The Seventh Day of Christmas - The Music of Gounod

Charles Gounod (181-1893), a quintessentially Victorian composer in style and aspirations, was thoroughly Parisian, though he did live in England for awhile to quiet a marital scandal. He won the Prix de Rome in 1837 and, like Rossini, was a trained singer having what was described as a small but sweet tenor voice. This training must have served him well as a composer for the voice.

Gounod fell in love with the story of Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers at the tender age of nineteen, when he attended an orchestral rehearsal of Berlioz's dramatic symphony Romeo et Juliette. Decades later, in 1864, Gounod set out to create an operatic version that to this day never fails to inspire and move its audience.

While the second act of this great opera is my favorite, too long to play here; I offer on this Seventh Day of Christmas Juliette's entrance in Act One. The aria, "Je veux vivre", is sung in this performance by Anna Netrebko taken from a 2007 recital in Paris which she shared with Roando Villazon.



A prayer for the season of Christmas:

Good and gracious God, as we begin a new year, a new journey, a new opportunity to make a fresh start, help us bracket out all the noises of our past, all the noises of what people might say, all the noises of how others might measure our "worthiness," and embolden us to seek you out no matter what places it might take us, no matter what treasures it might cost, no matter what sacrifices might need to be made. Guide us by the light of your grace as we earnestly seek to follow. Amen.

Love One Another - Brian