I saw a great image today which I must share. It got to me via an email with various links which led me to click and find it
Archangel Michael Finds Discord Presiding Over an Election in the Monastery – Gustave Dore?, 1879.
This is a scene from Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. Ariosto once stayed in a palazzo in front of the Pantheon in Rome. There is a plaque on the wall about it, next to the plaque that says Mascagni wrote Cavalleria Rusticana there.
The building is now called the Albergo del Sole. Nice place.
The Orlando in question is Roland, Charlemagne’s Christian knight. It is in the tradition of the 11th c. French La Chanson de Roland and is replete with chivalric romance. Some pretty wild things happen in this poem, including a trip to the Moon on the Prophet Elijah’s flaming chariot, an early version of SpaceX. It is a sequel to a work called Orlando Innamorato by Matteo Boiardo … perhaps an ancestor of Italian cook and later American entrepreneur Ettore Boiardi (boy-AR-dee) who came to be known as Chef Boyardee. He was a serious supplier of food to the troops in WW2, keeping his plant open 24/7.
Anyway, Michael was supposed to get Discord to stir up the wicked Saracens, but he finds her stirring up this monastery instead. He grabs her by her hair and takes her to the Saracens and bids her to get to work.
And here’s the Prelude to Cavalleria Rusticana with Turiddu’s Sicilian solo “Lola”, sung off stage or behind the curtain as if from a distance:
O Lola, c’hai di latti la cammisa
Si bianca e russa comu la cirasa
Quannu t’affacci fai la vucca a risa
Biatu cui ti dà lu primu vasu!
Ntra la puorta tua lu sangu è spasu
Ma nun me mpuorta si ce muoru accisu
E si ce muoru e vaju ‘n paradisu
Si nun ce truovo a ttia, mancu ce trasu
E si ce muoru e vaju ‘n paradisu
Si nun ce truovo a ttia, mancu ce trasu
Oh…
O Lola, white and red as the cherry
In your nightdress white as milk,
When you appear at the window you smile;
Happy he who gave you your first kiss!
The mark of blood is over your door,
But I care not if I am killed;
If through you I die and go to Paradise,
It will not be Paradise for me unless you are there.
Ah!
And there’s a lovely Regina Caeli, too.
I will not be having Beefaroni this evening.
Or maybe I’ll make my own version?
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“We’re having Beefaroni
It’s made from Macaroni
Beefaroni’s fun to eat
Beefaroni’s really neat
Hooray for Beefaroni!”
When my Dad was starting his business and money was in short supply, supper sometimes came from the dented can section at the supermarket which might include one of Chef Boy-ar-dee’s delicacies.
My Catholic and operatic worlds are colliding! Father thanks for posting that aria from Cavalleria. It’s lovely. And Cura was a fine tenor when he started – his voice on the Puccini Arias recording from a couple of years prior to this is explosive. In a good way.