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A girl was singing in the choir with fervour
Of all who have known exile and distress,
Of all the vessels that have left the harbour
Of all who have forgotten happiness.
Her voice soared up to the dome. Glistening,
A sunbeam brushed her shoulder in its flight,
And from the darkness all were listening
To the white dress singing in the beam of light.
Aleksandr Blok
Translated by Jon Stallworthy and Peter France
A girl in the little church choir was singing
Of all who pine on an alien shore,
Of all ships outward bound for the ocean,
Of all who remember their joy no more.
Up into the dome her voice went soaring,
And on her white shoulder a sunbeam shone,
And in the darkness, all watched and listened
As the white dress sang in the light of the sun.
Alexander Blok
Translated by Alex Miller
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LISA MONDE: ANGEL OF MUSIC |
Who is she, this beautiful girl, singing her song of love with her seraphic voice? Who is this youthful minstrel who has composed the lively tune to amuse the young Queen at the crack of dawn? Who is this hooded broken creature praying to her guardian angel in the resonant solitude of the cathedral? These are the questions one strives to ask when listening to a song of the first CD, recorded by Lisa Monde, which has been issued recently by Pervoye Muzykalnoye Izdatelstvo Co., Russia. Well, let us try to answer them.
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THE PAST |
Since her childhood Lisa has been different; the things that really made her unusual, not like the others of her age, were the expressiveness of her luminous and intelligent green eyes, her passion for knowledge and, of course, her obsession with classical music. Years were passing. Lisa was growing up; and, equally, she was getting to love Bach, Mozart and Schubert more and more; and nothing seemed to augur or prophesy any cardinal change in her life.
Nobody could guess then that Lisa was bound to live through an acute spiritual crisis. “It was frightful and painful to live on!” said she. “I understood that everything that had happened to me, it had happened not just so. I had to regain my mental health, to get rid of my distemper.”
Lisa went to Paris and decided to try living some “simple, but wise life” there. One of her favourite occupations at that time was strolling along silent lanes and side-streets of the city. But it usually happened so that the last point of all her walks used to be Notre Dame de Paris.
Having been enchanted with the beauty of that great gothic cathedral and being a passionate admirer of Victor Hugo, she could not, of course, help visiting the now famous musical “Notre Dame de Paris” which was on in Paris at that moment. The impression she gained defies any description. She was especially impressed by Bruno Pelletier acting and singing the part of Gringoire. Being extremely sensitive to everything false and untrue, Lisa understood at once that for the first time in her live she could see the man who was so sincere and credible, so believable and convincing on the stage when rendering feelings of the character created by Victor Hugo. Bruno ideally matched all Lisa’s musical partialities. His magical and charming voice happened to wake in her hart some most secret emotions that seemed to have been always dwelling there, though in some kind of enchanted sleep. The next day these emotions made her to compose her very first song called “My Angel of Music”. It is needless to say by what thoughts it had been inspired and to whom it was dedicated.
“Having started to compose music,” says Lisa, “I seem to have learned to find answers to questions which sooner or later inevitably start torturing every human being. Why, for example, do we come to this world? What for? In order to enjoy pleasures or to suffer from hardships that our fate prepares for us? Or may we do it in order to break the seemingly unbreakable chain of events? To live in such a way that memories of your live and deeds would exist for centuries in hearts of many people? What is love? Is it really capable of working wonders? Now I know, at last, that there is a man with whose help I can open for me anew this world - full of sounds and so deeply loved - and gain the possibility to give birth to new music; for me it is enough just to know that such a man exists in reality. This simple fact makes my heart beat faster, and happiness comes to me. And the main thing is that I have learnt that it is love that makes our life meaningful, for “it is love that can be so long-suffering and merciful, it is love that does not envy, does not praise itself, does not put on airs, does not behave outrageously, does not expect advantages, does not become irritated, does not think of evil, does not rejoice at lies, but only looks forward to the truth, shields everything, trusts everything, hopes for everything, withstands everything”.
“It’s as if I’ve just discovered the sense of life for myself with this purest love as its base; the very love which makes music sound and the white sheet of paper be covered with lines of lyrics all by itself. And solitude which accompanies such love is the good and the blessing. It is akin to inspiration and separates me from all vanity of this world with a transparent screen-”
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THE PRESENT |
Having just recorded the album consisting of 16 compositions, Lisa decides to continue. It should be noted that the first CD of the young singer contains also such famous things sung by her as Ave Maria by Schubert and Lascia ch’io pianga… by Hendel. Her interpretation of these immortal works of the great authors is highly successful, as has been recognized by most strict critics. Though for her, as for every beginner, it was especially interesting to get to know their opinion of her own works, and she was happy when they were also highly appraised, too.
Now Lisa Monde composes music and writes lyrics for her new songs. She also tries her hand in bigger musical forms: the musical, the opera and the ballet. In the nearest future the public will have a possibility to appreciate them.
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THE FUTURE |
The keenness, which she demonstrates when working on her new songs, makes us believe that we won’t be waiting for her new CD for a long time. As before, Lisa’s creative work, the work of a person who is quite deprived of such human feeling as vanity, appears to be very far from the seemingly inevitable earthy reality.
In her next album Lisa promises to retain the image that may have become loved by those who have had a chance to get acquainted with her first work, though she is not going to appear on stage in the nearest future in spite of all her artistry and ability to gain hearts. She gives the following reasons for this decision: “Before appearing on stage I want people first to appreciate and, I hope, to love my music without paying attention to my scenic image. Besides, I want to gain self-reliance which should come when my concert programme is ready.”
There is, anyhow, one more point that needs to be featured. Lisa writes her songs in English, French, German and Italian, but she does not want to confine her songs only to those languages. Now she is writing also in Latin – lightly and with inspiration. Actually, her songs are cosmopolitan; they do not know any boarders or frontiers. Music is the stuff, intended for all people. It is universal and all-embracing because it includes all immaterial treasures that have been accumulated by the mankind during the so many centuries of its existence.
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