Belated birthday greetings to a late (and truly great) American diva

Thank you, Opera Fresh, for reminding us that Beverly "Bubbles" Sills was born on 25 May 1929... although she passed away in 2007, we still like to commemorate her birthday because her singing has given us so much joy over the years. Here is a lovely audio performance (with still photos instead of video footage) of Bubbles singing the stuff we love so well -- Händel -- followed by other gorgeous clips we found during our YouTube ramblings... call it our Love-Händels playlist...

If you love the music of Händel as much as we do, no encouragement will be needed, I'm sure; but if you think Baroque music is stuffy, difficult, tedious, unfeeling, or worse, let me help you to change your mind with the following selections. Please enjoy while refreshing yourself with delicious tea and snacks... total running time of all clips together is about an hour, just the ticket for a perfect peaceful pause:

v/OBT1h1gqMw4 

“Ah perchè, giusto ciel” from Rodelinda by GF Handel

Beverly Sills (25 May 1929 - 02 July 2007)

v/KXQdxvj-7YA

“Piangerò la sorte mia” from Giulio Cesare by GF Handel
Leontyne Price accompanied by Davud Garvey
08 Oct 1978

v/l5lbVdr-2WU

“Piangerò la sorte mia” from Giulio Cesare by GF Handel
Inger-Dam Jensen in a regie-style Danish production -- do not be deterred by the modern staging, listen to her voice and watch her expressions -- she is brilliant.

v/5h33HLxevV4 

 "Scherza Infida" from Ariodante by GF Handel

Tatiana Troyanos; recorded in 1971

v/HAv175N7sGs 

“Scherza infida” from Ariodante by GF Handel

Susan Graham, SFOpera, cond. Patrick Summers (featuring Rufus Olivier Jr, principal bassoon)
Summer 2008 season -- note that this is a rather distorted, totally unauthorized recording from a live performance at San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House; it remains an important historical record nonetheless, and I hope my pals at the Opera won't be mad at me for posting it. Ariodante is one of La Graham’s signature roles, and we were so lucky to hear her (several times!) in this incomparable role debut.

Got your tea ready? Go to it... we rarely regale you with videos, but we want you to understand how strongly we admire these selections and  hope that you will make a musical teatime out of them today.

Our personal tea selection for this playlist:
{Blend 1018 from Edwards Premium Tea}

So Happy Birthday, Bubbles, and thanks to you, Leontyne, Inger-Dam, Tatiana, and Susan for this wonderful musical massage,
xo, Dustin
{Trix waves from the kitchen where she is making our tea}

Taken from http://tdustinfannings.blogspot.com/