#child prodigy
imagine… Alma Deutscher: Finding Cinderella
Musical prodigy Alma Deutscher aged 11 (seen here with younger sister Helen), is staging her first full-length opera, Cinderella.
Composer, pianist, violinist… Alma learned to read music before she could read words. She began playing the piano aged two and at four years old she was composing her own music.
Transcript of gifset: an older man is interviewing an 11 year old girl named Alma Deutscher.
Man: Also, isn’t there something behind you, your piano at home, you’ve got a picture of a woman composer behind you?
Alma: Yes, Nannerl, who is Mozart’s sister. Because, you see, she was also very talented at composing but she wasn’t allowed to compose because she was a girl. So she couldn’t publish any compositions under her own name, she just had to stay at home and knit and cook and do the cleaning.
Man: And is that why you defiantly decided that your Cinderella wasn’t just going to be a girl who fitted the shoe?
Alma: Yes, exactly. Because I didn’t want Cinderella to be just another girl who looked pretty and keeps quiet and cleans the floor. But I actually wanted her to be, you know, clever, and I wanted her to be a composer. And as I had this melody already there, with this special haunting chord, I suddenly thought that this…the Prince could be haunted by this chord but not remember how it continues. But then he has this brainwave that he will search everywhere in the kingdom and sing the beginning of it, and only the girl who can finish it with the right haunting chord is the one he is looking for.
Man, pointing at portrait of woman: So, that’s Nannerl Mozart?
Alma: Mozart’s sister. (Alma’s younger sister is also in the background in this scene.)
Man: She was a bit like you two, she was… she was what, sort of about 12 or something, and he was about 8?
Alma: Yes. She was his older sister.
Man: And they went touring together, didn’t they?
Alma: Exactly, when they were young, when they were children. When she was a child, she was allowed to perform with Mozart. But when she grew older, she wasn’t allowed to anymore, and certainly not to compose.
Man: It’s great that she is sitting behind you, not forgotten.
Alma: Exactly.
Post link
Christen Købke (May 26, 1810 - 1848) was a Danish National-Romantic painter from the Golden Age of Danish art. He trained at the Royal Academy, starting at age 12, studying with Eckersberg and others.
Eventually Købke traveled abroad to Italy, but upon return failed to be accepted as a full-fledged member by the Royal Academy. This is said to have broken his spirit and he died young from pneumonia.
Now he is considered the most talented Danish National Romantic artist, and he did master both portrait painting, landscapes, interiors and genre painting in almost equal measure. I like his landscapes, esp. those showing Copenhagen, the Danish capital as a semi-rural city. This is the view from out his father’s garden gate:
Havelågen ved bagermester Købkes gård på Blegdammen, 1843-4 - oil on paper pasted onto canvas (SMK)
Gemini is a character from my book series ‘The Mecha Chronicles’.
She is a child prodigy and computer genius/hacker. She works for the secret organisation Deus x Machina to fight the injustice of a world that has shattered into pieces and fallen into oblivion after the appearance of the Damnatio Memoriae (=condemnation of memory) virus. Gemini is a Tron superfan (among other things), loves cosplays, gaming and searching for new planets in the night sky.
Post link
