Sing-Along Reunion

Verona, Wisconsin, April 2016. The Redbud hosts another visitor.

In-Flight Entertainment

At the Opera

Kaunas, Lithuania, March 22, 1927. The American Consul to Lithuania attends the opera. The Consul wrote:

This evening we heard Carmen at the opera with Kovno's best singer, Petrauskas. At one time, he sang with the St. Petersburg opera, but somehow drifted to Kovno after the war [see here and here]. He is an excellent singer and actor. ... The orchestra did well considering its small size. ... The scenery was good, it having been painted by a Kovno artist who went to Spain to find appropriate scenes. We were in the diplomatic box with Mr. and Mrs. Balodis (the Latvian minister), Mr. Oiderman (the Estonian representative, and Mr. Balutis, who is about to be appointed Under Secretary in the Foreign Office which will give him almost the rank of a cabinet minister. ... President and Mrs. Smetona were in the box next to us. ... The theater was completely filled and the audience was most enthusiastic, calling Petrauskas and others before the curtain many times after each act.

Thanks to the Consul's Granddaughter for making this photo available to us.

The Madison Kūčios Celebration

Madison-Vilnius Sister Cities, Inc. and the Madison-area folk dance group, Žaibas, hosted its annual Kūčios gathering yesterday. It's a lovely event, and folks arrive from around the state to celebrate the occasion.

Madison, Wisconsin, December 12, 2015. Each table featured a plate of plotkelės.

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Madison, Wisconsin, December 12, 2015. It's a potluck affair. I made Christmas Fish. (See menu items and recipes here and here and here.)

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Madison, Wisconsin, December 12, 2015. We had several delicious herring dishes.

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Madison, Wisconsin, December 12, 2015. That's my (first) plate. My favorite dish was the "Herring Under a Fur Coat."

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Madison, Wisconsin, December 12, 2015. Santa arrives!

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Madison, Wisconsin, December 12, 2015. Santa engages the children in the "Jurgelis Meistrelis" dance. Santa had push-ups on the mind.

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Madison, Wisconsin, December 12, 2015. This Santa was so good that even his children didn't recognize him.

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Madison, Wisconsin, December 12, 2015. Santa had a tree decorated with straw ornaments.

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Madison, Wisconsin, December 12, 2015. Finally, it's time for the gifts!

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Madison, Wisconsin, December 12, 2015. Aww, bless.

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Madison, Wisconsin, December 12, 2015. There's no free gift for the older children: each must recite a poem or perform a song before Santa passes along the prize.

Hallelujah Chorus

This video is not new, but it still makes me smile.

Christmas Manners: Dance with Santa

Suburban Chicago, December 1964. The children from our Lithuanian school join in another round of "Jurgelis Meistrelis." I'm the girl with the eyeglasses; my friend Kris wears a plaid skirt and faces the camera.

Class Notes (Part 19)

Kaunas, Lithuania September 27, 1934. In this Class Notes entry, my Mom's friend wrote:

For memories from Julia.

The Nightingale is a beautiful little bird
May it sing for you
a happy tune.

Written in the second class.

Caption: "I'm carrying gifts for you!"

It looks like stickers were popular in the 1930s, too.

Musical Memory

My Mom has been a lifelong opera and operetta lover. She and Dad occasionally bought season tickets to Chicago's Lyric Opera, and we usually listened to Saturday opera radio broadcasts (but I always preferred ballet). We celebrated New Year's Eve by watching Die Fledermaus on television, and we caught a staging of The Merry Widow in Central City, Colorado.

When Mom was growing up, the three most popular sopranos where Jeanette MacDonald, Marta Eggerth, and Deanna Durbin. Mom collected cards with images of each singer, and she and her friends went to the cinema* to watch the dubbed movies in which the starlets appeared.

In about 1934 or 1935 Marta Eggerth arrived in Kaunas for a concert. The city officials prohibited Eggerth from singing in the opera house because Eggerth specialized in operettas, a musical form, according to authorities, beneath the dignity of the opera house. Eggerth therefore sang at an outdoor theater. My Mom's maternal Aunt Dora took Mom to that concert. Mom recalls Eggerth wore a white gown on stage. When we watched a few Eggerth clips on YouTube, Mom even got a bit misty.

Vienna, Austria, July 1971. This is the Vienna State Opera. It was natural for Dad to photograph this building when we visited Vienna.

*The same cinema at which Dora used to accompany the silent movies.

A Memorable House

Suburban Chicago, June 1961. This is my Best Friend's house; she lived in the Ashley model. The open window is in the home's kitchen. A serviceberry tree grew under that window. The berries made a mess on the patio pavement, but they attracted many birds.

The family living next door to this house had older, intimidating, boys. When the boys were teens, they organized a garage band. One June evening my Best Friend and I sat on their driveway and listened to the band play "Hanky Panky." We thought we were so cool: we sang along, "My baby doesn't hang a penny."

Dad took this photo from our yard. The pole on the left is the swingset support; on the right is one of the weeping willows.

RIP Margaret Juntwait

The "voice of the Met."

The Life Box (Part 19)

It's been a while since I did a "Life Box" post.

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Suburban Chicago, 1963. Here's a memento from my Grandmother's French-language lessons.

(We used to sing "Frère Baci" to that lullaby melody when Baci was a puppy.)

Accompaniment

Suburban Chicago, September 1962. My paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, offers a tune.

Independence Day

Bulger Park, Veterans Park District, Melrose Park, Illinois, February 1965. The older girls sing during an Independence-Day minejimas. (The younger children waited in the audience until it was our turn to take the stage.)

That's my friend Ron at the piano. My friend Kris stands second from left. The braided trim on Kris's folkdress and mine were identical because our Mom's worked together to sew the blouses and aprons.

The Elves' Chorus

Toronto, Ontario, Canada, about 1966. The elves enter the stage.

Thanks to Toronto Al for making this photo available to us.

Earning gifts.

Melrose Park, Illinois, December 1960. The Lithuanian-school Santa Fake distributes gifts, but only after the children recite poetry, sing, or write on the chalkboard. Although I still was (a nose picker and) too young to attend the Saturday school, I did receive two gifts: Santa brought me a stethoscope and a doctor's bag.

"A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody"

Near New Glarus, Wisconsin, October 19, 2014. We pulled over again to visit the Swiss Browns. This beauty belted out a note when we cooed to her.

"Both videos are set in Venice, but while the American singer rolled around sensually in a gondola, the nun sings in various landmarks wearing a habit."

Sister Cristina covers "Like a Virgin:"

The Pink Cake

Suburban Chicago, July 1960. My Parents adopted American traditions: girls get pink cakes, and everyone sings "Happy Birthday."

It's time to sing "Ilgiausių Metų" again.

Suburban Chicago, June 3, 1989. Here's a clip of the wedding guests singing "Ilgiausių Metų." When they finish the first verse, a woman asserts "Vaisingų!!", or "Fruitful Years!!" That prompts me to gesture a finger wag.

This is the first thing I saw when I went online this morning.

A Lithuanian folked-up version of Blurred Lines: