{"id":4166,"date":"2017-02-25T06:39:51","date_gmt":"2017-02-25T14:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=4166"},"modified":"2017-02-25T06:39:51","modified_gmt":"2017-02-25T14:39:51","slug":"swan-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=4166","title":{"rendered":"Swan Song"},"content":{"rendered":"

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After a particularly trying episode of whooping cough my sister and I were dragged to the Black Forest to “take the air.” Walks through rainy meadows and dark forests, populated by dwarfs and witches in my vivid imagination, did nothing to improve the mood. My mother’s bedside reading, however, did. She had brought Walter\u00a0Slezak’s biography of his father, Leo Slezak,\u00a0What time’s the next swan?, <\/em>and laughed out loud ever so often under our bulging feather beds. Slezak was a Wagnerian Heldentenor, larger than life, with a wicked sense of humor. When singing Lohengrin, the opera technicians sent the swan-like boat, meant for his entrance onto the stage, full force ahead without him in it. He is reported to have drily inquired” Wann, bitte, geht der n\u00e4chste Schwan?”<\/p>\n

\"\"https:\/\/www.amazon.de\/What-Times-Next-Swan-Slezak\/dp\/B0007DL03Q\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1487961603&sr=1-1&keywords=what+time%27s+the+next+swan%3F<\/a><\/p>\n

Having no clue what the opera was about, I was subsequently\u00a0treated to\u00a0my mother’s re-enactment of the basic story of Lohengrin, fueled, no doubt, by her\u00a0enjoyment of the local specialty of pear\u00a0brandy.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZWg2UD5kzjA<\/a><\/p>\n

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Decades\u00a0later I had a similarly wonderful experience, when a bunch of hippies re-enacted, singing and all, another tale unknown to me: The Wizard of Oz<\/em>. I had tried to mend a broken heart on a Caribbean Island and here I was marveling at flying monkeys and songs of tin men (now, I wonder, why would heartless, hollow men come to mind..) \u00a0– all of us, this time, stoned out of our minds. Life can be pretty amazing.<\/p>\n

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