Saturday, June 2, 2018

Façade


Here's something fun if you're in the mood for it, which I admit I probably am more than the average person. Selections from Edith Sitwell's Façade, with their original musical setting by William Walton, and read by Sitwell herself and English opera singer Peter Pears. Sitwell was inspired, here and elsewhere, by music hall comedy. The poems are playful bordering on goofy, and their delivery matches. Walton gets into the spirit as well, his backing sounding like he's setting nursery rhymes. He would have made a great composer for the cartoon studios.

2 comments:

susan said...

Thanks for this, it's not one I would have found on my own but fascinating nonetheless. I enjoyed the music especially for the reason you noted and Peter Pears' delivery was wonderful, reminding me a lot of pieces from Gilbert and Sullivan.

Dame Edith lead a life that was both tragic and flamboyant. They just don't make them like that any more. During WWII she knit a pair of socks for Alec Guinness - I wonder if he had them framed.

Ben said...

This was one of two videos I could find with Dame Edith reading one of her own poems. The other was "Still Falls the Rain" but whoever put it up used some kind of app to make her mouth move on a still photo, and that so rubbed me the wrong way.

Yeah, Peter Pears was great. I don't really know anything about him besides this. He could well have some experience with Gilbert & Sullivan, having that mix of a good singing voice and comic timing.

Guinness was still a fairly new actor during the war, when he was also serving as an aviator. He didn't really start doing movies until the postwar period. She could have been a pretty big influence in his life. I'd like to see what kind of socks she'd knit.