December 2019

Orlando Furioso–Plugging along, now in Canto XXXII, so more than half-way through. I’m taking notes that I hope to make into a detailed summary with master list of the characters and their inter-relations. I guess I’ll have to read Boiardo also (much longer). Fortunately, all these things are almost free for the downloading in Kindle, so I can take them all with me everywhere.

Donizetti–Finished editing Alfredo il Grande, which is about the least engaging of all the librettos so far. I have no idea about the music, as there is no performance on YouTube.

Rossini–Took a break from Donizetti to tackle a Rossini opera, Adelaide di Borgogna, which is now posted under the Opera tab. It’s based on an interesting bit of 10th-century history that I should know more about (something to look into). The music to my ears is harmonically unadventurous, so much back and forth with sequences involving three cords (or so it seems after a while).

Wines of Bergerac–These could use a survey on the Web, so I’m compiling a list of properties to visit when I’m there.

Miscellaneous Reading
Les fleurs du mal It’s about time I went through this seminal book.
Proust Also about time, but I’ve hardly made a dent. Time flies by.