Pavarotti - Live in concert in Paris 1965

I don't want to be too blunt, here... but if this doesn't make your heart speed up just a tiny bit, and make you think, "hey, that's kind of gorgeous"... well, then... try replaying it.

30 years old. Trim. Handsome. Abso-freaking-thrilling voice.

(Pavarotti is singing the part of Rodolfo who has just met Mimi, his new neighbor in his rundown tenement building in Paris. She's come to his door asking if he'd light her candle so she can see in her cold, dark apartment upstairs. He accompanies her back up to her place and she drops her key - Rodolfo, the sneaky guy - finds it while they're chatting and hides it in his pocket to prolong their encounter. They're both searching around on the floor in the dark - the candle went out again - and their hands bump into each other.)



Here's the text translation:

What a frozen little hand,
let me warm it for you.
What's the use of looking?
We won't find it in the dark.
But luckily
it's a moonlit night,
and the moon
is near us here.
Wait, mademoiselle,
I will tell you in two words,
who I am, what I do,
and how I live. May I?
Who am I? I am a poet.
What do I do? I write.
And how do I live? I live.


There's much more on YouTube if this has you hooked. Here's one of the entire aria staged (though he wasn't exactly known for his acting abilities or stage movement). The "ah" vowels are enough to make me swoon. 3:45. La speranza, indeed.

At the end, he goes over to ask her to tell him about herself. God help the soprano playing Mimi who had to follow THAT up! The next aria (in which Mimi explains who she is and what she does) is equally fabulous... but, um... yeah...

Garden update

Above: Lemon Tomato and Cherry Tomato plants, parsley lines the front.

After several weeks of warm to hot temperatures, many trips around the garden with the watering can, and selective weeding... we have food! I can't explain how gratifying it is to have salads on the table each night, comprised entirely of greens from our own garden. We've been eating a lot of chard as that has taken off and seems to practically grow over night. Sauteed with garlic and olive oil, thrown into scrambled eggs with some delicious cheese, and soon to be auditioned in a frittata or quiche... it's good stuff.

I'm still babying my tomato plants (I have what some might deem as "too many" at a total count of, um, 9 plants...). But, I hope that come late August, I'll be sweating over pots of tomato sauce seasoned by our own basil and oregano.

Nasty little green wormy things ate our kale leaves (center row) after our first harvest! They got onto the broccoli leaves, too (left row), but didn't touch the lettuce or the beans. Hmmm.

Lemon verbena and cucumbers in the back left corner; sunflowers growing above everything else with a few corn stalks and copious amounts of swiss chard. In the front left-right: rosemary, oregano, thyme, basil and teeny purple basil in the lower right corner.

Tomato sauce land. L-R: Home Depot Celebrity start, and 6 of my own plants started from seedlings... look who's winning!!!

Squash: yellow summer, Amish Pie pumpkins, Sugar Pie pumpkins. Mmm. Pie from scratch. I can already smell October... squash with a little cinnamon and butter baking in the oven...