Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Driving west on Mockingbird at about 8 tonight, I noticed an enormous light in my rearview mirror. It was a big, bouncy moon. It was breathtaking and made me think of a song.


Song to the Moon from the Czech opera Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák. Rusalka is a water nymph and has fallen in love with the prince of men. She sings this aria asking the moon to tell the prince of her love.

This is one of my favorite arias, but it was nigh impossible to find a version of it which satisfied me. Recorded classical music often loses the essence of what makes it so enchanting live. Still, the melody and the language are exquisite, and this version by Milada Šubrtová is as close to perfection as I could find on YouTube. Singing in her native Czech, this recording of her is probably from the 1950s.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

LOVE that aria!