Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Lookalikes: Chris Trotter and Gioachino Rossini

Can you tell which is which?

One was an Italian opera composer (a stranger to writer’s block, he wrote The Barber of Seville in three weeks) and gourmand. Quote unquote: 
One can’t judge Wagner’s opera Lohengrin after a first hearing, and I certainly don’t intend to hear it a second time.
The other is a New Zealand left-wing columnist and blogger (and a fine singer too). Quote unquote: 
Perhaps Labour could be saved if, like the ancient Romans, they were willing to install a dictator to “save the Republic” from its enemies (in the case of Labour’s membership that would be themselves!) someone capable of turning the party into a lean, mean electoral machine.
 Except, of course, Labour’s never going to do that. Which is why so many people are telling me “Labour’s finished” – and  why, regretfully, I’m agreeing with them.

So here (can’t embed it, sorry) is Jennifer Larmore as Isabella in Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri with the Act I aria “Cruda sorte”. Which translates as “Cruel fate”

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