Biography

Francine Hall, teacher, tutor of English Compositon, Literature and Poetry; lover and reviewer of music; and, obsessed with physics. How can one not wonder about the universe? Writing is my craft, and there are lots of articles I authored for the Knight Templar Magazine. The article on Chaucer is my favorite, but there is lots of information also on the Crusades.

You can find years of lively discussions about Bach on Aryeh's Cantatas site. Flavio, too, the now-great countertenor, inspired and helped me a great deal. Both are truly altruistic, talented and dedicated to their craft. One of my life experience highlights was meeting the great Nikolaus Harnoncourt in the Netherlands. His Monteverdi / Ponnelle productions of Monteverdi's operas (Orfeo, Ulysses, Poppea) were a true milestone for the historically informed performance movement. In the end, though, writing is everything to me. To be sure, teaching / tutoring 'grammar' is not as much 'fun' as seeing a student grasp complex 'metaphors', showing advanced conceptual thought.

But both are needed -- that goes without saying. And talking about metaphors! Who best stretched them to their limit as the metaphysical poets like George Herbert and John Donne! Please, all students of the world: continue to read! If anything, it might stave off Alzheimer's for awhile!

(A recent photo at a friend's flat)