6th August 2006

Following on from the emotions subject & video of "The Stars are Shining"

Hi folks,

Thanks to all who commented on my last blog. I think that one has beat the record for most comments so far on any of my blogs.

First of all, for some strange reason (or probably coz folk asked me about our new table) I thought I'd share a picture of it What a weird fellow I am LOL). I woke this morning to clanging downstairs. Christine was so anxious to see it up she had more or less constructed the thing before I got out of bed.
Returning to emotions. Some folk asked to hear more about "Stars are shining" and "Tosca". Any old romantics out there will probably like and appreciate this, if not the music, maybe the words and meaning. You will see an embeded video of this performed by Luciano Pavarotti below. For those of you not familiar with Tosca and Puccini's operas, it is important to set the scene before you listen to it.

In short, the story is about the character Cavarodossi, a painter, who is in love with Tosca, an opera singer. For political reasons, he is imprisoned by the evil Baron Scarpia. Scarpia has his own desires on Tosca and blackmails her to give in to his desires, promising the release Cavarodossi the next morning by faking his execution.
In this aria, Cavarodossi sing of his love for Tosca with great anguish in the sure knowledge he will be executed in the morning. This aria (for me) describes pain, anguish, bitterness, regret, passion and many other emotions that I cannot at this time find the words for.