7 January—Elon Musk’s narcissistic megalomania appears to have eclipsed Donald Trump’s and now the imperialistic crypto-dictator intends to rule the world all by himself. Ninety years ago it would have been said of Musk and Trump, “The only thing we have to fear is today America, tomorrow the world.”

Joe Biden has proactively one-upped Donald Trump by protecting more than 625 million acres—976 thousand square miles—of federal waters from oil drilling and other wanton devastation in a way that would require an act of Congress to repeal. Unfortunately, given the incoming pusillanimous Republican-majority Congress, that might just happen.

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That said, we need a break from politics. Again. And music hath charms to do it. So here’s a 1928 recording of French lyric tenor David Devriès belting out a sweet little cavatina, “Rêverie de George Brown,” from François Boieldieu’s 1825 comic opera “La dame blanche,” with libretto by Eugène Scribe, based on a delightful synthesis of five of Sir Walter Scott’s best-selling novels about Scotland.

All you want to know about “La dame blanche” is that she’s “The White Lady” in English and a legendary guardian spirit of a Scottish family who is impersonated by the soprano. More about—better yet, from—Boieldieu in the future.

Scribe was a playwright and librettist who has a fancy street and expensive hotel in Paris named after him.

All you need to know about David Devriès is that he was born in 1881, died in 1936, was successful on both sides of the Atlantic, and had an exquisitely light tone and impressive range, to neither of which the acoustic recording does justice.

David Devriès’s performance of “George Brown’s Reverie” is distinctive and beautiful. So there’s no excuse for not loving it . . .