More Bluebeard’s Castle

In the course of researching (read: obsessing over) Bartók’s one-act opera Bluebeard’s Castle, I came across a Hungarian film adaptation of the piece on YouTube. It’s annoyingly divided into fourteen segments, but anyone familiar with the piece or interested should take a look.

Berkeley Bluebeard

I’d like to alert Bay Area readers to the upcoming performances by Berkeley Opera of my two favorite one-acts, Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges. These two composers are not particularly known for their dramatic works, but each work reveals the composer’s complete mastery of music for the stage. An evening consisting of both of these works is not to be missed.

Zoltán Kodály: “Esti Dal”

Happy new year! I just found this and had to share.

This is Kodály’s “Esti Dal” (Evening Song) performed by the King’s Singers. It is possibly my favorite piece of choral music. Here’s my own translation of the text:

As I lay down for the night by the edge of the woods,
I pull my blanket up to my chin.
I put my hands together,
Thus imploring you, my good Lord

My Lord, grant me a place to stay,
For I’ve grown tired of wandering,
Of hiding,
Of living in a foreign land

My Lord, grant me a good night
Send me your blessed angel
To give courage to the dreams in our hearts.
My Lord, grant me a good night

So, Like, What’s With the Seven Doors?

[sws_divider_line]

			BLUEBEARD
Well, we’re here.  This is my castle.

			JUDIT
This is your castle?  Kinda creepy.

			BLUEBEARD
Yeah.  You sure you want to come in here?

			JUDIT
Yeah.

			BLUEBEARD
Well, okay then.

			JUDIT
So, like, what’s with the seven doors?

			BLUEBEARD
You don't want to know.

			JUDIT
Open them up.

			BLUEBEARD
Um, I don't think so.

			JUDIT
Aw, come on.  Just one?

			BLUEBEARD
Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you.

More to come.

Watching America

OK. This is way off-topic, but I haven’t posted for a while, and this is pretty interesting.

Watching America is web site that digests articles from the world press that take a point of view, one way or the other, specifically on American issues. Articles are taken directly from the foreign-language source and translated by volunteers. So, in other words, you can be assured that this material is not sanitized and repackaged for English-speaking readers.

There’s some pretty nail-biting stuff here: An interview with an al-Qaeda leader, interviews with Iraq insurgents, and some very harsh comments from journalists in Europe.

I lived in Hungary during the first Gulf War, and I always found it fascinating how different the coverage was there from what I was getting from CNN, Voice of America and the International Herald Tribute. More recently, I’ve been casually following the Hungarian press out of the same fascination. So guess what: Watching America has accepted me as an occasional translator.

Last week, I translated a few articles from various Hungarian news sources. Surely the most controversial one so far is this one, from the portal site Index.hu. It’s not in the best taste, but it’s sure interesting.

(Don’t worry; I’m still a composer. More about that during the week.)