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Ghost of a Rose

album by Blackmore's Night

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ1890953
Source-derived summary

Ghost of a Rose is the fourth studio album by the folk rock group Blackmore's Night, released June 30, 2003. It features covers of Joan Baez's "Diamonds and Rust", and Jethro Tull's "Rainbow Blues".

Background

Allusive to the alchemical feat of palingenesis by Paracelsus, the phrase "ghost of a rose" was first stated in the penultimate paragraph of the physician-philosopher Thomas Browne's 1658 discourse The Garden of Cyrus which concludes, "...and though in the Bed of Cleopatra, can hardly with any delight raise up the ghost of a Rose".

Track listing

Bonus tracks

Personnel

Ritchie Blackmore – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, hurdy-gurdy, mandola, tambourine, Renaissance drum

Candice Night – chant, penny whistle, shawm, vocals, background vocals

Additional musicians

Madeline Posner (Lady Madeline) – harmony vocals ("Ghost of a Rose", "Way to Mandalay")

Nancy Posner (Lady Nancy) – harmony vocals ("Ghost of a Rose", "Way to Mandalay")

Marnen Laibow-Koser (Lord Marnen of Wolfhurst) – violin, viola

Robert Curiano (Sir Robert Of Normandie) – bass

David Baranowski (Bard David Of Larchmont) – background vocals ("All for One")

Mike Sorrentino – drums, percussion

Tim Cotov – background vocals ("All for One")

Production

Sascha Braun – photography

Michael Keel – photography

David Owen – photography

Johanna Pieterman – cover art

Pat Regan – mixing, producer

Takaomi Shibayama – design

Carole Stevens – photography

Charts

Certifications

Covers

"Way to Mandalay" was recorded by Axel Rudi Pell on his 2014 album Into the Storm.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Ghost of a Rose” as album by Blackmore's Night. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ghost, Rose and album.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2003, 1658, 2014—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2003. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Ghost, Rose and album providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Ghost of a Rose”, the useful work is to connect “album by Blackmore's Night” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1890953. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2003, 1658 and 2014.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ghost of a Rose”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ghost of a Rose primary sources, Ghost of a Rose archive and Ghost research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Ghost of a Rose” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.