2019 Deaths

[mollinary]

Thanks fsn, that is the man!

[Ithoriel]

Came across this on Reddit, despite being an avid  snapper-up of unconsidered quotational trifles, I hadn't come across it before. It seemed apposite here.


"I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."

― Mark Twain

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Owen Jones and Peter Fonda
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-49382175

[Techno]

 

I was also very sad to hear the news of the sudden death of Mike Brunton.....Who was the Editor of White Dwarf when I joined the Evil Empire.
I don't know for certain...but I can't believe Mike was much more than in his late fifties.

A great shame.

My abiding memory of Mike, was having to keep a beady on him when I was photographing a big 'battle shot' in the studio.
He had a plastic Britains' sheep that he was constantly trying to sneak onto the table, while I was 'looking through the lens'.

Cheers - Phil

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Good man! 

[fsn]

Ric Ocaseck, lead singer with the Cars.

Reminds me of a specific period of my life.

Thanks Ric.

[Techno]

That's a great shame ! 

Cheers - Phil

[fsn]

Jessye Norman, aged 74.

Who?

Jessye Norman is was an opera singer. When I was still a teenager, I was trying out all sorts of music, and bought a copy of Jessye singing the role of Dido in Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. I was absolutely captivated. I'm not a big opera fan, the arias are OK, but the speaky-singy bit^* (recitative) is awful, and I'm not really that enamoured of tenors^**but Dido and Aeneas was written for a girl's school so the male parts are small^***, and the female voices get all the good bits.

Dido and Aeneas is particularly famous for the aria Dido sings when she decides to die - Dido's Lament, and it was when I first heard Jessye singing this that my life changed. I got a cold chill down the spine, and I could only sit, captivated.

Since then, I have become something of a Jessye Norman fan, a enthusiast for Purcell, and an aficiando of Dido and Aeneas. I have 18 different versions each of which has its own personality.

I have included in my funeral music Jessye Norman's Dido's Lament.


^*Does that make opera a forerunner of rap (with the silent "c")?
^**See Victor Borge's A Mozart Opera, by Mozart in which he opines that the tenor is "a little tall fellow".
^***Make your own jokes up

[FierceKitty]

I think most opera-lovers find their patience is strained byrecitativo secco at times.

[fsn]

Music - sublime; performance - flawless; costume - questionable 

[mmcv]

That was beautiful, thank you for sharing. Sad that her voice will not be heard again.

[paulr]

Seconded

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Ginger Baker! 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/entertainment-arts-49827436

[Techno]

 

Cheers - Phil

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

But 80 is an excellent age for a rock star !