew it was going to last forever.... boy was he a dumbass!!! it's literally high school musical but not good 😁🫶

7 - favourite actor of the year

HAVANA ROSE LIU.... so glad to see her get attention in bottoms so thrilled to discover she's interested in women I love her... and of course kirsten dunst I simply haven't shut up about kirsten dunst the number of times I've seen her in movies this year is honestly embarrassing. not my fault she's the queen of fun ridiculous movies!!! she's just so crazy charming and bright and all her roles are incredible...

14 - favourite book you read this year

godddd maybe deliverance that's so embarrassing. it's just so rich and multi-layered and the prose is really beautiful 😿 I was compelled... but young mungo was also really really good !

19 - what are you excited about for next year

LEAVING MY STUDENT HOUSE GOD BLESS 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 need those people to die fr. with everything else I honestly don't know. being closer with some of my uni friends hopefully. finishing this year of uni and maybe slightly switching degrees (emphasis on maybe). going to concerts. finishing ouat lol. spring? is that stupid? I'm looking forward to spring.

#🫶 #ask tag #livvyofthelake

[redheadgleek]

2023 in review

Milestones: 10 years since I completed fellowship and became an attending; 10 years since I moved to Oregon.

Places visited: Hawaii in February with my parents and sister; Yellowstone and Grand Tetons in July with my whole family, with a few days down in Utah; Iceland in September with J; Arizona a couple of times to see my niblings; Seattle for a few weekends.

Games played: Settlers of Catan, Dutch Blitz, Cover Your Assets, Codenames, Exploding Kittens, Zombie Kittens, Happy Salmon, Trails, and Dragonwood. Abandon All Artichokes was also very shortly abandoned and Tacocat was not as entertaining as hoped.

Puzzles completed: 2 (one Karin mostly did, and I just threw down a few pieces).

Movies watched: Wakanda Forever; Return of the King (in the theater in April); Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (terrible movie); Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (excellent movie); Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (stop making want to give up chicken!); Red, White, and Royal Blue.

TV shows watched: Battlestar Galactica (all but the last season because I don’t want it to end), Shadow and Bone season 2 (I am so mad that it was canceled), Doctor Who specials, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Great British Bake-Off, Heartstopper season 2 (and let’s be real, lots of season 1 again as well), Lockwood & Co (I think I still have the last episode to watch), Tom Jones (PBS), Good Omens season 2, Schmicago (so so good).

TV shows watched with @lucy8675309: The Mandalorian; Ted Lasso season 3; Star Trek: Picard; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Loki season 2; Fringe (we’re on season 4 and I love it so much). We started to watch the second season of Our Flag Means Death, but it was taking us away from Fringe, so it’s on the back burner.

Books read: 128 (!!!). Here’s a link to my storygraph account. I’ll do a separate sum up.

Audiobooks listened to: 13.5. My hope had been to do one per month, and Jonathan Strange took at least 3 months to finish, so I’m surprised I made it, but I did have a long road trip to Yellowstone, where I listened to 3 different books on the way there and back. (Carry On is the 0.5 – I listened to 2/3rd of it on the plane ride down and wanted to finish it by Christmas so switched over to the ebook).

Musicals/Plays watched: Moulin Rouge: the Musical (the movie is so much better); Ain’t Too Proud; My Fair Lady; Choir Boy; Hairspray; A Midsummer’s Night Dream; Six; Tina: The Tina Turner Musical; Les Miserables; Waitress (in the movie theater).

Concerts attended: Theo Katzman in April; Vienna Teng at The Triple Door in Seattle in August.

Music listened to: The Riversitter by Vienna Teng, Prayer for the Broken by Naya Rivera, multiple hours of classical music while visiting my parents.

Medical conferences attended: 2, one virtually, one in Phoenix, in August in 115 heat.

Medical conferences where I gave a presentation: 1 on a specific consideration on organ donation (the reason why I was in Phoenix in August).

Number of lectures given: 5 including to the NW Internal Medicine Society.

Nights spent in the hospital because my driveway too icy/snowy to get home: only 3!

Knitted projects: Wisteria scarf (a Christmas present that I finished in January); Anne, Diana, and Gilbert dolls were finished in the spring (only took me 2 years); Orchid and Gold Poppins scarf, Grandpa sweater (my first real sweater!), 3 scarves for Christmas (which are in various stages of finished and need to be mailed).

Number of skeins of yarn bought: … Just enough for a few more dolls and a sweater or two, and some Icelandic yarn and some yarn for my mom…

Notable fails: the annular solar eclipse (too cloudy), parenting succulent plants (3 needed the Plant Hospital, 1 is still in the Plant ICU), summer flirtations.

House repairs: every board on my 32×24 foot deck was replaced. I still have the two lower decks and the back stairs to tackle.

Visits to the beach: only once in June. Must be rectified in the new year.

#2023 #end of the year

[defdaily]

The proud trinity of GOT7’s leader JAY B, composer Def., and human Lim Jaebeom.

(Interview translated by defdaily.)

We were actually just getting curious about you these days. How have you been?

I recently finished our group activities and have a solo fan concert coming up. I haven’t been able to pay much attention to my personal things from being busy with GOT7, so I’ve also been taking care of that.

Can I ask what personal projects you’ve been working on?

Releasing a single in July. The details are a secret. (Laughs)

I’m excited for it. How was it doing GOT7 activities after a while?

How should I explain… I said this on Instagram too, but it sort of felt like a dream. When I opened my eyes the day after the concert, it felt like a midsummer night’s dream? Made me think “Ah, I must have missed this stuff.”

You’ve fulfilled the long-cherished desire of making a full group comeback in 1 year and 3 months after leaving JYPE. It’s an ‘industry established theory’ that the leader JAY B played a huge role in gathering all the members from separate paths together. (Laughs)

Everyone is busy so I figured one person had to take the lead in arranging things. The members are very cooperative so I just got the ball rolling. I feel like we got to keep our promise with the fans so that’s what I’m most proud of. Truthfully, I felt worried inside too that it might just fizzle out.

Gathering again is amazing too but the results were great as well. The title track you made, ‘NANANA,’ received great results on iTunes charts globally too.

We were also very surprised about the results. I recently received the physical album and I thought, “I should treasure this forever". It might sound harsh but if the results weren’t good, it would’ve been a lot harder for us to plan for another one.

It was nice because the album contained GOT7’s unique bright and chill vibe. I felt a sense of relaxation too with no need for you guys to be spiffed up.

We’re already quite spiffed up in our individual activities. (Laughs) [We] just wanted to enjoy it this time. GOT7-like, chill, and fun. Like a short festival.

When you moved to H1GHR MUSIC, you talked about your aspirations to take on a variety of challenges without setting boundaries in genres from R&B, dance, pop, etc. Are things going as planned?

It’s ongoing. Though I’m keeping my roots mostly in hip-hop and R&B, I’m not the type to cling onto certain genres. Whether it’s a pop album or a blues album, I’m trying to make music I want to in the moment, and it might not always be in an album format.

You use the pen name Def. as a composer/producer. How did you come up with the name?

So I used to be a b-boy when I was young. My alias back then was ‘Defsoul’ and when I searched it up, I saw a lot of nicknames that had ‘soul’ in it. (Park) Jinyoung hyung is ‘Asiansoul,’ (Kim) Jihyeon hyung is also ‘GSoul.’ So I took out the ‘soul’ and added a period and I loved the meaning of it. The word def in English can mean ‘great,’ ‘fantastic.’ So, it could mean ‘ending while it’s good.’

You presented 5 mixtapes under the name, Def., and even released an EP earlier this year. You also spoke several times about not being able to make music as you used to in the past, maybe it being because you’ve been pouring out so much music.

I’ve been seriously contemplating that issue these days. I think it might be about time I step back from being a player. But more than that, I feel like it might be time to play the role as someone who supports others as a producer. My need for my own songs to absolutely be made by me is not as strong as it was in the past. I’m already doing enough of my personal projects as Def.

Ending things while it’s good.

Exactly. (Laughs)

Is writing lyrics harder than producing/writing music these days?

Yes. It would be easier if I wrote in a basic way but I think it’s because I think about using special expressions and words. But if I focus too much on that, it doesn’t go well with the song; it’s sort of a dilemma.

You often used words like ‘fiction,’ and ‘story’ in interviews. We also got a peek at your love for poetry, novels, and literature.

That’s right. I like to read. I find that reading often works together with working on music. These days, I often think about how making an album is like writing a poetry book.

What was the book you were reading while getting your makeup done earlier?

Oh, this? (Shows C’est Tout [“That is all” in English] by Marguerite Duras) It was a book gifted by a fan. I’m not sure whether it’s poetry or prose. It’s not easy to understand at once so I’m going to read it again next time.

You seem to be interested in a variety of things. You like writing, you learned art/drawing/painting for a while too. As for photography, you even opened an exhibition past the point of it being just a hobby.

No, photography is just a hobby too. (Laughs)

Will you be opening another exhibition?

I’ve actually been wanting to these days, so I’ve been thinking about what the theme should be.

I loved the lonely atmosphere of your first exhibition, .

I think I will be continuing with the gloomy feeling this time too. I gathered the pictures I took and I realized many of them have that mood. Things like discarded trash, or a person alone far away.

You’re on the action-oriented side, right?

I didn’t think so before but I think I sort of am. So it’s tiring for the people around me. (Laughs) I don’t make big plans but I think I’ve well accomplished the goals I make at each moment throughout my life.

You said you started dancing to forget about loneliness. What was Lim Jaebeom (real name) like as a kid?

A character that you can’t tell if he’s there or not? Not that I was a bad kid but I think I did have a rebellious side. I always had earphones on.

In terms of seating in the classroom, where would you be?

At the very back?

What? That’s totally a popular kids’ seat. (Laughs)

At the very back but in front of the cleaning supplies… (Laughs)

You’re 30 years old this year. How has your personality changed after all this time, and what is one inherent trait that won’t change?

I’ve become softer. I’m more prudent when it comes to work. Oh, and the part of my innate personality that I’m most satisfied with is that if I’m wrong, then I will admit I’m wrong. Even though I may not feel good about it in the moment, I would try to work hard to change it. 

Is it like that in regards to the feedback about your work as well?

Of course. When someone says, “This is kind of bad?” I’ll ask where specifically but it has to be reasonable. For example, this bar doesn’t match the song’s vibes, or the top notes should have more variety. If I’m given understandable feedback like this, then I 100% can accept them.

Wouldn’t it be because you are confident that you can accept that much criticism?

It’s not like that. I’m not very confident, and I have low self-esteem. But, I don’t pay any mind to others. I also don’t tend to be envious of others who do well, but of course, I am envious of people who work hard and become successful. I’m curious about how they got to where they are and their mindset, but I’m not jealous of success itself. 

What is JAY B’s biggest motivation to go on right now?

I think it’s willpower/volition. My own willpower. Like the way I make sure to do the dishes even though I want to sleep right after eating, I try not to put off tasks and take care of them immediately because I very well know that if I don’t, then I become endlessly lazy. So I think small senses of accomplishment pile up from things like that and act as the grease for my gears.

Once this interview ends, what does JAY B have to do with his own will? 

I have plans with a friend so I’ll meet up with them for a while, and then I’ll go home and organise my camping equipment.

You’re doing this photoshoot until late at night yet you still have so much you plan to do. (Laughs) Aren’t you too diligent?

I try because I’m lazy. I say this and then I always sleep in. (Laughs)

Translated by defdaily.

[yuzukahibiscus]

Performing in the Musical “The Fantasticks” – Aizuki Hikaru interview

(Source taken from: Enbu)

Surpassing gender and age, pursuing a captivating expression to captivates people

Since the first premiere in Off Broadway in 1960, there have been continuous performances in these 42 years of time till 2002, “The Fantasticks” is the longest-running musical in America.

Known for his musical “Cyrano de Bergerac”, French playwright Edmond Rostand wrote this story interweaving the essence of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” based on the verse play of “Les Romanesques”. This is a timeless masterpiece conveying a message that emerges from love and life that everyone experiences.

This musical would be directed by the next-generational, skillful director Ueda Ikko, who would newly repackage this Toho musical, and would be performing from October 23 to November 14 at Theatre Creation.

Amongst all the performance characters and previously active as the former Takarazuka Revue Star Troupe Otokoyaku Star, Aizuki Hikaru will be performing as the role “El Gallo”, a wanderer who both toys with and leads the Time.

This was the first musical for Aizuki Hikaru after her graduation. Now, how does she feel about this new production? How will she approach this? We will introduce more of our conversation including her memories in her Takarazuka times in the interview of “Enbu October issue”

Because it is played by a female, the charm of the role El Gallo enhances in fantasy

— How did you spend you everyday after graduating from Takarazuka? Have you taken it slow for a bit.

Yes. I did slow down for a bit, I think.

— Among those, could you tell us your decision on performing in this musical “Fantasticks”?

When hearing about the role El Gallo, I was told that this is a role that has always been played by males, this time when it will be performed by a female, the story would expand to increase the components of fantasy. This made sense to me, wouldn’t I be able to make use of what I’ve done in the stage of Takarauka before? That’s what I thought and therefore decided to perform in this.

— Because many have been expecting this musical, since the premiere opened in 1960, there’s a long line of the tremendous record of shows for 42 years since 2002, how was your impression for this production?

Just because of this reason, there must be so many people supporting (the musical), I thought there were various things to learn in approaching this musical. Now, I’m in the stage of thinking about the focus of the role El Gallo (note: This interview was in late July). This is a role with mysterious charms, you could say (El Gallo) confuses and charms the heroine a little, there’s a scene where (El Gallo) seduces her. Acting a role like that, I didn’t think about whether (El Gallo)’s a man, a woman, how old they are. I was thinking about pursuing a performance that charms people, surpassing gender and age, and I will continue to prepare for this little by little.

— While being excited for this approach of yours in enhancing the stage performance, there are really vibrant cast combinations in company, how does it feel being in this new group?

I was very nervous. Even if this is obvious, it’s because I don’t have experience being in the rehearsals for external performances, the first moment when I entered the rehearsal room, I thought I was extremely anxious.

— After your graduation, you performed as a guest in Tamaki Ryou’s concert. Thinking that was your first performance, how did you feel in the rehearsal room at that time?

Because at that time I was a guest, so I only had just one day of rehearsal with Tama-chan (Tamaki), it feels that it ended very briefly (LOL). For me, I didn’t have a clear idea of how the rehearsals in external performances were like. In September, I would be in the concert by the Takarazuka OG seniors. Being in those rehearsals, I thought there would still be new discoveries but I’m now not at that stage (of being in rehearsals of external performances yet).

— So this really feels like a beginning for you then.

It does. What would I be thinking about? I myself am also very excited.

— The production will be performed in the Theatre Creation, which is opposite to the Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre. Takarazuka fans already know this, but what is your impression of Theatre Creation?

Since it’s obviously my first time standing on this stage, but as someone who’s always comes to watch this theatre, it’s a theatre of very comfortable size that there’s an impression you could convey your everything there. This time I’ll be standing on the stage of this theatre, how would it feel when I’m now acting instead? I am again very thrilled about it.

There is acing in the root of all expressions

— Even though you just said it, this is your first time participating in the musical. How do you feel about playing a new role?

It’s simply excitement. I’ve performed in an audio drama a few days ago, the story is quite very deep and apart from feeling it was fun, that was again another challenge.

— Now, “the story is quite very deep and you feel fun”, was there a time when you realized this fun in acting, or was there a time where that consciousness changed for you?

When I accepted this role, rather than having a clear direction, because I’ve already had experience in Takarazuka for the many elements of singing, dancing and also acting. It’s really a lot of it, so I thought this wouldn’t be possible if not having the core of acting. No matter how wonderful your voice is in singing, without feeling (the core of acting), it would simply end at “that’s a beautiful voice”, and so is the same for dancing. For the show also, when I try to express what the scene is trying to depict, in the end all of this is connected to acting, “it can only be like this” I thought, and from then, I gradually felt that acting can go deep and can be fun.

— I would also like to ask about Takarazuka Revue when you found this fun in acting, now what’s the first memories you remember when hearing “Takarazuka”?

It has to be the rehearsal rooms. It’s the place where I spent the longest time in, so it’s nostalgic. If I can go to a place I want once again, surprisingly rather than the stage it’s actually the rehearsal room.

— You’ve put in your heart and effort into this musical. Just knowing about El Gallo role this time, you mentioned about wanting to surpass gender and age, the roles played Aizuki-san in Takarazuka did surpass ages, because there’s many dynamic roles you’ve done. From each of these roles, did you think that you were playing a human rather than playing as a role?

I think it’s because there are really many roles that I can't detach from their various characteristics (and I can't just play them as a human). Especially in my latter Takarazuka life (possibly implying Star Troupe times), I have a lot of these roles.

— So thinking about you role of El Gallo this time, apart from this role being fun, are there any more difficulties?

 I think it’s fun to create the role myself. When the style is not fixed, that is up to the performer to have fun, and because I’ve had quite some experience in such roles, I hope to relive what I’ve accumulated into this role.

Because the Takarazuka “Otokoyaku” is not realistic, that’s why its presence is so unique

— How does it feel to continue pursuing the charm of “Otokoyaku”?

You could achieve this optimum coolness that real men can never have. What I mean is, there’s no such man in this world right? (LOL)

— Ah, that’s for sure! (LOL).

Even for me, after graduating, there’s not even once that I can meet someone cooler than the Takarazuka Otokoyaku (LOL). That’s why it’s really not realistic. Even though usually there won’t be such men in real life, when females do otokoyaku, everyone’s pursuing for the male image in our ideal. That’s why it’s so unique, and what you act certainly gives you some reward, “Everyone, there’s no such men like that in real life!”, you may have said something like that (LOL). Because there’s no such thing in real life, that’s what makes the Takarazuka Otokoyaku good.

— As you said even though this is definitely a charm in an unrealistic space, what’s your ideal in pursuing the male image?

An intelligent and a man with inclusivity. Because I really like those kind of roles, I also pursue to be an otokoyaku that has inclusivity.

— Amongst that, I’m sorry if this question is going to be difficult, but do you have any roles in mind that you love especially a lot?

Even though I’ve received such question before, it’s really difficult to choose.

— I see! I’m sorry!

Even though I have various roles that I have fond memories of, the one that purely comes to mind is possibly “WEST SIDE STORY”, which I quite love (my role) Bernard.

— Ah, I can feel that charmful otokoyaku image in (that role)!

I love playing (Bernard), because I thought he was a charming man, in that sense I have some memories of it.

Pursuing what’s to be seen in “FANTASTICKS”

— Now, you’ve mentioned you’re not in the next stage rehearsal yet, how are you spending your free time?

I’m very thankful to be involved in interviews like these, if my schedule is free then I will go to training or I’d fill up my schedule to have numerous dates with friends. On the other hand, whenever there’s a free day, I’d always be at home doing house affairs. I’m basically an indoor person, I love to spend the time slowly.

— As you mentioned in those days, when it’s time to start rehearsals for the new produciton, even though there’s no detailed schedule of anything yet, do you have any dreams of wanting to do something?

I really am excited and love participating in magazine work or modeeling work. Because I really love fashion, doing these kind of works would make me feeling various emotions of wanting to try these out. Also, because fans are such a very special and important presence to me, because everyone’s here that I’d work hard. Even after my graduating, fans never stopped supporting me, tihinking back this feeling is so strong, I’ve always thought of creating opportunities to meet with everyone. But from here I’ve been in various kinds of stage performance, I can’t say that I’m in that state of continuing to do more. In this sense, I’ll do my best in the musical stage of “FANTASTICKS”. Standing on this stage, I’d feel various kinds of emotions, what would I be seeing? What do I want to do more? I’m also anticipating for that and wanting to know more.

■PROFILE■

あいづきひかる〇Born in Chiba-prefecture. Entering the Revue in 2007 as a 93rd, assigned to Cosmos Troupe.  From handsome and cool roles to the villains, she’s achieved popularity as a unique otokoyaku star. After being in Senka, she transferred to Star Troupe and was active as a core member, later graduating from “Yagyuu Scrolls”/“More Dandyism!”.  Starting performing as a guest in 2022 “Tamaki Ryou’s 1st Concert 「CUORE」, she would later perform in Theatre Drama City’s 30th anniversary concrt “Dramatic City Yume (夢；Dream)”. This musical will be her first musical after her graduation.

#aizuki hikaru #takarazuka #cosmos troupe #star troupe #愛月ひかる #fantasticks #hibiscustranslation

[halfmoonbayroleplay]

April showers have brought May flowers! 

 May is an exciting time in Half Moon Bay. The hiking trails of quarry parks are lush and green, the wine menu at Napa Vineyards features new spring flavors, the bluffs at Montara state beach are covered in florals, and the farms in San Mateo County are open for visitors. Whether you’re looking for berries, apples, or freshly picked flowers, there is something for any interest among the farmlands. Spring is in full bloom, and so is Half Moon Bay! All year long, there is plenty to be enjoyed but spring signals the time for the bloom of Half Moon Bays greatest contribution, agriculture!

May Calendar found under the read more!

All month enjoy fresh batches of spring florals at Alena Jean’s florist and nursery.

All month take part in the indie bookstore hop! From San Francisco to Half Moon Bay, you will find a list of indie bookstores participating in the “book hop” Visit each one (stamps provided at each location). You’ll receive 20% off at Coastal Books and a VIP invite to the first annual Half Moon Bay bookish ball to be held in the Fall!

All month come out to the annual state fair that runs from May-August attendees can enjoy fair rides, including wooden rollercoasters and a Ferris wheel, carnival shows such as trapeze and magic acts, a fortune teller, and all the fair food you could want. Featuring, for the first time this year, professional mermaid performances!

Every weekend all May - Summer's end - You pick berries and flowers at Blue House farm.

Every weekend enjoys a trip to the Bay Farmers Market, where produce, homemade treats, and local art is found all around.

May 1st, Mayday! Enjoy vibrant spring festivities all over downtown, including a parade featuring the Miss Spring Siren pageant contestants. End the day with a Spring-themed bar hop starting at Cameron’s pub, where there will be a beautiful Maypole, and ending at The Tipsy Whale, where the girls dance on the bar!

May 5th, come out to Napa Vineyards for wine-tasting and wine-making demonstrations.

May 6th, enjoy the sounds of the Coastside community orchestra with the Spring concert and Gale celebrating their 40th Anniversary with favorites by Offenbach, Mozart, Schubert, Copland, and more.

May 13th - 14th  Join us for Half Moon Bay’s wine and Jazz festival located at 500 main street downtown!

May 14th, pamper the moms in your life or yourself at Little dipper day spa with spring specials on facials, massages, and mineral pools!

May 19th - 21st Join Shooting Star Ranch opens for camping season by hosting a luxurious camping retreat kicking off with their annual Spring ball, where guests are wined, dined, and pampered before being taken out into the middle of the ranch for a night under the star camping followed by a sunrise trail ride to kick off the camping season.

May 26th It’s the Opening night at The Crescent Theatre for a MidSummers Dream going from May 26th until closing night on Saturday, June 24th.

May 27th - 28th, travel forty-five minutes to San Francisco for their annual Carnaval! Carnaval San Francisco has been held every year since 1978. The carnival that turns the streets of Mission District into one big stage promises its visitors an experience of Latin America's unique culture and tradition.

OOC INFORMATION

This event is optional to participate but highly encouraged that everyone takes part if they can.

The event will take place from May 1st at 12 a.m. est - May 31st (no new starters should be posted after May 31st. But feel free to tie up your threads naturally.

Interactions, we ask that no non-event related open starters be posted during this time. However, closed starters do not have to pertain to the event.

Regardless of the dates each event takes place, feel welcome to start threads for them before or after their corresponding dates. Any open starters made during this time should be related to the above event.

This event is a perfect time to get full use out of the IC discord channels to show what your muse is up to and interact in new ways!

Please tag all open starters and event-related inspo posts, such as outfits, as hmbevent or hmbspringevent.

*if you'd like your muse to participate in the play, please message Admin L on discord*

#hmbevent2 #hmbmayflowers

[legend-of-zelda-voices]

Compilation Post

Mari Maruta

First Role in LoZ: Jim & the Bombers Secret Society of Justice (MM), Cremia (MM)

Other LoZ Roles: (None)

Alternate LU Voice for: Malon*

Some characters with the same voice:

Wife (Marvelous Melmo), Setsuka Soga (Cheeky Angel), Nemurin (Kiki to Lala), Dappu (Gekisou Sentai Carranger), Alpha 6 (Power Rangers), Kouji Hoshiyama (Matchless Raijin-Oh), Bei (Tama and Friends), Maheria Meril and Sicily (Mobile Suit Victory Gundam), Mamoru Akagi (Detective Conan), Dovlin and U Tahime (Sailor Moon S), Jarajarako and Otedamako (Sailor Moon SuperS)

...

In the game:

Majora's Mask

*Malon isn't technically Cremia, but...they look the same, so... alternative voice for LU Malon

Original Post

_______________________

Speaking

Wife from Marvelous Melmo

She first appears at 0:08 and then throughout the rest of the video.

Original Post

---

Setsuka Soga from Cheeky Angel

She speaks throughout most of this, but a few times are 0:00, 0:20, 0:52, 1:33, 1:59, and 2:00.

Original Post

---

Nemurin from Kiki to Lala

Nemurin appears at 1:27

Nemurin is the animal on the broomstick with the orange hat.

Times are 1:27, 1:39, 1:46, 2:16, 2:24, 2:36, 3:11, 3:25, 3:39, 4:03, 6:41, 8:27, 10:37, 10:59, and 13:30.

Original Post

---

Voice Samples from Mari Maruta

Name Introduction at 0:00, Dialogue 1 at 0:02, Dialogue 2 at 0:16, Narration at 0:30, and English Narration at 1:00.

In the English Narration part, she says "You must remember this / A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh / The fundamental things apply / As time goes by" These are actually lyrics from a song, though she's not singing it...

Original Post

_______________________

Singing

"Otome no PORISHI" from Animelody Night Album, from Sailor Moon

Translated title: "Maiden's Policy"

Two people are singing. I think she's the one who starts singing a bit later and makes sounds at 0:37 and vocalizes at 1:13.

You can listen to the rest of the album here.

Original Post with Lyrics

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"Manatsu no Emotion" from Troubadour Album

Translated title: "Midsummer Emotion"

Original Post with Lyrics

---

"Various Songs" from ◎にじゅうまる Album

Includes samples of songs, including "個人授業", "Fly Me to the Moon" and "◎にじゅうまる"

Original Post with Lyrics

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"Yume Oibitotachi e -Daiyuusha Monogatari no Theme-" from Matchless Raijin-Oh

Translated title: "To Dream Chasers-Theme of the Great Hero Story-"

I think the character Kouji Hashiyama, a boy, is supposed to be singing this.

Original Post with Lyrics

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"Uchu no Tomodachi" from Matchless Raijin-Oh

Translated title: "Cosmic Friends"

I think the character Kouji Hashiyama, a boy, is supposed to be singing this.

Original Post with Lyrics

---

"Cat Day Concert" from YouTube channel

She talks and sings three songs throughout the video.

The songs are "Memory" (2:20), "Nijumaru" (7:50), and "David" (16:00).

Original Post with Lyrics

_______________________

#LU Malon #Cremia #Jim & the Bombers Secret Society of Justice #Mari Maruta #The Legend of Zelda #Linked Universe #Linked Universe Headcanons #Majora's Mask #Legend of Zelda Voice Actors #Legend of Zelda Voices #Linked Universe Voices #Legend of Zelda #LoZ #LU #Linked Universe Headcanon #IYCHOS&S Compilation

[kokiafans]

KOKIA in flashback - 2015

The year of 2015 sees KOKIA go on tour in Japan again for the first time in a while, to 'sow the seeds of her music' across the country. She has a lot of radio appearances to promote the tour, which runs from March to April.

She also has a big spring venue performance to promote her new album: I Found You. She does mention how her plans for next year mean there won't be a big spring performance in 2016, so this will be the last one for the forseeable future.

And then, at the KOKIA salon event for fan club members, KOKIA reveals she's pregnant! She's expecting her baby in January 2016, meaning that her final performance of the year in Kawaguchiko in October is starting to cut it close, especially since it's half-open air. Yet despite the cold, she really enjoys this concert, feeling very connected to nature, especially with Mount Fuji showing up in the backdrop.

◆ Lives and events ◆

January 9-January 10 New year concert 2015 ~musical greetings vol.4~ (Tokyo, Suntory Hall Blue Rose) ※ 2 performances on January 10, 3 performances in total (Promotion: New Year 2015)

February 14-February 15 KOKIA Valentine project ~All we need is love~ (Tokyo, Haremame (Haretara sora ni mame maite) (Promotion: Valentine 2015)

【KOKIA 2015 spring seed sowing live oto no naru ki ('a music tree')】 March 22 - Kobe Nunobiki herb garden, forest hall ※ 2 performances in 1 day March 28 - Fukuoka, Gate's7 ※ 2 performances in 1 day April 4 - Aichi, THE BOTTOM LINE April 10 - Sapporo, KRAPS HALL April 12 - Kanagawa, Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse No. 1 (Promotion: spring tour 2015)

April 18 KIRIN BEER “Good Luck” Live (TOKYO FM) ※ Live performance broadcasted by TOKYO FM, for raffle winners (Translated blog entry)

April 21 4th Ruikon (ruikatsu×konkatsu) (Kanagawa, Granciar Hayama An) ※ A collaborative event between a crying session for stress relief and looking for a marriage partner with the concept: ‘Making it easy to bond with the same people who are here to cry.’ (Promotion: Ruikatsu)

April 29 Sendai, Ohkuni shrine 40th anniversary memorial ceremony, event for reconstructions after disaster (Sendai Ohkuni shrine) (Promotion: Sendai 2015)

June 21-June 22 KOKIA Concert 2015 Oishii oto o tabeta nara ('If you ate delicious sounds') (Tokyo International Forum Hall C) (Promotion: spring 2015)

July 4 KOKIA Concert in St. Margaret's School, Music like a prayer (Tokyo, St. Margaret's School, St. Mary Chapel) (Translated blog entry)

July 31 KOKIA 2015 Natsu no yoru no yume ('Midsummer Night's dream') (Billboard Live TOKYO) ※ 2 performances in 1 day

August 5 KOKIA 2015 Natsu no yoru no yume ('Midsummer Night's Dream') (Billboard Live OSAKA) ※ 2 performances in 1 day (Promotion: billboard 2015)

August 7 Kyo no tanabata, yuususumi concert in Yasaka Shrine ('Kyoto's Tanabata festival, concert in the evening cool') (Kyoto, Yasaka Shrine (Promotion: Kyo no tanabata 2015)

August 16 KOKIA Utatte miyou kikaku vol.2 ~Natsu no uta, natsukashii to kanjiru no wa naze darou~ ('‘A plan to try singing vol.2′ ~songs of summer・I wonder why it feels nostalgic~') (Tokyo, Haremame) ※ 2 performances in 1 day (Promotion: haremame 2015)

August 29-August 30 KOKIA Salon (Harajuku Quest Hall) ※ Event limited to members of the KOKIA fan club, club ancoro, 3 performances in total (Promotion: KOKIA salon 2015)

October 10 KOKIA 2015 Concert Mori to utau sora to tsunagaru (’singing with the forest, connected with the sky’) (Yamanashi, Kawaguchiko Stellar Theater) (Promotion: Kawaguchiko 2015)

◆ Releases ◆

March 18 Release of original album I Found You (Victor Entertainment) ※ Limited first edition includes Spirits, the theme song for Arcadia no aoki miko (‘Blue maidens of Arcadia’) (I Found You)

March 18 Release of concert DVD KOKIA 2014 Falling in Love with the Orchestra (anco&co.) (Promotion: orchestra 2014)

October 1 Release of concert DVD Oishii oto o tabeta nara ('If you ate delicious sounds') (anco&co.) (Promotion: spring 2015)

◆ Other releases ◆

April 22 Release of smart phone app game Arcadia no aoki miko (‘Blue maidens of Arcadia’) ※ Wrote, composed and performed the theme song Spirits (Arcadia no aoki miko)

July 8 Release of compilation album Ruikatsu konpi ~sekai o koeru naki kashuu~ ('Ruikatsu compilation ~anthology of lamenting across the world~') (Victor Entertainment) ※ Includes the song Arigatou... (the pearl edition) ('Thank you...') (Promotion: Ruikatsu)

◆ Others ◆

March 19-March 29 Special broadcast on the Yunika Vision screen in front of Seibu Shinjuku station ※ From the DVD Falling in love with the Orchestra (Translated blog entry)

June 16 Performance in the debut trailer announced at E3 2015 of the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows game Dark SOULS III

◆ Videos with links to watch ◆

2015 smart phone game Arcadia no aoki miko (‘Blue maidens of Arcadia’), theme song Spirits: Arcadia no aoki miko trailer

2016 Dark Souls III: Dark Souls III debut trailer 【E3 2015】

#KOKIA #25 years of kokia in flashback

[opera-ghosts]

OTD in Music History: Composer, conductor, and piano / organ virtuoso Felix Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847) is born in Germany. Nothing short of a living legend in his own time, Mendelssohn still remains one of the most popular and frequently performed composers of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's considerable compositional output encompass symphonies, concertos, piano music, organ music, art songs, and chamber music. His best-known individual works include the "String Octet" (1825 -- written when he was just 16!) the "Overture To A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1826 -- written when he was just 17!), the "Italian" (1834) and "Scottish" (1842) Symphonies, the "St. Paul" (1836) and "Elijah" (1846) Oratorios, and his 1st Piano Trio (1839) and Violin Concerto (1844). Mendelssohn's collections of "Songs Without Words" are probably his most famous solo piano compositions; he also penned the melody for the ever-popular Christmas carol, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!" Mendelssohn was also hailed for helping to spark revived interest among the concert-going public in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750), through his landmark 1829 performance of (a highly-edited and thoroughly rescored version of) the St Matthew Passion. One of the greatest and most influential conductors of the early 19th Century, Mendelssohn’s ten visits to Britain – during which he oversaw the premiere of many of his most important works – exerted a profound and lasting impact on the musical culture of that country. PICTURED: An 1844 autograph letter written and signed by Mendelssohn -- in surprisingly good English! -- to a female admirer, regarding various musical and social matters. Most notably, Mendelssohn describes celebrated Italian bass Luciani Mariani (1801 - 1859) as "his favorite singer.” Mariani created a number of important opera roles, including Oroe in Giacomo Rossini's (1792 – 1868) "Semiramide" (1823), Rodolfo in Vincenzo Bellini's (1801 – 1835) "La sonnambula" (1831), and Alfonso d'Este in Gaetano Donizetti's (1797 – 1848) "Lucrezia Borgia" (1833).

#Composer #conductor #piano #organ #virtuoso #Felix Mendelssohn #Mendelssohn #Felix Mendelssohn - Bartholdy #opera #classical music #bel canto #music history #Romantic period #A Midsummer Night's Dream #Overture

[scribbles-on-the-cave-wall]

I did a theoretical costume design for midsummer nights dream and these are my favorites!! first three were just concerts for fey fashion, fourth was for mustardseed and last for moth. I'll be making the wings and shirt for moth for a class!

#these were all heavily inspired by acofaf #acofaf #midsummer night's dream #costume design #art #my art #watercolor #junos fucking art ! #ezri's art!!!

[sciencestyled]

Rat Revelries and Brainy Banters: A Tale of Tickles and Neurons

Hey there, Tumblr folks! Gather 'round because we're about to blow your minds – not with magic, but with science (and a touch of Shakespearean flair)! Ever wondered what goes on in the playful brains of rats? No? Well, you should, and we're here to tell you why it's the coolest thing since sliced bread.

Imagine if Shakespeare's Puck, that mischievous sprite from "A Midsummer Night's Dream," decided to swap his fairy wings for a lab coat and narrate the inner workings of a rat's brain. Sounds bonkers, right? But stick with us, it's going to be a hoot!

In our latest read, we're diving (oops, not that word) into the brains of these whiskered creatures to uncover the secrets of their playfulness. Picture this: rats, those furry little gymnasts, running around labs, their whiskers twitching, and tails spinning like mini tornadoes. But what really makes them tick? Or rather, what makes them chuckle, since rats do laugh (mind-blowing, we know)!

Our journey takes us to a nook of the brain called the periaqueductal gray (PAG). Nope, it's not a fairy realm, but it's equally fascinating. Here, in the depths of the rat noggin, scientists have unlocked how these critters experience joy. Spoiler alert: it involves tickles!

As Puck would say, "What fools these mortals be," not to marvel at how rats respond to tickling with genuine guffaws. We're talking neuroscience, electrodes, and a whole lot of rat giggles. It's like uncovering a hidden world of joy, tucked away in the brain's folds.

So, why should you care about ticklish rats and their brainy giggles? Because, dear friends, it tells us heaps about joy – not just in rats, but in all creatures who laugh and play (yes, that includes us humans too). It's a peek into the universal language of happiness, all narrated by a Shakespearean sprite for an extra dash of whimsy.

Join us as we skip (not embark) on this exploration of neuroscience, where every neuron's a player on the stage of the brain, dancing (oh wait, can't use that word)... frolicking in a concert of joy and playfulness. It's a narrative so wild and whimsical, you'll forget you're actually learning science.

In this tale of rats and their joyful brains, we're not just observers; we're participants in a narrative that spans from the tiny neurons of rats to the vast complexity of human emotion. It's a testament to the power of play, the joy of discovery, and the sheer awesomeness of nature.

So, are you ready to meet these tickled rats and their brainy quirks, as narrated by our very own Shakespearean guide? Trust us, it's a story worth the read, where science meets play, neurons dance (ah, can't say that either), and we all get a little wiser – and maybe even a bit more playful.

And remember, in the words of Puck, "Lord, what fools these mortals be!" – especially if they miss out on this rollicking, neuron-filled narrative! 🐭🧠🎭

#rats #brain #science education #science #neurobiology