The Lovers’ Chronicle 11 April – dawnin’ – premiere of Dido and Aeneas – art by Jean-Baptiste Isabey

11 April 2024 By Rhett 0 In Random

Dear Zazie,

Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag.

Rhett

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

“I’m guessing not the age of”
ha, no but we could write a song
of a new era that began
when we saw each other
on Ponce for the first time
“Little did we know what
we were walking towards”
the accouchement, the sun risin’
as we had never seen or known
the dawnin’ of the age of us

a song of could be
and comin’ true

this sentiment holds
through the nights

to have seen
to have been
to the edge
and back

such a task to find

blessed here and now
as the sun rises
on these days
together

we have endured
and kept ourselves
for days long delayed

and so we beat on…

far up the dim twilight flutters

dancin’ over the high plains,

stars comin’ on, grow thicker

for silent and still we are,

our thoughts, now together

when first discovered

how near the mystery

told in tears, imaginin’

myself into moods

held by thee

a song of want
and what could be

this sentiment holds
through the nights

such a task to find

blessed here
and there
to have seen,
to have been
to the edge
and back

someday perhaps
rememberin’ this
as the beginnin’

have we
endured and kept
ourselves for days
long delayed

well She did of course
but who cares,
who needs Her
strictly
for candy-asses
and those who lack
imagination

this in front of
blue on white
nothin’ else
of consequence

the trick will be
holdin’ on
tellin’ temptation
to go to hell

as the sun rises
on this as meant to be

before sleep,
watchin’ the light
from the moon
move across the floor
though there is no
love’s even breathin’
lullaby for me,
there is much
to be grateful for

the muses and the verse they bring
the wind outside bringin’ music
for the night, the dawnin’ promise
of solitude, and the possibility
that hope did not go to hell

didoaneasAffresco_romano_-_Enea_e_di On this day in 1689, perhaps; the premiere performance of Henry Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas” in Chelsea at Josias Priest’s School for Young Ladies. The exact date and circumstance of this work, in my opinion the first great British opera and Purcell’s masterwork, remains uncertain. April 30th is also cited as a possibility for its premiere, being the date of Queen Mary’s birthday. The premiere occurred sometime that year, as the libretto by Nahum Tate was published in London that December.

Three years earlier Tate had written a poem that compared the deposed Catholic King James II to Aeneas, and constructed an allegory implying that James had been led astray by witches, the result being that he abandoned the British people, just as the legendary Trojan Prince Aeneas had abandoned Queen Dido of Carthage in order to found a new empire in Rome. Since the Catholic King James II had also fled to Rome, some have speculated that Purcell’s opera was a political allegory, commissioned by Mr. Priest’s School for Young Ladies to celebrate either the coronation or birthday of the new Protestant Queen.

The story is based on Book IV of Virgil’s Aeneid. It recounts the love of Dido, Queen of Carthage, for the Trojan hero Aeneas, and her despair when he abandons her.

And today is the birthday of Jean-Baptiste Isabey (Nancy, France 11 April 1767 – 18 April 1855); painter. He was a successful artist, both under the First Empire and to the diplomats of the Congress of Vienna.

At the age of nineteen, after some lessons from Dumont, miniature painter to Marie Antoinette, he became a pupil of Jacques-Louis David. Employed at Versailles on portraits of the dukes of Angoulême and Berry, he was given a commission by the queen, which opens the long list of those he received from successive French rulers until his death.

Patronized by Josephine and Napoleon Bonaparte, he arranged the ceremonies of their coronation and prepared drawings for the publication intended as its official commemoration, a work for which he was paid by Louis XVIII, whose portrait (engraved by Debucourt) he executed in 1814. Although Isabey did homage to Napoleon on his return from Elba, he continued to enjoy the favour of the Restoration, and took part in arrangements for the coronation of Charles X.

The July Monarchy conferred on him an important post in connection with the royal collections, and Napoleon III granted him a pension, and the cross of commander of the Legion of Honor.

A biography of Isabey was published by Edmond Taigny in 1859, and Charles Lenormant’s article, written for Michaud’s Biog. Univ., is founded on facts furnished by Isabey’s family.

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