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Showing posts with the label trois chansons de bilitis

The Songs & The Plays - Kean on Shakespeare

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The Songs & The Plays Listen on Youtube Love’s Labours Lost (1593-94) A revised and polished version of this play was presented for Queen Elizabeth I and her court at Christmas 1598. However the elevated language and subject matter of the drama suggests it was always intended for a sophisticated and highly literate audience. There are two parallel plots – one ‘high’ comedy and one ‘low’ comedy. In the high comedy the King of Navarre and his friends make a pact to ‘fast and study’ and to have no contact with women for three years. No sooner have they agreed than the Princess of Aquitaine and her ladies in waiting arrive to discuss ‘state matters’. Inevitably the King falls in love with the Princess and his friends with the French ladies in waiting. The Gentlemen find loophole in their vows and woo and win women with a dance. The Ladies become aware of their broken vows and treat the noblemen with scorn. In the low comedy the page Moth and the clown Costard ridicule the exaggerated m...
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Claude Debussy - A Short Biography & Background to the Trois Chansons de Bilitis

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  Claude Debussy ( 1862 – 1918) His parents were running a china shop in St Germain-en-Laye, just outside Paris, when Achille Claude was born on the 22 nd of August 1862. His birthplace, a C17th building in two parts, joined by a beautiful balustrade staircase, is now the Maison Claude Debussy. The ground floor now houses the Office de Tourisme and the first floor is a museum dedicated to Debussy. Personal souvenirs, letters, photographs, manuscripts and ornaments reflecting his life, tastes and personality were bequeathed to the museum by his daughter-in-law. An auditorium room on the second floor regularly presents various recitals, readings and lectures on Debussy and other composers and the town holds a festival every year in his honour. A fitting tribute to one of France’s most influential and popular composers. His childhood was very unsettled; his father changed jobs many times and was imprisoned for a short time after Commune of 1871 for his revolutionary activities....
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