A Concert by Singer, Armando Prada

Thanks to our friend, Mila Garcia, we heard this remarkable singer in concert last night at the Escalapios (where a lot of concerts take place in Monforte.) He sets to music poetry by Galician poets and then sings and plays the accompaniment.

You can go to YouTube (link here) for a sample of his singing but click to midway, as at first he starts off quoting the poetry and giving some background to it — all in Galegan or Castiliano — so unless you are fluent in either, you won't understand. (Although, his speaking voice is mesmerizing and is a true storyteller's voice. It can pull you in, anyway.) 

But do click to halfway through to hear his singing. 

This particular song — from a poem by Rosalia de Castro, a 19th century Galician poetess — is one he sang last night. 

He also sang two beautiful songs taken from poems by Federico García Lorca. One that especially moved me translates as "Nocturne for a Dead Youth".

We bought a CD for him to autograph, which we did very graciously.

The whole CD is of poems by Rosalia de Castro, and the songs are very haunting. She was born (and died) in Santiago de Compostela, so is definitely the poet for the area, although she is famous in Spain and worldwide.

I would love to post a picture of her, but am nervous about copyright in the US, so I will direct you to two sites that have pictures of her, one of which also has samples of her beautiful poetry.

The poetry site:

Wikipedia (which has a really good picture)

Do you like music from other countries? Do you prefer singing or instrumental? Who is one of your favorite artists?

Springtime in Galicia — Sort of . . ..

We are in Galicia, Spain, now. We arrived two weeks ago today, and for the most part, this is what springtime in Galicia has looked like this year. Still, no matter how cloudy and rainy, it's always beautiful. We've had rain every single day, but also we've had sprinkles of sunshine every single day. It's always that way in Galicia, although this year in April there has been more rain than sunshine. It does give a different aspect to things. I find that stormy days suggests story.


 

Take this picture of the Parador, which is one of my favorite buildings in Monforte de Lemos,        where we now are renting an apartment while we have put our Trasulfe house up for sale.
             

Doesn't this suggest a somber novel to you?

Speaking of novels, one reason I haven't been posting is that I am hard at work on a new novel, a mystery novel, that requires a lot of research. I'm enjoying it a lot and feeling pangs of guilt for my lack of sociability on line. Nonetheless, my imaginary friends are calling, and I can't let them down. In a future post I will tell a little more about the Parador.


Meanwhile, spring really is coming to this beautiful area. Here is proof:

How about you? Does your writing interfere with your social life? Or is it vice versa?