Media
My most dear Lord, King, and Husband. The hour of my death now drawing on, the tender love I owe you forces me... to commend myself unto you and to put you in remembrance of the health and welfare of your soul... You have cast me into many calamities and yourself into many troubles. For my part, I pardon you everything, and I wish to devoutly pray God that He will pardon you also. For the rest, I commend unto you our daughter, Mary, beseeching you to be a good father unto her... Lastly, I make this vow, that my eyes desire you above all things...
Katherine of Aragon,
written to King Henry VIII
"Katherine of Aragon"
from Try Me, Good King
Libby Larsen
Graeme Burgan, piano
Zeffiretti lusinghieri,
Deh volate al mio tesoro:
E gli dite, ch'io l'adoro
Che mi serbi il cor fedel.
E voi piante, e fior sinceri
Che ora innaffia il pianto amaro,
Dite a lui, che amor più raro
Mai vedeste sotto al ciel.
"Zeffiretti lusinghieri"
from Idomeneo
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Chun-wei Kang, piano
Giambattista Varesco
Gentle breezes,
Fly to my beloved
and tell him I adore him
My heart remains faithful to him.
And you sincere plants and flowers
that I water with my bitter weeping,
tell him that a love more rare
has never been seen beneath the sky.
Clouds, lingering yet, extend in solid bars
Through the grey west; and lo! These waters, steeled
By breezeless air to smoothest polish, yield
A vivid repetition of the stars;
Jove, Venus and the ruddy crest of Mars
Amid his fellows beauteously revealed
At happy distance from earth's groaning field,
Where ruthless mortals wage incessant wars.
Is it a mirror? -- or the nether Sphere
Opening to view the abyss in which she feeds
Her own calm fires? -- But listen! A voice is near;
Great Pan himself low-whispering through the reeds,
'Be thankful, thou; for, if unholy deeds
Ravage the world, tranquility is here!'
"The Lake at Evening"
from To Be Sung Upon the Water
Dominick Argento
Danielle Williams, piano
Patrick Fulton, clarinet
William Wordsworth
Lana Turner has collapsed!
I was trotting along and suddenly
it started raining and snowing
and you said it was hailing
but hailing hits you on the head
hard so it was really snowing and
raining and I was in such a hurry
to meet you but the traffic
was acting exactly like the sky
and suddenly I see a headline
LANA TURNER HAS COLLAPSED!
there is no snow in Hollywood
there is no rain in California
I have been to lots of parties
and acted perfectly disgraceful
but I never actually collapsed
oh Lana Turner we love you get up
Frank O'Hara
"Poem"
Christopher Berg
Graeme Burgan, piano
William Wordsworth
Lutes and voices down th' enchanted woods
Steal, and compose the oar-forgotten floods,
While Evening's solemn bird melodious weeps,
Heard, by star-spotted bays, beneath the steeps;
Slow glides the sail along th' illumined shore,
And steals into the shade the lazy oar.
Soft bosoms breathe around contagious sighs
And amourous music on the water dies.