Al Di Meola: Across the Universe

I do not live in the center of the musical universe; even with the Internet, I do not discover some music until quite some time after it has been released. I have only now learned of Al Di Meola's 2020 release of Beatles' material with his Across the Universe CD.

Yesterday, I opened Spotify with the idea of listening Al Di Meola's music. The idea to listen to his music came to me in a rather round about way. Facebook had introduced me to the music of 40 Fingers - Guitar Quartet. Listening to that group's music on Spotify put me in mind of Di Meola. I've enjoyed his music thru the years, but it has been quite a long time since I listened to any of his material.

While listening to Elegant Gypsy, I perused his catalogue on Spotify. Being a fan of the Beatles and Di Meola, I was excited when I discovered Across the Universe . The list of songs on the recording is impressive. Oddly enough, however, my favorite track is a tune recorded by the Fab Four, but one which they did not write - Till There Was You -. Did Di Meola run out of Lennon/McCartney songs?

Sadly, upon listening to the CD, I was disappointed. Maybe I expected too much. Top notch Beatle songs played by a top notch musician - what could go wrong? I knew that Di Meola would not follow the straight and narrow musical path. I knew that there would be some alternative interpretations. I'm ok with that; after all, my favorite cover of a Beatles' tune is Frank Zappa doing I Am the Walrus.

I've saved this CD into my Spotify library - I'll listen to it again. I don't hate the recordings. There are some very fine moments, but I don't find that the recordings reached my expectations. Perhaps I was expecting too much.

After the Divorce - Grazia Deledda

I recently came upon the name of the Italian writer Grazia Deledda. She was the first Italian woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926 and only the second woman in general after Selma Lagerlöf was awarded hers in 1909.

Deledda was highly regarded in her day, although her name is little known in the English speaking world today. Fortunately for me , four of her novels were translated into English years ago and are available for downloading at Project Gutenberg.
Dopo il divorzio (After the Divorce)
Cenere (Ashes)
La Madre (The Woman & the Priest)
Nostalgie (Nostalgia)

Of these four novels, the only one of which I could find a description was After the Divorce. The one paragraph long synopsis from Wikipedia follows:

"This tragedy is set in Sardinia. Constantino Ledda is convicted on charges for murdering his wicked uncle. Constantino is innocent, but he accepts the verdict because of his wife, Giovanna. After Constantino is convicted, Giovanna has no economic means to support her family, so she divorces her husband and remarries, this time to a wealthy but cruel landowner. Constantino is released after the real killer confesses, and he and Giovanna start a forbidden romance".

That short synopsis was enough to interest me in reading the novel, although the description doesn't really do justice to the novel. There are, quite naturally, heavy Catholic overtones, especially on the subject of marriage and divorce.

This is something a little odd about the novel and it's translation. The original Italian was published in 1902, but the story begins in 1904. The English translation was published in 1905 with the story beginning in 1907. I have no idea why the later dates were used in the story.

I'll be going next to Cenere (Ashes).

As an aside - in the last three novels that I've read, Crime and Punishment, The Red and the Black, and After the Divorce, the protagonist is imprisoned after being convicted of murder, although the end result is very different for each one.

Le Rouge et le Noir

In a recent post, I mentioned that I had begun reading Stendhal's The Red and the Black, on the recommendation of Dr. Jordan Peterson's list of "Great Books". At the time of that post, I was half way thru the novel. I wrote that although I was enjoying the novel, I couldn't see it being classified as a "Great Book".

I finished the book a few days ago.

As I said earlier, I enjoyed reading the first portion of the novel, but as I went further along, the book became a drudge. I was enjoying it less and less and it was becoming a grind to pick it up. I was not, however going to give up on the novel. I had already given up on one novel this year -[ The Valley of Decision ] and I wasn't going to add another unfinished novel so soon afterward.

I made the right decision on The Red and the Black. The ending was very surprising and it made the read worthwhile. Although I am glad to have finished reading the novel, I still don't think I'd put it on my list of Great Novels. The novel was written more than 190 years ago, and anyone wishing to know how it ends can find out easy enough. I'm not the sort to furnish spoilers even with a novel nearly 200 years old.

There were two English translations of The Red and the Black which were available for free download. Perhaps my displeasure with the middle section of the novel is due to an inferior translation. I could, if I choose to, begin reading the other translation and compare. Maybe someday, but certainly not now.

February Book List

On the last day of January, I posted a list of the books I had read that month. I wrote in that earlier post that I'd make monthly recordings of book listings a regular feature. Somehow, I had neglected to check that post and thought I'd made the promise for the first day of the new month. I should have posted the book list yesterday, but here it is today.

A day late.....sue me.



 

A Backward Glance                       Edith Wharton
Autobiography                               Calvin Coolidge
The Headless Horseman:
A Strange Tale of Texas                 Mayne Reid
The Phoenix on the Sword             Robert E. Howard
Conan the Conqueror                     Robert E. Howard
Swiss Family Robinson                 Johann David Wyss
Crime and Punishment                   Fyodor Dostoevsky