War

Ian Bostridge, Anna Netrebko and Thomas Hampson

This photograph will be from the performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem at the Salzburg Festival this summer and not from the new recording with the Orchestra and Chorus of the Academia Nazionalle di Santa Cecilia in Rome and Antonio Pappano conducting.  You can listen to it here, I don't know for how long.

This is a wonderful, deeply emotional performance.  I know I've heard this work before but I don't think I knew it was this beautiful.  Each is perfect for the part, and Anna Netrebko is especially gorgeous, by turns dramatic, lyrical and sweet.

Perhaps it is the right thing for today.  We Americans have narrowly escaped our pathetic, made up political crisis which appears to have been nothing more than a game of chicken.  Think about the larger vision of life. We have music to enrich our souls instead of politics to maim us.
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