✨Magical✨ Listening to the Beauty and the Beast, I was whisked away to my childhood bedtime stories. Mercer Mayer illustrated a version (from 1978 I think?) and the artwork was the perfect melancholy match to the bittersweet story. I remember being so sad (in the best way) paging through this book. And this music has the same effect as those illustrations.
Hansel and Gretel, what angelic harmony!! And of course I went down another YT rabbit hole when I noticed a disparaging comment about a more recent rendition put on by The Met. Of course I had to see for myself! And yes, the beautiful angels were replaced with plump cartoonish chefs there to, assumedly, help to fatten up the children before slaughter. Yikes! And yet... watching the Sandman scene just prior, coupled with the Evening Prayer, I will say that it puts a much more dire and desperate spin on the prayer. Very Grimm indeed 😉
I love how you described "succumbing to slumber" - you're so right, the time signature in the Schumann piece reminds me of trying so desperately to stay awake: off-beat nods of the head, occasional jerk of a leg, and flutter of eyelids—a twist of a waltz between two worlds—only to finally melt into peace.
Re, the new Met production: I've heard similarly terrible things about it! I'm all for reimagining classic works, but I just don't understand transforming the most magical, even transcendent, part of the story into something so garish and cartoonish.
There's a great line in Tom Ford's film version of Christopher Isherwood's "A Single Man" that encapsulates my feelings here: "If it's going to be a world with no time for sentiment, then it's not a world I want to live in."
How grateful I am to find wonderful readers like you who share a love of sentiment! 💙
✨Magical✨ Listening to the Beauty and the Beast, I was whisked away to my childhood bedtime stories. Mercer Mayer illustrated a version (from 1978 I think?) and the artwork was the perfect melancholy match to the bittersweet story. I remember being so sad (in the best way) paging through this book. And this music has the same effect as those illustrations.
Hansel and Gretel, what angelic harmony!! And of course I went down another YT rabbit hole when I noticed a disparaging comment about a more recent rendition put on by The Met. Of course I had to see for myself! And yes, the beautiful angels were replaced with plump cartoonish chefs there to, assumedly, help to fatten up the children before slaughter. Yikes! And yet... watching the Sandman scene just prior, coupled with the Evening Prayer, I will say that it puts a much more dire and desperate spin on the prayer. Very Grimm indeed 😉
I love how you described "succumbing to slumber" - you're so right, the time signature in the Schumann piece reminds me of trying so desperately to stay awake: off-beat nods of the head, occasional jerk of a leg, and flutter of eyelids—a twist of a waltz between two worlds—only to finally melt into peace.
Needless to say, I LOVE this new series! 💙
I'm glad you're into this new series, Katie!
Re, the new Met production: I've heard similarly terrible things about it! I'm all for reimagining classic works, but I just don't understand transforming the most magical, even transcendent, part of the story into something so garish and cartoonish.
There's a great line in Tom Ford's film version of Christopher Isherwood's "A Single Man" that encapsulates my feelings here: "If it's going to be a world with no time for sentiment, then it's not a world I want to live in."
How grateful I am to find wonderful readers like you who share a love of sentiment! 💙
Yes!! Exactly! I’m all for breaking tradition if it deepens and stretches the imagination but not when it’s unnecessarily controversial.