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Sep. 5th, 2005 07:50 am
Not a post about Katrina
Instead, trying to avoid horror for just one day, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
murasaki_1966 and I went to Nana Mouskouri's farewell concert.
I remember watching her tv show avidly when I was young (we're talking pre-teenager) - my parents were big fans of Greek music so my early childhood had a background soundtrack of Nana and Mikis Theodorakis. Obviously, she's changed since then - from a svelt nerd-goddess-dream with her iconic black rimmed glasses and her straight black hair and simple clothes, to a Greek mother, more portly now, hair still jet-black but somehow more matronly then winsome.
Her voice, however, has changed more dramatically. She was unable to handle the transitions between registers that many of her songs demanded - I kept thinking of a formula-one driver coming out of retirement only to spin out on the sharp curves, saving themselves in the last possible moment before slamming into a wall.
Not to say the concert was a car crash. By the end I was deeply moved by the experience, reminded of a simpler time when a singer could sing about world peace without a hint of irony, when a diva had to have a vast range with a rich voice to follow it up to be worthy of the title. Nana switched effortlessly between Greek folk songs, blues numbers, Bob Dylan songs, old standards (why did I think "Turn on the Sun" was in part dedicated to the New Orleans disaster - oops, reference crept in) in a way that would put Celine Dion, Beyonce and all the other thin voiced harridans that pollute the airwaves today to shame.
She may be daggy and out of date, but her professionalism and dedication to her craft reminded me of a simpler world we've now lost.
murasaki_1966 and I went to Nana Mouskouri's farewell concert.I remember watching her tv show avidly when I was young (we're talking pre-teenager) - my parents were big fans of Greek music so my early childhood had a background soundtrack of Nana and Mikis Theodorakis. Obviously, she's changed since then - from a svelt nerd-goddess-dream with her iconic black rimmed glasses and her straight black hair and simple clothes, to a Greek mother, more portly now, hair still jet-black but somehow more matronly then winsome.
Her voice, however, has changed more dramatically. She was unable to handle the transitions between registers that many of her songs demanded - I kept thinking of a formula-one driver coming out of retirement only to spin out on the sharp curves, saving themselves in the last possible moment before slamming into a wall.
Not to say the concert was a car crash. By the end I was deeply moved by the experience, reminded of a simpler time when a singer could sing about world peace without a hint of irony, when a diva had to have a vast range with a rich voice to follow it up to be worthy of the title. Nana switched effortlessly between Greek folk songs, blues numbers, Bob Dylan songs, old standards (why did I think "Turn on the Sun" was in part dedicated to the New Orleans disaster - oops, reference crept in) in a way that would put Celine Dion, Beyonce and all the other thin voiced harridans that pollute the airwaves today to shame.
She may be daggy and out of date, but her professionalism and dedication to her craft reminded me of a simpler world we've now lost.
