Bachianas Brasileiras #5: Aria by Heitor Villa-Lobos, performed by Kathleen Battle

Take a five minutes in your busy day to listen to this beautiful aria by Heitor Villa-Lobos, performed by soprano Kathleen Battle accompanied by Christopher Parkening on guitar.

ABOUT THE COMPOSER: Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959) was a Brazilian composer, described as “the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music.” Villa-Lobos wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental, and vocal works. His music was influenced by both Brazilian folk music and by stylistic elements from the European classical tradition, as exemplified by his Bachianas Brasileiras (Brazilian Bachian-pieces). (SOURCE: Wikipedia.org.)

Cervantes and Shakespeare

“Cervantes and Shakespeare occupied almost the same lifespan. In fact, they both died on the same day, April 23, 1616, by the Gregorian calendar. Don Quixote was published in 1605, and the first edition of Hamlet was probably published in 1603 or 1604. It is as if the two men stood back to back, Cervantes looking backward and Shakespeare looking forward. Cervantes pointed his genius backward and illuminated the medieval consciousness that was just ending in Europe…Shakespeare, in Hamlet, looked forward and made a statement about the modern man who was to come.” ROBERT A. JOHNSON, in Transformation: Understanding the Three Levels of Masculine Consciousness

Illustration: “Ecce Cervantes” an entry by Brazil‘s Gustavo Berocan in The Cecilia Prize, a contest honoring amateur art restorer Cecilia Gimenez. To date, the contest has received about 4,000 entries. View the gallery here.