Dido laments in Russian
Daily Comfort ZoneAn extraordinary take on the Purcell ode by Sofia Preobrazhenskaya, recorded in Leningrad in 1959.
Beautiful in quite unexpected ways.
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That’s lovely Norman, thankyou. I’ll still take Janet Baker to my desert island though.
Aria, not ode?
Royal!!
I have to admit I like it better in English, but Russian is certainly a suitable language for lamentation. Never heard of this artist but she’s certainly worth looking up. Thanks for sharing.
Really exceptional and deeply moving. Thank you for posting.
Unexpected, indeed, to hear so much of the typical Russian singing style (quite apart from the different way her language wraps around the text) applied to this emotive yet also chaste music. More emotive than chaste in this version!
Something similarly unexpected and a similar leaning towards the overtly emotional is heard in the distinctive timbre of Ukrainian tenor Joseph Rogatchewsky’s way with Gluck’s “”J’ai perdu mon Eurydice” except of course he is singing in French which we do expect to hear in this music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OND0tQ7L0M
There is no evidence at all that Rogatchewsky saw himself as Ukrainian. He was born in Kharkov Oblast, Russian Empire, and has always been known as Russian. This woke repatriation of ‘Ukrainians’ such as Malevich, Repin, Gogol, Aivazovsky, Kuindzhi, even Prokofiev, it’s so childish and ridiculous. Not only is it historically false, it also fails to achieve the intended effect, instead shining a spotlight on how fluid the notions of Ukrainian and Russian nationhood have been throughout history.