A fine story and well told. As a former beer bottle/celery virtuoso, I must point out a quibble. To lower pitch, when your bottle is sharp, you drink. To raise pitch, when your bottle is flat, you micturate.
NB: if you mix these up, as I fear you did in the telling, you may encounter a flavor not commonly found in a robust IPA.
Google it for yourself. Every time I’ve heard it said before it was a soft g, but GK’s seldom wrong, so I checked it and found I had been right. (I’m a Virgo Rising, so I’m a nitpicker.)
😬🙏🖖You are indeed correct, and Nitpickers Anonymous insists I acknowledge my error. My Google search led me to the correct pronunciation in Italian, and of course Mozart wrote in German where the g is indeed hard.
I was prepared to find GK to be incorrect again because when I read his memoir I found he had a false memory of when he had reconnected with the exchange student who became his second wife. He thought it was on a hot August day when he was the cover story of TIME, but that issue is dated November 4 1985.
To pick a final nit, the libretto for Magic Flute was in German, but it written by Emanuel Schikaneder (who played Papageno in the original production).
Mozart was famous for being among the first to use German texts/librettos for his operas (Magic Flute is technically a Singspiel, but never mind). As such, Garrison is correct, the G in the middle of the word would have been pronounced as a hard G, as in Gehen or VolkswaGen.
Oh, I've also heard at least 10 different versions of Die Majicflöte and neither the English nor the German versions pronounce it "Papajeno." [Alt. spellings for effect]
Park and Bark, I wish. The audience, despite what it thinks it wants, should be so lucky, too, sometimes, to just hear the cast put everything into realizing the score as beautifully as possible. Seek out Renee Fleming’s “Depuis les jours” in concert, with Levine conducting, wearing a maroon dress with black tulle rising like a cobra’s hood, framing her face and disguising the bellows action going on behind. Magnificent!
“Flute” is a perfect opera to reconceptualize, I suppose, and you are an old guy who probably walked to the Met and enjoyed the nap, but I wonder that you fell asleep to the hijinks you describe. I’m glad the QotNight pleased.
Btw, today’s NYTimes crossword column has a link to a performance of Mozart’s Theme and Variations on Twinkle, twinkle little star that is vividly transporting. And jaw dropping good fun.
You share your feeling that "I walk down Amsterdam Avenue looking at the world with the eyes of a child... This is the power of grace, either that or early onset dementia." I'm no doctor, but I can state confidently that you are utterly immune to early onset dementia.
My favorite line: "My Episcopal funeral service will include no eulogies whatsover and it won't be called a celebration of life and the word 'journey' will be forbidden."
PLUS, GK, YOU'RE SHARING THESE TWO DECADES WITH OTHERS: SONG, STORY-TELLING AND A LINK WITH THE PAST. THERE'S A BUNCH OF US OTHERS WHO ARE OVER-DATE TOO. GOD BLESS YOU, LAD! YOUTH IS MEASURED BY MORE THAN HOUR-GLASSES....
A skydiving student jumped out the airplane and pulled the rip cord. Nothing happened! He pulled it again, nothing happened. Just then he sees this fellow camo-clad hunter coming up the other way! “Hey! You know anything about parachutes?”
wBravo, Maestro! Make 'em laugh, make 'em laugh, make 'em laugh!
God knows we need it. Thank you for holding open the funny door for us beleagured trudgers weighed down by the baggage of the world who have forgotten how to laugh.
All the wisest, greatest people I have ever known or heard of have all had a great sense of humor. (I can never trust anyone who doesn't).
So true.
A fine story and well told. As a former beer bottle/celery virtuoso, I must point out a quibble. To lower pitch, when your bottle is sharp, you drink. To raise pitch, when your bottle is flat, you micturate.
NB: if you mix these up, as I fear you did in the telling, you may encounter a flavor not commonly found in a robust IPA.
Thank God you told me in time.
My lady-love makes me a happy man, GK, but you run a damn close second place! Love you both....
Papageno has a soft g (I Googled to check).
Really? I've always heard the g in Papageno like the g in Google.
Google it for yourself. Every time I’ve heard it said before it was a soft g, but GK’s seldom wrong, so I checked it and found I had been right. (I’m a Virgo Rising, so I’m a nitpicker.)
I've been wrong so often I've lost count.
As in Papa giant?
Google über Alles, I suppose, but no. GK was correct. At least in the opera world (and where else do they talk about Pageno?)
😬🙏🖖You are indeed correct, and Nitpickers Anonymous insists I acknowledge my error. My Google search led me to the correct pronunciation in Italian, and of course Mozart wrote in German where the g is indeed hard.
I was prepared to find GK to be incorrect again because when I read his memoir I found he had a false memory of when he had reconnected with the exchange student who became his second wife. He thought it was on a hot August day when he was the cover story of TIME, but that issue is dated November 4 1985.
To pick a final nit, the libretto for Magic Flute was in German, but it written by Emanuel Schikaneder (who played Papageno in the original production).
Mozart was famous for being among the first to use German texts/librettos for his operas (Magic Flute is technically a Singspiel, but never mind). As such, Garrison is correct, the G in the middle of the word would have been pronounced as a hard G, as in Gehen or VolkswaGen.
🤪 I think you joogled it, instead of googling it.
Schikaneder wrote it in German, his native tongue, where G, of course, is never soft. It's nice and hard and muscular, like German itself.
The sound of a soft English or Italian G must be written "Dsch" So Schikaneder's libretto would read "Papadscheno" if that's the sound you advocate.
Oh, I've also heard at least 10 different versions of Die Majicflöte and neither the English nor the German versions pronounce it "Papajeno." [Alt. spellings for effect]
My pronouns are now "creep", "jerk": and "lickity split, jumpin' jack flash it's a gas, gas, gas."
I'm way too important to be refered to as "he", "him" or "his."
Park and Bark, I wish. The audience, despite what it thinks it wants, should be so lucky, too, sometimes, to just hear the cast put everything into realizing the score as beautifully as possible. Seek out Renee Fleming’s “Depuis les jours” in concert, with Levine conducting, wearing a maroon dress with black tulle rising like a cobra’s hood, framing her face and disguising the bellows action going on behind. Magnificent!
“Flute” is a perfect opera to reconceptualize, I suppose, and you are an old guy who probably walked to the Met and enjoyed the nap, but I wonder that you fell asleep to the hijinks you describe. I’m glad the QotNight pleased.
Btw, today’s NYTimes crossword column has a link to a performance of Mozart’s Theme and Variations on Twinkle, twinkle little star that is vividly transporting. And jaw dropping good fun.
You share your feeling that "I walk down Amsterdam Avenue looking at the world with the eyes of a child... This is the power of grace, either that or early onset dementia." I'm no doctor, but I can state confidently that you are utterly immune to early onset dementia.
OK, never been to an opera at the met, yet...
Thanks, and Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Richard and Betty Roeder
Was Great Buddy Boy
My favorite line: "My Episcopal funeral service will include no eulogies whatsover and it won't be called a celebration of life and the word 'journey' will be forbidden."
Ha Ha
Then how will they perform "Don't Stop Believin" or "Wheel in the Sky!?"
Glenn is right.
PLUS, GK, YOU'RE SHARING THESE TWO DECADES WITH OTHERS: SONG, STORY-TELLING AND A LINK WITH THE PAST. THERE'S A BUNCH OF US OTHERS WHO ARE OVER-DATE TOO. GOD BLESS YOU, LAD! YOUTH IS MEASURED BY MORE THAN HOUR-GLASSES....
Judging from his letters, etc, it seems pretty clear that Mozart would have loved the beer bottle joke as well.
(Or to paraphrase Emma Goldman “If I can’t laugh I don’t want to be part of your revolution.”)
Merry Christmas, Garrison, and thanks for the many years of entertainment!
Humorously Challenged
You can study all of literature,
Run fastest ever ran,
Climb peaks and boast you you did it sir,
To seek the praise of man
You can lead a hundred armies,
be a general with 10 stars,
assemble scientists
to put an astronaut on Mars,
You can grace a thousand pulpits
Have the masses all in tears
Jail a thousand culprits,
Heck, live a thousand years,
You can sway ‘em with sobriety
to call your name in chants,
Use your intellectual piety
to rake in federal grants
All this still doesn’t cut it sir,
There’s stuff that bucks can’t buy,
Tho’ you’ve won a couple Pulitzers,
Even leadership is shy,
Tho’ you’ve read the works of Shakespeare,
you can know them ‘em all by rote,
Cause you’ve missed her pal,
Till you know how
To tell a real good joke!
A skydiving student jumped out the airplane and pulled the rip cord. Nothing happened! He pulled it again, nothing happened. Just then he sees this fellow camo-clad hunter coming up the other way! “Hey! You know anything about parachutes?”
“No. You know anything about Coleman stoves?!”
—Doug Brewer. Holladay UT
wBravo, Maestro! Make 'em laugh, make 'em laugh, make 'em laugh!
God knows we need it. Thank you for holding open the funny door for us beleagured trudgers weighed down by the baggage of the world who have forgotten how to laugh.
All the wisest, greatest people I have ever known or heard of have all had a great sense of humor. (I can never trust anyone who doesn't).
Thank you, Darling Garrison.
God Bless You. 🥳🙏💖🤸🏿♀️🎩