Alexander Borodin’s Polovetsian Dances, from the opera Prince Igor.
The video’s title Stranger In Paradise originates from a song in the musical Kismet, in which a number of selections of Borodin’s are featured, fused with lyrics - one of which, of course, is a rendition of the Polovetsian Dances.
I’ll not pretend to understand the meaning of whatever the hell the operatic voices are actually singing, but the tune itself is elegant, mysterious, beautiful.
I feel it telling of a distant land, exotic by any measure: a slice of paradise, if you will. Still, there’s a tinge of sorrow that accompanies each note: spice, tragically ephemeral and ephemerally tragic… then joy and wonder and hope.
Wow, I love it.
