One of the hardest hit aspects of national life under lockdown has been the arts. So I'm not surprised that some musicians have taken advantage of this to make music that is explicitly created separately.
One of my favourite songs ever is "Stranger in Paradise". It's from the musical Kismet but uses music from Borodin's Polovtsian Dances. I remember my mother humming the beautiful main melody, and in 1955 no fewer than five versions of it made it to the hit paarde.
In the video, from an album called Together.... At a Distance, actors and singers Julian Ovendon and Sierra Boggess sing from their own homes. It takes a moment to get used to this, but the point is that art goes on, even under lockdown. You will notice Sierra watering her plants, perhaps an allusion to the setting of the song in the musical in a garden.
If I stand starry-eyed, that's a danger in paradise
For mortals who stand beside an angel like you
Out of the commonplace into the rare
Until I know there's a chance that you care
Don't send me in dark despair from all that I hunger for
But open your angel's arms to the stranger in paradise
And tell him that he need be a stranger no more
Out of the commonplace into the rare
Don't send me in dark despair from all that I hunger for
But open your angel's arms to the stranger in paradise
And tell me that I need be a stranger no more
A stranger no more (in lockdown ascension)
ReplyDeleteA beautiful image of the Angels receiving us into their Paradise.
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