Tír Na HiFi

a magnificent review Paul, well worth taking the time to read and absorb. as usual, it's written to your very own high standards and has whetted my appetite to have a look at this opera in due course. I'm afraid I can't write reviews in anything approaching this level of detail or sophistication, but only this week, the new Blu-Ray of Handel's early work 'Rinaldo' landed on my door-step, and I will attempt to feed back in due course.

really, we need a separate thread to 'archive' all the fine reviews that you, Ciaran and Pepe in particular write for this forum... thanks again.

I bet that's a great recording, Fergus... love Curzon in Mozart, and I bet his Schubert is as smooth as silk, too...

Jared wrote:a magnificent review Paul, well worth taking the time to read and absorb. as usual, it's written to your very own high standards and has whetted my appetite to have a look at this opera in due course. I'm afraid I can't write reviews in anything approaching this level of detail or sophistication, but only this week, the new Blu-Ray of Handel's early work 'Rinaldo' landed on my door-step, and I will attempt to feed back in due course.

really, we need a separate thread to 'archive' all the fine reviews that you, Ciaran and Pepe in particular write for this forum... thanks again.

Many thanks, Jared, for your generous words.  I simply try and express the love I have for this great music without which my life would be immeasurably poorer.  The greatest compliment that I can receive from anybody is that I have made the reader sufficiently curious to investigate the music under discussion, so hearing that you intend to seek out and - hopefully - be enriched by Theodra makes me very happy.

^^ on a slightly different note (and musically unrelated, so I'll be succinct)...

Kor-eeda's latest film is meant to be magnificent... entitled 'I Wish', it has just gained it's UK/ Ireland release, so be sure to see it if you can... I'm going on Sun 17th... ;-)

Many thanks for that, Jared, I expect great things from Hirokazu Koreeda.  I don't know if I ever recommended Edward Yang's final film, Yi-Yi, but it's a profoundly beautiful family study and well worth seeking out.

mcq wrote: Please forgive the length of this piece but, after watching this DVD of a staging of Theodora at Salzburg in 2009  this morning, I found myself profoundly affected by the experience and simply had to get my thoughts down on paper.  Theodora is an extraordinary achievement, motivated by an abiding concern on Handel's part that values such as human dignity, empathy, compassion and tolerance are of deep and lasting significance and must always find their way into a world dominated by self-serving greed and base cruelty.

Well done Paul, I admire your eloquence and your passion for music, music certainly brings out the best in you. Thanks for taking the time to write the piece and to share your thoughts with us.

Jared is correct it would be lovely to be able to have a separate thread for the excellent reviews posted in this thread.

mcq wrote: I expect great things from Hirokazu Koreeda.

Agreed

As ever, Sean, many thanks for your kind words. It's a pleasure to share my thoughts on the great music on this forum.

Jared wrote:I bet that's a great recording, Fergus... love Curzon in Mozart, and I bet his Schubert is as smooth as silk, too...

You have got it in one Jared!