PlanetAlbany

Lest We Forget

My latest news story in The Ballston Journal is about Frank Darling, a World War II veteran approaching his 100th birthday, who was captured in the Battle of the Bulge. My uncle Joseph Gaffney, of Brooklyn, the 19-year-old son of Irish immigrants, was killed in the same battle. They both served in Patton's Third Army, although Darling's 7th Armored Division had been transferred by then to a different American command. The battle is also famous for the stand in Bastogne by the 101st Airborne Division, which was for a time surrounded by the German advance and then relieved by the Third Army. In more recent years, my daughter and son-in-law served a combined five tours in Afghanistan. Three of those deployments -- two of his, one of hers -- were with the 101st.

Mozart in Albany

The wife and I went to a performance of Mozart's Requiem tonight, along with a few unrelated short religious pieces, at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Glenville.

On Sunday, Nov. 13, the Burnt Hills Oratorio Society with the University of Albany Chorale will put on a repeat performance at 3 p.m. at UAlbany's Main Theatre. Tickets are only $10 (half what we paid) for the general public, and $5 for students, staff and seniors, which is as good a deal as it gets. Thanks to all these singers and musicians.

I especially appreciated the excellent program, with the Latin text and English translation enabling you to follow along. I'd never realized that requiem means rest. I did know this was Mozart's last work, but not that it was finished by his pupil, Franz Xaver Sussmayr, who also died young.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Cum sanctis tuis in aeternam, quia pius es.