This is a quick entry as I am busy with PhD work, but the amazing Stephanie Graham Pina reminded me about this today when we were discussing the Victorian actress Dame Ellen Terry on Facebook.
Ellen Terry
Her great-nephew Sir John Gielgud, considered one of the greatest actors of the 20th Century, performed a wonderful version of part of Tennyson's Ulysses for a 1996 commercial for Union Bank of Switzerland.
I
really like that it has the lines: "Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late
to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite the
sounding furrows; for my purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset, and
the baths of all the western stars, until I die" in it as they are
perhaps my favourite lines in the history of poetry. Gielgud's voice was perfect for a performance of the poem. Terry herself perfomed Tennyson on stage in a number of his plays (Not as well known as his poetry but he did write a number of them). Most notability in the 1893 production of Becket (Photos of her in the role of Rosamund can be found here and here)
I have a confession to make: I totally adore the Norwegian band Katzenjammer.
Marianne Sveen, Solveig Heilo,Anne Marit Bregheim, and Turid Jørgensen (photo from Universal Germany)
It is hard to describe their style as the group consisting of Marianne Sveen, Solveig Heilo,Anne Marit Bregheim, and Turid Jørgensen play everything from folk and country to more punky and pop sounds with a multitude of different instruments. I love all three of their studio albums and the concert I went to earlier this year was the best I've attended bar none. I am really looking forward to seeing them again next month.
Today I just want to spotlight a song of theirs that has a connection to Victorian era literature from their first album: Virginia Clemm (Music by Helio with lyrics by Mats Rybø)
Virginia Clemm was the wife of Edgar Allan Poe who he married when she was 13 and he was 26. Their marriage was an unhappy one with Poe being involved in scandals with other women. She died of tuberculosis aged 24, leaving Poe to a number of poems involving a man outliving his wife, including The Raven.
Virginia Clemm (photo from wikipedia)
The song, written from perceptive of the dead Clemm, is a haunting examination of the relationship between her and her husband and a message to Poe that she is his inspiration. A beautiful song from an excellent album.
On October 7th 1849, the American master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe died. As with many people of my generation I first encountered Poe not in books but through the medium of television. Yes, today I'm spotlighting The Simpsons version of The Raven from the 1990 episode Treehouse of Horror.
The wonderful thing about this version is while it retains much of the horror of the original poem it adds a commentary on the changing face of horror with Bart's comments. What terrified people in the 1840s, isn't as scary in the 1990s. I also adore James Earl Jones as the narrator and Dan Castellaneta's over the top performance as the terrified Homer. Buy The Simpsons Season 2 Amazon US | Amazon UK
If you are wondering who wrote what, this blog should help. ;) But the final line "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield". from Tennyson's 'Ulysses' was having quite the year in 2012. Not only was it memorably used in Skyfall but it was also the motto of the 2012 London Olympics.
