The True Soviet Ballerina Olga Lepeshinskaya
“I am a product of the Soviet era,” Olga Lepeshinskaya said in an interview. She really was a person of her time – in the best sense.
The Magic of Beethoven’s Allegretto
By 1811, Austria, exhausted from the Napoleonic Wars, was in a situation of crisis. Ludwig van Beethoven faced a kind of crisis too. He had serious financial difficulties. His attempt to marry – far from his first! – had ended…
We’ll Fly Despite Everything: Icarus on the Rocks by Vlaho Bukovac
The master craftsman Daedalus, together with his son Icarus, lived in captivity on the island of Crete. Every ship that left the island was checked upon instructions from King Minos, so the father and son were forced to escape by…
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Lee Frost: a Poem You May Misinterpret
The poem The Road Not Taken is remarkable for two reasons. First, it’s incredibly popular. Audio recordings of The Road Not Taken on YouTube get as many views and likes as some music hits do. Its final lines are used in…
Not Realistic, but Truthful: “Seascape Study with Rain Cloud” by John Constable
Professor Henri Fuseli, who taught John Constable at the Royal Academy for some time, half-jokingly said this landscape artist’s works make him call for his great coat and umbrella. Constable loved English nature as it is, he never tried to…
“Rigoletto”, the Sad Story of a Jester
“La ra, la ra, la la, la ra, la ra,” – is it possible to express deep feelings with the aid of such primitive words? Read my article about the opera Rigoletto and listen to its key fragments. Perhaps, you’ll…
The Swan That Will Never Die
The ballet we’ll watch today is known by two names – The Swan and The Dying Swan. The second title seems to be more expressive, and more accurate; nevertheless, it has failed to displace the first one. There are good…
The Very Same Sistine Madonna
The two pudgy angels — at the end of December, we see them everywhere: on calendars and organizers, on wrapping paper and greeting cards. These bonny infants are so serious! They don’t look like children enjoying the Christmas bustle… Let’s…
Schubert in Love: the Fantasia in F minor for Pianoforte Duet, D.940
Franz Schubert wasn’t blessed with happy love. The composer twice experienced deep affection for women who were above him in social status. One of them returned his feelings, yet they couldn’t marry; another treated him as a friendly acquaintance. Schubert’s…
Arkady Rylov and His Broad Expanse
Several recent posts on my blog are quite long and serious. I wanted my new entry to be light. I decided to write about a landscape that radiates joy, started to read the remembrances of the artist who created the…