In questa tomba oscura...

In questa tomba oscura, lasciami riposar:
Quando vivevo, ingrata, dovevi a me pensar,
Ingrata, ingrata!

Those words are from a poem by Guiseppe Carpani which Beethoven, along with sixty-two other composers, was challenged to set to music in 1808. The Beethoven version is a song that Feodor Chaliapin used to sing and that Chris and I are learning now. He's being very lugubrious about it:

In this dark tomb, let me repose.
While I lived, ungrateful woman,
You should have thought of me.

The image of the ghost in the dark tomb was very apt this late afternoon as we had scraped so much snow off our roof onto the deck it had come half way up our living room windows making it dark indeed within.

If you want some light relief, on no account should you listen to anyone singing The Lost Chord, even though Dame Clara Butt did find "something of the grandeur of Beethoven in it", but I can recommend I'm The Guy Who Found The Lost Chord, by Jimmy Durante.