Afternoon of a…White Rabbit!?

An allusion to Alice in Wonderland is made in the post entitled Pool of Tears, and embedded in that entry is a rather surreal use of some of Debussy’s Ballet Music in an otherwise familiar tale.

Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un Faun epitomizes French Impressionist sensibility, and features a central Flute Solo, perfectly shaped to exact full lung-capacity of the player! (This version is a little vibrato-heavy, but, hey: it’s Stokowski!) It is this re-mounting of the original version by The Paris Opera Ballet that I recommend.

For a more contemporary glimpse of Nijinsky’s Paris, try this fantastic site: ParisDailyPhoto! Eric is a Parisian-based photographer who posts urban images of the timeless city…and for some contrasting, animal-themed French music, try this YouTube rendition of Honegger’s Danse de la Chevre: it includes most of the notes, and generally conveys the playful character of this descriptive, playful piece.

And one last link, since admittedly I’m a little White Stripes-obsessed of late, here is this duos fresh, clever blues-style, with direct Alice references.

Photo by Adolph de Meyer