Message-ID: <19961111141315110.AAA62@smtp.persocom.com.br> Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1996 14:13:23 +0000 From: Joaquim Moura <mailto:joaquim.moura@PERSOCOM.COM.BR> Subject: Joaquim in Prague and Paris To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Dear Friends,I have been in Prague and in Paris, five days at each city and came back today. UAW ! In Prague, our choir from Brasilia won the first prize (gold medal for choirs up to 35 integrants and a special award for the best interpretation of a contemporary piece). I don't sing with them, but Marcia, my wife, does it . . . They sang among other very traditional European choirs, from Czech. Republic Austria, France, Sweden, Germany and won the first prize . . . It was very important, the first time that a Brazilian choir wins a first place in a choir contest in East Europe - where choir singing is a very and long cultivated art.
We met artists from all those countries, singing in magnificent theaters and churches. Splendid and very emotionant. It was my first time in Prague and it is a very charming, elegant and poetic site.
Then Paris (!!!) You know: I love Washington, I love Brasilia, but Paris is really incredible. I had been there twice in the early seventies, and I can tell you: it is even more beautiful now than then . . . Marcia could not believe in her eyes, all those streets, those squares, those monuments, those palaces, those bistros. Last Friday we rented a small Peugeot and drove to Versailles, Chartres and visited the Chateau de Chambord, at the Loire valley. Caramba! These French generations really have perfected a very well succeeded and elegant style for that suptile art of living.
Of course there are other very beautiful cities in the world, in America as well in the other continents, (there is Venice, for instance) but Paris is a phenomenon of the human dreams of beauty and transcendency.
I am returning to that old community activities you all know very well, by now, remotivated by the visions and insights I had during this trip. Our young boy (notre petit garcon) Lucas, five months, has also enjoyed it a lot, I hope this early international transcultural experience will contribute to his brain development. Very soon I will include some pictures of this travel on our web site.
Kiss you all, follow your suggestions, Joaquim