Ancora Musica

In her dreams, for three nights, she dreams of a white piece of paper with three lines and then a voice tells her to sing this aria, with the words “Paolo, datemi pace,,,,”. She says magnificently, “I must obey the voice….. and sing this great and powerful phrase from Fracesca Di Rimini….even if it not as I would have done years ago….”

Then she gives at 99 years old a perfect example….. of a heart beating in music full of love for the art, the music and for something more important than ourselves…. my god, thank you for this most amazing servant of yours who continues to astound and beguile and help bring us to the truth.

TRANSLATION: as best I can make out.

“I must give an explanation why I am here tonight in this stupenda room to sing? I must explain why I am here. For three nights I had a strange dream. A piece of white paper, with three black lines.
The first night only this.

The second night immediately again I see the same piece of paper with these words, that I couldn’t see, with a voice that said, “YOU MUST DO THIS!”.

I come to the third night, this same voice, this same paper, comes again to me, and then the voice says, “Remember, you must do this!” and I see the music of Francesca (da Rimini)…. this is a little bit but really in it is all of Francesca.

I thought for a moment and I said “I would adore to do this, but I do not sing anymore…. it’s not as if I am singing all the time…. I don’t sing anymore…. however this voice insists, “YOU must do this, it could be of service to someone…. or something”, exactly what I do not know….. but something, supernatural I am certain,how could it not be, that I thought the third night, rising from sleep, I said, “Paolo, datemi pace….”

Then I understood, it was truly this one unique phrase of Francesca di Rimini, that I loved immensely…. that I found myself in the same position on the couch, that I began little by little to sing softly the stupendous words….”Paolo, datemi pace..”

Then I said, I will do it….I will obey…. because in this case I must obey, this voice that perhaps will not come again to me… and so I ask your pardon, if I today give myself permission to present myself to you all to sing this one phrase from Francesca da Rimini….

It will be what it will be…. but I do with all my heart and for me thanks to God for all that my life that I have known, I ask only to excuse me if it is not like it was….. before…..ten years before……”
(when she was 88!)

I got off the internet and called her immediately to give thanks, what a great and gracious lady and an unforgettable “life force” in the service of music. Truth in music.