The charms to soothe a savage breast

Something happened a couple of nights ago, and I ended up watching almost two hours of opera arias and classical music, thanks to YouTube.  As I was wrapping up the show that I curated for myself, I remembered a piece that I came to know when my daughter was taking voice lessons two decades ago.

I searched for it.  We live in a miraculous world.  A few keystrokes and, bingo!  How did we ever live before Google and YouTube?

I watched Luciano Pavarotti sing it.  A relatively young Pavarotti.



But, the lyrics (in translation) and recalling my daughter practicing it, I wanted to listen to a female voice.  YouTube delivered.



I texted that to my daughter. Yes, in the night!

The following evening, I decided to get back to the old country's classical music.  I went after one of my favorites--L Subramaniam.  Not only because I have memories of listening to his performances, but also because his improvisations were always magical even to the half-baked that I am.  That magical experience is the bhkathi for me--not the other one that the rasikas blabber about.

I started with this.  It was even sweeter than I had remembered.

YouTube suggested this performance at Georgetown University.  I fast-forwarded through the talks and watched/listened only to the music.



Against such plenitude of music and the arts, the current White House has become a cultural wasteland!  Unlike the Obama years, there is no music from this White House.  It is a dead zone:

Since his inauguration in January 2017, there have been no official concerts at the White House (the Reagans had one every few weeks). No poetry readings (the Obamas regularly celebrated young poets). The Carters began a televised series, “In Performance at the White House,” which last aired in 2016, where artists as varied as Mikhail Baryshnikov and Patricia McBride performed in the East Room. The Clintons continued the series with Aretha Franklin and B. B. King, Alison Krauss and Linda Ronstadt.

Of course, the ultimate show business President was unmatched in this:

But perhaps no Republican could match the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose guest list was a relentless celebration of the diversity of American culture. He and Nancy Reagan hosted Lionel Hampton. Then the Statler Brothers. Then Ella Fitzgerald. Then Benny Goodman. Then a night with Beverly Sills, Rudolf Serkin and Ida Levin. That was all in the fall of 1981. The Reagans did much to highlight uniquely American forms, especially jazz. One night in 1982, the White House hosted Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea and Stan Getz. When Reagan visited Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow in 1988, he brought along the Dave Brubeck Quartet.

And we now have this White House, where the arts have been murdered.  What a shame!

When we are without art, we are a diminished people — myopic, unlearned and cruel.

Awful!