This is one of my favorite opera arias ever. Laurie’s entrance from Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land. Sung by Dawn Upshaw.
Once I thought I’d never grow tall as this fence. Time dragged heavy and slow. But April came and August went before I knew just what they meant, and little by little I grew. And as I grew I came to know how fast the time could go. Once I thought I’d never go outside this fence. This space was plenty for me. But I walked down the road one day and just what happened I can’t say, but little by little it came to be, that line between the earth and sky came beckoning to me. Now the time has grown short; the world has grown so wide. I’ll be graduated soon. Why am I strange inside? What makes me think I’d like to try to go down all those roads beyond that line above the earth and ‘neath the sky? Tomorrow when I sit upon the graduation platform stand, I know my hand will shake when I reach out to take that paper with the ribboned band. Now that all the learning’s done, O who knows what will now begin? O it’s so strange… I’m strange inside. The time has grown so short, the world so wide.
(Source: Spotify)
Upshaw is a composer’s dream. I love this recording with all my heart.
Perfect for this dreary monday morning/first day of summer term.
I love Dawn Upshaw and I love Samuel Barber and I love Knoxville: Summer of 1915.
(Source: Spotify, via scottauc-deactivated20130325)
Lacrymosa composed by Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky. Performed by Dawn Upshaw with the Kronos Quartet.
From the liner notes:
“In this piece, the voice is free, unpredictable, like the song of the whale, while the quartet is in constant repitition, contained, bound by the rules. What I wanted to do was…unite two different realities, to connect the unconnectable.”
