The Countess is in despair. She feels she is no longer loved. In just 3 minutes, in her first appearance in the opera, she explains. Jessye Norman is our guide.
Violetta Parra was one of the leading voices of Chilean folk music as well as a painter, poet and sculptor, and her influence spread far beyond her country and continent. This song ('Being Seventeen Again') looks back on youth from middle age.
If you think you can hear echoes of the Blues on this track that is because it is the Blues; African Desert Blues as performed by Malian singer and musician Ali Farka Tourè, mixing Malian traditional music with the blues from across the Atlantic. This song is from his 1994 collaboration with American musician Ry Cooder.
Composed in 1894, this is one of Debussy's most famous and influential works. Based on the poem of the same name by the French symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé, it depicts the faun's sleepy, daydreamy afternoon. Perfect for a Friday afternoon; or as the background to that latest Teams meeting.
The Bonzos met at Art School. It was the 60s.
Neil Innes, composer and vocalist on 'Urban Spaceman,' went on to write the music for the Rutles, a parody and homage to the Beatles.
One of the rites of passage of youth is staying up all night, preferably a Saturday night so, as dawn breaks, you can play this Song of the Week. With vocals by Lou Reed and backing vocals from Nico, this is from the Velvet Underground's much lauded first album.
You can of course play it after a good night's sleep. Or on a Friday.
1980s pop has a lot of fans which comes as a surprise to some of the people who were there at the time (including your Song of the Week correspondent). Mind you, you should have been around in the 70s.
Still, even the most grudging of critics has to admit to one or two gems and this is one of them. Great hook, great title, stupid video. No comment on the hair. Welcome to the 80s.
it is often said that there were no great British composers between Henry Purcell (1659-1695) and the 20th Century and certainly no great opera composers between Purcell and Benjamin Britten after the Second World War. Then again, Purcell left a very high bar. This famous aria is from his only opera, Dido and Aeneas.
What better way to celebrate a sizzling weekend than hot stuff from the Man in Black. Ring of Fire was co-written by June Carter, Johnny Cash's future wife, about their early relationship (and no, Cash wasn't the other co-writer). There is plenty of Johnny Cash on YouTube including his famous concerts at American prisons in the late 1960s. Cash himself had spent a few nights in prison in his time.
In the first week of June, here is a song about June performed by the comic genius of Stan and Ollie. Like much of their routine it starts well...