Florence Foster Jenkins - die wahre Königin der Nacht


In dieser Arie verlangt Mozart, dem ich insofern Anflüge sexistischer Gehässigkeit unterstelle, den Sopranistinnen und ihren Zuhörern Unmenschliches ab. Ich mochte diese verkoloraturifizierte Pieps-Arie nie - bis ich Florence Foster Jenkins' kongeniale Interpretation zu Ohren bekam. Die Welt im allgemeinen und mein Verhältnis zu Mozart im besonderen sind seitdem wieder in Ordnung: Dank dieser wunderbaren Frau kann ich wieder lachen, wenn ich an die Königin der Nacht denke.

Marilyn Monroe: Something's got to give (1962)

«Something's Got to Give is one of the most notorious unfinished films in Hollywood history.It was produced in 1962 by a then-floundering 20th Century Fox. The film paired the studio's most bankable star of the 1950s — Marilyn Monroe — with Dean Martin and Cyd Charisse. With a troubled star and belligerent director, George Cukor, causing delays on a daily basis the film quickly descended into a costly debacle.

On the first day of production, April 23, 1962, Monroe telephoned Weinstein to tell him that she had a severe sinus infection, and would not be on the set that morning. Apparently, she had caught the infection after a trip to New York City during which she had visited her acting coach, Lee Strasberg of The Actors Studio, to go over her role. The studio sent staff doctor Lee Siegel to examine the star at her home. His diagnosis would have postponed the movie for a month, but George Cukor refused to wait.

Instead, Cukor reorganized his shooting schedule to film scenes around his leading lady. At 7:30am, Cyd Charisse was telephoned at her residence with a request that she come to the Fox lot as soon as possible. Later that morning, the very first scene captured on film involved Martin's character and Charisse, in an encounter with children building a tree house.

Over the next month production continued mostly without Monroe, who showed up only occasionally. The production began to fall behind schedule. As Kennedy's birthday approached, no one on the production thought Monroe would keep her commitment to the White House and miss almost a week of shooting, but she did. Studio documents released after Monroe's death confirmed that her appearance at the political fundraising event was approved by Fox executives.

On Monday morning (after her birthday that weekend),producer Henry Weinstein got the call he dreaded. Monroe was on the other line telling him she wouldn't be there again that day.

They fired Marilyn, and started planning on replacing her with actress Lee Remick, but when Dean Martin heard about it,he got very upset and stated "No Marilyn, no picture." and the project on replacing her seemingly ended there, so she was re-hired, and got a raise but had to agree to make two more films for Fox. She accepted the offer.

But plans to resume filming in October were abandoned when Monroe died on August 5th.

The death of Marilyn Monroe resulted in the film's cancellation.

Nine hours of footage from the film sat in the vaults at 20th Century Fox until 1999, when it was digitally restored by Prometheus Entertainment and reconstructed into a semi-coherent, 32-minute segment for the two-hour documentary, Marilyn: The Final Days. It first aired on American Movie Classics on June 1, 2001, which would have been Monroe's 75th birthday.»

Source: YouTube - Marilyn Monroe in Something's Got To Give

Teens & Sex in Europe: A Story of Rights, Respect & Responsibility

«Advocates for Youth and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte sponsor study tours to the Netherlands, Germany, and France to explore the reasons behind these nations' much lower rates of teenage pregnancy, birth, and sexually transmitted diseases.

Teens & Sex in Europe: A Story of Rights, Respect & Responsibility, narrated by Mariette Hartley, provides a fascinating glimpse into the sexual health attitudes of Dutch, German, and French teens and their parents and into the attitudes of government officials, educators, and health care providers. European and U.S. teens speak their minds about protecting themselves within sexual relationships. All of this is against a background of funny, frank media clips drawn from larger multimedia campaigns to reduce HIV infections and unintended pregnancy.»

Advocates For Youth

Kathleen Ferrier: Gluck, Orfeo - Amici, quel lamento

Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice

Recitativo
ORFEO
Amici, quel lamento
Aggrava il mio dolore!
All'ombra pietosa d'Euridice
Rendete omai gli estremi onori e il marmo
Ne inghirlandate!

CORO
Ah! se intorno a quest'urna funesta
Euridice, ombra bella, t'aggiri,
Odi i pianti, i lamenti, i sospiri,
Che dolenti si spargon per te.

ORFEO
Restar vogl'io da sol fra l'ombre oscure
Coll'empia compagnia di mie sventure!

Le danze funebri cessano. Tutti si allontanano.

Aria
ORFEO
Chiamo il mio ben così
Quando si mostra il dì,
Quando s'asconde.
Ma, oh vano mio dolor!
L'idolo del mio cor
Non mi risponde.


Libretto italiano