Tea at Trianon: Anthony Hopkins, Composer

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Anthony Hopkins, Composer

From NPR:

Anthony Hopkins has been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, and has played Richard I, Richard Nixon, monarchs, statesmen, geniuses and heroes. He won an Academy Award playing one of the most notorious movie villains in history: Hannibal Lecter, the criminal cannibal with an affinity for Bach. Now, Hopkins is making his own music.

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra of England performed original classical music written by Anthony Hopkins last year in the U.K. A recording of those live performances, called Composer, was recently released there and rocketed to the top of the U.K. classical charts. Hopkins tells NPR's Scott Simon that he's been writing music for some time, improvising on pianos and writing bits and pieces on manuscripts for more than 50 years.

"I just did it for the sheer fun of it," Hopkins says. "My wife, Stella, said [I] should take this and orchestrate it and get it performed by a major symphony orchestra. It took me about a year to put all the pieces together." (Read more.)

julygirl said...: His gifts continue to amaze me. No comparison with the young Anthony Hopkins. He just gets better.; May 21, 2014 at 9:35:00 AM EDT