WNO'S Aida Revival Takes the War Drama Out of Egypt

The Washington National Opera celebrates its 70th anniversary with a revival of its 2017 contemporary production of Aida, in which Egypt and Ethiopia became any two African countries at war. The diverse cast of singers and dancers includes performers of various ages, genders and races to reflect the dynamic vibe of the nation's capital rather than of the ancient Egypt. The visually striking staging with militaristic elements, calligraphic symbols, colorful costumes, fanfares and confetti is likely to appeal to the local audience, especially the young, but some may find the mish-mash of styles and activities on the stage somewhat distracting. 

The production envisioned by Francesca Zambello and co-produced by several U.S. companies premiered in 2012 at Glimmerglass Opera and subsequently traveled to San Francisco, Washington D.C., Seattle, Los Angeles and Chicago while New York's Metropolitan stuck to its own mostly traditional staging. 

To see Zambello's modern vision of the historic drama eight years ago in DC was refreshing, despite its unattractive elements such as Aida's attire - an ugly purple dress with a forest green wrap. When the same dress reappeared in the new staging, one had to wonder if there was a reason for such choice of colors. Ethiopian national colors are green, yellow and red, but of course, this production did not necessarily depict a conflict between Ethiopia and Egypt. Asked about it after the Friday premiere in Washington, Zambello clarified that the colors were not symbolic of anything except perhaps purple for Aida's royal lineage and that the enslaved princess was dressed in colors that no one else wore to distinguish her as a foreigner among enemies.

    Jennifer Rowley and Adam Smith as Aida and Radamès,  photo: Scott Suchman

The dark opening sets were followed with brightly colored ones, decorated with hieroglyphs and calligraphy from RETNA, an artist who began with graffiti in the streets of Los Angeles. His designs are an unusual mix of African, not necessarily Egyptian, symbols with some hinting at Asian calligraphy, especially the central ones rendered in vermillion red. Unlike classical settings that seek to reproduce some of the colors from ancient Egyptian wall drawings, such as turquoise, green, terracotta and dark yellow, the oversized black and red symbols in this production are set agains bright red and royal blue backgrounds.

          Triumphal scene with artistic design by RETNA,  photo Scott Suchman

Although Aida as a typical grand opera includes some dance scenes, this production abounds with them. Soldiers dance in their uniforms, spirits of gods dance, and even a group of kids dressed as offspring of colonial Brits break into some dance antics on the stage.  The Nile scene brings in peace on the stage to highlight the turbulence of Aida's thoughts as she awaits Radamès. Meanwhile, she is startled by her father Amonasro, originally the Ethiopian king, who in this production looks like a comrade straight from Mao's China. His green workman suit and hat matching the green in Aida's outfit distinguish the two from their conquerors, but also bring to mind current U.S. relations with China and spark a question if this was a deliberate hint.

The costumes by Anita Yavich are a salad of styles: Amneris wears bright yellow or blue silky kaftans. Her companions are sometimes covered in white robes, but in one scene the robes go down to give way to silky dresses that look almost like Japanese kimonos and one is reminded of Madama Butterfly arriving to Pinkerton's home with her female retinue. Chief goddess Isis is dancing in a scintillating plissé dress with golden wings, of the kind befitting a Met Institute costume gala. 

The final tomb scene, bleak though it is, maybe the only element in this production that is true to ancient Egypt. We tend to think of the famous tombs inside the pyramids as being elaborately decorated, but those colorful walls often precede dark and claustrophobic chambers where the dead bodies were laid. The solemnity of the opera's closing scene was disrupted by the appearance of Amneris who sat on top of the tomb, drawing some giggles in the audience.

The opening night cast was a mixed bag. Much lauded soprano Jennifer Rowley was a bit of a disappointment despite her strong voice and generally good singing because of the overpronounced vibrato. Her acting was passionate, but relied mostly on cliché theatrical gestures that were not quite convincing. In appearance, she was more Cinderella than Aida.

British tenor Adam Smith has a powerful voice that carried over the orchestra most of the time. (It is always a bad idea to give a member of the press a seat all the way by a side wall because they then cannot properly hear a singer who turns his back to that part of the audience.)  Smith could certainly belt out high notes, but lacked the warm ringing tone that would make his performance memorable. 

Raehan Bryce-Davis had perhaps the most beautiful voice of the evening. Her warm mellifluous mezzo was a pleasure to hear. In terms of acting, sadly, it was hard to tell if she was glad, mad or sad. She appeared too benevolent for the fiery, jealous character of Amneris. Another problem is her Italian. With muffled consonants, one could not understand what she sang unless you knew the verse by heart. One example is "E in poter di costoro io stessa lo gettai!" in the crucial judgement scene.

Shenyang was the most unusual Amonasro I have ever seen and despite good singing did not project the image of a dignified king in captivity.  Morris Robinson as Ramfis, and Kevin Short as the conquering king were adequate, but not unforgettable.

The best singing of the evening for this reviewer came from the WNO chorus - clear, sharp, dynamic or gentle as needed with excellent pronunciation. Conductor Kwamé Ryan maintained a dynamic tempo throughout the evening even though he sometimes struggled to keep the singers and orchestra together.

Since 1990, WNO has produced Aida four times. The most successful was probably its 2003 Aida, performed at the Daughters of the American Revolution hall during the renovations at the Kennedy Center.  The two casts included Michele Crider as Aida, Maria Guleghina as Amneris and Richard Margison as Radamès alternating with Guleghina as Aida, Franco Farina as Radamès and Marianne Cornetti as Amneris. Amonasro was Mark Delavan. Conducted by maestro Heinz Fricke, a more simple staging with projected imagery has left a memorable impression that will be hard to match for years to come. A perfect example of how to achieve more with less.

Zambello's enthusiasm for making classical works attractive to contemporary audiences and offering completely new operas that reflect American values and life styles is commendable. One notable example is Jeannine Tesori's Blue, with a libretto by Tazewell Thompson. Zambello's bold and inclusive choice of artists can provide a much needed fresh look at timeless pieces as long as she stays focused on the work's central idea.  

The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, Opera Review

Apple founder Steve Jobs died in 2011 and in 2017 the Santa Fe Opera premiered a work about the revolutionary inventor and visionary. A movie about Steve Jobs came out even earlier than the opera. Why make a piece of theater about a person who is so well known that there is very little we can still learn about him? And if we don’t know enough, we can always get more information with a click of a button, perhaps on an iMac, iPhone, iPad or any other device Jobs developed. Composer Mason Bates and librettist Marc Campbell thought there is more to Steve Jobs than what we know from the news media and that opera is the best medium to explore his complex personality. Their creation, The (Revolution) of Steve Jobs, looks more into the protagonist’s personal development and his inner turmoil than his inventions. The Washington National Opera presented the work for the first time last Friday.

The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, is a one-act opera in 19 scenes, including a prologue and an epilogue, both set in the garage of Steve’s childhood home, where it all began when his father made him a workbench for his 10th birthday. Thus the opera’s main character makes a full circle of life, after abandoning his own youthful ideals  for an insatiable quest for power, and subsequently realizing the errors of his ways. 

 

As a young man, Steve Jobs learned Japanese calligraphy and practiced Zen Buddhism. His spiritual teacher Köbun Chino Otogawa has a crucial role in the opera as do his two significant female partners, the mother of his first child Chrisann Brennan and his wife Laurene Powell Jobs. His longtime business partner Steve “Woz” Wozniak is as present in the opera as he was in Steve Jobs’s life. There is also a chorus of scientists.

 

But while the operatic story covers most of the landmark moments in Jobs’s career, it focuses on his development as a person. As entrepreneur, Jobs gets caught in the grip of ambition and becomes ruthlessly harsh toward the people close to him. He forgets Otogawa’s teaching to let life happen to him, to simplify it, and not force it. Chrisann’s desperate pleas for financial help in raising their child alone are notably cruel, as we know from real-life reports. Wozniak quits in disgust and the board finally demotes Jobs. 

 

The Zen teacher reappears to remind him that we can all learn from our difficulties and, indeed Jobs rebounds, comes up with his best ideas yet and is returned to the company. He also becomes open to love and family life. 

Photo:WNO

To match the story of a revolutionary man whose personal computers affected almost everyone on the planet, the composer has made some unusual musical choices. He uses a saxophone, acoustic guitar and electronic sounds as played on a Macintosh laptop, the instruments that are rarely if ever used in the traditional opera.

 

The score occasionally brings to mind John Adams, notably his Short Ride in a Fast Machine.  At other times one hears hints of Asian beat from Puccini’s Turandot and Leonard Bernstein’s jazzy orchestrations. In one scene,  Otogawa sounds decidedly like the Grand Inquisitor from Verdi’s Don Carlo in ending a phrase. While I would not describe the music as revolutionary, I found it to be the most engaging part of this opera. It always set the right mood and deepened the understanding of a scene, serving in general as the main agent of the story. 

 

The singers were all in good voices and well suited for their role. John Moore burst on the scene with a ringing baritone that conveyed Jobs’s youthful energy.  He was more convincing in his nasty stage than when he became contemplative in his afterlife. 

Bass Wei Wu owns the role of spiritual advisor Köbun Chino Otogawa, his scenes almost dominating the show. Kresley Figueroa has a youthful soprano, appropriate for a bubbly and naïve young woman in love as Chrisann was when she dated Jobs.

 

Tenor Jonathan Burton as Wozniak gave a charismatic performance. The creation of a "blue box" that enabled making free long-distance phone calls prompted him to break into a clumsy, but charming celebratory gigue. His version of Jobs's burly partner quit more in exasperation than in anger. 

Jobs’s wife Laurene seems to be the only person who has effective influence on him, although with delayed result. Winona Martin has a mellifluous soprano, suited for the role of a serene, mature woman. Unfortunately, the creators made her sound more like a nagging than supportive wife, and in the end turned her into a didactic matron. In her final lines, Laurene warns the audience to refrain from reaching for their cell phones as soon as the show is over, and recommends looking up into the sky and stars instead of Jobs's "one device."

Photo: Scott Suchman

 

Mezzo-soprano Michelle Mariposa as Jobs’s calligraphy teacher and baritone Justin Burgess as his father Paul Jobs round up the cast in cameo roles. 

 

Occasionally, many of these beautiful voices were drowned by the chorus or the orchestra. 

 

Production and staging by Tomer Zvulun, revived by Rebecca Herman, was technically simple: 24 smaller screens framed by stairs and scaffoldings that allowed the performers to move upward.  Together with four larger screens on each side of the stage, they served as canvas for projections, designed by S. Kathy Tucker with lighting by Robert Wierzel. The colors and patterns projected on the screens and above them swiftly changed the mood and atmosphere for each new scene.

Photo: WNO

                                                

Overall, it is understandable what may attract contemporary audiences to this opera, which has seen at least 10 new productions across the nation since its 2017 premiere. With the amplified contemporary sound, some catchy tunes and choreographed chorus movements, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs is more akin to a popular American musical than a traditional opera. It’s a piece of work one can listen to at home and enjoy parts of it even without a high-tech gimmicky production. But in terms of drama, it just misses its main goal of conveying inner struggles and redemption of a flawed genius, hurtling to complete his circle of life.  Do we understand Jobs any better after seeing this opera?  

 

Laurene's cliché warnings against obsessive use of the internet make the opera's final scenes drag and the return of the birthday boy with balloons from the Prologue is plain kitch. 

 

The piece concludes on a somewhat bombastic note, in a standard operatic tradition, inviting a burst of applause from the audience.  The last performance is scheduled for May 9.

It was not clear why the WNO decided to set the premiere for Friday at 5:30 PM, forcing patrons to battle the weekend rush hour to get to the show, many of them arriving late, only to learn that the inconvenient time was chosen to accommodate the WNO's annual gala dinner. First things first.

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.