Why would I want to go on YouTube?

Today my friend Pat visited. She's not been to my house for ages. Earlier this year she was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, and she is currently undergoing chemo. She is not having too adverse a reaction, though she does get rather tired. Nevertheless she is continuing her work at St George's Hospital, Tooting as a radiographer. She's a real tough cookie.

Anyway, as she has not had a landline for years, she has been unable to take advantage of the internet revolution. Now she has gone and got a free laptop by subscribing to a wireless connection via a mobile phone company. She's only had the machine for a couple of weeks.

I introduced her to the joys of Lolcats, then asked her if she'd seen any of the Simon's Cat cartoons on YouTube. "Why would I want to go on YouTube?" she asked (only in Kiwi - she's from New Zealand). She thought it was just kids' stuff.

So over to YT we went. We watched Simon's Cat. We watched some of the stuff I've found there and posted here over the years. While I went to make a cup of tea, I told her to try it out for herself, just type in what she wanted.

I came back to discover that she had found some stuff that we saw on stage in the 1980s, when we were regulars at English National Opera, where we met. This is what she was playing - one of my all-time favourite performances of anything anywhere. It's from Handel's Julius Caesar, and Opera seria (which means it has one great aria after another, with a little bit of recitative in between). The arias have three sections, ABA. When A is repeated, the singer adds ornamentation.

This is Valerie Masterson as Cleopatra singing an aria which translates in this English version as Venus Fair Lady, and I hope you find it as stunning as I do. Please give it a try.



Pat couldn't wait to get home and try out YT for herself.