打從兩、三歲時開始學習算數，1、2、3…，直到懂得判讀西曆以來，我想每位好友都十分清楚，「2月」是一年十二個月當中，天數最少的一個月份，不管是平年或是閏年，1923、1983、2023，2月最多就是只有28或29天，毋庸置疑。然而，在西方千載歷史上，2月其實曾出現過第30日......

文化生活

國際

創作

今天是......2月30日。

旅行美食

懼怕的人在愛裡未得完全。上帝用塵土吹氣，創造人類時，「懼怕」是與生俱來的自然情感與天生反應，是不會輕易消失的；但上帝的心意卻是要我們在挑戰與掙扎中學會如何「駕馭」懼怕，而不讓懼怕徹底「控制」了我們。

愛裡沒有懼怕。

「我突然領悟到，這個社會公理式微，正義孤單，該是知識份子挺身而出，發揮道德勇氣的時候。」，陳定南（前法務部長）

政治與評論

義光、哀慟，二二八。

「和解要有『正義』相伴，否則不會長久。雖然我們都希望和平，但它不應該是不惜一切代價的和平，而是基於原則和正義的和平。」，艾奎諾夫人（Corazon Aquino；1933－2009）



推倒高牆的那一天~

於群魔狂舞的板蕩末世，戴上耳機，那發自內心深處淡淡的惆悵，讓人不由得動容再三，讓我哭泣，是的，憐憫我吧！使我獲得仁慈的解脫。

音樂藝文

觀點

Mezzosoprano Joyce DiDonato singing "Lascia ch'io pianga" from Händel's opera Rinaldo, accompanied by Il Pomo d'Oro.
This was part of German TV programme ZDF's broadcast "The Venice of Donna Leon" May 2013.

Joyce DiDonato - Lascia ch'io pianga

George Friedrich Händel - Lascia ch'io pianga mia cruda sorte, from Rinaldo, opera, HWV 7, 1711 | Philippe Jaroussky, 2016. 

"Lascia ch'io pianga
mia cruda sorte,
e che sospiri
la libertà.

Il duolo infranga
queste ritorte
de' miei martiri
sol per pietà.


"Let me weep over
my cruel fate,
and that I may sigh for
freedom

Let my sadness shatter
these chains
of my suffering,
if only out of pity.


Other Performances: 
Philippe Jaroussky - Ombra mai fù https://youtu.be/MQm2C5UrERg

Lascia ch’io pianga, originally Lascia la spina, cogli la rosa, is an Italian-language soprano aria by composer George Frideric Handel that has become a popular concert piece. Its melody is first found in Act III of Handel’s 1705 opera Almira as a sarabande; the score for this can be seen on page 81 of Vol. 55 of Chrysander. Handel then used the tune for the aria Lascia la spina, cogli la rosa, or Leave the Thorn, Take the Rose, for the character Piacere in Part II of his 1707 oratorio Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (which was much later, in 1737, revised as Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità). Four years after that, in 1711, Handel used the music again, this time for his London opera Rinaldo and its Act II aria Lascia ch’io pianga, or Leave Me to Weep, sung by the character Almirena, a soprano role taken by Isabella Girardeau in the premiere. Rinaldo was a triumph, and it is with this work that the aria is chiefly associated.

After composing two Italian operas for Hamburg, two Italian oratorios for Rome, and a third Italian opera for Venice, George Frideric Handel moved to England in 1710 to compose his first Italian opera for London. Produced in the Queen's Theater in the Haymarket on February 24, 1711, Rinaldo would certainly have been an enormous success if the librettist and impresario Aaron Hill had not neglected to pay the tradesmen, thereby causing the Lord Chamberlain to revoke Hill's theater license nine days after the premiere. But Rinaldo paved the way for the quick success of Handel and Italian opera in London and the work was revived in 1712, then again in 1717, and again in 1731.

Hill's libretto is based on Tasso's epic poem on the First Crusade Gerusalamme liberata, but with a new plot and a new female lead to give the story appeal to a then-contemporary London audience. Handel's music is in part a pastiche drawn from many of his earlier dramatic works, and in part a newly composed work with deeply expressive arias and recitative adorned with extravagant trumpet and woodwind writing. Together, Hill's libretto and Handel's music create a powerful and plangent opera with strong and sympathetic leads in Rinaldo and Almirenda and a superbly coherent and convincing score.

歷史上的昨天、今天與明天

2月