Beautiful music

On the way home from Rebecca's Sportball class, we were listening to CBC radio. There was a particularly interesting segment on music that changed the world - in this case, the subject was a comic opera that was instrumental (haha) vis-à-vis the French Revolution. The name of the opera (an intermezzo opera in fact) was La serva padrona, a work by Pergolesi. Serpina's aria "A Serpina penserate", absolutely enraptured Rebecca. I was surprised because while she has been exposed to classical music before, I hadn't exposed her to any opera whatsoever. She said it was "beautiful music" and she also stated it was "princess music"! I think the princess reference is due to the female vocalist (perhaps it reminds her of some of the singing in Sleeping Beauty).
At any rate, ever since then, there have been requests for beautiful music. I had CBC radio 2 playing virtually all day today - and woe unto me if I tried to turn it off. Every time we would come to the end of a particular piece she would lament that the music was "gone". I reassured her that more music was coming and when I proved to be correct, she was mollified. I started to teach her to identify the types of instruments being played. I only had some success with harp though... Generally, she would insist on dancing to the music. If Lucy was awake, I got to dance with Lucy, and Rebecca would dance with her stuffed T-Rex (who happens to be my childhood stuffed T-Rex). This evening, we were listening to a babified classical music CD in the car (by babified I mean simply that it has been arranged for babies) and she was trying to add her own lyrics. She also claps out rhythms to songs on the radio (sometimes not the way you would expect).
She seems to have a real passion for music, and I hope I am up to the task of nurturing and encouraging her interest. I bought her a ukelele for her birthday. Maybe that seems like a strange gift for a third birthday, but ever since I let her fool around with my recorder, I thought it might be something she would like. This particular instrument makes a happy sound, is fairly sturdy, is made for children, and does not break the bank. Who knows - maybe she is all about appreciating and not keen to make music of her own - but somehow I don't think that's the case. We shall see.
So Grandpapa should break out Swan Lake next time we come for a visit!