The Salon was Open! An open "casting" call was announced by one of it's most prominent, celebrated, talented, and adored members. "Bring all of your favored music, visual artists, performers, instruments and/or literary works." The brass trumpet had sounded, with an echo that moved across the virtual seas. Flocks of contributors responded to the call.

While sitting on the bayou...watching the glare of the sun's rays move amid the peaking twilight...I pondered. A virtual newcomer to the arena of talent, how would I respond to such a challenge? How do I select a favorite among my vast repertoire of favorite genres. Comfortably residing among the contestants were my Jazz Masters; my Classical composers-conductors-performers; my Zydeco King & Court; & my Blues that flowed from the Windy City...all the way to the Delta. Do I dare open wide my heart to my most adored sisters of the Opera? Should I place a call to my beloved sopranos like Price-Callas-Battle-Norman, and allow their angelic voices to be heard? However, there still remained...my brothers...the Tenors that have been my secret lovers for years. The only ones who never kiss & tell. How could I overlook Caruso-Bocelli-Pavarotti-Carreras, who have attended to my needs (at my bed side), and held me through many a night? How could I now turn my back on such loyalty & devotion?

After much thought; I decided to have my own casting call, extending a heartfelt invitation to all three art forms; visual arts, literary arts, and the performing arts. All three are members of the same body (my own); in it's expressions & in it's impressions. Each bears the likeness of their Father, Mr. Divine; and they each have the same last name...Art. They are nuclear, they are linear, they are one!

What moves& inspires me, is represented in all three of these art forms, and my selections. It is found in their:

daring innovation...allowing thematic transformations to heighten my senses & elevate me to all points unknown;

passionate symmetry...yielding their depth & symphonic poetry to aid in my exploration of self, as I interact with time and space;

surgical skill...well informed & determined to remove (from me) all dust, debris, clutter, ash, and dead weight.

My answer was quite clear...with the stage now set...and all performances being rendered in F Minor. And so, Ladies & Gentlemen...without further ado...it gives me great pleasure to present to you...

 

                              "Mirrored Reflections of F Minor"

                                           (In Three Acts)

                                   (please turn cellphones off)

 

Programme

Prologue: "Awakenings"-Tchaikovsky,Symphony No.4, 4th mvmt.

Act I -       "THE GREAT LITANY"

Scene 1:   "The Glorious Birth" The Christmas Chorale

Scene 2:  "A Crucified Death" Shostakovich, Symphony No.1

Act II -    "REQUIEM" (Honoring the Dead)

Scene 1:  "In Black & White"Carlos Seixas,Sonata 42, for Harpsichord

Act III -    "EPIPHANY" J. S. Bach Concerto, 2nd mvmt.

Scene 1:   "The Manifestation"

Finale      "THE PENTECOST" Gabriel Faure, Op. 50;Paintings by Monet

                              ************Curtains************

 
                                        Prologue:  "Awakenings"

And day's at the morn.

Morning's at seven

The Hillside's dew-pearled;

The lark's on the wing

The snail's on the thorn;

God's in His Heaven

All's right with the world!

Robert Browning (1812 - 1889), from "Pippa Passes"

                              ************Curtains************

                                     Act I -  THE GREAT LITANY

 
                                    (Scene 1) "The Glorious Birth"

 
"Birth begins our life cycle and death ultimately begins another;" keeping the end as an after thought, not in hiding but in a place of inevitable acceptance. The winter's piercing hibernation is gone. For now...we celebrate the birth of newness, that is mirrored in the radiant shades of Spring...

(Reflections by Gabriela Dupart)

 

                              ************Curtains************

                                   (Scene 2)  "A Crucified Death"

"Fear drowned their hearts & minds, building walls against the Son; allowing a slow death to creep quietly in. The shouts to end His life grows even louder now, then it did then. The fore-told apostasy has made it's appointed rounds, as we ourselves are crucified, and die daily to that of this world. We watch...we wait and we prepare; as the once bright hues enter it's fade to black...

(Reflections by Gabriela Dupart)

A Dream Deferred

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

Like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore--

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over--

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

James Mercer Langston Hughes (1902 - 1967)

 

                              ************Curtains************

                             Act II  REQUIEM (Honoring the Dead)

                                  (Scene 1)  "In Black & White"

On the day of burial...there is no perspective; for space is annihilated. The viewing of a fragmented being. The day is a day of chores, crowds, rest, and aloneness. Those who mourn and those who scorn will be there to bury the dead. The dead is gone today...and we will follow one tomorrow. Then He will show Himself complete. You will cry out because the one who is leaving, could not be detained. So we honor the dead who have passed away. The dead among us postponing our burial, till another day.

By Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900 - 1944); author of "The Little Prince"

We begin wearing nothing

rites of passage... in white

we bury wearing black...

nothing, black, and white

shades of a journey,

nothing, black, and white

(Reflections by Gabriela Dupart)

 

                              ************Curtains************

                                           Act III   "EPIPHANY"

                                    (Scene 1):  "The Manifestation"

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of it's noisiest authorities insisted on it's being received for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870), from "A Tale of Two Cities" published 1859

 

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same;

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)

                              ************Curtains************

 

                        Finale - "The Pentecost" (The Gift & The Giver)

                                       Exhaust the little moment

                                                 Soon it dies!

                                        And be it gash or gold...

                                         it will not come again,

                                          in this identical guise.

                                  Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 - 2000)

                               ************Final Curtain************

 

My "Most Favored" Composers (not in order shown): 

Pyotr (Peter) llyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893)

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975)

Carlos Seixas (1704 - 1742)

Gabriel Faure (1845 - 1924)

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)

Claude Debussey (1862 - 1918)

Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886)

Claude-Michel Schonberg (1944 - )

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (1890 - 1974)

Cole Albert Porter (1891 - 1964)

Giacomo Puccini (1858 - 1924)

Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901)

The Creator; for furnishing the "Melodies of Spring" to the Lyre Bird.

One of My Most Treasured Visual Artists

Claude Monet (1840 - 1926)

My "Favorite" Soprano

Leontyne Price (1927 -    )

 

My "Second Favorite" Soprano

Maria Callas (1923 - 1977)

My "Favorite" Bass-Baritone

Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson (1898 - 1976)

 

My "Favorite" Tenor

Enrico Caruso (1873 - 1921)

 

My "Second Favorite" Tenor*

Andrea Bocelli (1958 -    )

*See My Post, "Damage Control..." for a sampling of his gifted works.

My Top Four "Favorite" Operas (in the following order):

(1) "Porgy & Bess" by George & Ira Gershwin

(2) "Aida" by Giuseppe Verdi

(3) "Madama Butterfly" by Giacomo Puccini

(4) "La Bohemme" by Giuseppe Verdi

Here is a clip of "Porgy & Bess"

My Top Three "Favorite" Musicals (in the following order):

(1) "Carmen Jones"

(2) "Les Miserables"

(3) "West Side Story"

 

Credits

Click on all picture images, for further information

All videos courtesy of youtube.com

All "Reflections" written by Gabriela R. Dupart (all rights reserved).

Special thanks to Fusun Atalay for inspiring this post..."Merci Beaucoup"

And to all of my other "Favorites" who were not represented here, however (God willing), will be acknowledged in future publications.

                                           ************

Exiting Music...For Thoughtful Reflections...Please Drive Safely!

Claude-Debussey "Claire De Lune"

Enrico Caruso "Una Furtiva Lagrima"

"Bayou Courtableau" (behind my parent's home); St.Landry's Parish, LA.

Portraits of My French-Creole People & New Orleans, Louisiana

 

                              "Celebrate The Easter Season"

                    "May God's Grace & Peace Be With You All"

                                            "Ciao"