#SongoftheDay Vesti la giubba (from Pagliacci, performed by Luciano Pavarotti)

By
After listening to Tears of a Clown yesterday, how could we not play this well-known aria (is it an aria?) from Pagliacci? Pagliacci is, after all, referenced in Tears of a Clown. The two songs have a lot in common--the theme of putting on a face to perform in public after suffering a heartbreak.

I'll tell you outright: I feel out of my depth talking about opera. This, despite being a person with an honest-to-god opera subscription. For real. I go to the opera all the time. I love opera. There are a few opera I feel like I can talk about with confidence, but the snobbism that exists in this realm really keeps me from wanting to say anything at all.

Even though Pagliacci is a really famous opera, I've never seen it and I know next to nothing about it. Before looking it up, I had no idea the opera was written by Ruggero Leoncavallo. I don't even know who that is. It's an Italian opera from the late 1800s.

After watching this Pavarotti clip, boy, do I want to see it. But I'm not an expert, so I don't want anyone reading this to feel intimidated by opera. I go to the opera all the time and I still feel stupid talking about it. No one knows everything.

I looked up the words being sung, because I'm not familiar. Here's an English translation:

To act! While out of my mind,
I no longer know what I say,
or what I do!
And yet it's necessary... make an effort!
Bah! Are you not a man?
You are Pagliaccio!

 Put on your costume,
powder your face.
The people pay to be here, and they want to laugh.
And if Harlequin shall steal your Columbine,
laugh, Pagliaccio, so the crowd will cheer!
Turn your distress and tears into jest,
your pain and sobbing into a funny face - Ah!

 Laugh, Pagliaccio,
at your broken love!
Laugh at the grief that poisons your heart!



If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music.

Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my AudioErotica endeavour on Patreon would also help me hugely!

But you don't HAVE to do any of that. I'm very happy to get a daily visit from you, so just keep coming back.

Oh, and I also recommend hitting the "Subscribe" button at the top of the page so you won't miss a song!

See you tomorrow!
Giselle

Popular posts from this blog

#SongoftheDay Looks Like Meringue (John Scofield)

By
Image
So, look... I have a very bad habit of giving myself food poisoning. This almost always involves eggs. The first time I poisoned myself with eggs was after that big east coast blackout that happened in the early 2000s. 2003? I'm too lazy to look it up right now. If you lived through it you probably remember it because power was out for days, which is pretty unusual in major cities. Anyway, I had a carton of eggs in my fridge that was already 6 months expired and then it lived through this blackout. I can't say for sure why I ate those eggs, except that I was very poor and also stupid, but that was my first experience with egg-related food poisoning. A couple years ago I poisoned myself with homemade mayonnaise. This week I poisoned myself by eating raw meringue while making my partner a pie. He told me not to eat raw meringue, but by then it was too late.  The salmonella is a part of me now. It's been with me for days. If you're wondering how you can support me
Read More! »

#SongoftheDay Ice Cream (Sarah McLachlan)

By
Image
For Easter, my partner gave me a chocolate bunny. But you know what else he gave me that's even better than chocolate? No, not that. Well, yes, that too, but that's not what I'm talking about. He bought me some of the supplements my doctor put me on. They're pretty expensive (to me--I don't know what qualifies as expensive to other people anymore) but once I started buying a better brand instead of store brand, I noticed a dramatic reduction in the frequency and severity of attacks (when my chronic illness flares up, it's called an "attack" in the literature--how's that for frightening?). So I'd been talking to my partner about how the better supplements really seem to be making a difference, but BOY are they ever pricy and, sure enough, he goes out and buys them for me as a gift. How's that for thoughtful? If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my book
Read More! »

#SongoftheDay Self Control (Laura Branigan)

By
Image
A couple months ago I had a story in mind to tell you about this song, or a story that was somehow related to this song... but I didn't tell you the story at the time, and now I forget what the story was about. So we'll just listen to the song without the story, I guess. Doesn't it feel good to be watching a music video from the 80s, though? Okay, so maybe music videos weren't invented in the 80s, but I would go so far as to say music videos were perfected in the 80s. 80s music videos were so weird. I love that about them. They give me the feels deep down in my radio heart. In other news, I did once release a book of paranormal erotica called Creatures of the Night ... If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon
Read More! »

#SongoftheDay Asshole (Denis Leary)

By
Image
After days of not being able to leave the house due to migraines AND salmonella poisoning (what a combination...) I finally went out to buy a few groceries. I often use a walker to get around, and that was the case today.  On my way home, there was a snooty rich lady standing in the sidewalk so that I couldn't get by. I asked her if she could move and she didn't even look at me, just took the slightest half-step forward so she was still blocking my path. There was no way I could get by her with my walker. She also had a dog. Her dog was completely blocking my path. I asked her if she could move her dog and she didn't even acknowledge my existence. She did not move her dog.  It's always bothered me, being treated this way--being treated like I'm so inconsequential that I'm not even worth acknowledging--but I think it bothers me in a much deeper way when I'm using a mobility aid. Because I feel like... you've got no excuse, world. You look at me and you kn
Read More! »

#SongoftheDay You Light Up My Life (Whitney Houston)

By
Image
Yesterday I told you a story about someone being awful to me.  Today I'm going to tell you a story about somebody being wonderful. The one story follows the other. They happened the same day. When I got back to my building after the incident I told you about yesterday, I was feeling pretty down on humanity. As I waited for the elevator, I met a young trans woman who had just moved in. She was so bubbly and bright that her mood instantly inspired me to feel a little more hopeful about life.  She helped me without being asked, because she could see that I was obviously a person who needed help. She did nice things in a totally natural way. That is a true talent. She was able to lend a hand in a way that made me feel elevated rather than belittled. Just totally casual about it, chatting away so as not to draw attention to the fact that she was assisting me.   I wanted to hug her and be her genderqueer mom and tell her she had renewed my faith in humankind, but that might have been w
Read More! »

#SongoftheDay If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked a Cake (Ethel Merman, Ray Bolger)

By
Image
 Not sure why this story just popped into my head, but a guy I once worked with told me about a temp they'd had at a different company he'd worked for. This was an older woman. She'd been hired to come in for a week to do some filing or whatever, and that was the gig. She was not a permanent employee.  But she kept coming back. Like the cat who came back... the very next day. And the day after that. And on and on. She wasn't coming into the office to work, though. This woman would come into this workplace, head straight to the kitchen, and make herself "a cuppa." That's what she called her tea. Then she'd settle in at a desk that didn't belong to anybody, and turn on the computer.  This was back in the early days of the internet, when a lot of people still didn't have web access from home. That was the case with this woman. So she'd go on the internet, and she'd pull up recipes (cake recipes, mainly) and print them off. All day. Every d
Read More! »

#SongoftheDay In the Year 2525 (Zager and Evans)

By
Image
Not too long ago, I was writing about PTSD and how it sucks me out of the present moment and into the past. Well, I also struggle with anxiety, which sucks me out of the present moment and into the future.  But here's the thing about the future: I don't actually know what's going to happen in it. In my vast experience of living with anxiety, I've found that very few of the things I worry my pretty little head about actually come to pass. Bad things do happen--they're just not the bad things I kept worrying would happen. I never worried my partner would get cancer. Neither of his parents had cancer. In fact, no one in his family has had cancer. Plus, my mother already had cancer. Like, why would my husband get cancer when my mother already has it? She's got cancer covered. There's no reason why he should get it too. I am not psychic. Far from it. Just because I am certain something bad is going to happen doesn't mean it will. But do you think I can convin
Read More! »

#SongoftheDay The Rosemary and Thyme Caprice (John Williams)

By
Image
I've been re-watching the British TV show Rosemary and Thyme again, even though I re-watched every episode a month ago. There are only three seasons, but I like repetition.  I always say the appeal of this show is the fantasy of having a friend and doing gardening and solving murders, but I re-watched the first episode last night (I don't usually watch the first episode--not sure why), and I realized that the biggest appeal of this show, for me, is probably the fantasy of making a new friend later in life.  The idea that I could meet someone new and form an instant bond and we could be besties and run a business together... it actually seems beyond impossible when I say it out loud. I find it so, so hard to make friends. But maybe that's why so many of us love this little show? I don't know. There's a lot to love about it. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for
Read More! »

#SongoftheDay Julie Christie (Lorraine Bowen)

By
Image
Listening to Ice Cream yesterday and mentioning the words "better than chocolate" made me think, of course, of the 1999 Canadian lesbian rom-com Better Than Chocolate. I saw that film pretty soon after it was released. It blew my queer young adult mind. Not because the movie was about lesbians--I'd seen movies that had lesbians in them before--but because it was a movie with lesbians in it that wasn't sad and tortured.  The other movies I'd seem with lesbians in them had been FILMS. Cinema. This was a movie. Practically a flick. It was a comedy. To be honest with you, I didn't really like it. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. But that made sense because I've never been a rom-com fan. It's just not my genre. I loved that the movie existed, though. I loved that people had brought this movie that I didn't even really like into the world. I have no idea whether Better Than Chocolate made a ripple worldwide. Canadian content often doesn&#
Read More! »

#SongoftheDay Cornflake Girl (Tori Amos)

By
Image
I've been flipping through my novel Fortune's Diary (a book from the Lesbian Diaries series that totally flew under the radar) and in one scene Fortune and her crush Maya are in downtown Toronto eating shawarma and listening to a busker. The busker is singing Cornflake Girl, a song Fortune has never heard before. When Maya tells her what the song is called, she thinks the title is hilarious. My best friend in high school put this song on a mix tape she made me. Ah, memories... If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail subscribers
Read More! »