L'IMPORTANCE DE LIRE LA LITTÉRATURE CLASSIQUE

Qu'est-ce que la littérature classique? Pour certaines personnes, la catégorie est limitée aux auteurs grecs et romains anciens, mais la plupart des gens considèrent comme classique toute œuvre qui, selon eux, a une valeur durable, qu'il s'agisse d'un livre, d'un tableau, d'un pièce de musique ou même de vêtements et d'accessoires. Au cours des dernières décennies, les écoles ont progressivement abandonné la littérature classique en faveur des livres jugés plus attractifs pour les élèves. Mais combien perdons-nous lorsque nous rejetons la littérature classique?

Dans son livre Pourquoi lire les classiques, l'écrivain et critique italien Italo Calvino propose 14 définitions d'un livre classique. Chacune est formulé différemment mais contient le même message essentiel: lorsque nous lisons un classique pour la première fois, cela nous donne le sentiment que nous relisons quelque chose que nous avons déjà lu. Et chaque fois que nous le relisons, il offre un nouveau sentiment de découverte. Un classique est un livre qui n’a jamais épuisé tout ce qu’il a à dire à ses lecteurs.

L’un de ces livres est La peste d’Albert Camus. Lors de sa première publication en 1947, il était décrit comme symbolique de l'oppression des peuples assiégés, notamment des peuples d'Europe vivant sous l'occupation nazie. Le roman se déroule dans la ville algérienne d'Oran qui est soudainement exposée à une propagation rapide de la peste qui tue une grande partie de sa population et oblige la ville à se fermer, provoquant une grande misère jusqu’à ce que l’épidémie s’atténue et disparaisse aussi brusquement qu’elle est apparue.

Au cours des dernières années, des romans dystopiques comme La Servante escarlate de Margaret Atwood ont remplacé ce classique qui est beaucoup plus terre-à-terre. Mais avec l’apparition de la pandémie du Covid-19 en 2020, le chef-d’œuvre de Camus a suscité un regain d’intérêt. C'est devenu un best-seller en France, en Italie et en Allemagne, mais moins aux États-Unis, malgré une nouvelle traduction en anglais très louée, par Laura Marris. Cependant, en général, c’est clair que en temps de turbulences, tout le monde se tourne vers les livres qui refléteraient leur propre situation.

Il peut être réconfortant de lire dans La peste que les Oranais fictifs ont suivi la même routine d’hygiène que les gens du monde entier quelque 70 ans plus tard: ils se lavaient les mains, portaient des masques et désinfectaient les surfaces fréquemment touchées. Le personnel médical d’Oran était aussi surmené et épuisé que le personnel médical de notre époque alors que le nombre de cas montait très rapidement. Les citoyens se méfiaient des mesures gouvernementales et préféraient croire à toutes sortes de théories du complot saugrenues. Ils s'appuyaient souvent sur des remèdes alternatifs faits chez eux au lieu du nouveau sérum anti-peste. 

L’accumulation croissante de cadavres dans les hôpitaux rendait impossibles les enterrements traditionnels et peu de gens apportaient des fleurs au cimetière le jour de la Toussaint une fois que l’observation de la mort était devenue un événement quotidien. Nous nous sommes familiarisés avec toutes ces nouvelles habitudes des Oranais pendant la nôtre propre épidémie. Mais dans le livre de Camus, nous pouvons trouver des réponses à des questions telles que la façon dont les humains sont censés agir dans les conditions de la peste: comme l’isolement, la privation soudaine, la souffrance aléatoire et la mort imprévisible. Et quelles sont nos responsabilités envers la famille, envers la communauté et envers nous-mêmes dans de tels moments.

Dans le passé, ce roman était considéré comme strictement absurde, existentialiste et symbolique. Aujourd’hui, nous pouvons le lire avec un état d’esprit différent. Après le Covid, les nouveaux lecteurs aussi que ceux d’avant peut considérer La Peste comme plus réaliste. On est impressionné par son caractère contemporain. La peste est arrivée à Oran avec les rats. Le Covid est probablement arrivé avec des chauves-souris provenant d'un marché de nourriture perissable à Wuhan. Les deux sont des choses qui, comme dirait Camus, « n'étaient pas à leur place ».

Lorsque l’épidémie commence, les Oranais ne la prennent pas au sérieux. « En effet, l'annonce que la troisième semaine de peste avait compté trois cent deux morts ne parlait pas à l'imagination. D'une part, tous peut-être n'étaient pas morts de la peste. » La même chose a été dite à propos des premières victimes du Covid aux États-Unis et ailleurs. Après tout, bon nombre d’entre eux étaient des personnes âgées et des personnes souffrant de problèmes de santé sous-jacents. Beaucoup de gens pensaient que le Covid était une maladie passagère, pas pire qu’une grippe. D’autres étaient plus inquiets et de plus en plus effrayés à mesure que le nombre de morts augmentait.

Lorsqu'une épidémie éclate, les autorités veulent d'abord réprimer la panique en minimisant le danger, mais lorsque cela n'est plus possible, elles imposent des mesures de sécurité, pour se protéger des critiques. C’est universel. Lorsque les premiers cas de Covid sont apparus aux États-Unis, le président de l’époque, Donald Trump, a déclaré que tout serait terminé au printemps. Mais le nombre de cas ayant explosé, il a été contraint de modifier sa rhétorique. En mai 2020, à son retour d’un week-end à la retraite présidentielle de Camp David, Trump a déclaré : « Nous avons fait beaucoup de réunions formidables. D’énormes progrès sont réalisés sur de nombreux fronts, notamment la recherche d’un remède à cet horrible fléau qui frappe notre pays. «  Dès lors, le président a laissé les autorités médicales tenir le public informé de l’évolution du Covid. Lorsque de nouvelles restrictions plus sévères et pas populaires ont été imposées, il les a critiquées avec la moitié de la population.

La pénurie de biens essentiels pousse certaines personnes à tenter de profiter des moments difficiles. Dans le roman de Camus, « Cottard racontait qu'un gros épicier de son quartier avait stocké des produits alimentaires pour les vendre au prix fort et qu'on avait découvert des boîtes de conserves sous son allumé, quand on était venu le chercher pour l’emmener à l’hôpital. » En mars 2020, le New York Times a rapporté le cas d'un commerçant de Chattanooga, dans le Tennessee, qui avait acheté des centaines de bouteilles de désinfectant pour les mains dans des magasins à prix réduit et les avait vendues sur Amazon à un prix plusieurs fois élevé. Le New York Times a déclaré que le commerçant était « probablement l’un des milliers de vendeurs qui ont accumulé des réserves de désinfectant pour les mains et de masques respiratoires essentiels que de nombreux hôpitaux rationnent désormais ». Ce qui frappe comme particulièrement mauvais dans les deux cas est que certaines personnes n'hésitent pas à faire du profit au détriment des malades à l’hôpital.  

La thésaurisation puis le dumping de vaccins contre la Covid pa l'UE mettent en évidence le défi d'équité de l'accord en cas de pandémie

Aux Etats-Unis, il y a eu des manifestations contre les mesures de sécurité. Les circonstances difficiles ont provoqué des comportements incohérentes, en particulier parmi les personnes mentalement instables. On a vu des rapports des passagers aériens qui ont attaqués les uns les autres ou qui ont attaqué le personnel de l'avion, obligeant parfois l'avion à retourner à l'aéroport pour débarquer le passager perturbateur. Dans l’Oran de Camus, certains habitants brûlaient leurs maisons pour tuer le bacille de la peste.

De nombreux passages de La Peste ont une telle ressemblance avec le monde contemporain du Covid et de l’après-Covid qu’on peut se demander si l’auteur était un clairvoyant. Mais Camus n’est pas le seul auteur qui semble prévoir l’avenir. En 1932, l’auteur américain Aldous Huxley a publié le roman dystopique Le meilleur des mondes, qui se déroule au 26 siècle. Dans sa vision d’un monde futuriste, les humains sont créés dans des laboratoires pour remplir des rôles particuliers qu’ils doivent remplir dans un monde ordonné. Ils sont classés en Alphas, l'élite intellectuelle, suivie par les Betas, Gammas, Deltas et Epsilons qui sont conditionnés à une intelligence toujours plus faible pour accomplir des tâches de moins en moins qualifiées et moins désirables. Les noms des personnages principaux rappellent ceux des contemporains éminents de Huxley. 

La divinité de la société est Notre Ford, du nom du constructeur automobile Henry Ford, et sa devise est communauté, identité, stabilité, par opposition à la liberté, égalité et fraternité de la Révolution française. Un médicament tranquillisant appelé soma et des relations sexuelles illimitées aident à garder les gens paisibles et satisfaits, ou du moins ignorants de ce que l'on pourrait attendre d'autre de la vie. La grossesse et la maternité sont des crimes dans cet endroit où les bébés grandissent dans des laboratoires, et sont conditionnés par l'apprentissage du sommeil. Les individus qui enfreignent les règles peuvent être exilés dans une réserve Navajo où les gens vivent dans une pauvreté abjecte derrière de hauts murs qui les isolent de la société contemporaine. Le roman dystopique de Huxley était une alerte aux gens ordinaires. S’ils se concentrent trop sur les biens matériels et les plaisirs physiques, et ignorent la responsabilité envers la démocratie et l’éthique dans l’environnement de la technologie avancée, ils pourraient être pris sous contrôle et perdre leur individualité.

Certains observateurs aujourd’hui disent que les États-Unis s’orientent déjà dans cette direction. La marijuana est le soma de notre époque, notent-ils. La science étudie la modification génétique du fœtus pour éliminer les maladies congénitales, mais aussi pour choisir la couleur des yeux ou le sexe d’un enfant. Si certains de ces développements facilitent incontestablement la vie, ils suscitent également des inquiétudes quant à leurs implications pour l’avenir du monde tel que nous le connaissons. Un mouton en bonne santé nommé Dolly, cloné en 1996 en Écosse à partir d'une cellule somatique adulte, a fait craindre une tentative de clonage d'humains à l'avenir. Un récent film de science-fiction, Foe (ennemie), s'intéresse à l'éthique du clonage humain. 

Le développement rapide de la robotique et de l’intelligence artificielle (IA) fait craindre que les humains ne deviennent remplaçables. Expose-News en ligne a publié un article intitulé La fin de l'humanité qui prétend que les mondialistes dirigés par Klaus Schwab veulent mettre fin à l'ère de l'humanité et inaugurer une nouvelle ère de néo-humanité, dans laquelle les gens sont un mélange d'homme et de machine et où nos pensées et nos émotions sont surveillées par IA. Une organisation appelée Stop World Control a produit un court film titré La fin de l'humanité pour empêcher ce plan présumé de Forum économique mondial et sauver la race humaine « de l'éradication et de cette forme extrême d'esclavage. »  Si les auteurs de cet article étudiaient la vision futuriste de Huxley, ils se souviendraient que derrière les murs, il y avait toujours un’autre monde, aussi pauvre soit-il, où les gens continuaient à vivre en harmonie avec la nature. Peut-on vraiment croire que les habitants des forêts isolées du Congo ou des déserts de Mauritanie seront remplacés par des robots, ou contrôlés par l’IA dans le future proche?  Mais des articles comme ceux-ci révèlent les peurs humaines face à l’inconnu, qui ne peuvent être ignorées. Il y a un mouvement mondial à contrôler le développement de l’IA pour éviter ses dangers.

Cependant, il est possible de tirer des leçons pour l’avenir de bons livres historiques. Par exemple, Hadji Murad de Tolstoï pénètre plus profondément dans les racines de la violence récurrente en Tchétchénie et au Daghestan que les analyse dans les journaux. Basé sur des événements historiques et l’expérience personnelle de Tolstoï, alors qu'il servait dans le Caucase, Hadji Murad raconte l'histoire d'un commandant Avar du XIXe siècle. Entre 1811 et 1864, les tribus du Daghestan et de Tchétchénie luttaient contre l’incorporation de leurs territoires à l’Empire russe. Une querelle entre Murad et le chef rival Shamil a conduit à un complot pour tuer Murad. Alerté du ce plan, Murad s'échappe, mais sa mère, sa femme et son fils sont retenus en otage par Shamil.

Il est intéressant de noter que le fils de Murad admire Shamil, sans savoir qu'il a menacé de le mutiler si son père ne revenait pas. Murad se rend aux Russes et offre son expérience pour les aider à vaincre les rebelles en échange d'armes et de troupes russes pour sauver sa famille. Les Russes admirent l'esprit et le physique du grand guerrier, mais se méfient également de lui. Un commandant russe retarde la décision concernant Murad, jusqu'à ce que l'Avar comprenne qu'il ne peut pas compter sur de l'aide des Russes. Il fuit donc la forteresse russe avec l'intention de rassembler des membres fidèles de sa tribu pour un effort désespéré à sauver sa famille des griffes de Shamil. Les Russes craignent la trahison et se lancent à leur poursuite, tuant finalement Murad avec l'aide de nombreux membres de tribus locales.

Ceux qui s’appuient sur les médias pour expliquer le terrorisme islamiste pourraient être amenés à croire qu’il ne cible que l’Occident. Mais statistiquement, la grande majorité des victimes des attentats terroristes commis au nom de l’Islam sont des musulmans. La novelle de Tolstoï fait comprendre que les rivalités politiques ainsi que le désir de vengeance peuvent rapidement monter une tribu contre une autre, et qu'un chef de tribu peut se ranger du côté d'un ennemi si sa famille est en danger.
 
Une notion similaire est suggérée dans le livre de Paul Bowles, La Maison de l’araignée, qui se déroule dans la ville marocaine de Fès pendant le soulèvement nationaliste de 1954. Le personnage central est Amar, un garçon arabe illettré, fils d'un guérisseur et fervent musulman. Il croit que tout ce qui lui arrive est la volonté de Dieu, ce qui lui permet de supporter les coups impitoyables de son père ou de recevoir une grosse somme d'argent avec la même passivité. Amar possède une forte intuition et peut prédire comment les gens agiront dans certaines circonstances, tant les étrangers que les locaux. Il n’hésite pas à utiliser ce don pour manipuler les gens et les situations à son avantage. Il pense que la femme américaine qu'il voit dans un hôtel est une prostituée car elle porte une robe sans manches et regarde un homme dans les yeux pendant qu'ils parlent. Il déteste les Français et les chrétiens en général, mais méprise encore plus les combattants musulmans de la liberté qui violent les traditions islamiques.

Les pensées d'Amar lors de ses interactions avec les Français, les Américains et d'autres musulmans locaux donnent une bonne idée de ce que ressentent de nombreux Marocains aujourd'hui. Les expressions de sentiment anti-américain dans La Maison de l’araignée pourraient être une révélation surprenante pour de nombreux lecteurs. Le livre a été publié en 1955 et se déroule à l’époque où le Maroc était encore sous domination française. Mais dans une scène qui se déroule pendant un meeting de l'Istiqlal (parti indépendantiste), auquel Amar est contraint d'assister par un concours de circonstances, un étudiant déclare : « La France aimerait quitter le Maroc, mais l'Amérique insiste pour qu'elle reste, à cause des bases. Sans l'Amérique, il n'y aurait pas de France... Tout ce dont nous avons besoin, c'est d'une bonne attaque contre chaque base américaine. » Ce classique roman américain, écrit il y a plus de 60 ans, apporte clairement quelques réponses à nos questions actuelles sur l’Afrique du Nord et le Moyen-Orient.

 Les experts analysent les événements mondiaux après qu'ils se soient produits et peut être prévoyaient des développements futurs. Mais ce sont les écrivains qui fouillent dans l'esprit des gens et révèlent leurs pensées et leurs sentiments les plus intimes avant que quelque chose d'important ne se produise. Ce sont eux qui nous aident à comprendre comment les gens peuvent agir dans certaines situations. Les pensées décrites pourraient être fictives, mais venant d’un bon écrivain, elles nous aident à comprendre le cœur du problème mieux et plus tôt que les médias.

La guerre et la peste surviennent soudainement et de manière inattendue, note Camus à travers son personnage de Dr Rieux dans La peste. "Nous aurions dû être mieux préparés." Au début de la pandémie de Covid, l’ancien président américain Barack Obama a déclaré que son administration avait laissé des plans détaillés pour prévenir une éventuelle épidémie. Si un tel plan existait, rien n’indique qu’il ait été utilisé par l’administration suivante.
 
Mais fin 2021, alors que le monde était sous le choc de l’arrivée du Omicron, la variante hautement contagieuse du coronavirus, les représentants de près de 200 pays se sont réunis pour élaborer un plan visant à prévenir une future épidémie mondiale en élaborant le tout premier accord mondial sur la pandémie. La date limite pour la conclusion de l’accord est mai 2024, mais il n’est pas certain qu’elle sera respectée. Le principal point de friction concerne l’accès à des informations vitales sur les nouvelles menaces qui pourraient émerger – ainsi qu’aux vaccins et médicaments qui pourraient contenir cette menace. La peur unificatrice du Covid a été remplacée par la crainte d’une répétition des injustices qui ont entaché la réponse à la dernière pandémie.

Camus conclut La peste en disant que“cette foule en joie ignorait, et qu'on peut lire dans les livres, que le bacille de la peste ne meurt ni ne disparaît jamais (…..) et que, peut-être, le jour viendrait où, pour le malheur et l'enseignement des hommes, la peste réveillerait ses rats et les enverrait mourir dans une cité heureuse. “ La lecture est vraiment un excellent moyen de réduire l’ignorance, mais la lecture des classiques est particulièrement utile car ils traitent de vérités universelles, ce qui les rend aussi significatifs aujourd’hui qu’ils l’étaient au moment de leur création.

Les ressources:

Italo Calvino: Why Read the Classics?

Albert Camus: La peste

Paul Bowles: Spider’s House

Aldous Huxley: Brave New World

Leo Tolstoï: Hadji Murad

Les articles de journaux quotidiens sur le Covid-19

expose-news.com

 

WNO Premieres "Grounded", an Opera With Too Many Messages

The world premiere of Grounded reaffirms Washington National Opera as a leading producer of quintessentially American works.  Composed by Jeanine Tesori to the libretto of George Brant, based on his own award-winning play, the opera deals with travails of a female F-16 pilot, whose career gets derailed after pregnancy. It is not hard to imagine the drama this could cause in the life of an ambitious air force officer. But for the creators of Grounded this was not enough. Their opera tackles a myriad of other topics: the evolution of the American military, the changing role of women at home and at work, the pros and cons of using drones in war and allowing IT and surveillance technologies to invade our lives. It concludes with an anti-war message and perhaps others that may be missed in the crowd.

The curtain rises to the sound reminiscing the buzzing engine of an approaching airplane before it blends with orchestral music. The opening scene with a triangular formation of fully uniformed airmen, with one point of the triangle facing the audience, looks promising. A soaring mezzo rises above the male chorus and the squad leader steps out. It takes a while to realize it is a woman, who rose to the rank of major after a number of successful air raid missions. Her persona suggests she has made every effort to look, talk and behave no different than any of her male counterparts. It is hard to pick her out from the rest of the servicemen when the group gathers in a Wyoming bar during a home leave. Even her approach to romance and sex is so masculine that the idea of a local farmer being attracted to her beggars belief. And yet, he claims he likes her best in her uniform and calls her my "flygirl."

Emily D’Angelo as F-16 fighter pilot in WNO's opera Grounded

After this one amorous encounter, the pilot, her name is Jess, discovers she is pregnant. At this point, one would expect a dramatic turn in the opera, perhaps a confrontation with her commanding officer, but Jess (portrayed by Emily D'Angelo in her WNO debut) respects the rules and retreats to Wyoming to inform her one-night-stand (OK, maybe there were two nights) Eric of his impending fatherhood. She expects rejection, but Eric is thrilled, and within minutes we see their daughter Sam grow from a baby to a school-age child. Jess resumes service stateside and works long hours on duties that do not include flying (DNIF). The husband takes over the parenting role. Jess misses her F-16, or Tiger as she lovingly calls it, and the blue sky into which she melds during her flights. 

After about eight years, judging by the daughter's age, the star pilot is summoned by her commander and ordered to resume bombing missions. But this time they will be conduced remotely from a trailer in the Nevada desert.  Jess objects to joining what she calls the "chair force" where she would spend her days staring at gigantic computer screens and perform tasks better suited for a teenager proficient in video-games. The Commander says this is where she is needed and where she will have "war with all the benefits of home." Jess and her family move to Nevada and Eric gets a job in a Las Vegas casino.

 Split scene with Jess at home with Commander above,
photo Scott Suchman

This would have been a good time to end Act I because with the new assignment Jess's life will change drastically. But Act I plods on with  Commander extolling the virtues of a $17-million Reaper drone, which she and her assistant, Sensor, will use to pinpoint targets thousands of miles away.  

The bomber jet pilot disparages the windowless craft that she sees as soulless and blind, but her young assistant points out, that the drone actually has an eye - a camera trained to the ground where it picks up images of moving targets. After initial boredom with her chair job, which consists of scrutinizing grey pixilated images, Jess gets bouts of excitement from her remote-controlled strikes. But the images of dead American soldiers are traumatizing. Even blasting suspected terrorists causes pangs of conscience. Soon the reality and her imagination begin to blur. The appearance of her alter ego Also Jess (portrayed by splendid soprano Teresa Perrotta) is a clear sign that her mind is unraveling. 

In the second act Jess is clearly suffering from the PTS disorder. She is rattled by surveillance cameras in the shopping mall and paranoid about being watched every step of the way like she watches her targets in the hostile territory. Instead of the sky blue she is craving, everything around her seems grey. The Nevada desert becomes no different than deserts thousands of miles away in Syria or Afghanistan. At home she collapses from physical and mental exhaustion after a 12-hour shift, and cannot find comfort with her family. In bed with her husband she splits into Also Jess who is present physically and real Jess whose spirit drifts away.  The threat of death has been removed, but not the threat to her well being. In one scene she wipes the invisible blood from her hands like Lady Macbeth. After a year in the trailer, she is assigned a high-profile mission, but is unable to accomplish it after seeing her daughter's face in the image of a foreign girl running toward her father, who is the target. Jess sabotages the order to strike and is court-marshaled. 

Brant's original play was an 80-minute monologue by an unnamed female pilot.  Using drone in wars was a relative novelty a decade ago and its impact on the soldiers was not understood. A piece focusing on the PTS disorder garnered great success in both US and European theaters. Tesori was impressed by it too and wanted to expand it into a full-scale opera, that would include characters mentioned in the pilot's monologue. Brant worked with Tesori to create a libretto with roles for those characters and scenes in which they interact. He added dialogues between the protagonists, mostly military personnel, and peppered their language with crude words for authenticity's sake. The result is a 2.5-hour long opera that wavers between engaging moments and weak spots. In the final scene, for example, the penalized pilot delivers a cringe-worthy warning (to Americans?), a sort of "Live-by-the-sword, die-by-the-sword" cliché, ending with the single word "boom", in hushed tones. Perhaps an echo of a real explosion reverberating in the pilot's mind?  

The music incorporates sounds of military trumpets, popular soldier tunes or country music to help set the scene. The score is full of likable passages that are in no way innovative, revolutionary or memorable. 

Apart from Jess, the characters in the opera are not adequately fleshed out. Eric (tenor Joseph Dennis) is more of an accessory to his wife, sort of like Mattel's Ken to Barbie. Bass Morris Robinson as Commander and baritone Kyle Miller as Sensor are more convincing in their shorter roles. 

Set designer Mimi Lien employed digital technology and more than 300 interlocked LED panels to create real and imaginary places in Jess's world: blue sky around her flying jet, evening at her Wyoming home, Nevada desert during her commute to work, a sonogram of her baby's fetus. The stage is split in two levels: the lower representing places on the ground and the upper showing the blue sky, military scenes or imagery from Jess's troubled mind. Advanced video technology enhances the sense of the environment and understanding of the pilot's state of mind. The sets and lighting work in concert with the sound for the best effect.

Pilot in the control room with Sensor and two observers, photo Scott Suchman

Grounded is an impressive undertaking, tackling issues that resonate with many Americans today. Have we enabled women to shine in any career they choose or is motherhood still an impediment? How do we advance at work in an era depending increasingly on robots, AI and digital technology better understood by younger people? How is our brain affected by never-ending involvement in wars, exposure to violence and shrinkage of meaningful interaction with family and friends? All of these topics are worth exploring, but not in one opera. With too many themes vying for attention, Grounded explores none in depth and fails to make a powerful impact. If it is to open next year's season at the Metropolitan Opera, it may have to undergo a major overhaul. 

Tesori is an accomplished and popular composer, best known for her musicals. She has found a staunch supporter in WNO artistic director Francesca Zambello, who has sponsored her forays into the opera. Earlier this year WNO presented Tesori's opera Blue, and on  Saturday, it opened its 2023-2024 season with much heralded Grounded. Later this year, the company will revive Tesori's holiday favorite The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me.  

Blue was a masterpiece in every respect: from the enfolding drama and convincing dialogues to well developed characters, excellent interpretations and great music throughout. Created in cooperation with librettist Tazewell Thompson, the award-winning work offered an insight into a personal tragedy of a black US policeman whose son was shot by another policeman. In Grounded, a bunch of hot issues are thrown together without a connecting thread or a clear and coherent message. Without impressive music, or sufficiently dramatic moments to lift the tedium of two long acts, an opera risks staying grounded forever.

There are five more performances of WNO's opera Grounded, with the last one on November 13.

Ask Your Doctor

It is well known that the United States spends more money per person on health care than any other country in the world. That does not mean that we have the best care and that we are the healthiest nation in the world. On the contrary: we have to pay huge insurance premiums, various extra charges generated by a visit to a medical facility,  the highest cost of drugs and other medical accessories, but still have lower life expectancy than other developed countries. The excuse we get from our health industry and the politicians who support it is that a lot of the money we pay goes toward research and that we do not have to wait for surgery, medical procedures and hospitalization as long as our neighbors in Canada and other countries with national health care. My own experience and those shared by DC area acquaintances picture a bleaker reality. 

"Ask your doctor" is an irritable phrase on the labels for traditional and alternative remedies, as well as advertisements for health accessories, exercises, and diet recommendations. The phrase often comes with a stock photo of a sympathetic doctor leaning toward a worried patient. Similar doctor-patient images appear on the home page of every health insurance portal, except that the patients in those look happy. Do advertisers really think that we have such close relationships with our health care providers? I don't even know mine, because every time I come in, there is someone new. Perhaps the advertisers' thinking is clouded by visions from their grandparents’ past.

The 2020-2022 Covid pandemic serves as a general excuse for the current state of the US health care, but no one is fooled. A few decades ago I noticed a slow but gradual decline in the quality of health care and a simultaneous rise in the costs. Before that I was healthy and rarely need to see a doctor.  But now that I do I have to make an appointment to see any physician at least three months ahead of time, which means that I have to look for alternative help if I suddenly feel sick. If I call the office to "ask the doctor", I get a recorded message saying an administrator will respond within 24 hours. Most often the promised call-back never comes. But the cost of a basic visit has risen at least three times in the past decade.

After a recent consultation with a doctor from the George Washington Medical Faculty Associates, she wanted me to make an appointment for a test at the same facility.  But when she brought me to the reception, there was no one to make the appointment. All the staff had left for the day at 5:00 PM although the doctors were still seeing patients. The calls to the telephone number the doctor gave me to make the appointment were answered by a robot urging me to stay online because someone “will be with you shortly.” After three days of listening to godawful music and the robotic voice repeating the phrase, I literally begged my primary care facility to make the call for me through a line reserved for the physicians. They managed to obtain an appointment for me the next day, but no one informed me so I almost missed it. 

The test results for several issues have long been sent to me by mail, but I still don't know what they mean because my follow-up appointments with specialists are one and two months away respectively. I hope I don't have a fast-spreading cancer that could metastasize before I see a doctor.

Following a remote decade (cca 1980s) of seeing the same primary care physician, doctors in my life started rotating with increasing speed. I recently waited three months to meet my new PCP only to be called on the day of the appointment and told that she is leaving. Most of the time instead of a doctor, I see registered nurses. Before any visit, I am asked to complete a myriad of forms online, sign multiple waivers and authorizations, most importantly, of course, commitments to pay the bills if my insurance refuses to.

Currently I have three insurances: primary, secondary and a separate one for dental work. I am being urged to take out a fourth one for drugs. The amounts providers claim from health insurances are staggering these days: a visit to a primary physician that used to be about $150 or less can now easily top $600. And this is for about 10-20 minutes that you spend with the doctor discussing symptoms you have already described in detail online. Most of the visit is spent with nurses and administrators.  

The cost of dental care is astronomic but dental insurance companies rarely cover more than 10% of the claim no matter what they promise. They employ their own so-called experts to determine if the procedure is "necessary."  Guess what? ..... Yeah. The best dentists and medical doctors do not accept insurance because it requires an extra employee just to deal with the amount of paperwork required for the approval of even a minor procedure.  If you cannot afford their exorbitant prices, you have a choice of traveling overseas where the dental care prices are normal and the total cost with air fare will be lower than in the US, or you can go to a so-called network dentist (the one that has a contract with a particular insurance company and charges the prices agreed with the company). During Covid I went to one such dentist who persuaded me to cap 10 front teeth for a better looking "smile." After only a few months, the crowns began falling out one after another and I inadvertently swallowed one with food.  I have had dental work done in Croatia all my life before that and had never heard that a crown can fall out. Under the circumstances maybe I should consider myself lucky because of the $20,000 plus claimed by the dentist, the insurance only paid him $800. I paid about a third, but he could not claim more from me after the shoddy work he had performed.

I could write a hefty book describing my poor experience with the US health care. Suffice it to say that the system has made me (and a lot of other Americans) resort to emailing doctors or dentists in Europe for advice, researching symptoms online and self-medicating. During the rare occasions I see a doctor, I tell them what I think I have, they order blood tests, urine tests, biopsies, X-rays, CT-scan, MRI or whatever and then confirm or reject my supposition. So far the former has been more common than the latter.

Of course, it is possible that the situation is better in other states. But a recent international study has found that "people in the US see doctors less often than those in most other countries." The report by The Commonwealth Fund’s International Program in Health Policy and Practice Innovation, says this is probably because the US has a below-average number of practicing physicians, and the US is the only country among those studied that doesn’t have universal health coverage. In 2021 alone, the report says, 8.6% of the US population was uninsured.

“Not only is the U.S. the only country we studied that does not have universal health coverage, but its health system can seem designed to discourage people from using services,” researchers at the Commonwealth Fund, headquartered in New York, wrote in the report. “Affordability remains the top reason why some Americans do not sign up for health coverage, while high out-of-pocket costs lead nearly half of working-age adults to skip or delay getting needed care.”

The report’s lead author, Munira Gunja, said in a release that “To catch up with other high-income countries, the administration and Congress would have to expand access to health care, act aggressively to control costs, and invest in health equity and social services we know can lead to a healthier population.”

But it is nothing new. Study after study in recent years have found that the United States spends more on health care than any other industrialized nation (3-4 times more than South Korea, New Zealand and Japan, about twice as much as Germany and Switzerland), but still has the lowest life expectancy at birth and the highest rate of people with multiple chronic diseases. A study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has found that the U.S. has fewer hospital beds and physicians per person than France, Australia, Italy and Austria, the countries that spend a lot less on health than the US. Many countries also outrank the U.S. in access to advanced medical technology the nation is so proud of. 

Healthcare system in the United States is not only the most expensive but also the most complicated in the world. There is no universal care and the majority of individuals rely on private healthcare provided by their employers. Retired employees who have contributed to the federal health insurance Medicare are entitled to enroll into its plans once they reach the required age. Some low-income individuals have access to public plans subsidized by the government. Rich Americans can afford to pay for the best private insurance and get the best care. For an additional $1,000-$2000 per year "concierge" fee, their doctor will also talk to them on the phone and answer their e-mail. US Congress members also get the best health care, but at the expense of taxpayers, and don't care how many of those taxpayers have no insurance themselves.

Privatizing health insurance was supposed to spur market competition and decrease the prices, but analyses show the opposite has happened. And yet, the idea of nationalizing health care sparks horror in the minds of many Americans, even those who have no health insurance. We all know how hard it was to pass the so-called Obamacare and how targeted it has been since then by the politicians who want to dismantle it.  

Economist Jonathan Skinner said that the powerful health-care lobbies and Americans' suspicion of what many see as socialized medicine make a radical overhaul of the system difficult. He was one of the experts I interviewed for the Voice of America 2006 report, titled Is America's Health Care System the best or just the most expensive in the world?  Skinner also said the increasing financial strain of health care spending on American businesses, government and families would make some change inevitable.  The report was relative news at the time and was  cited in subsequent literature on the state of the US health care until it was pushed out from the internet by newer and more dire studies. Here we are almost 20 years later with experts still urging the administration and Congress to expand access to health care and control the costs, with no solution in sight. 

So where does the money go? I have yet to meet a doctor in D.C. struggling to survive on their income. So when the George Washington University Hospital network last year sent me a colorful envelope asking me to reward my doctor's hard work with a several-hundred-dollar gift, I was puzzled. The envelope had a place for a doctor's name. I had no idea which doctor could be considered as mine since I had not seen one doctor more than once in years and no names came to mind. But how typical of America to push its ordinary citizens to share their hard-earned middling income with the highest paid professionals, rather than its most needy citizens.  

Our Lives Today

Science and technology are making great strides, offering better services, faster food, better income, bigger houses, more advanced medicine and, one could conclude, a much better life. But opinions vary on whether this is the reality or not. Here are some thoughts of renowned Croatian economist, Velimir Srića, professor emeritus at the University of Zagreb, with a PhD in IT management and an MBA from Columbia University, who has also taught as visiting professor at UCLA, Swiss School of Management in Geneva, Renmin in Beijing, universities in Shanghai, Cincinnati, Budapest, Graz and many others. It would take too much space to list all his achievements, so I leave that to Google.  Here is how Dr. Srića views our lives today (and by the way, "srića" means "happiness" in one of the Croatian dialects).

Prof. Velimir Srića in an interview for Glas Slavonije:

"We live in creative times. Medicine has advanced so much that almost no man is completely healthy. The state is so powerful that no one is free. We are ruled by democracy, with man incapable people electing a few corrupted. 

Today, the best football player, actor or singer makes a thousand times more than the best teacher, educator or healer. Material wealth is accompanied by spiritual emptiness.

We are constructing ever taller buildings, while the threshold of tolerance is sinking ever lower. Cities are expanding and world views narrowing. We buy more things and enjoy them less.

The square footage of dwellings is growing, for people who increasingly live alone. Families are wealthier but couples divorce more often. The number of beautiful houses and broken homes is growing at a similar pace.

Technological advances are saving time, but we are still increasingly short of it. We have learned how to rush and forgotten how to wait with patience. The number of experts is growing as is the number of unsolved problems. We are more educated but not wiser. We know more, but understand less.

The abundance of comic shows is growing in pace with the number of people suffering from depression. We are angry all the time and tired all the time. The brain we use while reading a book is replaced by vegetating in front of a screen. We live longer, but emptier lives. We are surrounded by fast food and slow digestion.

One third of humanity is dying from starvation and one third from morbid obesity. We have hundreds of Facebook friends but no real friends. The number of high-placed people and small-minded people is growing. We quarrel often, love rarely and hate easily.

Good taste has been replaced by junk. Mass culture has created mass hysteria and mass murderers. We are visiting remote planets and asteroids, and do not know our closest neighbors. The center of our lives is a shopping place.

We proudly eat "healthy food," but allow the media to poison our spirit. There is more and more information and less and less real communication. We know the price of everything and the value of nothing. We are taught to earn a living, but not how to live.

Once we used things and loved people, today we love things and use people. Do we live better than before? Make your own conclusion."

Opera "Blue" Premieres in Washington After a Three-Year Delay

When Washington National Opera announced its premiere of composer Jeanine Tesori and librettist Tazewell Thompson's opera Blue for March of 2020, it seemed like the time was perfect to present a story dealing with racial tensions in the United States. The outrage over deaths of unarmed Black people at the hands of mostly white policemen led to renewed street protests in the United States and the Black Lives Matter movement spread across the globe. Three years later the Washington premiere, delayed by the pandemic, the topic remains as relevant as ever. Just scroll down your social media feeds to witness increasingly open and bold expressions of hatred toward "the other." Blue offers a rare and intimate look into how racial inequality destroys lives and tears into the fabric of community.

Police officers in Blue                                                        (Photo: Scott Suchman)

The opera's title refers to the blue uniforms of New York City policemen. The characters are named by their roles: the Father, the Mother, the Son, the Reverend, the Nurse, Policemen and Girlfriends, indicating they represent generic members of a close-knit Harlem community. During a brief musical introduction we see the Father as a young man running into policemen blocking his way wherever he goes until he becomes one of them. Being a policeman gives the young man a secure job, stability, health and dental insurances (no small matter in the United States) and enables him to start a family life.

In the opening scene, the Mother chats with her Girlfriends about the joys of her marriage and desired for a child. The Girlfriends cheer her happiness, but warn she should not bring a boy into this world because he would not live long. The Mother swears to protect the boy. 

The Father's fellow police officers react differently to the news. They celebrate and tease their mate, seemingly confident that their profession provides security.

Next we see the father arriving in the hospital to see his new baby. He is proud, excited but also frightened about the responsibilities coming with raising a boy in a dangerous world that he knows well as a policeman. This scene is followed by a very brief glimpse into the marital happiness buoyed by the love for a young boy at home. All too soon the playful boy becomes a rebellious teenager, well aware of injustices in his society and ashamed of his father's profession. When asked to stay away from protests in which he could get arrested and hurt, the Son accuses the Father of supporting laws that protect the white people but not his own Black community. Despite angry barbs, the Father hugs his son and assures him of his love. After promising to attend one last peaceful demonstration, the Son leaves the house and never comes back.

In the second act we witness the Father's meeting with a local priest after his son's death. His grief is exacerbated by the knowledge that the boy was killed by one of his fellow police officers. The Reverend encourages him to forgive, but the pain is shaking the Father's faith ("Only a white God would sit in his cloudy white heaven") and he swears revenge.

During the funeral, which brings the community together much as the funerals do after real-life shooting deaths in America, the Father is beset by memories of his son, and feelings of guilt and regret, wondering if he could have done anything different to save him. The parents and the congregation then end their prayers and quietly leave.

Funeral scene in Blue        (Photo: Scott Suchman)

Originally commissioned by The Glimmerglass Festival at the initiative of WNO's artistic director Francesca Zambello, Blue premiered in Cooperstown in 2019. In 2020 the Music Critics Association of North America named it the 'Best New Opera.' It has since played in Seattle, Detroit and Pittsburg and had a European premiere in Amsterdam in 2022. English National Opera is scheduled to unveil its production of Blue next month at the London Coliseum.  

Washington National Opera meanwhile produced a studio recording of the opera, which was published last year on the Pentatone label. 

WNO's repeat performance of Blue on Monday was impeccable. Kenneth Kellog as the Father has made the role his own having sung it in most of the performances so far. He will sing it again in London next month. The role of the Mother was expertly conveyed by mezzo-soprano Briana Hunter, for whom the role was written. She was buoyant in her joys and heartbreaking in her sorrow, with some vocal rollercoasters to handle along the way. Aaron Crouch, who created the role of the Son, returned to it for the WNO production. The Girlfriends (Ariana Wehr, Katerina Burton and Rehanna Thelwell) were in superb voices, and delivered some of the most enchanting ensemble pieces of the evening. If I had to single out one of the three singers, it would be promising new soprano Katerina Burton. Wehr doubled as a nurse, making the most of her comic moment in which she gets to stick the new-born baby into the bewildered Father's arms.

Baritone Joshua Conyers stood out as the compassionate Reverend.

Blue is generally described as an opera about police violence against young black men. Indeed, the Girlfriends warn their pregnant friend: "Thou shalt bring forth no Black boys into this world!" The less pessimistic Father grows more concerned as his 16-year old son starts to rebel. He tells him repeatedly: "Your only duty is to stay alive," underscoring his awareness that it is not a given.

Blue does not seek to impress with violence. The shooting death does not take place on the stage. It does not need to. We see such scenes in the news media often enough. The opera shows the joys and sorrows of average African-American families and dependence on one another and their community. Despite the initial unease, the Girlfriends welcome a new boy into the community and the Father's conflict with his son ends in a firm embrace and pledge of his love.

Global interest in the Tesori-Thompson opera is testimony to its universal themes of love, conflict, pursuit of justice and tragedy.  Tesori's melodic score is an example of contemporary sound with African-American influences and a strong sense for theater. The composer known for Broadway musicals, such as Tony Award-winning Fun Home; Thoroughly Modern Millie and Shrek the Musical, did not shy away from writing tuneful music that people actually enjoy. Blue has been described as an eclectic piece with rich orchestration and eloquent vocal lines. There is every reason to look forward to the world premiere of Tesori's new opera Grounded, which WNO plans to premiere during its next season.  

Thompson's libretto was a mixed bag. It held very few surprises in the first act. The Girlfriend scene offered some of the most beautiful singing, but was too long in my opinion, especially in comparison with its male counterpart. The glimpse into the early family life, hinting it was a happy one, was too short to be remembered before a crucial scene of conflict between the Father and the Son. 

       Kenneth Kellogg and Aaron Crouch as Father and Son in Blue   (Photo: Scott Suchman)

The encounter between the Father and the Reverend in the second act brought to mind a scene from Verdi's Don Carlo, in which King Philip seeks advice about his rebellious son from the head of the Spanish Inquisition. The circumstances are different and the music is different. While the Spanish king seeks to sacrifice his son for the stability of his reign, the US police officer, in an equally powerful scene, seeks revenge for the unjust death of his. 

Another scene that brought to mind a well known opera was the one where somber Girlfriends give support to the grief-stricken mother. It reminded me of Poulenc's nuns in Dialogues des Carmélites preparing for the guillotine. Neither group has hope for a better future.

At the funeral, when the Father's mind wonders back to the past, we finally witness some of the family scenes missed in the first part of the opera. In this unexpected flashback, we witness the Mother making peace between the Father and the Son over a family meal. Throughout Blue, we saw the Mother rejoicing in the birth of her son and agonizing over his death, but no interaction between her and her teenage son until this last scene. It was a little late for me, literally like an afterthought. 

The congregation leaves the stage to a sad but musically calming conclusion. We are left with a sense that a human life has been cut off too early with no lesson learned and more grief to come - the same sense of helplessness we get after learning about yet another shooting death reported in the news. Despite outrage and a wave protests after every new killing of a black man by a police officer, resignation follows soon after. The Father's words to God “How many sons do we have to give before you can’t hold one more?” come back to haunt us, rightfully so. An optimistic end to this opera would ring hollow. 

Zambello has said that art organizations have a responsibility to explore contemporary issues and start dialogues that could lead to change.  She has done her part with Blue and I expect there will be more. WNO has made an extraordinary effort to make the opera accessible to educational institutions and people who don't often see opera. Almost every performance is accompanied by pre- and post-show discussions. The company has reached out to communities at the center of this work to bring them to the opera. in Addition, it is hosting events and inviting the media for dialogues on Blue's themes of race, violence, and reconciliation. A list of events can be found here:

https://www.kennedy-center.org/wno/home/2022-2023/blue/   

WNO has also produced a documentary on the making of Blue, which will be presented on March 18, starting at 1:00 PM at the Justice Forum at the Kennedy Center's REACH,  and will be followed by a panel discussion. The event is free and open to the public.

Arts organizations, at least some of them, are making steps toward awareness of our societal problems and possible change. But so should we all. One thing everyone could do immediately is stop spreading hateful, incendiary messages on social media, while hiding behind fake names.

*****

There will be four more performances of Blue at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater through March 25.

English National Opera in London will run 6 performances of Blue between April 20 and  May 4.

Maryland Lyric Opera Ends Verdi Season With Solid Otello

Maryland Lyric Opera ends its current season of four Verdi operas with Otello, following Un ballo in maschera, Macbeth and Falstaff. All of the four operas performed at the Music Center at Strathmore have been semi-staged as the concert hall has no room for fully staged operas. Sharing the stage with a large orchestra can be taxing on singers, but it enables the audience to focus more fully on the music. The choice of Philippe Auguin to conduct Verdi's last drama was an excellent one. He led the chorus and the orchestra with a sure hand and perfect synchronization. The choice of principals was a mixed success.

The opera opens with a crowd outside a castle on the Island of Cyprus, watching a ship commanded by Venetian general Otello struggle to reach the port through a stormy sea. Otello, who is a Moor, has been awarded governorship of Cyprus as reward for his heroism in fighting the Turks and has also won the hand of beautiful Desdemona. The crowd is cheering the ship's landing while Otello's ensign Iago plots his master's demise. The opening storm is spectacular with blasting chorus and orchestra, interjections and thunderclaps. The scene reaches a climax with Otello jumping on shore and exclaiming "Esultate!"  (rejoice) in one of opera's most exciting entrances. The brief but powerful first encounter with the tenor is a good indicator of what to expect from him as the drama enfolds.

Gregory Kunde, an internationally acclaimed tenor who - unfairly - never quite achieved stardom, acquitted himself well in his entrance to the stage on Saturday (March 3), with only a minor strain felt at the peak of his jubilant cry. Kunde's strong voice was buoyed, not drowned, by the expertly controlled chorus and orchestra under the baton of French conductor Philippe Auguin. The lighting and projections, combined with the energetic music, created a realistic feeling of the sea storm. 

As the opera progressed, Kunde's once ringing voice showed signs of dryness and fray. In Otello's love duet with Desdemona (Greek soprano Eleni Calenos), Kunde appeared less comfortable than his fresh-voiced partner, so much so that it was almost a relief to hear him complete the high-octave finish line"Venere splende" without mishap. The chemistry with Calenos was barely there.

Such moments were not infrequent throughout the evening. Kunde's rendition of Otello's descent into madness consisted largely of abrupt switches from whisper-soft voice to jarring shouts, which marred his act III aria "Dio mi potevi scagliar."  Such harsh transitions continued all the way to the bedroom scene in the last act.  Only after the murder scene, as Otello realizes he has been duped into murdering his innocent wife, Kunde regained a dignified tone and delivered the surrender aria "Niun mi tema" in appropriately noble vein.  He was also poignant in recalling the couple's first kiss as the tragic Moor ends his life by his wife's deathbed.

Otello is arguably Verdi's most demanding tenor role and singers take time to get ready for it. Kunde may have waited too long. The singer who was a memorable Otello in Rossini's bel canto version and an impressive Enée in Berlioz's epic Les Troyens, may have had a bad night on Saturday, but it is more likely that his best Otello days are behind him.

Gregory Kunde as Otello and Eleni Calenos as Desdemona.  Photo: Julian Thomas

Calenos was not the kind of Desdemona that brings tears to your eyes.  She was in good voice throughout the evening, but her vibrato sometimes veered on the verge of wobbling and her phrasing was occasionally choppy. While appropriately gentle and in turn confused by Otello's increasingly erratic behavior, the soprano's emotion never seemed as deep as the words would have it. In Desdemona's encounters with Otello, Calenos acted more like an obedient daughter than a loving wife. She may grow into the role with time, but is not there yet.

Mark Delavan had a great evening as the devious Iago. His rich bass-baritone sounded better to this ear than in MDLO's Falstaff earlier in the season. Delavan delivered an impressive "Credo in un Dio", Iago's aria in which he reflects on his cruelty in stirring Otello's jealousy, to achieve the destruction of the hated Moor through his innocent wife. He was an equal partner to Kunde in the menacing duet "Si pel ciel marmoreo giuro!"

Delavan was not the darkest and cruelest Iago to ever grace an operatic stage. There was a glint of humor rather than glee in his eye, when he put his booted leg on Otello's chest, and his flight from the stage after his crime is unveiled brought to mind comical Falstaff. But overall, he projected enough malice to make a convincing evil doer.

Yi Li was a charming Cassio, Otello's captain who provoked Iago's envy and served as the instrument of his revenge.  David Pittsinger made for an elegant and respectable Venetian envoy. Mezzo-soprano Patricia Schuman had good moments as Iago's wife Emilia, but did not quite rise to the occasion in her crucial scene of standing up to Otello for killing Desdemona, and unveiling her husband's role in it.

Supertitles by Chadwick Creative Arts included some weird translations. In Act III, Desdemona talks about Otello's angry look, "lo sguardo tuo tremendo," which was translated as "your fearful gaze." Otello's look was supposed to be frightening rather than fearful. Likewise, Otello's exclamation,"Anima mia, ti maledico," is addressed to Desdemona. He is calling her "my soul" as is common in addressing a beloved person in Italian and he is cursing her at the same time. The translation had Otello condemning his own soul. Those were minor distractions, likely missed by most patrons.

While the soloists sang with various degrees of success, the grandeur of MDLO's Saturdays performance was secured by the brilliant chorus, excellent orchestra and unwavering guidance by conductor Philippe Auguin.

The two-hour-40-minutes long performance will be repeated on Sunday, March 5.