Late afternoon quiz
So, who can identify the following lines of text?
Ich bin nur die Magd, die schwache,
Des Genius, der da schafft;
Er leiht mir seine Sprache,
In Herzen streut sie meine Kraft.
Ich bin des Lieds Betonung,
Sein Schicksalswiderhall;
Sein Werkzeug, seine Wohnung,
Der starken Hand Vasall.
Bald mild, bald heiter, bald Unheil kündend,
Man nennt mich: »Treu dem Sinn«,
Mein Klang: ein Lüftchen, schwindend
Im Tagesgraun dahin!
meine geliebte Adr.
Without looking up the original poem, I would swear that the quote is from a German translation of Walt Whitman’s “Song Of Myself”, but that cannot be the answer, as it is too far off-subject.
Frau Lecouvreur
Indeed, “Io sono l’umile ancella” in German…
Christina Morgenstern’s “Galgenlieder”?
Adriana Lecouvreur
Speaking of off-topic, did anyone else see this on playbillarts.com:
“Bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff’s next disc will be his first foray into jazz. The CD includes new arrangements of popular standards such as “My Funny Valentine” and lesser-known tunes …”
YIKES. I’m really excited, however, to hear Nicole Cabell’s debut disc.
PS: Can we count Cabell as a cognate of Caballe?
Absolutely, Adriana Lecouvreur’s credo.
Doug – Personally I love Quasthoff’s work, but not terribly fond of the jazz I’ve seen on YouTube, with him riffing for forever and a day… I really wish he would do something with spirituals… He does THE MOST rockin’ version of “Swing Low.” Hearing that as one of his encores was the capper on what was an amazing recital a few years ago. I can remember it now…
You know who does great Jazz? Debbie Voigt. I was at her LA recital on sunday… she closed with a Berstein segment, which included this fantastic rendition of “Gotta be good to be bad” and a blues peice called “Another Love”. Oh and she encored with “I Love a Piano”….playing the piano.