Betrothal

"The courtship of Benedick and Beatrice has a beautiful observed reality, a poise and maturity, a refreshing humour which makes the operatic main plot seem absurdly unreal." It is clear that Beatrice and Benedick are in love from the first we see of them; it is not simply through the Prince's intervention that the seeds of love are sown between them. When Beatrice is informed that Don Pedro and his party are coming to Messina, her first thought is for her 'Senior Mountanto'. Within four spoken…

She aced the interview with the oil company and would start her new job in two weeks. She would work as the new Drilling Fluids Engineer, most often referred to as the ‘Mud Man’. Or ‘Mud Person’ as it pertained to her situation on the oil platform in the North Sea, off the coast of Durness, Scotland. With her degree as a petroleum geologist in hand, but brief time working in the field, she applied for the mud engineer position. The limited extent of her fieldwork occurred during summers and…

Chapter 2 A Brief Background of Dvo??k Anton?n Dvo??k (1841?1904) was one of the most versatile and prolific composers of the nineteenth century, reaching into almost all genres of music from piano miniatures to comprehensively conceived vocal-orchestra compositions. His output encompasses nine symphonies and fifty-five other orchestral pieces, eleven opera, eleven works for chorus and orchestra, nine small choral works, thirty-five sets of songs and duets, fifty-five chamber works for various…