I listened to it all the way through. The horn part is familiar...It may have been in a WB cartoon of that era. (Don't laugh...They had some respect for culture then. It was Bugs Bunny who introduced me to "Ride of the Valkeries.")

My interest in music was born from cartoons (and legendary tv-series!). Many of them have really nice and varied soundtracks. The (Il était une fois.../Once Upon Time... I especially remember fondly.

Nothing wrong with those cartoons. I remember liking many old WB ones. I thought they were pretty funny. You rarely see stuff of that calibre anymore.

True! I liked cartoons by other companies as well. MGM (Tom & Jerry), Woody Woodpecker, etc.

Ah, il était une fois were terrific! And I will surely have to listen to le cor once I have time. *hugs*

The french really did make a lot of good animations at their heyday. I also loved Ulysse 31 (also in english). They produced a ton of really good ones with the bonus of really nice music.

Truly wonderful piece! I think you will be able to sing this song one day, just start practicing singing! :) It also requires a certain maturity of the voice, I don't know how old are you, but I guess if you are in your early twenties, picking up this song could be happening quite soon, after you start practicing technique.

Yeah I think that song version of Alfred de Vigny's poem shouldn't be too hard in general to sing. (making it sound good is a another matter.)

I think André Huc-Santana also made a good recording of the song. (The first I heard.) He had a smooth and beautifully controlled voice.

Technique, yes. Well, have to wait till I start having enough spare money to start taking classes on all sorts music related stuff. Quite expensive hobby to start as an adult. Just have to find some student in conservatory to teach the basics on the cheap at first.

Well, I wouldn't recommend a student who would teach you - you really never know how good they are in the first place, and wrong technique at the basics can be fatal. Can you go to a music school? I don't know what you have over there, but here we have public schools that are free! I wish I could help you, I love to work with basses and baritones.

Here they are really really expensive, especially for adults. You pay premium rates for everything. I wish I'd have money to visit opera and theatre's (I used to be an actor and always found theatre interesting!) but when you pay around 200-300€ for a ticket in a place where you might see and hear properly it get's pretty expensive! Still hoping to see and hear some people before they retire.

It depends on if I get some jobs I have been trying for, then I'd probably start having enough money. I guess a hereditary musicality isin't easy to supress in the end as I'd really work anything to get enough to get some training at this point.. It's been too long I tried to be disinterested. :/

Oh poor thing! I can't believe it is so expensive to go to the opera house! Here in Serbia (where I live), you can enter National theater and opera for 1euro! I am not kidding. It's so called 'student ticket' or ticket for standing. And full price tickets don't go more than 20euros. Then, if you see a spare seat, you can go and sit. It's half empty, although our opera ensemble is quite good, and we have a lot of guest singers from abroad.

I would love to take you to see a performance, if you ever happen to find yourself in Belgrade! If you had acting experience, it would be such a shame to waste that, and voice as well. I had been giving voice lessons via Skype, so if your connection is stable, I can at least try to give you few good practice vocalisas. Do you have some keyboards at home, or something?

Well that's the price of visiting an opera festival(that's conveniently close by) available option is generally 100€ at smallest, the national opera is cheaper and student cuts were 50% but for me at the moment the problem is that I live in the middle of nowhere so travel costs alone easily double or triple the prices. Heh, actually many people tend to visit operas in eastern europe and russia when traveling since it's so much cheaper and they generally have good performers. I think for many people the affordability is quite a problem here. If you're a student with miniscule money you really don't have much left for extra activities. (Actually many people with regular jobs can't really afford it either with their expenses.)

Actually I figured the best thing at first would be to actually get some basic piano lessons and start getting basic music stuff down at first before worrying about singing. Gave an old keyboard of mine to a musician relative after I ruined my arm a long ago as I didn't foresee having much use for it. :) Figured this autumn would be as good as any to start get some musical training in general. It has been increasingly disadvantageous not having any musical training from listening forwards. I don't expect to be a good player but it would be for the best to learn some basic music stuff through that first.

I'm quite aware it can be quite a challenge to find good teachers even among professional teachers but I figured it would be enough to start getting basic breathing stuff in order at least. Honestly at best I sound like a random drunken karaoke singer at a bar. Was my largest disadvantage in stage acting. I'm quite fond of classical singing but I know I have a very long learning road ahead - as to be expected when starting from zero. I'm not in a terrible hurry so I don't mind. (And I'm busy trying to find a record of Philémon et Baucis by Gounod either way. The damn thing doesn't exist anywhere..)

Maybe someday I'll end up in that area and could take you up on that offer. It'd be nice to see the more southern side of europe in any case. Northern Germany is the furthest I have ever been and I'd like to see a lot more areas.