Joyeux Anniversaire, Camille

Thanks to a performance of the Organ Symphony (Symphony no. 3 in C minor) I happened to hear on the radio, I learned that today is the birthday of Camille Saint-Saëns, born in Paris in 1835, a birthday he shares with John Lennon (thanks to Mark Woods at wood s lot for the tip), who was born in 1940. (Saint-Saëns died on December 16, 1921, in Algiers.) The stunning Organ Symphony, although perhaps overplayed, is a piece I love. Washington National Opera will mount a production of his best-known opera, Samson et Dalila, in May 2005. I am not familiar with any of his other operas, so I hope that WNO will someday give us his Etienne Marcel or Henry VIII.