The revived Christmas page.
Australians for a Marriage Equality Christmas
from my city
Some special Christmas recordings by my dear friend Bogdan Mihai.
If you overdo it or get excited, do it with style.
Always look your best.
Something traditional and extraordinary.
"Christmastide"
This extract (Jessye's Carol) is from my most treasured CD and DVD. Arranged and composed by Donald Fraser, this is the most glorious interpretation of the songs of Christmas. The divine voice of Jesse Norman is guaranteed to envelop you with a warm glow of comfort and cover you in goose bumps. Several years ago Donald Fraser wrote to me after seeing comments I had made on my old web site about this spectacular recording that he composed. Recorded in 1988 it has become a constant and essential part of my Christmas for the decades ever since.
Please play this.
There are more extracts on YouTube.
Jessye has always been my nomination for Empress of the World.
An Unusual Christmas tale below.
An Unusual Christmas tale below.
Nicholas and The Pickled Boys
from St Nicholas Cantata -Benjamin Britten
The choir sings of approaching travellers struggling along a wintry road seeking food in the city. Three women call for their missing boys, "Timothy, Mark, and John are gone." Upon reaching the inn, the travellers order a meal and invite Nicolas to join them. But Nicolas suddenly warns them not to touch the meat, for it is the flesh of the missing boys who have been killed by the butcher and pickled in salt. Before the eyes of the travellers, Nicolas calls the three boys back to life. They enter hand-in-hand, singing, "Alleluia." The choir joins them in praising God for the miracle. video below.
From the grand, spectacular, full on and thrilling 1965 recording of Joan Sutherland 'The Joy of Christmas'. This recording always blew people (ie drunk gay party boys) away at parties. All of Joan's carols are on YouTube.
The Spontaneous Christmas Truce of WWI
The Christmas truce of 1914, just 4 moths after the outbreak of war, was a remarkable phenomenon. Soldiers overcome with the spirit they missed laid down their arms and enemy met enemy between the trenches. There was for a time, genuine peace in No Man's Land. Though the Germans and British were the main participants, the French and Belgians took part as well. They came together talking and shaking hands with the very men they had been trying to kill a few hours before! It did not happen again in the war, but was not unique in history. Informal truces have often taken place over the centuries during long periods of fighting. There are numerous incidents in different wars on different continents of friendship between enemies visiting each others lines, drawing water at the same wells, playing football and sitting around the same campfire sharing their rations, smoking, drinking and playing cards. The Christmas truce of 1914 does not stand-alone, but is certainly the most notable example of its kind. Not only the ordinary soldier, but also NCOs and officers enthusiastically joined in as well. The truce, including photographs and letters from the troops made it into the newspapers from the moment news of it reached home. We should consider it an event to be treasured. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his history of 1914 called the Christmas Truce "an amazing spectacle" and in a memorable description saluted it as "one human episode amid all the atrocities which have stained the memory of the war."
The stunning 2005 film about this.
Happy Christmas War is over
Not the best quality for this old clip, but how often do you get three of the greatest opera singers in the world singing a song by John and Yoko. Well it has become one of the great traditional Christmas songs over the last four decades.
Written 1971.
