tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25220128397074103102024-03-12T18:59:44.586-04:00The Zlatica Hoke PostJournalist Zlatica Hoke blogs about international affairs, environment and culture.Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.comBlogger128125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-6290292258969355332023-10-31T00:36:00.008-04:002023-11-08T16:30:23.627-05:00WNO Premieres "Grounded", an Opera With Too Many Messages <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">The world premiere of <i>Grounded</i> 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 <i>Grounded</i> this was not enough. Their opera tackles a myriad </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">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.</span></b></span></p><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLJKQwtmeHm7AdLt1NR0qq8VRh-CK68xgHfD1Hdlpo8Rtq5F7Jqvy3X_54Q473jU_Q75OELpndDh15amHYbruAYgBOl-bNbWABkfnm_5yynDIKjshw0NO7BOzslKNh9fZVLb6P0qiUHIG-_wDbAw8ljJPYr05lYyfGScMYCTjlEmZej3GzpU7H0e3r/s6000/2023_10_24_Emily%20D'Angelo%20(Jess)_%20WNO_Grounded_0019.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLJKQwtmeHm7AdLt1NR0qq8VRh-CK68xgHfD1Hdlpo8Rtq5F7Jqvy3X_54Q473jU_Q75OELpndDh15amHYbruAYgBOl-bNbWABkfnm_5yynDIKjshw0NO7BOzslKNh9fZVLb6P0qiUHIG-_wDbAw8ljJPYr05lYyfGScMYCTjlEmZej3GzpU7H0e3r/w640-h426/2023_10_24_Emily%20D'Angelo%20(Jess)_%20WNO_Grounded_0019.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Fira Sans"; text-align: left;">Emily D’Angelo as </span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Fira Sans"; text-align: left;">F-16 fighter pilot</span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: "Fira Sans"; text-align: left;"> in WNO's opera Grounded</span></i></span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">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 </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Emily D'Angelo</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> 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. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"> 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.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1a10673jT592Wjvq0dOREs9E1IgSG1Xmpxe938MN-SD4Z-V00ez86W4_UcInh55Ar4Cp-sHVARqnZcAplFXOFZKKmPXM5xOXXBHL2ICEaLmjwz-t15GIywghFaHlSX3ygBnM-95uBZT8kcP0ONSgvjcSL9gR414zbCz7cnsFMBCCbLcrYSVsa-wzI/s6000/2023_10_24_Morris%20Robinson%20(Commander)_Emily%20D'Angelo%20(Jess)_Willa%20Cook%20(Sam)_Joseph%20Dennis%20(Eric)_WNO_Grounded_0099.jpg" style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 16px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6000" data-original-width="4000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1a10673jT592Wjvq0dOREs9E1IgSG1Xmpxe938MN-SD4Z-V00ez86W4_UcInh55Ar4Cp-sHVARqnZcAplFXOFZKKmPXM5xOXXBHL2ICEaLmjwz-t15GIywghFaHlSX3ygBnM-95uBZT8kcP0ONSgvjcSL9gR414zbCz7cnsFMBCCbLcrYSVsa-wzI/w426-h640/2023_10_24_Morris%20Robinson%20(Commander)_Emily%20D'Angelo%20(Jess)_Willa%20Cook%20(Sam)_Joseph%20Dennis%20(Eric)_WNO_Grounded_0099.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i> <span style="font-size: medium;">Split scene with Jess at home with Commander above, <br />photo Scott Suchman</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><div><span style="background-color: #3a383a; caret-color: rgb(210, 210, 210); color: #d2d2d2; font-family: Verb, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></span></div><div><span><div style="font-family: georgia; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">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. </span></span></div><div style="font-family: georgia; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: georgia; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>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 </span>(portrayed by splendid soprano Teresa Perrotta) is a clear sign that her mind is unraveling. </span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">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. </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">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. </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The threat of death has been removed, but not the threat to her well being. </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">In one scene she wipes the invisible blood from her hands like Lady Macbeth. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">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</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">is court-marshaled. </span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(31, 31, 31); color: #1f1f1f;">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</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(31, 31, 31); color: #1f1f1f;"> 2.5-hour long opera that </span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87);">wavers between engaging moments and weak spots. </span><span>In the final scene, for example, the penalized pilot </span><span>delivers a cringe-worthy </span><span>warning (to Americans?), a sort of </span><span>"</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(31, 31, 31); color: #1f1f1f;">Live-by-the-sword, die-by-the-sword" </span><span style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87);">cliché,</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(31, 31, 31); color: #1f1f1f;"> ending with the single word "boom", in hushed tones. Perhaps an echo of a real explosion reverberating in the pilot's mind? </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(31, 31, 31); color: #1f1f1f; font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(31, 31, 31); color: #1f1f1f;">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. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(31, 31, 31); color: #1f1f1f; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(31, 31, 31); color: #1f1f1f;">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. </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444;">Bass Morris Robinson as Commander and baritone Kyle Miller as Sensor are more convincing in their shorter roles. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(31, 31, 31); color: #1f1f1f; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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. </span><span style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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 </span><span style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHmEwZXoEs2zBUZr8nlZYka1UjT1e0tCSICIUmKVuzbzB88pNV3O-KJrmOGiS47DyrdgdWPCFb3z1zV2C3pUVs7bqfUAyC4olK8I8ZUDKfBivTfoihpxh6aOVfgHvy7zSuUiD-eFdw_M6R2mIJFO8hcvzmnGKH7oi7Y8z-HCCCNcsbxDlW0X-yeUMV/s6000/2023_10_24_WNO_Grounded_0322.jpg" style="caret-color: rgb(210, 210, 210); font-family: Verb, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 16px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHmEwZXoEs2zBUZr8nlZYka1UjT1e0tCSICIUmKVuzbzB88pNV3O-KJrmOGiS47DyrdgdWPCFb3z1zV2C3pUVs7bqfUAyC4olK8I8ZUDKfBivTfoihpxh6aOVfgHvy7zSuUiD-eFdw_M6R2mIJFO8hcvzmnGKH7oi7Y8z-HCCCNcsbxDlW0X-yeUMV/w640-h426/2023_10_24_WNO_Grounded_0322.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Pilot in the control room with Sensor and two observers, photo Scott Suchman</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span><span style="background-color: white;"><i style="caret-color: rgb(31, 31, 31); color: #1f1f1f;">Grounded</i><span style="color: #1f1f1f;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(31, 31, 31);"> 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. </span></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(31, 31, 31); color: #1f1f1f;">With too many themes vying for attention, <i>Grounded </i>explores none in depth and fails to make a powerful impact. </span><span style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87);">If it is to open next year's season at the Metropolitan Opera, it may have to undergo a major overhaul. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.52px;">Tesori is an accomplished and popular composer, best known for her musicals.</span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87);"> 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 <i>Blue</i>, and on Saturday, it opened its</span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87);"> 2023-2024 season</span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87);"> with much heralded <i>Grounded.</i> Later this year, the company will revive Tesori's holiday favorite </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.52px;"><span><i>The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me. </i></span></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.52px;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.52px;"><span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); letter-spacing: normal;"><i>Blue</i> was a masterpiece in every respect: from the enfolding drama and convincing dialogues to </span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); letter-spacing: normal;">well developed characters,</span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); letter-spacing: normal;"> </span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); letter-spacing: normal;">excellent interpretations </span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); letter-spacing: normal;">and great music throughout. </span></span></span><span style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); letter-spacing: -0.52px;">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 <i>Grounded,</i></span><span style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87);"> 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.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(31, 31, 31); color: #1f1f1f;">There are five more performances of WNO's opera <i>Grounded</i>, with the last one on November 13.</span></div></span></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard; text-align: left;"></div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><table cellpadding="0;" cellspacing="0" style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; width: 600px;"><tbody><tr><td style="border-style: none; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div><span face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div>Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-63677147369838216432023-10-20T03:45:00.020-04:002023-11-04T20:49:57.846-04:00Ask Your Doctor<p><b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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. </span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">"Ask your doctor" is an irritable phrase on the labels for traditional and alternative remedies, as well as advertisements for health accessories, </span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">exercises,</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> 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.</span></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_YCVt5mpp5zE9DExLDDUL-yKThHxKj6nnG5FGeXdYzCAkpd35qdWiZVZVqvD1VUVY1wwi_ndwgiIJuyr4ACpSU8oAfCQVJIM3g4cUtgxjne2pY-H_C57dgQ7pTKoG8SRvxikbhZwltsbkzoBPM3Yk-XxqDIob9CpyiXgKvNLvFZFrd7TBlHUtH8Eh/s259/doctor.jpeg" style="caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); font-family: "Whitney A", "Whitney B", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 30px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_YCVt5mpp5zE9DExLDDUL-yKThHxKj6nnG5FGeXdYzCAkpd35qdWiZVZVqvD1VUVY1wwi_ndwgiIJuyr4ACpSU8oAfCQVJIM3g4cUtgxjne2pY-H_C57dgQ7pTKoG8SRvxikbhZwltsbkzoBPM3Yk-XxqDIob9CpyiXgKvNLvFZFrd7TBlHUtH8Eh/w400-h299/doctor.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">After a recent consultation with a doctor from the George Washington Medical Faculty Associates, <span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 36); color: #202124;">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. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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. </span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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. </span></p><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Of course, it is possible that the situation is better in other states. But a recent international study has found that "p<span style="letter-spacing: 0.4px;">eople in the US see doctors less often than those in most other countries." The report by </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.4px;">The Commonwealth Fund’s International Program in Health Policy and Practice Innovation</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.4px;">, 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.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.4px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">“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.”</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.4px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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.”</span></span></div><div><br /></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41);"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBOFUiu4MjXAzOx9a0tY_ZB1I595hq-swrv3YtptzupA6EfUz0znj4Fg1_cXbwPKVEBx9so0R0Udp8PcA9t_jLM5KBN8B8pfjPuq_03JYo-pEP0UPzjA_umjCp4TZc_rt-UvWoL1-ZHoEpBJmleqy45-N02iKp402Cv-aq16nbOICca4VpZw1SMinA/s300/docinchair.jpeg" style="font-family: "Whitney A", "Whitney B", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 30px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBOFUiu4MjXAzOx9a0tY_ZB1I595hq-swrv3YtptzupA6EfUz0znj4Fg1_cXbwPKVEBx9so0R0Udp8PcA9t_jLM5KBN8B8pfjPuq_03JYo-pEP0UPzjA_umjCp4TZc_rt-UvWoL1-ZHoEpBJmleqy45-N02iKp402Cv-aq16nbOICca4VpZw1SMinA/w400-h224/docinchair.jpeg" width="400" /></a></p><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span>But it is nothing new. Study after study in recent years have found that t</span><span face=""Whitney A", "Whitney B", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.4px;">he United States spends more on health care </span><span face=""Whitney A", "Whitney B", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.4px;">than any other industrialized nation </span><span face=""Whitney A", "Whitney B", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.4px;">(3-4 times more than South Korea, New </span><span face=""Whitney A", "Whitney B", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.4px;">Zealand and Japan, about twice as much as Germany and Switzerland)</span><span face=""Whitney A", "Whitney B", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.4px;">, but still has the lowest life expectancy at birth and the highest rate of people with multiple chronic diseases. A study </span><span>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. M</span><span>any countries also outrank the U.S. in access to advanced medical technology the nation is so proud of.</span></span><span face=""Whitney A", "Whitney B", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.4px;"> </span></div><div><span face=""Whitney A", "Whitney B", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.4px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; letter-spacing: 0.05px;">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. </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; letter-spacing: 0.05px;">Some low-income individuals have access to public plans subsidized by the government. </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; letter-spacing: 0.05px;">Rich Americans can afford to pay for the best private insurance and get the best care. For an additional </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.4px;">$1,000-$2000 per year "concierge" fee, their doctor will also talk to them on the phone and answer their e-mail. </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; letter-spacing: 0.05px;">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.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Privatizing health in</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">surance 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. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span>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. </span>He was one of the experts I interviewed for the Voice of America 2006 report, <span>titled </span><i>Is America's Health Care System the best or just the most expensive in the world? Skinner</i><span> also said the increasing financial strain of health care spending on American bu</span><span>sinesses, government and families would make some change inevitable. The report </span>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 <span style="letter-spacing: 0.4px;">the administration and Congress to expand access to health care and control the costs, with no solution in sight. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.4px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium; letter-spacing: 0.4px;">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. </span></div><div></div></div>Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-86040293272860240722023-07-10T11:47:00.000-04:002023-07-10T11:47:05.628-04:00Our Lives Today<p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>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, <span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(77, 81, 86); color: #4d5156;">with a PhD in IT management and an MBA from Columbia University, </span>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).</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>Prof. Velimir Srića in an interview for <i>Glas Slavonije</i>:</b></span></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggMD9J9ELQWTD9xQdkAS15b0os0hK-nqtVzCskmdfZRjqFUIWXQkdWtcFrDqr3jI_ns1MaYlZ2He695QRFjE7MGoyUeFtkITX-gkXAnV8yTy6QEUR20--c_xjkA-SyCmL6lay-BmTzsuqBs7L2MywCOoMdtd7KSuQXdRsI2-XWw0DJyyPcW-hBetXX/s257/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="196" data-original-width="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggMD9J9ELQWTD9xQdkAS15b0os0hK-nqtVzCskmdfZRjqFUIWXQkdWtcFrDqr3jI_ns1MaYlZ2He695QRFjE7MGoyUeFtkITX-gkXAnV8yTy6QEUR20--c_xjkA-SyCmL6lay-BmTzsuqBs7L2MywCOoMdtd7KSuQXdRsI2-XWw0DJyyPcW-hBetXX/s16000/images.jpeg" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">"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. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Once we used things and loved people, today we love things and use people. Do we live better than before? Make your own conclusion."</span></p><p><br /></p>Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-66153600889763098432023-03-15T23:31:00.005-04:002023-11-13T11:21:23.610-05:00Opera "Blue" Premieres in Washington After a Three-Year Delay<p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>When Washington National Opera announced its premiere of composer Jeanine Tesori and librettist Tazewell Thompson's opera <i>Blue</i> 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." <i>Blue</i> offers a rare and intimate look into how racial inequality destroys lives and tears into the fabric of community.</b></span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvgeE0rhOcOD984C0wGsuEDuLBtb0EhRv1l0j03rjmpKLRAtIJyJKoknyzqkk1fe0S6r3EYve98gblsUsLF2eJcP-6iMUpOo2ho-r0OPiBxLaPpMHoOZop4GrbShOodcllTTfCO4Eop6zZe4qBbfM6opzdOoMtNomO-muBW-HdTVUsH1GquF4zeg/s6000/2023_03_09_WNO_Blue_0006.jpg" style="font-size: 1.25rem; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvgeE0rhOcOD984C0wGsuEDuLBtb0EhRv1l0j03rjmpKLRAtIJyJKoknyzqkk1fe0S6r3EYve98gblsUsLF2eJcP-6iMUpOo2ho-r0OPiBxLaPpMHoOZop4GrbShOodcllTTfCO4Eop6zZe4qBbfM6opzdOoMtNomO-muBW-HdTVUsH1GquF4zeg/w640-h426/2023_03_09_WNO_Blue_0006.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>Police officers in Blue (Photo: Scott Suchman)</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The Father's fellow police officers react differently to the news. They celebrate and tease their mate, seemingly confident that their profession provides security.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">In the second act we witness the Father's meeting with a local priest after his son's death. His</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> 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 </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">("Only a white God would sit in his cloudy white heaven") and he swears revenge.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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.</span></p><p></p><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" data-el="text" data-testid="drop-cap-letter" dir="null" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Franklin, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.25rem; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160); margin: 0px; orphans: auto; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150); text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); color: #2a2a2a; font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></p><p></p></div><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-TswxrcUZ8B_du5wmBqtRzyjy50juH0d4KTh6hdFXaHgBWkMsJAh8G06iuYT8SIN8gDWfjWmOTZerWBHULrbjJzKEFYeXPQZnsQ1TT-3fUtO3zkumLGxBS-x93G27vA9E3NzmqIxYNqATxoOZvibjxIOEccxKLyfyjy9yaoI9rggKwrX6E1Cttg/s6000/2023_03_09_WNO_Blue_0248.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-TswxrcUZ8B_du5wmBqtRzyjy50juH0d4KTh6hdFXaHgBWkMsJAh8G06iuYT8SIN8gDWfjWmOTZerWBHULrbjJzKEFYeXPQZnsQ1TT-3fUtO3zkumLGxBS-x93G27vA9E3NzmqIxYNqATxoOZvibjxIOEccxKLyfyjy9yaoI9rggKwrX6E1Cttg/w640-h426/2023_03_09_WNO_Blue_0248.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>Funeral scene in Blue (Photo<span face="-webkit-standard">: </span><span face="Franklin, arial, sans-serif" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: left;">Scott Suchman)</span></i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Originally commissioned by The Glimmerglass Festival at the initiative of WNO's artistic director Francesca Zambello, <i>Blue</i> premiered in Cooperstown in 2019. In<span face="-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "segoe ui", Roboto, "helvetica neue", Arial, "noto sans", sans-serif, "apple color emoji", "segoe ui emoji", "segoe ui symbol", "noto color emoji"" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529;"> 2020 the Music Critics Association of North America named it the 'Best New Opera.' It</span> 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 <i>Blue</i> next month at the London Coliseum. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Washington National Opera meanwhile produced a studio recording of the opera, which was published last year on the Pentatone label. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">WNO's repeat performance of <i>Blue</i> 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. <span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><span>Aaron Crouch, who created the role of the </span></span></span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><span>Son, returned to it for the WNO production. </span></span></span>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.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Baritone Joshua Conyers stood out as the compassionate Reverend.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>Blue</i> 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 </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: georgia;">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.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42);"><i>Blue</i> 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</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42);"><i> </i>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.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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 <span face=""LL Brown", "Gill Sans", "Gill Sans MT", Calibri, sans-serif">Tony Award-winning</span><span face=""LL Brown", "Gill Sans", "Gill Sans MT", Calibri, sans-serif"> </span><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">Fun Home; </em><i>Thoroughly Modern Millie</i> and <i>Shrek the Musical</i>, did not shy away from writing tuneful music that people actually enjoy. <i>Blue</i> 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 <i>Grounded,</i> which WNO plans to premiere during its next season. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjssb48ivhzX8y9asV4-YG2ZJN8d_FmnMg0QpFwzZv_6LUn-tho1AW-VAypJOELZhNUgj8pJw-k447TGdcj8K-tP9y3I_RaCJpc-l2PeDC4gqSZEPj1IT4Df4NTn4MNL1X9tbDYTu34OhUWGyEJHlgp8I_UsJi4TyzVqe_G5ebA6zB_eijMGLLdww/s6000/2023_03_09_WNO_Blue_0133.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjssb48ivhzX8y9asV4-YG2ZJN8d_FmnMg0QpFwzZv_6LUn-tho1AW-VAypJOELZhNUgj8pJw-k447TGdcj8K-tP9y3I_RaCJpc-l2PeDC4gqSZEPj1IT4Df4NTn4MNL1X9tbDYTu34OhUWGyEJHlgp8I_UsJi4TyzVqe_G5ebA6zB_eijMGLLdww/w640-h426/2023_03_09_WNO_Blue_0133.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: georgia;"><i> Kenneth Kellogg and Aaron Crouch as Father and Son in Blue (Photo: </i></span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: georgia;"><i>Scott Suchman)</i></span><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The encounter between the Father and the Reverend in the second act brought to mind a scene from Verdi's <i>Don Carlo,</i> 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. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Another scene that brought to mind a well known opera was the one where somber Girlfriends give support to the grief-stricken mother<i>. </i>It reminded me of Poulenc's nuns in <i>Dialogues des Carmélites </i>preparing for the guillotine. Neither group has hope for a better future.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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 <i>Blue</i>, 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. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">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. </span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The Father's words to God <span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42);">“How many sons do we have to give before you can’t hold one more?” come back to haunt us, rightfully so. </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42);">An optimistic end to this opera </span>would ring hollow. </span></p><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">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 <i>Blue</i> 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.</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">The company has reached out to c</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); text-align: center;">ommunities 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 <i>Blue</i>'s </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); text-align: center;">themes of race, violence, and reconciliation. A list of events can be found here:</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.kennedy-center.org/wno/home/2022-2023/blue/ " target="_blank">https://www.kennedy-center.org/wno/home/2022-2023/blue/ </a></span></p><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="article-body" data-qa="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" data-el="text" data-testid="drop-cap-letter" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--wpds-colors-gray40); font-family: var(--wpds-fonts-body); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160); margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150);"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">WNO has also produced a documentary on the making of <i>Blue</i>, which will be presented on <span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; text-align: justify;">March 18, </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); text-align: justify;">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.</span></span></p><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" data-el="text" data-testid="drop-cap-letter" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--wpds-colors-gray40); font-family: var(--wpds-fonts-body); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160); margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: georgia; font-size: medium; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></p><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" data-el="text" data-testid="drop-cap-letter" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--wpds-colors-gray40); font-family: var(--wpds-fonts-body); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160); margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: georgia; font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">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.</span></p><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" data-el="text" data-testid="drop-cap-letter" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--wpds-colors-gray40); font-family: var(--wpds-fonts-body); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160); margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: georgia; font-size: medium; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></p><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" data-el="text" data-testid="drop-cap-letter" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--wpds-colors-gray40); font-family: var(--wpds-fonts-body); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160); margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: georgia; font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">*****</span></p><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" data-el="text" data-testid="drop-cap-letter" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--wpds-colors-gray40); font-family: var(--wpds-fonts-body); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160); margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: georgia; font-size: medium; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></p><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" data-el="text" data-testid="drop-cap-letter" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--wpds-colors-gray40); font-family: var(--wpds-fonts-body); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160); margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150);"><i style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42);"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">There will be four more performances of Blue at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater through March 25.</span></i></p><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" data-el="text" data-testid="drop-cap-letter" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--wpds-colors-gray40); font-family: var(--wpds-fonts-body); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160); margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150);"><i style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42);"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy" data-el="text" data-testid="drop-cap-letter" dir="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--wpds-colors-gray40); font-family: var(--wpds-fonts-body); line-height: var(--wpds-lineHeights-160); margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--wpds-space-150);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42);"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: center;"><i>English National Opera in London will run 6 performances of Blue between April 20 and May 4.</i></span><br style="font-style: normal; text-align: center;" /></span></span></p><p align="center" style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></p></div></div></div></div></div></div>Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-20045099577399680232023-03-05T00:06:00.006-05:002023-03-05T09:24:12.993-05:00Maryland Lyric Opera Ends Verdi Season With Solid Otello<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b;">Maryland Lyric Opera ends its current season of four Verdi operas with <i>Otello, </i>following <i>Un ballo in maschera, Macbeth</i> and <i>Falstaff. </i>All of the four operas performed at<i> t</i></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b;">he 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. </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b;">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.</span></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">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 </span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b; font-family: georgia;">is spectacular with blasting </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b; font-family: georgia;">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.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-size: large;">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. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-size: large;">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.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-size: large;">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.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">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 <i>Les Troyens</i>, may have had a bad night on Saturday, but it is more likely that his best Otello days are behind him.</span></span></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXkCUZsx0o1oEs96o_QmF7veBJW_jcByxLx4u61U-tHmjZvOakO9ykaeirKfVRCGs3XHNVsD_YjvSfea9yHkp2NoBEHQwM9zQIRdaItE1OO2ig8R6gQZSgIGs3REI0rHDcEvrKrQzBJ9WtS-GinEqJ1vIZrPYdR4TboEe-k19fRfWdABj1lQS0KA/s600/DSC06177.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="600" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXkCUZsx0o1oEs96o_QmF7veBJW_jcByxLx4u61U-tHmjZvOakO9ykaeirKfVRCGs3XHNVsD_YjvSfea9yHkp2NoBEHQwM9zQIRdaItE1OO2ig8R6gQZSgIGs3REI0rHDcEvrKrQzBJ9WtS-GinEqJ1vIZrPYdR4TboEe-k19fRfWdABj1lQS0KA/w640-h512/DSC06177.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Gregory Kunde as Otello and Eleni Calenos as Desdemona. Photo: Julian Thomas</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b;">Calenos was not the kind of Desdemona that brings tears to your eyes. She </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b;">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.</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b;"> 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.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b;">Mark Delavan had a great evening </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b;">as the devious Iago</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b;">. His rich bass-baritone sounded better to this ear than in MDLO's Falstaff earlier in the season. </span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b; font-family: georgia;">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!"</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b;">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 </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b;">projected enough malice to make a convincing evil doer.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">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.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b; margin-bottom: 1.65em; margin-top: 1.65em; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">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.</span></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b; margin-bottom: 1.65em; margin-top: 1.65em; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">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.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b; margin-bottom: 1.65em; margin-top: 1.65em; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The two-hour-40-minutes long performance will be repeated on Sunday, March 5.</span></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); color: #4b4b4b; font-family: Avenir, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1.65em; margin-top: 1.65em;"><br /></p>Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-30971323335931503082023-01-24T02:33:00.009-05:002023-03-05T00:27:58.612-05:00Maryland Lyric Opera's Falstaff Makes More With Less<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Verdi's final opera <i>Falstaff</i> is considered to be technically his best work, although it has never achieved the wide appeal of his earlier works such as <i>Rigoletto</i>, <i>Aida</i> or <i>La Traviata.</i> After its premiere at La Scala, Milan, </b></span><span style="font-size: large;"><b>in 1893, </b><b>and the following years at Covent Garden, London, and Metropolitan, New York, it had been mostly neglected, but it has enjoyed a gradual comeback in the past few decades. This year, maybe in honor of the 130th anniversary of its premiere, <i>Falstaff </i>is taking a prominent place in the repertory of the world's major opera venues: The Metropolitan, </b><b>Maryland Lyric Opera, </b><b>San José and Palm Beach operas in the US; Greek National Opera in Athens, Hamburg and Nürnberg operas in Germany and Opéra Nice in France, to name a few. Salzburg Festival in Austria also features Falstaff this summer.</b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">According to some accounts, Verdi wrote his last opera to challenge his own creativity, regardless of whether the audience would like it or not. It was only his second attempt at comedy after the first one, <i>Un giorno di regno</i>, flopped (I still enjoy it regardless). Based on Shakespeare's play <i>Merry Wives of Windsor</i>, Falstaff features an aging fat, impoverished and dishonest knight who may have once been slim, attractive and honorable. But like many of us, he still sees himself as he was in his youth. It takes drenching in the Thames River and a scare in the "haunted" forrest to disabuse him of his delusions. I still have the urge to shop at Forever 21, but inevitably get drenched when I find out that nothing fits.</span></p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2oxNOZmcw-rW19GSLNmaxOgpHdw1kUhstw4N-mYcy9at48kEo_sMvkMf2OpS8vBbTdpZkKjT4izo1dfDHTSNXOyQtlfN0d7VQbf-TpoRkOsSOYUFgMK-OabXZP3TbVpiBnjag_s4PPhVQJ8-S4JK7y20VKa0IffEtBgIsg06gxnrjo0raSCvU4g/s2560/Opening-NIght-Falstaff-75-scaled.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1707" data-original-width="2560" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2oxNOZmcw-rW19GSLNmaxOgpHdw1kUhstw4N-mYcy9at48kEo_sMvkMf2OpS8vBbTdpZkKjT4izo1dfDHTSNXOyQtlfN0d7VQbf-TpoRkOsSOYUFgMK-OabXZP3TbVpiBnjag_s4PPhVQJ8-S4JK7y20VKa0IffEtBgIsg06gxnrjo0raSCvU4g/w640-h426/Opening-NIght-Falstaff-75-scaled.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i>MDLO's Performance of Falstaff, Music Center at Strathmore, Bethesda, MD</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Maryland Lyric Opera's <i>Falstaff </i>was semi-staged, with only the most basic props: a few chairs, bench, table and the iconic wicker laundry chest. With the orchestra taking most of the Strathmore music hall's stage, there was no room for elaborate scenery or physical antics, which shifted focus to the music. The singers moved along a narrow strip of stage front while the chorus took the balcony above the orchestra.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">After a quick instrumental introduction, we meet Sir Falstaff deeply in his cups at the Garter Inn, ordering his followers Bardolfo and Pistola to deliver identical love letters to two wealthy married women that he plans to seduce in order to get into their husband's coffers. The dissipated knight is buried in debt and desperate. Bass-baritone Mark Delavan's good-natured eye twinkle made him a likable Falstaff even when he was plotting the worst of the shenanigans. Delavan's voice sounded appropriate for the character's age. The knight's minions resent being treated as servants and decide to betray his plan.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; color: black; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoc3nXRBH04xPFOXfE2lzBSmQGwStPvmryO0wg19Lt7gd9NNBF-bu9ZBzo2ZdtEc1yjnAMvrw0IE3do2ee-sQkuuu_7Zk0oD4Rzfi-Cn-D2sNKLSXUW22mEt58MCOLBK3EXy4tG1SH5VHm-0Cl-m4CogBZ5c0FPVL2PZy8roGm2PUzeTo63apNAA/s2560/DSC01127-scaled.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></a></div><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: -webkit-standard; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="2048" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoc3nXRBH04xPFOXfE2lzBSmQGwStPvmryO0wg19Lt7gd9NNBF-bu9ZBzo2ZdtEc1yjnAMvrw0IE3do2ee-sQkuuu_7Zk0oD4Rzfi-Cn-D2sNKLSXUW22mEt58MCOLBK3EXy4tG1SH5VHm-0Cl-m4CogBZ5c0FPVL2PZy8roGm2PUzeTo63apNAA/w512-h640/DSC01127-scaled.jpeg" style="cursor: move; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="512" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Brian Major as Ford and Mark Delavan as Falstaff in MDLO's Falstaff</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The scene moves from the inn to the home of wealthy and beautiful Alice Ford, who has an excessively jealous husband. It must have been her longtime grievance because they've been married for some time and have a daughter of marriageable age. Clearly, Alice is fed up and needs to teach her husband a lesson once and for all. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Teresa Perotta, who replaced Mary Feminear in the role of Alice on Sunday, was the evening's best surprise. Her mellifluous soprano was strong enough to soar above the orchestra, which sometimes overpowered other singers, especially those with lighter voices like soprano Rachel Blaustein as Alice's daughter Nannetta and tenor Yi Li as Fenton. Alice also sings most of her music in ensemble, so her role requires a singer with the ability to meld with others. Perotta displayed all the necessary qualities.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Together with her friends Meg Page and Mistress Quickly, Alice learns about Sir Falstaff's nefarious plan and the women decide to punish him. When Alice's jealous husband, informed by Bardolfo and Pistola </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">of Sir Falstaff's plan</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">, barges in to catch his wife <i>in flagranti </i>with the alleged lover, the women hide the visiting knight in a basket of dirty laundry and have the servants dump him in the river. The husband is appeased at the sight of the dripping wet intruder. </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;">But his daughter Nanetta also has a gripe against him because he rejects her lover's suit and wants to marry her off to a wealthy doctor. Alice promises to right all of the wrongs committed by the silly men.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Brian Major as Ford sang with a clear and ringing voice, but lacked the comic chops to convey the ridiculousness of a middle-aged husband's jealousy. Mezzo-soprano Catherine Martin showed her talent for theatrical intrigue in the role of gossipy Mistress Quickly. She was especially effective pretending obsequiousness to Sir Falstaff ("<i>Reverenza, reverenza.</i>..") Allegra de Vita was a vocally attractive Meg Page. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Rachel Blaustein and Yi Li's were well matched as Nannetta and Fenton. Both had sweet and light voices, suitable for a young couple.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The last act offers a unique opportunity for stage directors to unleash their artistic creativity. Most of it is set in a dark forest with spirits, elves, goblins and fairies, all of them fake, roaming around in Halloween-style garb, and scaring the gullible victims. It is surprising how much of that fanciful chaos was conveyed with so little on the Strathmore stage. The characters put on their disguise in front of the audience, while the bluish light projected to the scrims behind the orchestra created a required spooky atmosphere.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Ford is tricked to approve the marriage of his daughter with the man she loves, and Sir Falstaff is frightened by fake spirits to confess his sins. Even vanquished and ridiculed in the end, the old man accepts his punishment with a philosophical look on life: "<i>Tutto nel mondo è burla</i>" (everything in the world is a joke). Requests and offers of forgiveness are exchanged and the party leaves the forest for a celebration at the Fords' place.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Despite its funny moments, <i>Falstaff</i> is not a comic opera in a traditional sense. The gross knight is a thief and a liar, but he is also an astute critic of his society. "<i>Un mondo ladro</i>," he wails when he is punished for his own unsuccessful attempt at crookery. He suggests that as a young man he may have been naive and decent, but has become a cynic who questions the value of honor: "can it fill your belly? can it fix a broken leg?" For those unfamiliar with Shakespeare's opus: Sir John Falstaff was a sharp-witted friend of young Prince Hal in <i>Henry IV,</i> part one and two, who was abandoned when the prince became King Henry V. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">While we can laugh at some of the slapsticks depending on the production, there is a lot of serious thought behind the comic verse. The title character is a dishonest buffoon, but he is not truly evil. He gives hints that he was once a gentleman, and a philosopher, but fell through the cracks either through misfortune or alcoholism. In Act III, Sir Falstaff once more ruminates about the evils of the world in which there is no honor left and everything is in decline. "But," he concludes, "good wine dispels the gloomy thoughts of discouragement."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The work's treatment of women is quite advanced for Shakespeare's as well as Verdi's time. Operatic heroines are often portrayed as helpless victims or deceitful witches. In <i>Falstaff</i>, aka <i>Merry Wives of Windsor</i>, they are loyal wives, with a good sense of humor, using deception only when necessary to teach annoying men a lesson. To emphasize this modern view of women, some productions place <i>Falstaff</i> in more recent eras. The last one I saw live on stage at the Kennedy Center was a production by the Mariinsky Theater, with the trio of Windsor women plotting their revenge in a hair salon, while sitting under a row of retro hair driers.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The ambiguity between the comic and the serious puts <i>Falstaff </i>outside the categories that make an opera memorable: high drama, passion, tragedy, or side-splitting comedy. Therefore it has never had such a wide popular appeal as the traditional romantic, heroic or comic operas. </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1707" data-original-width="2560" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuv8cvy0Y3xntH4OezIrhA1uYQht5sp-uuQ6Tpz2fnAWfGGBjHqlmcyWyECbKiylF9lVCSi-pTxYKFjvO6tjLwgIa04pFbQxFJEyCp6DNfbN5xocAJ-6vJ76w9I0xX6VTuQSfum02wQyVOV3-OqTA7z-KPcVkQKm0e-NJC7Y3y_g9cOQjhcSkFmQ/w640-h426/DSC01383-scaled.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i>Rachel Blaustein as Nannetta and Yi Li as Fenton in NLDO's Falstaff</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Furthermore<i>, Falstaff'</i>s cohesive structure does not comprise distinct separate pieces like arias and <i>recitativi</i> in the Italian tradition. Few people like this unique opera at first hearing, or go home humming one of its tunes, with the exception perhaps of Fenton's third-act solo <i>Dal labbro il canto estasïato</i> <i>vola,</i> which ends in a duet with Nannetta. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">To fully appreciate the quality and unique delights of Verdi's last opera, a listener has to become familiar with his musical inventions and with the thoughtfulness of Boito's verse through repeated listening, something an average opera fan rarely does. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Maryland Lyric Opera was founded in 2014. Its current season of four Verdi operas ends with <i>Otello </i>in March.</span></p>Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com0Maryland, USA39.0457549 -76.64127119999999110.735521063821153 -111.79752119999999 67.355988736178844 -41.485021199999991tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-10770634758452489582022-11-03T00:13:00.017-04:002022-11-16T21:07:46.152-05:00Zambello Shines With WNO's New Elektra<p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>Not since Wagner's <i>Ring</i> in 2016 have we seen such a brilliant Washington National Opera production as Richard Strauss' <i>Elektra </i>on Monday night at the Kennedy Center. <span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;"> The performance showed what WNO's artistic director Francesca Zambello can do when she puts her mind to it, from collecting the best interpreters for some of the hardest operatic roles to getting the artistic team to join forces to create a memorable revival of a groundbreaking masterpiece.</span></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">After visiting Calcutta (today's Kolkata), India, Sir Winston Churchill said: "I shall always be glad to have seen it for the reason that it will be unnecessary for me to see it again." This is how many opera fans feel about Strauss' <i>Elektra</i>. This is probably how I felt when I first saw it all those many years ago, with Hungarian soprano Eva Marton in the role of the revenge-obsessed Greek heroine.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Strauss' <i>Elektra</i> is based on Hugo von Hofmannsthal's <span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;">1903 play, which was inspired by </span>an old Greek legend and subsequent plays written by Sophocles and other tragedians. In Greek legend, King Agamemnon of Mycenae returns from the Trojan War to be assassinated by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover <span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;">Aegisthus. Agamemnon's daughters Electra and Chrysothemis are spared, but closely watched, and his son Orestes is sent away. Years later, Orestes returns to see the justice done. According to the legend, he then takes the crown and Electra marries his friend Pylades.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26);">Not so in Strauss' opera. His Elektra is traumatized by the bloody murder of her father, which she has either witnessed or has seen his massacred body in the aftermath ("dein Blut rann über deine Augen, und das Bad dampfte von deinem Blut"). She</span></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;"> is now torn by the need for revenge. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;">Elektra is a female counterpart to Hamlet, only more direct, more fierce and more bloodthirsty. Unlike Hamlet, who causes many deaths before his own, Elektra is mostly self-destructing. </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;">She does not bathe, she does not groom her hair or clothes, and she does not control her behavior, even to save herself. Her </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;"><i>raison d'être</i> is g</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;">etting her father's assassins killed, possibly with the same axe that was used to slaughter him in his bath. After that, she plans to celebrate with a dance around his grave.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;">We first get a hint of Elektra's deranged mind from a conversation between five maids, at the start of the opera, but the degree of her abomination is further underlined by contrast with her younger sister Chrysothemis. </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;">After being told that their brother Orest is dead, </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;">Chrysothemis loses hope to get justice done and is ready to move on, while Elektra believes it is now up to the sisters to kill the murderers, their mother </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;">Klytämnestra and her new husband Aegisth</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;">. </span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg594zA2VaRp04ruQo06kL8xC7eIdL1uizxipeaM_orXCMr7MPO2BtZ_l_R11XvKGMxy-SzorhZlqtE5sgOtZFLXhmcLB0Pk02tRezhP19y3ItY1trX_rlu6kL_EmXkREolnwP7AqN28R-yIgdpH5oRYX4eVhm0PWIDFnzQyLdYo6cNvzgDxTqhXw=w640-h426" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><blockquote style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); text-align: left;" type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><span class="im"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i>Elektra and Chrysothemis, Photo: Scott Such</i></span></p></span></div></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a; font-family: georgia;">Chrysothemis urges her sister to contain her anger lest she should be forced to spend the rest of her life in prison. She wants for both of them to abandon the misery of the corrupt court, and start a new life. Her plea for a future as a wife and mother is one of the most poignant scenes in the opera ("Kinder will ich haben, hevor mein Leib verwelkt, und wär's ein Bauer, dem sie mich geben). But Elektra cannot be swayed from her course and is fierce or devious in turn, as needed. She </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a; font-family: georgia;">promises </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a; font-family: georgia;">Chrysothemis</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a; font-family: georgia;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a; font-family: georgia;">a lavish wedding and a handsome husband to enlist her help for the deadly deed.</span></span></p><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a; font-family: georgia;">Klytämnestra is weary of her elder daughter, but convinced of Elektra's supernatural powers comes to seek her</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a; font-family: georgia;"> help to get rid of the nightmares that keep her awake. Elektra's suggested remedy is not to her liking. "Wenn das rechte Blutopfer unterm Beile Fällt, dann träumst du nicht länger" (if you offer the right sacrifice, the dreams will be gone). </span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a; font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjOCuUdl5dENZG35qdt3eMNAYaHRq0AI1yhbm7Rera3l-SfZSCol9zhMs8ivXn5IBXtnEF7pDkDG8efZyngmFT-9dwu2O1FbWtuPLHT5vhvdsAFN94ncVjBMqN_Q4PSq95RUQeD24Xhml5-mJ9_S2LCqiw4_OkXCCnI4ZPmISgUHg4B25Wdz9N-Dg" style="caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img alt="" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjOCuUdl5dENZG35qdt3eMNAYaHRq0AI1yhbm7Rera3l-SfZSCol9zhMs8ivXn5IBXtnEF7pDkDG8efZyngmFT-9dwu2O1FbWtuPLHT5vhvdsAFN94ncVjBMqN_Q4PSq95RUQeD24Xhml5-mJ9_S2LCqiw4_OkXCCnI4ZPmISgUHg4B25Wdz9N-Dg=w640-h426" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>Klytämnestra towering over Elektra, <span style="text-align: left;">Photo credit: Scott Suchman</span></i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;">Orest returns from exile and with Elektra's help sneaks into the palace where he kills his mother and her lover. </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="background-color: white;">Elektra's mission accomplished, she</span></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333;"> begins the joyful dance announced as the drama began, and does not stop until she falls dead. </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;">Orest is crowned in this production, which is not standard, but brings some optimism at the end of the tragedy.</span></span></p><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="background-color: white;">The relentless strife, pain, agony and madness are densely packed in one long act. The constant agitation, primal screams, laments </span></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;">and intense orchestral music can be taxing on the audience as well as the performers. If the singers shriek, as some are wont to do, it makes wading through the drama harder. Seeing the curtain fall on the final scene can be a real relief.</span></span></div><p><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26);">None of this was evident in WNO's Elektra on Monday night. The production was well paced and the voices enjoyable. I cannot think of a better choice for the title role than Christine Goerke. Her plush, but hefty soprano floated smoothly from the stage, enveloping the space with force and sweetness, a combination rarely heard in this opera. At times, Goerke brought to mind her superb Brünhilde on the same stage a few years ago, making one wonder how much influence Wagner really had on Strauss. Goerke was frightful in her anger, seductive in her cajoling and almost girlishly coy about her unkempt looks before Orest. Only her aimless climbing up and down a pile of rubber gravel on the stage seemed superfluous at times. Goerke could convey any feeling with her voice and stance without moving at all.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">A real surprise of the evening was Sara Jakubiak's Chrysotemis. Never have I heard such an impressive rendition of this young girl's plea for a peaceful life. The soprano portraying Chrysothemis has to be exceptional to make an impression next to Elektra and Jakubiak definitely did that. I wish I had seen Goerke's Chrysothemis in an older WNO production of the opera.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26);">Swedish mezzo-soprano Katarina Dalayman was a queen not sure of her power. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;">If Elektra is half-crazed, Dalayman's Klytämnestra is surely getting there, but more like a cackling old lady losing her mind than a murdering despot. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26);">Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo-Green was an impressive Orest, a role in my view more suitable for him than Escamillo in WNO's latest Carmen. He exuded physical strength and guile Orest needed to regain his rightful position at a court overtaken by treachery.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26);">Czech tenor Štefan Margita emphasized Aegisth's physical and moral weakness in his brief appearance. It was hard to link this pathetic figure with acts of horrific carnage. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Evan Rogister conducted with aplomb, emphasizing the terror and the drama, without overpowering the singers.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjh6KINnpB-9gLdA4TneOmKKW6EvZBYf1tm7sPsWa8eoe_CkTXKF2zLyeRW8DCixm0NYeb0m8U--hWCjN47ORMd_0GvRVKJ87KKWrZq8Rj13VzsHCr84H6GqbWrwv6dvuZLmCSSWc11glZshbVFKcwO2GOKMXI4acW8xaBuzF_Ijfr7GJhPX-av6g" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="6000" data-original-width="4000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjh6KINnpB-9gLdA4TneOmKKW6EvZBYf1tm7sPsWa8eoe_CkTXKF2zLyeRW8DCixm0NYeb0m8U--hWCjN47ORMd_0GvRVKJ87KKWrZq8Rj13VzsHCr84H6GqbWrwv6dvuZLmCSSWc11glZshbVFKcwO2GOKMXI4acW8xaBuzF_Ijfr7GJhPX-av6g=w427-h640" width="427" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: georgia; text-align: left;">The return of Orest, Photo credit: Scott Suchman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Erhard Rom's set is simple and dark. The only light-colored props are the ruins of a Greek entablature with Agamemnon's name on it, toppled to the ground to signal the demise of his kingdom. Behind them loom modern black structures of a new palace under construction. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Bibhu Mohapatra's costumes for Elektra and the maids bear elements of Greek peasant garb, while Chrysotemis, Klytämnestra and her retinue wear contemporary looking festive dresses with red, black and gold accents. It is not quite clear why the queen's headgear looks more fitting for a Valkyrie than an ancient Greek royal. Aegisth's appearance is somewhat clownish as he stumbles on the scene in a long tunic, inebriated and clueless. Orest and his companions wear copper-colored breastplates shaped to reflect sculpted bodies underneath, complemented with royal blue shirts and green mantles.</span></p><p><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26);">In the post-performance Q & A session, Zambello said the groups were separated by distinctly different costumes to emphasize their belonging to different factions. In answer to another question, she acknowledged that all the artists sigh a huge breath of relief when the opera is over. It sounded like Churchill after visiting Calcutta.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">I can't remember how exactly I felt after seeing my first <i>Elektra</i>, but I know that I have always considered it a challenge - an opera that needs to be seen and heard time and time again to be conquered. In the past <i>Elektra</i> always won. But the WNO performance on Monday night was unlike any version I had heard before.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26);">I was truly enthralled by it entirely for the first time: the music, acting, voices, dancers and even the somewhat simplistic set. Zambello's latest production has restored my hope in the return of a better era for the opera house which has floundered in recent years with pedestrian productions of popular works. </span></span></p><p><br /></p>Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-14304631196311791942022-09-17T01:14:00.009-04:002022-10-12T23:35:02.216-04:00About Bernstein's Mass<p><b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The revival of Bernstein's <i>Mass </i>at a venue where it saw its 1971 world premiere has been touted as a grand event by the Kennedy Center, a cultural monument celebrating half a century of its own existence. The work's description as a "piece for singers, players and dancers" clarifies that it is not a traditional mass, which usually comprises six parts: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei. I had not seen or heard Bernstein's piece before its anniversary night on Thursday, and decided to look at it with an open mind, without extensive research ahead of the performance. I expected to be surprised and in some ways I was.</span></b></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjODkP0CfEcfv-Bf7TOLFmaEc2ZMkIMYZyNIZt7GOT5_2sMG2PoDxZCjHHB6AcBq3hujYyTbeERZ-g_6A4lKKSB75rhhuvoiPLGF03vUu2pLGL3tojHeawQYJYRB7yX2h0jyNVQLmAosIBjDUsDRmghLQ6UwRgI9giUr2M4Jqamm8t1ChY9QNcnFg/s6000/2022_09_14_Mass_Rhrsl_0020.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjODkP0CfEcfv-Bf7TOLFmaEc2ZMkIMYZyNIZt7GOT5_2sMG2PoDxZCjHHB6AcBq3hujYyTbeERZ-g_6A4lKKSB75rhhuvoiPLGF03vUu2pLGL3tojHeawQYJYRB7yX2h0jyNVQLmAosIBjDUsDRmghLQ6UwRgI9giUr2M4Jqamm8t1ChY9QNcnFg/w640-h426/2022_09_14_Mass_Rhrsl_0020.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i>Photo: </i></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i>Scott Suchman</i></span><br /><br /></span><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The piece opens with a fairly modern sound as the priest comes on the stage and greets the faithful who are praying quietly in the pews. The audience is looking into a church setting from the view one would get from behind the altar, facing the choir at the far end. As the stage turns dark, the light comes from lamps high above that look like Chinese lanterns, while a percussion instrument makes a tinkling beat that brings to mind sounds from Puccini's Turandot. This brief introduction is followed by a more or less traditional Kyrie Eleison, as in any Catholic mass. Bernstein's Kyrie was particularly beautiful, auguring good things to come. The solo Simple Song switches to a tune more akin to Broadway than church, despite its psalmodic verse. The repetition of "lauda, laude" made me squirm, but Will Liverman's interpretation uplifted the uninspired verse.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span>The harmonized chorale, reminiscent of the great masses of the past, was sublime as were all the other parts</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); color: #2a2a2a;"> performed by the Heritage Signature Chorale</span><i>.</i> The dancers swaying back and forth on the stage did not add value to the performance, but were not intrusive either. They seemed rather like spirits swirling around the church, or perhaps in the parishioners' minds?</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The first real surprise came with the appearance of the "street chorus," representing ordinary people who express their anger at a God who does not seem to hear their prayers for peace in the chaotic world. They taunt the priest, ridicule his homily and interrupt the mass. Coming in from all sides of the stage as well as the auditorium, they look and act as if they have just walked out of Bernstein's famous <i>West Side Story.</i> Several stand out with gorgeous solo numbers, a mixture of rock, jazz and blues styles, notably soprano Meroë Khalia Adeeb, performing artist-singer </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Curtis Bannister, Mexican mezzo-soprano Sishel Claverie and bass Matt Boehler, among others.</span></span></p><div><br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVf3ys56WV_OPQX5v9TxWan7_h5DPtJgyJqpzqasrefGCfL5xbJQcPJv6pqoPB77yZZMOBxnEoR73pT-0emqdIsld1woovbc1JbalwiH0zklIjPCba1IFxDntMEoRoiODfCYUSixu4oS078uqu_c3sNH47_Q52-I4PNulwsUC1gz_jUg3aWkN7Hw/s6000/2022_09_14_Mass_Rhrsl_0124.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVf3ys56WV_OPQX5v9TxWan7_h5DPtJgyJqpzqasrefGCfL5xbJQcPJv6pqoPB77yZZMOBxnEoR73pT-0emqdIsld1woovbc1JbalwiH0zklIjPCba1IFxDntMEoRoiODfCYUSixu4oS078uqu_c3sNH47_Q52-I4PNulwsUC1gz_jUg3aWkN7Hw/w640-h426/2022_09_14_Mass_Rhrsl_0124.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i>Photo: <span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; text-align: start;">Scott Suchman</span></i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The orchestral meditation brought back contemplative calm and a return to the order of the Latin Mass. Liverman sang Gloria in his best voice of the evening. <i>Mass </i>continued with the remainder of its traditional parts, interspersed with Broadway-style solo and choral numbers, and dancing. A boy soprano sang a wistful aria, much like a shepherd boy at the opening of the third act of Puccini's <i>Tosca.</i> It was hard to imagine what could have offended so many Catholics, at least until the Mass was performed at the Vatican for Pope John Paul II.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">After so much - maybe too much - of a good thing, fatigue kicked in. By the time <i>Mass </i>arrived at the Lord's Prayer, Liverman sounded course and I don't think it was intentional. </span></div><div><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The ambitious work then takes another new turn, a surprise one could say. As the priest prepares the congregation for the communion he is hit by a personal crisis of faith. He interrupts his prayer and smashes the chalice with wine, which represents Christ's blood, lamenting the wrong color of the blood. He is aware that "half of the world is drowned and the other is swimming in the wrong direction" as he had noted earlier, and he can do nothing about it. So he now mocks his congregants. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">One gets a distinct feeling that Bernstein's inspiration was exhausted by that point. The scene which was supposed to be revolutionary, and that probably angered the faithful at the premiere, turned into a real drag. Instead of inspiring compassion, the quasi-operatic episode did nothing more than cause mild annoyance and urgent desire for a swift conclusion, which comes only after the faith of the congregation is reaffirmed. When the roughly two hours of performance without intermission closed with spoken words "The Mass is ended," without the traditional "go in peace to love and serve the Lord," all everyone wanted to do was rush to the nearest restroom.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Artists who worked with Bernstain cite limited time to complete </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">the piece</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> in time for the opening. The latter part of <i>Mass </i>reflects some of that pressure. The composition which flows with ease in the first half, despite switches between various genres, becomes more and more strained in the second half. The work would have benefited from extra time for revisions. Some of the most popular operas we enjoy today came to us in their second or third version.</span></span></p></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKbl-VaFJsYppKZA4ucMoa3E9OtCljKABSCFUAtAnH-8DdYrAlWnVcWu0-ppq0n2UhYL9WlRm_Xy-ocHRX0sRTT-RfSLhgcVXNQKNi22u7zF4apF8YoaRAT27zKlZgtLHmKbbVVd8LlR7h-w6hD4gDKq0IZyUOrWVl2YGm2OBtVJ3nHE8R_q57FA/s6000/2022_09_15_Mass_Perf_0213.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKbl-VaFJsYppKZA4ucMoa3E9OtCljKABSCFUAtAnH-8DdYrAlWnVcWu0-ppq0n2UhYL9WlRm_Xy-ocHRX0sRTT-RfSLhgcVXNQKNi22u7zF4apF8YoaRAT27zKlZgtLHmKbbVVd8LlR7h-w6hD4gDKq0IZyUOrWVl2YGm2OBtVJ3nHE8R_q57FA/w640-h426/2022_09_15_Mass_Perf_0213.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i>Photo: <span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; text-align: start;">Scott Suchman</span></i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Since Bernstein did not set out to compose a liturgical work, but as the subtitle says "a theater piece," was it really necessary to include all the parts of the Latin mass, albeit in an abbreviated form? Bernstein's work was commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy, a Catholic, for the opening of the Kennedy Center in 1971, at the time when the U.S. was mired in the Vietnam War. There was a strong anti-war sentiment in the country and in the world. Many people could not reconcile their faith with the news from the front. Bernstein's <i>Mass</i> addressed some of that confusion, but according to him, the piece is a "celebration of life." </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The question surrounding the revival of a 50-plus old work is: how relevant is it today? The US has just come out of the protracted war in Afghanistan, is still under the shadow of Covid pandemic, climate change is wreaking havoc worldwide, and the political divisions seem overwhelming. When the priest says "half of the world is drowned and the other half is swimming in the wrong direction," it resonates with the audience who privately thinks the same. And even though the critics have panned some of lyricist Stephen Schwartz's pithy lines, I could not agree more with "half of the people are dead and the other half are not voting."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">So yes, Bernstein's <i>Mass</i> is as relevant today as it was half a century ago. It is an impressive piece, worth seeing at least once in a lifetime. With a few revisions, it could have been so much more. As it is, the mix of genres praised by Berstein fans sometimes feels more like a mishmash of material that needs good editing. If you have ever looked at maximalist home decor, you will have seen some rooms packed with eclectic styles working so well together that you would want to be invited to tea there, while others seem as cluttered as a storage room. Bernstein's piece in the end reminded me of some of the less successful attempts at maximalism. If he had had the opportunity to make the work more cohesive with a few strategic cuts, reworking some of the weaker segments, adding gravitas to others, <i>Mass</i> could have been a real magnum opus. As it is, at least for this reviewer, <i>West Side Story</i> remains Bernstein's most successful work.</span></p>Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-85599876381122115302022-05-16T22:38:00.008-04:002022-05-19T18:36:26.631-04:00White Horse Can't Save WNO's Staid Carmen<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Carmen is a typical <i>femme fatale</i>: a woman who brings misfortune to the man who falls in love with her. She is also wild, untamable and somewhat mad. A contemporary stage director always faces a dilemma of how to present all of Carmen's traits to the new audiences without making her look stereotypical or ridiculous. Then there is the question of wether to stage the opera in its traditional setting or transport it to a different time and place. For the Washington National Opera's 2022 season gala, art director Francesca Zambello opted for the safer traditional route, reviving her 2006 production, first shown at the Royal Opera House in 2006. </span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The problem with reviving a well-known production, which can be seen in its entirety online, is that it inevitably invites unfair comparisons. The ROH performance is almost impossible to match as was painfully obvious from the get-go in Saturday's WNO performance. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The singer portraying the passionate gypsy has to<span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"> exude sensuality while trying to avoid the exaggerated</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"> hip-swiveling or overtly sexual gestures that could put off a contemporary viewer. Few are able to achieve that and it seems that Zambello went for one of currently best known and most popular American mezzo-sopranos, Isabel Leonard.<span style="color: #363636;"> An</span></span> accomplished singer with a beautiful voice, Leonard has been an excellent interpreter of the roles that suit her, such as Nico Muhly's Marnie, reportedly written <span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 34);">with her in mind. </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);">But</span> it is hard to understand why anyone would want to cast the beauty known for her cool and polished demeanor in the role of a bedraggled gypsy, who washes her legs in a bucket at a town square. Of course, a brilliant actress can pull it off, but for Leonard it seemed like too big a stretch.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 34); color: #202122;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdrl1DqO_ov_J8ImSvzPOhZObNZSL1g4wHJmyYqm3h_e6_k-scSMI3Kw9qIW5JT9Q-g25da-dwocTkrUj5nrnP8ps-_xxB1dQUtNTDIQ3AJyRUKzSslZuPIv0MzCjKdKmqjerSriYrTnw5SprHWywaJFgQ8iF96HWlcHNRbpcx8ib38-HmiveHTg/s600/Isabel%20Leonard%20in%20role%20debut%20as%20Carmen%20at%20the%20Kennedy%20Center__photo%20by%20Scott%20Suchman.jpg" width="600" /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Isabel Leonard in role debut as Carmen at the Kennedy Center, photo by Scott Suchman</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The acclaimed mezzo was wise to leave off the <span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);">exaggerated</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"> come-hither gestures that could make her more funny than sexy. But if she had not informed Don José that she was dancing for him, no one would know she was dancing. Her gypsy was more of a petulant child than an independent woman, holding on to her freedom. There was no dark, brooding quality to the prediction of her own imminent death. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);">Lenard's voice is versatile, but does not reach deep enough into the Kennedy Center's cavernous Opera House. (This was evident a few years ago when she sang Rossini's <i>Cinderella</i> at the same venue). Even for a patron sitting mid-parterre it was at times hard to discern what she was singing, which makes one wonder how much could be heard in the last row.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);">To make matters worse, her sound did not blend well with tenor Michael Fabiano's. He sang </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);">Don José</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"> in a powerful voice that filled the house. One could further question the chemistry, or a lack thereof, between the two protagonists, but if we assume that Don José was manipulated, rather than loved, the tenor who portrays him has more freedom in approaching the role. Some artists choose to play an ardent lover who gradually becomes embittered and finally crazed. Fabiano's José seemed to harbor a dark side to his character from the start. There was more anger than tenderness in his pivotal aria "La fleur que tu m'avais jetée." By the closing scene he was a raving maniac, but since his interpretation lacked a development from a naive lover to the madman, it was hard to sympathize with his ultimate pain. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; color: black; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">Ryan Speedo Green</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636;">'s </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);">Escamillo lacked the electricity and sparkle surrounding a celebrity bullfighter. The real-life horse he rode onto the stage did not help. Despite Green's robust bas-baritone and adequate</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"> singing, once</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"> he got off the horse, he acted more as a priest than a heartthrob.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">As José's fiancée Micaëla, Vanessa Vasquez impressed with her beautiful voice, but not with acting.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);">Evan Rogister led the orchestra with aplomb, including the gorgeous prelude to Act III, that starts with</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"> a lovely flute tune and expands to other woodwind. But Rogister did not exert the same control over the chorus, whose members were not always in sync.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; color: black; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">For some pizzazz in the otherwise unexceptional production, Zambello added a cloud of smoke coming out of the cigarette factory, suggesting a fire in Carmen's workplace. In addition to the afore-mentioned horse, whose two brief entrances created significant excitement in the audience, a Spanish Easter-procession float passed by the bullfighting arena before the fatal encounter between Carmen and Don José in the last act. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; color: black; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; color: black; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);">Overall, Saturday's gala performance of <i>Carmen</i> seemed like a successful final exam of a college drama class, in which all the students did well and got an A. But the Washington opera has to do better than that. If the company opts to go the traditional route, it must find the interpreters who will give the old production a new life, and keep in thrall even the people who have seen <i>Carmen</i> many, many times. </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">If the right artists for a traditional Carmen are not available, the production should be changed to suit the ones that are.<span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; color: black; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; color: black; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);">In 2018, R</span></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);">OH's premiered a new production of <i>Carmen</i> that was nothing short of revolutionary. The title character stepped onto the stage out of a female gorilla suit, in short hair and androgynous clothes. She was neither sexy nor seductive. One could describe her as playful; she even winked at the audience after her staged death. The set consisted of a huge black staircase, with masked c</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75);">haracters, dressed in black and white, dancing up and down the steps. The dialogues were replaced by voiceover narration. The minimalist production was more akin to a Broadway musical than a 19th-century opera and not to everyone's taste, but it attracted young audiences and amused the older ones, tired of seeing more of the same.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; color: black; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75);"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; color: black; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><br /></div></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="427" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8bPkP5l4sRW_3QfRAmqceCPdiXxi-OAK5N1YHJyQnylGhMTEulv-s3mta-B181p-yO9Y-Hb3grVnqiZWpftb_ERI6HtiWDsXay9WyOj9ZpzXhRCj2X4JIv4r12aG2L4VornJ9BDSSMYZ9Mc7qvr-CITKDmZfm3TU2Zr3ktHbhI4ZFo_qx080Rlg/w640-h427/Michael%20Fabiano%20and%20Isabel%20Leonard%20in%20Carmen__photo%20by%20Scott%20Suchman.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Michael Fabian and Isabel Leonard as Don José and Carmen, photo by Scott Suchman</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75);">Post-Covid Washington may be less receptive to radical innovations in a beloved operatic piece. The audience responded warmly to the unimaginative staging and interpretations, at least during the gala evening, which created its own excitement. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75);">In an effort to bring </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75);">people back to live performances, o</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75);">pera companies worldwide offer packages that are most likely to please their patrons and keep them entertained. If it takes bringing a white horse to the stage, so be it. But ultimately, only excellence and creativity will keep the genre alive. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75);"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); color: #2a2a2a;"><b>WNO's Carmen</b></i><i style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); color: #2a2a2a;"> runs at the Kennedy Center Opera House through May 28. </i></span></div></div>Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-14314137016609734682022-03-14T23:25:00.009-04:002022-04-02T14:19:46.557-04:00Washington National Opera Returns to Stage With Mozart's Opera Buffa<p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>After a two-year hiatus caused by the pandemic, the Washington National Opera has returned to the stage. It was not a spectacular opening Saturday night in the Kennedy Center's Opera House, with a grand opera and hundreds of performers, but rather a Mozart piece for six soloists and a small chorus and orchestra in a smaller hall. <i>Così fan tutte</i> is ranking third of the three operas Mozart wrote with Italian librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, and many consider it no more than a fluffy comedic piece with a ridiculous plot. But there is more to this rom-com than meets the eye.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">For me <i>Così fan tutte</i> is worth seeing for many reasons, perhaps first and foremost for its unique and unforgettable terzetto "Soave sia il vento." My first encounter with the languidly sad melody was in the movie based on Edith Warton's book <i>The House of Mirth.</i> It haunted me all the way home and the next day to a music store to get the complete opera in a CD set.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The story of two pairs of naive and romantic lovers brought down to earth by their elderly friend is silly if you take it literally. Young soldiers Guglielmo and Ferrando are madly in love with sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella respectively and are convinced of their fidelity. The elderly and experienced Don Alfonso contends that all women will succumb to flirtation if given a chance, and that </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Fiordiligi and Dorabella are no exception</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">. He persuades the younger men to accept a bet, which could turn lucrative for him if he can make the girls accept new lovers within a day of their fiancés' absence. Alonso enlists the help of the girls' maid Despina to ensure his victory. According to the deal, Ferrando and Guglielmo will pretend they were called to war and will sail away on the waves of the heavenly aria "Soave sia il vento" (let the wind be gentle), sung by Fiordiligi, Dorabella and Don Alfonso. They will then immediately return dressed as Albanians (that's the really preposterous part) and try to seduce each other's girlfriend (if you can believe that a mustache and strange clothes can make a man entirely unrecognizable). Don Alfonso triumphs with Despina's help and the lovers, now taught a lesson, reconcile.</span></span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj7hEyE0frZupLl3iI81GU3SzHe3g0Eki77oI_2ZvV_bI_cO09oKEwBtMe8TGkNlbwIuZr8oTBs4immkyhqepHZR3eJ62O6fiviZfaKu1zOPDG753qeJ3lfMNAPCa-3xOCAIhK94qKigbCCf0FRKn19kr-G8E2F4C0GzLmRA64VutiUuOcgFtEjpg=s6000" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj7hEyE0frZupLl3iI81GU3SzHe3g0Eki77oI_2ZvV_bI_cO09oKEwBtMe8TGkNlbwIuZr8oTBs4immkyhqepHZR3eJ62O6fiviZfaKu1zOPDG753qeJ3lfMNAPCa-3xOCAIhK94qKigbCCf0FRKn19kr-G8E2F4C0GzLmRA64VutiUuOcgFtEjpg=w640-h426" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #1b1b1b; caret-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); color: #f2f2f2; font-family: georgia; font-size: large; text-align: justify;"><i>Ferrando and Guglielmo, photo by Scott Suchman</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">The title<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Così fan tutte </span>suggests, as Don Alfonso claims, that all women are unfaithful or prone to deceit. You could hear patrons on Saturday comment that it is "not a very feminist" opera and that it reflects the attitude of men towards women in Mozart's time. But any serious Mozart <span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 36); color: #202124;">connoisseur</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 36); color: #202124;"> knows that</span> the composer had too much respect and admiration for women to portray them as weaklings. His heroines are bold, intelligent, devious and determined not to be victimized. Think of Pamina, Donna Anna, Susanna. They are manipulative if they need to be, and they teach their men a lesson. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Queen of the Night is bloodthirsty in her drive for revenge against ex-husband.</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">Contrary to the title, which quotes Don Alfonso, the opera<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>makes gentle fun of human failings in general, not only women, and calls for the need to lower one's expectations from a relationship. As such, it is a good lesson to prospective couples today who plan to marry with a set of expectations from the future spouse. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">Yes, a story about couple-swapping, and women falling for ridiculous disguise and false declarations of love may seem frivolous, but it's a story that challenges traditional notions of strength of character and honor. Fiordiligi is trying very hard to deny her desires, considering them shameful, and vows to be strong "like a rock immovable against the winds and tempest ("Come scoglio"), but in the end her softer side prevails. The younger sister Dorabella doesn't even try to resist the declarations of passionate love. And what of the men? Mozart makes fun of their weaknesses too: their excessive pride, braggadocio, easily shaken trust, naïveté ... </span></p></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">To make the plot more realistic, opera houses have resorted to modern adaptations </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">with various success</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">. The settings have been transferred from the old Naples into different places and periods, from the 1950s Coney Island to some phantasmagorical place in a future era. The last production I saw in Washington was set in contemporary America. Fiordiligi and Dorabella were admiring their boyfriend's pictures on smartphones, and their lovers returned disguised as tattooed, leather-clad and chain-adorned bikers. Instead of drinking hot chocolate from fine china, the girls sipped their lattes from plastic cups. Presented in the Kennedy Center's spacious opera house, the set seemed a little too minimalist, not to say empty. The writer of the English surtitles replaced the original lines with a few puns on local themes, which drew hearty laughs without hurting the original text, sung in Italian.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The WNO's new production was conceived much better. First, it was placed in a smaller and more intimate Eisenhower Theater, ideal for this quasi-chamber piece. There was no attempt to transplant the opera into a contemporary setting. The simplified decor by Erhard Rom was warm and <i>accogliente</i> and just ornate enough to provide the right background for the lovely period costumes, designed by Lynly Saunders. Occasionally, a drawing of the god of love with his arrow, or a couple of love birds, or some funny message popped up in the background to draw audience's laughs. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The singers portraying the two couples were young and convincing. Soprano Laura Wilde was adequately serious and tormented as the elder sister Fiordiligi. She offered a solid rendition of her central aria "Come Scoglio" and sang beautifully throughout. Mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb was easily the most irresistible Dorabella I have ever seen, in both looks and voice. She was flirtatious and charming, or naive and silly as the situation required, all without exaggeration. Tenor Kang Wang stole the show for me with his radiant voice and ardent mien. I can see him rule the stage in the future when he masters more nuance to suit Ferrando's various moods. His dynamics never seemed to move more than a notch or two from the forte, and after many arias it sounded like more of the same, no matter how beautiful it was. Baritone Andrey Zhilikovsky's charmed with his warm simplicity as a friend as well as a lover. </span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span face="freight-sans-pro, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, serif" style="font-size: large;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgxzggCBGl9zbNt22SKOK_CRy5m4u6qv8uO500LCtaexyJ_dvWWdgMzyTiRgsO2LiNXvETyBrs3ktEzxNoVOBeHLmwjDrPR3zDd40uOtXJfBSPmNlnF48QMx6YBdrUviFKj4ju0ChLW0K4aMlcirKDZHMUN2wvSEDRL6RLbNQAQGSOTjF29Ec3aag=s6000" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6000" data-original-width="4000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgxzggCBGl9zbNt22SKOK_CRy5m4u6qv8uO500LCtaexyJ_dvWWdgMzyTiRgsO2LiNXvETyBrs3ktEzxNoVOBeHLmwjDrPR3zDd40uOtXJfBSPmNlnF48QMx6YBdrUviFKj4ju0ChLW0K4aMlcirKDZHMUN2wvSEDRL6RLbNQAQGSOTjF29Ec3aag=w426-h640" width="426" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #1b1b1b; caret-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); color: #f2f2f2; font-family: georgia; font-size: large; text-align: justify;"><i>Don Alfonso and Despina in one of her many disguises, photo by Scott Suchman</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">I first saw <span face="freight-sans-pro, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, serif">Ana María Martínez eight years ago as Carmen in Santa Fe. She was good but not memorable, perhaps because one expected Carmen to be a mezzo. She pleasantly surprised me as the shrewd, but fun-loving maid Despina. Her comic gestures were never overdone, and she was a delight whenever she appeared on the stage.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Legendary Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto was a bit of a disappointment as Don Alfonso. I remember him as an impressive Philip II in <i>Don Carlo</i>, but </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">in the role of Don Alfonso, </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">other singers </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">seem to have much more fun</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">. Furlanetto seemed bored and his don was more of an old curmudgeon in need of funds than an elderly gentleman, seeking to help the younger generation. </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Even so, Furlanetto's powerful voice and presence tended to dominate the stage. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The opera is a string of melodic arias, with their moods ranging from giddy to dramatic to serious. Most of the mood transitions take place in the second-act garden scene, when falsely ardent lovers, in this production dressed in what looked more like Indian than Albanian garb, court and win each other's fiancee. The women's defiant attitudes gradually soften, while the men become increasingly miserable as they see their loved ones fail them. The conversion takes its course and, unfortunately, sooner or later viewers reach a point of saturation despite the beauty of singing. For many, the opera starts to drag as is obvious from how many mobile phones come out. No matter which way the work is repackaged (in some cases producers create additional background action) that scene feels too long for an average opera goer, particularly the one who is not convinced the story has any value in the first place. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEguLiFmPJljKAwkWUd8o7a3SxxlSNJaM9MQu8zx3sN8Ox-ShuANOn9XrgEZlPppuKMzagBY2W7tALBIQRqbSlg6T_r8-e5JPjB3W10fUtfKqiYLR96rClY39iSMrXHMrqNTUlOLaltYq8GF3HcB-DirvzK4PHjUqTKCvCW8A7s4zmGqvovS1i2GoA=s6000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEguLiFmPJljKAwkWUd8o7a3SxxlSNJaM9MQu8zx3sN8Ox-ShuANOn9XrgEZlPppuKMzagBY2W7tALBIQRqbSlg6T_r8-e5JPjB3W10fUtfKqiYLR96rClY39iSMrXHMrqNTUlOLaltYq8GF3HcB-DirvzK4PHjUqTKCvCW8A7s4zmGqvovS1i2GoA=w640-h426" width="640" /></span></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><i>Ferrando and Fiordiligi, observed by scheming Don Alonso and miserable Guglielmo, photo <span style="background-color: #1b1b1b; caret-color: rgb(242, 242, 242); color: #f2f2f2; text-align: justify;">by Scott Suchman</span></i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: large; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Stage director Alison </span>Moritz has made her best effort to enliven the garden scene in the WNO production, making Dorabella bolder than usual in accepting her new lover. Moritz also tampered with the finale. <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I wonder if anyone else noticed or whether it was my imagination, but it seemed that once the couples swapped partners, the new pairs remained together even after the deceit had been unveiled. In other words, Fiordiligi stayed with her erstwhile sister's fiancé Ferrando, while Dorabella continued to cling to Guglielmo, formerly Fiordiligi's boyfriend</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">. In the classic version, each returns to their original partner. Did Moritz want to simplify the confusion, or make the women appear less flighty, or did I get something wrong? </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Japanese-German Conductor Erina Yashima, currently<span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 34); color: #202122;"> assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, </span>received a warm applause in her important US operatic debut. </span></p><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">WNO opened this first night of its post-Covid season with the Ukrainian national anthem as has become customary for many cultural organizations worldwide.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The last performance of the new production of <i>Così fan tutte</i> is scheduled for March 26.</span></div>Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-74485090989779591452021-09-01T18:48:00.011-04:002022-03-13T23:52:20.024-04:00Reading in the Time of Covid<p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>During last year's restrictions, I thought the best way to spend leisure time was reading. In the normal times I would have loved to have that much time to tackle a growing pile of books next to my bed. But 2020 was an abnormal year that stretched everyone's nerves to the point of snapping - not only with the pandemic, but also with the craziness surrounding the US presidential election and the aftermath. So I could not concentrate on any serious book. Only after the inauguration and the early 2021 vaccination campaign, tensions began to ease, and I was again able to read more than just news headlines. So here is a potpourri of the works I've read in the past year and a half. </b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY8G52Pc4snjV_GMz_IczWWWjoxAJ-MKEeOModGujx6_8XenaMdEVuMLN0G8ksZ7olpP9lFbcdgosAXNzzGIFU8MGyDzUbJre9POFZOIIUB4LL_7rTXoJDeXS68HzTZgK63zfiyGVt6g/s550/the-reader-la-liseuse-1874-1876_u-l-p152p80.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="413" height="621" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY8G52Pc4snjV_GMz_IczWWWjoxAJ-MKEeOModGujx6_8XenaMdEVuMLN0G8ksZ7olpP9lFbcdgosAXNzzGIFU8MGyDzUbJre9POFZOIIUB4LL_7rTXoJDeXS68HzTZgK63zfiyGVt6g/w466-h621/the-reader-la-liseuse-1874-1876_u-l-p152p80.jpg" width="466" /></a></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia; text-align: left;">I don't recall in what order I read the works, so I will start with the most memorable: a shortish novel by Syrian writer Khaled Khalifa, titled </span><i style="font-family: georgia; text-align: left;">Death is Hard Work. </i><span style="font-family: georgia; text-align: left;">The summary, which said the book is about three siblings taking their father's dead body for burial through conflict-ridden Syria, was not at all promising. I expected more of the newspaper-style chronicling of the atrocities in the war-torn country. But instead of dwelling on the horrors of war, Khalifa's novel offers a portrayal of a disconnected family, further estranged by the political conflict. The head of the family is charismatic rebel leader Abdel Latif al-Salima, </span><span style="color: #202122; font-family: georgia; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;">respected and perhaps even loved by his community, but feared and avoided by his children. The outwardly strong authoritarian figure is plagued by a tragedy from his youth, which could have been avoided if he had had the necessary strength to act on his conscience. He makes his three adult children promise they will take him across conflicted country to his native village to be buried next to his sister. They never quite understand why it is so important to him, but feel that their promise is sacred and must be fulfilled. </span></span></span></p><p><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #202122;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #202122;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ_JT3RKG2MOcyaYxmuJS24Wwz1Y34u92z0LVbRa7DZO9f_TJg5VCsRAWveG3f2z4y_uwdhb_PyYEVPrEVc4S_JzI7YRKFZSMGBOWJVmxzJ-U0K9WjaywHvg_yX27a8VME1MohSo-Icg/s500/41Q2T3qoiJL.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="326" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ_JT3RKG2MOcyaYxmuJS24Wwz1Y34u92z0LVbRa7DZO9f_TJg5VCsRAWveG3f2z4y_uwdhb_PyYEVPrEVc4S_JzI7YRKFZSMGBOWJVmxzJ-U0K9WjaywHvg_yX27a8VME1MohSo-Icg/w261-h400/41Q2T3qoiJL.jpg" width="261" /></a></span></div><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #202122;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #202122;"><span style="background-color: white;">Abdel Latif's two sons and a daughter are </span></span>as different from each other as can be, and feel no familial bond either with their father or with one another. During the travel, confined in a van with the decaying corpse, the estranged siblings examine their lives, each painfully aware of past delusions and ultimate inability to take control of their destiny.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Fatima ruminates over her adolescent belief that she was beautiful and desirable because she had many marriage offers. By now divorced, she is painfully aware that her former husband always despised her and married her only to elevate his social status through the connection to her father. The youngest son, Bolbol, understands that fear has turned his life into a complete failure. In the past, he did not have the courage to marry the only woman he had ever loved because she was Christian, and in the present, he lives in fear that his father's rebellion will cost him his job in the government-controlled area. The eldest son, once cocky and boisterous Hussein, becomes taciturn during the journey. After delivering the corpse to the remaining relatives in father's native village, the siblings separate to rush back to their own lives with no intention of ever seeing one another again. The father's body, delivered in a terrible state of decay, had to be buried in the nearest available place and that was nowhere near his sister's grave.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Despite its relative brevity (cca 190 pages), the novel had the same impact on me as the comprehensive classic family sagas, such as <i>The Buddenbrooks</i> or <i>The Thibaults.</i> The conclusion reveals Abdel Latif's painful secret and the reason why he wanted to be buried next to his sister. The determination to atone for his failure to save her makes him more humane in the eyes of the reader, though not in the eyes of his children. Although the conclusion is well-founded and logical, it is not predictable, and it made this novel a real treasure for me! I am so glad I found it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">I also joined an online book club last year, which I had sworn I would never do. I did it not to discuss books as much as to get an idea what new publications are out there that might inspire me to read again. The first listing I came across, the award-winning <i>Trust Exercise</i> by Susan Choi, was wasted on me, except that it gave me an idea where the contemporary fiction might be heading: toward complicated writing that needs to be deciphered and explained to be understood. The characters change names and faces as we move along, making it hard to identify with any of them. Sometimes you don't know who they are and where they come from. Once stripped of these special effects, the plot boils down to a condemnation of child abuse, a worthy cause to be sure, but why be so convoluted about it?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The next few books of the month at the Vox book club, including a vampire trilogy, were never going to make it to my bedside table, but then came <span face="arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(77, 81, 86);">Akwaeke Emeze's <i>The </i></span><i>Death of Vivek Oji,</i> which sparked interest. I had seen it at my local bookstore and was wondering whether it was worth reading, so the book club gave me the necessary nudge. It was worth it. The book is a classical tale of parent-child disconnect, but what made this one especially interesting was the context in which ancient Nigerian traditions and superstitions push against the contemporary trends and western influence. It was a good insight into the increasingly diverse world we live in and a revelation that similar social changes take place everywhere, not just in the west. I also learned about the so-called Niger-wives, foreign women who marry Nigerian men and settle in Nigeria. The title character's mother is Indian. The description of his waist-long black hair made me wonder whether it was curly like his father's, or straight and slick like his mother's. What also makes this book a compelling read is the suspense that keeps you on edge from the very first page till the end, when you learn how Vivek died. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7tr4sbqL0z-XkcjeBRH5x5-j932Eu5pqrHYzsYoWXfGx9pzAvqZr2BGyjy89NjJjBOrmKtTLAT3RORB7likQImc6e_rLjIuQUMq1NaNwmn5izzGcgZ13jp7DzQ4jHl6NLSXsENlXshQ/s177/Unknown.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="177" data-original-width="120" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7tr4sbqL0z-XkcjeBRH5x5-j932Eu5pqrHYzsYoWXfGx9pzAvqZr2BGyjy89NjJjBOrmKtTLAT3RORB7likQImc6e_rLjIuQUMq1NaNwmn5izzGcgZ13jp7DzQ4jHl6NLSXsENlXshQ/w271-h400/Unknown.jpg" width="271" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Perusing through used books in a thrift store some months later, my attention was drawn to the only name I recognized: the more famous Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I had been thinking of getting <i>Americanah</i>, but <i>Half of a Yellow Sun</i> at 50 cents could not be passed up. And what a fortunate find! Everyone growing up in the Balkans has heard of very slim individuals being described as "coming from Biafra." The phrase was inspired by news media images of emaciated children, dying from starvation in the area that fought for independence from Nigeria. I had forgotten all about Biafra until Adichie's book, which looks at its history through the eyes of different people. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">One reason that may have contributed to my enjoyment of the book is that I read it immediately after Douglas Stuart's highly acclaimed <i>Shuggie Bain. </i>While the novel about an alcoholic mother and her three children living on the outskirts of Glasgow is well written, it is so depressing that I had to take long breaks in between chapters and ultimately struggle to finish it. The misery of the people, relentlessly pounded in your brain, page after page after page, desensitizes it to the point where you can't feel any compassion. The title character, the youngest of the three siblings, is additionally "different" from other kids and therefore the most vulnerable, and clinging to his mother the longest. But the book is more about his mother Agnes than about him. Instead of sympathizing with the victimized children and unfortunate parents in the impoverished Thatcher-era coal mine areas, the unending ugliness coming at me from every page alienated me from every character in the book and made me think: surely even the poorest and most helpless people have some happy moments every now and then in their lives. Critics seem to think differently, and the book has received nothing but praise. Hardly anyone dares to admit they did not like it, except some Glaswegians who fear the book is giving the Scottish city a bad reputation.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I also combed through my own library, knowing there are books in it I have not yet read. One of them is a collection of writings from the Boka Kotorska area (an Adriatic Sea bay not so far from Dubrovnik) collected and lovingly presented by my friend Slobodan Prosperov Novak, a great linguist, literary researcher and top authority on Croatian literature. The 300-page book contains mostly poems, but also folk tales, letters and articles and from the Boka region, written between the late 15th and early 19th century. The most surprising piece I came across was a letter written to U.S. Congress in April of 1782. Signed by Warta (one word only and does not sound like a Slavic name) the letter appears to be in response to a message sent to the writer by members of Congress. The author praises the revolution against the English rulers and advises congressmen to avoid modeling their government after Plato's <i>Republic</i> or Thomas More's <i>Utopia,</i> which he says are unviable, but to create a new type of monarchy. Instead of placing on the throne a real person,</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> the letter writer suggests </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">they should make their king from oak to ensure his longevity and worldwide admiration. This strange, metaphoric letter ends with wishing the U.S. lawmakers success and their young country long-lasting independence. It is dated April 15, which is four days before the Netherlands recognized the United States, the second country to do so after Morocco. </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu9FvIY8JbP3Uvk0KM5GGpX9Y8ln_m2tqRA4oE6KsaVjxoYB5GEkMv8M-ocz3eal6aOhLDzemzfAdCP19m1AYVMXF5aIRNgOvW6t9jEf7hjh5wMa2X5SKn_AuOz6uSHvKPyduNTW9Ndg/s2048/IMG_1288.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1377" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu9FvIY8JbP3Uvk0KM5GGpX9Y8ln_m2tqRA4oE6KsaVjxoYB5GEkMv8M-ocz3eal6aOhLDzemzfAdCP19m1AYVMXF5aIRNgOvW6t9jEf7hjh5wMa2X5SKn_AuOz6uSHvKPyduNTW9Ndg/s320/IMG_1288.jpeg" width="215" /></a></div><br /><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Then came a contemporary Croatian book <i>Dark Mother Earth</i> by currently the most exciting Croatian writer, Kristian Novak. I read it in the excellent English translation by Ellen Elias-Bursac, which is available on Amazon, unlike Novak's newest and best book <i>Ciganin, ali najljepši </i>(Gypsy, </span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(45, 55, 67); font-style: italic; text-align: justify;">But the Fairest of Them All</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(45, 55, 67); font-style: italic; text-align: justify;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;">), which has not been translated yet and one has to ask why. Meanwhile, </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Dark Mother Earth</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> displays all of the writer's best qualities, except for a somewhat banal opening. It would be a pity if that opening made someone put the book aside, because once you get past it, the work is mesmerizing. A young boy living in the Croatian backwaters north of the capital Zagreb, is haunted by nightmares, or so we think, until we learn that his seemingly unreasonable fears are inspired by the true evil around him. Adults only whisper about the crime in their midst, but pretend not to see. The boy's childhood memories fade once the family moves to Zagreb, but deeply buried dark visions resurface when least expected, and affect his behavior. They follow him to young adulthood, but having forgotten their origin, he is not aware what prompts him to act weird, until he delves deep into his past to free himself. Extraordinary book and highly recommended.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Linked loosely to the same part of the world, is Tea Obrecht's <i>Tiger's Wife,</i> which was widely praised as a first book by a young author in America when it came out in 2011. Obrecht is an immigrant from former Yugoslavia, but the book did not seem to go well with her fellow expats who could not recognize any of the "folk stories" in it. Tigers do not normally appear in the folklore from the Balkans, but the author may have used the exotic animal to underline the uniqueness of the woman in the story. I read the book because someone gave it to me, explaining that I knew the man who had married Obrecht's mother. Is this a good reason to read a book? Who knows. <span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(30, 25, 21); color: #1e1915;">After a somewhat dull beginning, Obrecht's "folk legends" brought the book to life. True, they</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(30, 25, 21); color: #1e1915;"> do not have much to do with the region. Perhaps that's exactly why credit must be given to the author’s imagination. Obrecht has written another book since, titled <i>Inland,</i> but somehow I am not tempted to read it.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">My greater ambition: to finish Alex Ross's grand opus <i>Wagnerism</i> during the Covid-induced paralysis was a total failure. The main reason was my inability to concentrate on any reading last year, but knowing much about Wagner already had an effect too. Do I really need to know what every single European intellectual, no matter how obscure, said about Wagner? Ross is to be commended for this scrupulous study of Wagner's influence on the world during and after his lifetime, but I enjoyed his earlier book <i>The Rest is Noise</i> much more. About a third way through, <i>Wagnerism </i>was put aside and I have not yet been tempted to take it up again.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;">Among the new titles coming out this fall, I have noticed a new, never-before-published book by the 20th-century feminist icon Simone de </span>Beauvoir. Apparently, Beauvoir and lifelong partner Jean Paul Sartre had decided this manuscript was not worth publishing, but her descendants thought otherwise. I am more inclined to trust Beauvoir and Sartre. Having read Beauvoir's novel <i>She Came to Stay </i>before and during Covid (yes, I actually did do some reading in 2020) I was bored to tears with tedious "intellectual" conversations that are all but meaningless today. Supposedly based on her own "open" liaison with Jean-Paul Sartre, this work of fiction tackles a <i>ménage-à-trois</i> comprising a sophisticated middle-aged Parisian couple and a young provincial girl whom the two have taken under their wings. The younger woman gradually takes over the man and ruins the once solid relationship between the intellectual equals. The only way to get rid of her is to kill her. Blah. Beauvoir is best known for her non-fiction work <i>The Second Sex</i>, a study of the treatment of women throughout centuries. </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4XMRqEyf73l84MOmQ-UnPLhIcMGZZ-yj3HgxgBjyd0jmZWofUwMPSNLkSdY_vfLRDb7fQenXYq4-cxrdapvXhq7oyPrNIR5dEAseqXP4OhgzmBUd2MsJFAM_HNQOxz2dh4WKDp13Miw/s1080/images.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="714" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4XMRqEyf73l84MOmQ-UnPLhIcMGZZ-yj3HgxgBjyd0jmZWofUwMPSNLkSdY_vfLRDb7fQenXYq4-cxrdapvXhq7oyPrNIR5dEAseqXP4OhgzmBUd2MsJFAM_HNQOxz2dh4WKDp13Miw/w265-h400/images.jpg" width="265" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The new publication, titled <i>Inseparable</i>, is due in the book stores any day now. It deals with Beauvoir's lifelong friendship with a woman, and perhaps she has some insights to offer into how that works. But if it is anything like <i>She Came to Stay</i>, the book may topple the avant-garde icon from her pedestal. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">I have read a few more books in the past months that are not worth mentioning.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">If you have any good ones to recommend, please make your comments bellow. I am looking for something that will really knock me off my feet. </span></p>Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-8155303473983760062021-06-21T23:56:00.009-04:002021-06-24T23:23:38.096-04:00Kentucky Unfried<p><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">After a year and a half of short car trips only, it seems best to test</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> the waters of post-Covid air travel gradually. For me, a non-stop one-and-a-half-hour flight to Louisville, Kentucky was it. Why Louisville, everyone I told about my trip asked. Why indeed? Apart from the relative proximity, Kentucky was one of only three states I had never visited and, I admit, I was a little curious about the people who keep electing the same turtle-looking senator term after term after term. Louisville turned out to be an excellent choice. The weather was perfect, and the city had a lot to offer, but...</span></span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYZqMV5zWojMrzh1uaJhfO6L1P0czn-1GNZY1IkTd_6JNpuVSISF1sN4t-bXw15CRcbXydRCELyA71aab_hcODCDTBQnRvc2Gy0ntC8gpK8IUYB4aH6SUGLm1fseE-P-XtIKfIp1I2yA/s2048/16ABC0C7-8A25-4480-8FE4-6DB29B80B576.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYZqMV5zWojMrzh1uaJhfO6L1P0czn-1GNZY1IkTd_6JNpuVSISF1sN4t-bXw15CRcbXydRCELyA71aab_hcODCDTBQnRvc2Gy0ntC8gpK8IUYB4aH6SUGLm1fseE-P-XtIKfIp1I2yA/w640-h480/16ABC0C7-8A25-4480-8FE4-6DB29B80B576.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Louisville is home to world-renowned Kentucky Derby Horse Race</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">... if you are inclined to spend less than a week in Louisville, make sure you visit between Thursday and Sunday. The city sleeps the rest of the week, which means most of the museums, shops and cafes are closed, there are no tours and the streets are generally deserted. It is hard to tell whether the pandemic has something to do with it, or the Kentuckians take seriously the finding that working too much is a health hazard.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7rOynzYCXsAENcEhx5EN75e100XReOPdT41Ns8xSLW4wwfRMpr4KdLWQ-9A4ebWkOfBlYbHXGNJu4d1pbSBQ2UIdiO6YH6WbI3zdc1jitZ5gIwWb9mUgV_MgZx5ZxBe-QVlg8iIhk_g/s2048/9DFB0685-AD2D-4097-9288-DE3E63572DDC.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7rOynzYCXsAENcEhx5EN75e100XReOPdT41Ns8xSLW4wwfRMpr4KdLWQ-9A4ebWkOfBlYbHXGNJu4d1pbSBQ2UIdiO6YH6WbI3zdc1jitZ5gIwWb9mUgV_MgZx5ZxBe-QVlg8iIhk_g/w640-h480/9DFB0685-AD2D-4097-9288-DE3E63572DDC.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Barge on the Ohio River</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Cruises on the Ohio River run only on Saturdays, the Visitor Center and the Speed Art Museum work Wednesday through Saturday, and a top historical attraction, the <span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 36); color: #202124; text-align: left;">Conrad-Caldwell House Museum, </span>opens only on weekends.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjLv-bSmAmKEaqImeiIu-zjSesD6TGUCiJnAsnRsJ1dPVgdECRqKW6RXugBzK_8e5ahMTdnWZW0sYB6bt3ZWnk_I66u3eMoAZHKkUEOkBvfJ19EXnQLYYr1CtmCQK8aCRs0pAA6VcMRg/s2048/91E50F43-8DCB-44F4-A444-12E91E9AB606.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjLv-bSmAmKEaqImeiIu-zjSesD6TGUCiJnAsnRsJ1dPVgdECRqKW6RXugBzK_8e5ahMTdnWZW0sYB6bt3ZWnk_I66u3eMoAZHKkUEOkBvfJ19EXnQLYYr1CtmCQK8aCRs0pAA6VcMRg/w640-h480/91E50F43-8DCB-44F4-A444-12E91E9AB606.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 36); color: #202124; font-family: georgia;">Conrad-Caldwell House Museum in Old Louisville</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Louisville is the only city I have visited that does not have hop-on-hop-off tours. The closest thing is the City Taste Tour, run by a local entrepreneur, and sold out weeks in advance. Another company that offers tours is Trolley De'Ville, but it seems to specialize in catering to groups. I have not seen any individual tickets for sale online and no one answered the phone. I did find out that you can book a trolley tour for $414 for an undetermined number of people. The most popular bourbon distillery tours can cost over $1,000 and the cheaper ones are impossible to get into. If they are available, that information is hard to find online. And any information about Louisville online is unreliable.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">For example, a free circular bus <i>Lou and Lift </i>offers the following information: </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">"The 4th Street bus travels 4th Street, from Churchill Downs to the Galt House, and circles around Fourth Street Live! entertainment district by taking 5th Street northbound and 2nd Street southbound. Weekday 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. • Saturday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Silver signs indicate stops for the 4th Street LouLift."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The silver signs I saw included a number to call for information, but all I got was a recorded message. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia;">After waiting for half an hour for the bus to appear, and getting no answer on the phone, my friend and I learned from a regular bus driver that the free circular bus has not run for more than a year because of Covid. So how hard was it to put that information online or on a recorded phone message?</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia;">One of the best things that is always available and at a short notice in Louisville is </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia;">a walking tour provided by a local history buff David Dominé. It's fun, at $25 it's affordable, and you really learn something you did not know </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia;">about Louisville</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia;">: that Tom Cruise attended high school there, that the Happy Birthday song was composed there, that local witches whipped up a dangerous storm in 1890 after their beloved tree was cut down, and that they caused a new one to grow from its stump. Dominé has written several books on Louisville ghosts and said he lives in a haunted house himself.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi8gDxtQDdthCGwmj5fcfkWK7w1eoJr_7jjz1rEGhbIeXcE5AKlx5aC9tpQSpeTaUq5j5DAdnQ0ct8ci_X_Mnhr-sy4DmwT_4CEOzSdCVuSV8Djx9RaJ0q6qPSL__lYsgqVPdRKHJpbQ/s2048/AC337F28-866C-471E-B970-509005DF2BFE.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi8gDxtQDdthCGwmj5fcfkWK7w1eoJr_7jjz1rEGhbIeXcE5AKlx5aC9tpQSpeTaUq5j5DAdnQ0ct8ci_X_Mnhr-sy4DmwT_4CEOzSdCVuSV8Djx9RaJ0q6qPSL__lYsgqVPdRKHJpbQ/w480-h640/AC337F28-866C-471E-B970-509005DF2BFE.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Witches's Tree, a tourist attraction in Old Louisville</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The Muhammad Ali Museum is closed only Mondays and Tuesdays so it is likely to be open during a short visit. Even if you are not a boxing fan, the museum is a must for young people to learn about Ali's path from a celebrity boxer to human rights activist. I saw enough of Ali on TV in my salad days, but did not remember he was from Louisville until I landed at the<span> <span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(77, 81, 86);">Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport. </span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsY-Y-82wryAHIZXZbJxVctgCmevdyYBHaScTx3dfRAmMhvv0X6V1AV4fYhlFTGP6j4CcHWNGWiTlcf2l5FFbM8VNyB07NXnMNkaXs_SeOpvqyqNzHYPkfdHf7OmoPfe_U-zzwG8SRbA/s2048/D6D3CCEF-912E-47B0-98D4-BB408656D261.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsY-Y-82wryAHIZXZbJxVctgCmevdyYBHaScTx3dfRAmMhvv0X6V1AV4fYhlFTGP6j4CcHWNGWiTlcf2l5FFbM8VNyB07NXnMNkaXs_SeOpvqyqNzHYPkfdHf7OmoPfe_U-zzwG8SRbA/w640-h480/D6D3CCEF-912E-47B0-98D4-BB408656D261.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">The Muhammad Ali Museum</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(77, 81, 86);">One of the rare institutions in Louisville that are open seven days a week is the Kentucky Derby Museum. It would be a real shame if it weren't. After all, that's the #1 attraction in Kentucky and makes the city famous worldwide. </span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(77, 81, 86); color: #4d5156;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5mAJ6R5D7x_PU29AwZWsHZPs5jAELBRw5n1O7R-LRPZlQLH15xrFrX2d2vNKdabhgROka-CEk994dxtlLqPje_0k6r4C69E9ap7sbtuWF2cpWycyeVJpyKfgj7uhUQYcQQj0QuIg0dg/s2048/B87F2571-E995-44CA-B2D1-774DD4B96944.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5mAJ6R5D7x_PU29AwZWsHZPs5jAELBRw5n1O7R-LRPZlQLH15xrFrX2d2vNKdabhgROka-CEk994dxtlLqPje_0k6r4C69E9ap7sbtuWF2cpWycyeVJpyKfgj7uhUQYcQQj0QuIg0dg/w640-h480/B87F2571-E995-44CA-B2D1-774DD4B96944.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(77, 81, 86); color: #4d5156;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(77, 81, 86); color: #4d5156;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(77, 81, 86);">Ano</span></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(77, 81, 86); font-family: georgia;">ther thing doable at any time in Louisville is crossing the Big Four pedestrian bridge over the Ohio River into Indiana. Not much to do there except grabbing a cool drink and fried food, and watching the Louisville skyline from the Indiana bank of the Ohio River.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVJTAHvLXoD3E7QFOM9sfn8XlWy_WlBtqscbnzDtDFCL-X5u4CyGNLVGDO1yw8PVwt2yvyRkl-CmcvnBULsVcHJwxywkborz3k4qfL2nl-YjsZkJ7bq1ox-NvHRF6n0cnr6c6aFRAYHQ/s2048/4DD1E1DF-D656-4A57-A731-2CBFDD0C9262.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVJTAHvLXoD3E7QFOM9sfn8XlWy_WlBtqscbnzDtDFCL-X5u4CyGNLVGDO1yw8PVwt2yvyRkl-CmcvnBULsVcHJwxywkborz3k4qfL2nl-YjsZkJ7bq1ox-NvHRF6n0cnr6c6aFRAYHQ/w480-h640/4DD1E1DF-D656-4A57-A731-2CBFDD0C9262.jpeg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(77, 81, 86); color: #4d5156; font-family: georgia; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Big Four Bridge, Louisville</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(77, 81, 86); font-family: georgia; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVJTAHvLXoD3E7QFOM9sfn8XlWy_WlBtqscbnzDtDFCL-X5u4CyGNLVGDO1yw8PVwt2yvyRkl-CmcvnBULsVcHJwxywkborz3k4qfL2nl-YjsZkJ7bq1ox-NvHRF6n0cnr6c6aFRAYHQ/s2048/4DD1E1DF-D656-4A57-A731-2CBFDD0C9262.jpeg" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(77, 81, 86); font-family: georgia; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(77, 81, 86); margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156; font-size: 14px;"> </span></div></div></div></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Of course, you can always take a self-guided tour of the old city and admire the grand Victorian mansions, each boasting its own individual variation of the period architecture.</span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr5PzKRw6DWb5BzjVAim-T5pCzNEI57q0O6KdW2fDQJpShCiej57Y-RfGKTSdzlc3fpIg6OJGM5oO2kyxKypL7l9jDu7t0INatx0Ju7yrWljhyGtjOkixjXO7guLE7kxDDWC_hvXf0NA/s2048/6E445964-DB89-419E-9284-D8831607F8AB.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr5PzKRw6DWb5BzjVAim-T5pCzNEI57q0O6KdW2fDQJpShCiej57Y-RfGKTSdzlc3fpIg6OJGM5oO2kyxKypL7l9jDu7t0INatx0Ju7yrWljhyGtjOkixjXO7guLE7kxDDWC_hvXf0NA/w400-h300/6E445964-DB89-419E-9284-D8831607F8AB.jpeg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp3x1I4gvO9lbNerX26vhFoKpxG_WrwzC5__wXln-oeN-X8I4mRma_4LaTY8VhlM1qCjpB4fFvrdah7XVdd7znD1DsbE4YCUljl3w_Fjw3aaru2X14ecwLzh3k-PJOZrjLcOlVT5skCQ/s2048/DA1F97D0-A0E5-4AE9-AFE4-00ACEC12E918.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp3x1I4gvO9lbNerX26vhFoKpxG_WrwzC5__wXln-oeN-X8I4mRma_4LaTY8VhlM1qCjpB4fFvrdah7XVdd7znD1DsbE4YCUljl3w_Fjw3aaru2X14ecwLzh3k-PJOZrjLcOlVT5skCQ/w300-h400/DA1F97D0-A0E5-4AE9-AFE4-00ACEC12E918.jpeg" width="300" /></span></a></div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsIbTwv5wlVdUiwj4M87unALO2QeF8nfqwGna_vwAuELhOx5TAQlB53JvoB8Ff1iPCKkKzxDdWbC_yONv5xqAQpb6aYyGaXeuFYxzBxnLyJVnL6iyxILr5Q3b6za10fsLSaHx3VcHtvw/s2048/6929867D-3E87-4F28-B03D-BB77E71F3C97.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsIbTwv5wlVdUiwj4M87unALO2QeF8nfqwGna_vwAuELhOx5TAQlB53JvoB8Ff1iPCKkKzxDdWbC_yONv5xqAQpb6aYyGaXeuFYxzBxnLyJVnL6iyxILr5Q3b6za10fsLSaHx3VcHtvw/w400-h300/6929867D-3E87-4F28-B03D-BB77E71F3C97.jpeg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /><br /><span><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Downtown Louisville is also attractive. Not to be missed is the historic Brown Hotel with its elegant dining room on the second floor. Of course, the gift shop was closed when we visited on a Tuesday. Further up on the way to the river is </span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">4th Street </span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">pedestrian area with pubs and eateries where you can have pizza or sample traditional local barbecue.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span>The up-and-coming <span face="arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(77, 81, 86);">East Market District,</span><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(77, 81, 86);"> also known as</span> NuLu, is home to small art galleries and a growing number of fancy restaurants and indie boutiques. We ate the best-ever hamburger and a fine Cuban sandwich, with a side of mouth-watering grilled Brussel sprouts, at The Grind Burger Kitchen Grille and had world-class espressos in several new coffee shops. The nearby area is home to the Slugger Field and popular Angel's Envy bourbon distillery. The tours fill up well in advance, so unprepared as we were, we could not get in. </span>The downside of NuLu is its size. Places of interest are dispersed over a large area, surrounded by a network of major roads and highways. It takes long walks - too long under the mid-day sun - to get from one point of interest to another in NuLu. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Not so the adjacent Highlands area. Its main drag, Baxter Avenue, is packed with shops, pubs, restaurants, karaoke bars and cafes that keep it busy day and night, especially Thursday through Saturday. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Baxter Avenue </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">may be flanked by cemeteries, but</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> there is nothing somber about it. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The locally-owned shops offer hand-crafted goods, indie fashion, books and artisanal breads. Unlike gentrified hubs in other U.S. cities, central Louisville avoids mass-produced goods sold in chain stores such as Madewell, Gap, Zara, H & M, Urban Outfitters or TJ Maxx. The Louisville Zoo, </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">with camel rides and a splash park, is </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">also located in Highlands. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The Cave Hill Cemetery draws visitors who want to see the final resting places of boxing champion Muhammad Ali and founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant chain </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Colonel Harland David Sanders. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Sister Patty and Mildred Hill, who composed the Happy Birthday song, also are interred there. </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Residential streets off Baxter Avenue are worth checking out for elegant homes and manicured gardens.</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Louisville seems to be a perfect place to live: with just over 600,000 inhabitants it's not too big, it's beautiful, it has good public transportation and a surprisingly large number of performing art venues for a city of its size. On our last evening in Louisville, we were treated to a free performance of Pinter's <i>Shakespeare in Love</i> in Central Park, just two blocks away from our B & B.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Local people did not seem any different from us here in Washington D.C., but I think I figured out Mitch's secret: he makes sure the elections are held Monday through Wednesday when Kentucky goes to sleep.</span></div>Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-49223140780536215212021-06-10T21:49:00.003-04:002021-07-05T11:58:35.453-04:00Arts and Culture in the Post-Covid Era<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Sometime in May Washington area's music organizations started selling tickets for tentatively scheduled live summer concerts. The first sales went very much like the early offers of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. You had to get your computer ready ahead of the appointed start of the ticket sales and jump in as quickly as you could into the organization's website. The battle for a seat, or rather seats since individual tickets were not available, was as fierce as the battle for a vaccine in January and February. The experience reminded me of my youth in former Yugoslavia, where often we had to line up and fight for our share of coffee, tooth paste, toilet paper or some other scarce commodity.</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The first concert to line up for as the Covid restrictions eased in May was the National Symphony Orchestra's performance at the Kennedy Center, featuring Russian virtuoso pianist Daniil Trifonov. The immediate obstacle was logging into my account. The website kept rejecting my user name and password. If I tried to get in as a guest, I was able to move two seats into the shopping bin, but when I reached the payment page the frustration continued. The system automatically added a $50 donation to your bill, which theoretically you could refuse, but when you did, your seats disappeared from the shopping basket. My friend was trying simultaneously on her lap top with the same result. We concluded that only people who agreed to pay the donation could purchase tickets. By the time we figured that out, all the tickets were gone. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">I managed to obtain a ticket through a different channel and saw what had sparked the fierce battle for seats. Out of 2,500 the Kennedy Center filled only about 260. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCUte8046h-Vki5UEnoF1mC05O1EVSzE5mAu4OB7TJLziG2bEwQStQkBCF8e9_7oaP6ns7EuD_9taryuEhq8VQOqEzy6bwYJRDOx5coz8ukg-omJ3n_VaOhyQpczmDCUqHEXj4fSI-SQ/s2048/24330706-4B66-43A2-A3D4-DE831A1C404D_1_201_a.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCUte8046h-Vki5UEnoF1mC05O1EVSzE5mAu4OB7TJLziG2bEwQStQkBCF8e9_7oaP6ns7EuD_9taryuEhq8VQOqEzy6bwYJRDOx5coz8ukg-omJ3n_VaOhyQpczmDCUqHEXj4fSI-SQ/w480-h640/24330706-4B66-43A2-A3D4-DE831A1C404D_1_201_a.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Kennedy Center Concert Hall, May 28, 2021, photo: Z. Hoke</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The small group of patrons ushered into the concert hall spoke in hushed tones as if going to a funeral. Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter struck a cheerful note with brightly colored clothes, better suited for a summer lunch <i>al fresco</i> than a Friday evening concert. She thanked the patrons for coming, seemingly oblivious of the struggle they had gone through to win the honor.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">On arrival to the podium, Maestro Gianandrea Noseda was so emotional that he cut his greeting short. Overall, the event, with a drastically reduced orchestra as well as the audience, had the aura of a rehearsal rather than a real concert, but when the music started, the magic of yore returned.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The opening set was <i>Four Noveletten,</i> a rarely heard work by black composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. U.S. music organizations are now </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">including at least one piece by a black composer in every new program </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">to make up for years of neglect of African-American talent. The Coleridge-Taylor piece and Haydn's <i>Symphony No. 95</i> that framed </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Shostakovich's <i>Piano Concerto No.1</i> </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">were pleasant, fluffy and forgettable in the face of the powerful piece performed by masters such as Trifonov at the piano and William Gerlach with the trumpet. </span></span></div><div><br /></div></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip4fVvk006eWqBj4OESF-xLL1RnHpqx69Zwr9e5NG7EKjiiHqaaY38pykTLsEAgiNmskc_bHz4hBvwUQai49izgPWxTwLPfDSAPcbmZPpKyh58O8KRewNRGhUdNjI5c684qp3LGp65zw/s600/07_NSO-Music-Director-Gianandrea-Noseda-Conducting-2_5.28.21_Photo-Credit-Scott-Suchman.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip4fVvk006eWqBj4OESF-xLL1RnHpqx69Zwr9e5NG7EKjiiHqaaY38pykTLsEAgiNmskc_bHz4hBvwUQai49izgPWxTwLPfDSAPcbmZPpKyh58O8KRewNRGhUdNjI5c684qp3LGp65zw/w640-h426/07_NSO-Music-Director-Gianandrea-Noseda-Conducting-2_5.28.21_Photo-Credit-Scott-Suchman.jpg" title="Gianandrea Noseda conducting NSO's forst 2021 concert, Photo: Scott Schuman" width="640" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white;"><span face="helvetica, arial, sans-serif" style="caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: white; font-size: 11px;">Gianandr</span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); color: #2a2a2a; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Gianandrea Noseda conducting NSO's forst 2021 concert, Photo: Scott Suchman</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); color: #2a2a2a; font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42);">The second NSO concert on June 3 was designed to entertain. Called "surprise", it did not reveal the program except to say that Maestro Noseda would engage with the audience. Perhaps that's why it was a little easier to get the tickets. I expected a list of popular short pieces by well known composers, but I should have given more credit to Noseda. In many ways, the event was more fun than a usual classical music concert because</span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); color: #2a2a2a;"> it comprised six pieces that were either written by little known composers or were obscure pieces by well known composers.</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); color: #2a2a2a;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); color: #2a2a2a;">Noseda was in a cheerful mood as he made the audience guess what the orchestra was playing. Again, he opened with a black composer, William Grant Still. I had never heard Still's <i>Serenade </i>before, but was able to recognize that the music was American. I even whispered to my companion: "sounds like old Hollywood." As it turned out, Still had written arrangements for Hollywood musicals. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42);">The program included another black composer, </span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); color: #2a2a2a;">Washington D.C. native</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); color: #2a2a2a;"> George Walker, with his <i>Lyric for Strings. </i>Richard Strauss, Samuel Barber and Ottorino Respighi were probably the best known composers in the program, while Still, Walker and Italian Giovanni Bottesini were lesser known. </span></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span>Bottesini, dubbed the "Paganini of the double bass" is credited with developing </span></span><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 34); color: #202122;">bass technique that has opened up people's eyes (or ears) to the instrument's versatility. NSO's, principal double-bass Robert Oppelt was given the opportunity to shine in Bottesini's <i>Elegy No. 1 for Bass and Strings.</i></span></span></div><div><span><span style="background-color: #27333f; caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: white; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium; text-align: center;"><br /></span></span></div><div><div><div><span><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); color: #2a2a2a; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Noseda also showcased the orchestra's clarinetist Lin Ma, bassoonist Sue Heineman and harpist Adriana Horne in Strauss's <i>Duet-Concertino for Clarinet and Bassoon with String Orchestra and Harp.</i></span></span><p></p></div></div></div><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); color: #2a2a2a; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The most exciting piece for me was the closing, Respighi's <i>Gli ucelli </i>(Birds) whose tune I recognized immediately and could hum along all its five movements, but could not guess what it was. Don't you hate it when that happens?</span></div><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); color: #2a2a2a; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(42, 42, 42); color: #2a2a2a;">The NSO will perform in Wolf Trap later this month, introducing another rare piece, <i>The Anonymous Lover </i>by </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(61, 62, 80); color: #3d3e50;">Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges from 1870, another black composer. How I would love to be there, but I'll be away. I will return to Wolf Trap in July after a two-year absence. The tickets for the two concerts I plan to attend were sold in "pods" of two to eight. While the small audiences at the Kennedy Center concerts felt sad despite the obvious advantages (no rustling of cough-drop wraps, or patrons sucking at their water bottles right next to your ear) a smaller audience at Wolf Trap's Filene Center will be a blessing. For years I have eschewed the mass shows there, opting instead for a more intimate setting at the Barns. But this summer that option is not available.</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(61, 62, 80); color: #3d3e50; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(61, 62, 80); color: #3d3e50; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Museums also are reopening to a reduced number of visitors and shorter hours. The need to secure timed passes eliminates the spontaneity of going to see art when you feel like it. After three years of waiting (nothing to do with Covid) and several letters of complaint, I managed to obtain passes for the National Museum of African American History and Culture for June 30. Who knows if it will be hot or pouring on that day, whether I will have a headache, or whether I will feel like doing something entirely different, but June 30 it is and I should count my blessings.</span></div><div><span style="color: #3d3e50; font-family: Gotham SSm A, Gotham SSm B;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(61, 62, 80);"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(61, 62, 80); color: #3d3e50; font-family: "Gotham SSm A", "Gotham SSm B"; font-size: 16px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifhXBnQOJzm_GaksY09WCeLYQ5Z7K2YklmjlZPKK4Y0RgQS5FL0Y3TnPRHJmvqw03Il66C5J3McVSJmS0BkQW4RzS7FNebPTMZp6ajxP_LZ6zJUYbWCbo_9oNdFvYbXXfUkZ_ZOnZyKA/s600/60969d5e97ad8.image.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="600" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifhXBnQOJzm_GaksY09WCeLYQ5Z7K2YklmjlZPKK4Y0RgQS5FL0Y3TnPRHJmvqw03Il66C5J3McVSJmS0BkQW4RzS7FNebPTMZp6ajxP_LZ6zJUYbWCbo_9oNdFvYbXXfUkZ_ZOnZyKA/w640-h284/60969d5e97ad8.image.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(61, 62, 80); color: #3d3e50; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The pandemic has taught me lessons: not to take free museums in DC for granted, to feel privileged when I am able to attend a concert or visit a museum, and to prepare physically and mentally for the cultural event I am seeing. Arts and culture deserve our full attention and appreciation, which we often forget when they are easily accessible. </span></div>Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-64065848844196234032021-02-07T19:57:00.030-05:002021-02-17T12:29:51.941-05:00Fashion in the Time of Covid<p><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">At this time of the year I like to look at the fashions for the coming season and so I am doing it now, especially curious how designers make their creations relevant for the time of Covid, when many people spend days at home in their pajamas. Other increasingly common clothing items have been running shoes, training pants, hoodies, fleece jackets and puffers. Even the usually elegant French women seem to have let themselves go a little bit under the circumstances. Designers must be perfectly aware of the mood because they seem to be offering more elaborate variations of the clothes people are already wearing.</span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxL7pzYJ05dH4h7ZI6ASG2duljgefx6cOuf1OyIH-buB3Zx-PbXpnGWlEaxqkeO3o20ycInCUPh9nsqKjcC9CJOjvRTjQ_UKW4PLJ6Nh5ODR6TSKqvKPGV9dY0HkOALMwLeZ_3uJ_MnA/s2048/Paris%252520Couture%252520SS21%252520day%2525202%252520by%252520STYLEDUMONDE%252520Street%252520Style%252520Fashion%252520Photography_95A0531FullRes.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1365" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxL7pzYJ05dH4h7ZI6ASG2duljgefx6cOuf1OyIH-buB3Zx-PbXpnGWlEaxqkeO3o20ycInCUPh9nsqKjcC9CJOjvRTjQ_UKW4PLJ6Nh5ODR6TSKqvKPGV9dY0HkOALMwLeZ_3uJ_MnA/w426-h640/Paris%252520Couture%252520SS21%252520day%2525202%252520by%252520STYLEDUMONDE%252520Street%252520Style%252520Fashion%252520Photography_95A0531FullRes.jpg" width="426" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">Paris street fashion, 2021</span></i></div><div><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">Passing by a few clothing stores in Washington's trendy Georgetown on a Sunday in December, my friend and I came across a small boutique with a display of long evening dresses in its windows. We looked at each other with the question in our eyes: is there any place where you can wear something like this, even on a New Year's Eve? The shop looked like a relic from a bygone era. And maybe it was not even open. It was hard to tell on that Sunday.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAeGRm88ZhDh5MFyD46Wnc-ddADhbHZhCLZlN-smt0QZEREMy-OybsWMeoaw3YIPjMEA0pOyso8f7zVMKF6_bAOSdHBKs9eRc-Uf_jvIZ5eAYt-ud-etNb-lmasUsF-VLbZoWDrUDatw/s2048/IMG_0538.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAeGRm88ZhDh5MFyD46Wnc-ddADhbHZhCLZlN-smt0QZEREMy-OybsWMeoaw3YIPjMEA0pOyso8f7zVMKF6_bAOSdHBKs9eRc-Uf_jvIZ5eAYt-ud-etNb-lmasUsF-VLbZoWDrUDatw/w640-h480/IMG_0538.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">Boutique Lovely, Georgetown, Washington DC</span></i></div><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">The Washington area clothing stores have not quite adjusted to the Covid era. The racks are still full of dresses, high-heeled shoes and fancy jewelry as well as formal suits and ties for men. There are also tons of sports and casual items, of course, but no more than before the pandemic. Some stores have closed permanently - Camper Shoes among them - and some still have their fronts boarded up since the BLM and election riots. But inside the stores, nothing has changed.</span></p></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Designers, on the other hand, exhibit more awareness of the world around them than most US clothing merchants. The new apparel focuses on the comfortable to the degree of frumpy and ill-fitted. Wardrobe basics include oversized "boyfriend" shirts, thick sweaters, big jackets, baggy pants and huge overcoats, intended to accommodate all the bulky items underneath when you run out to grab a bottle of milk from the corner store. In a pinch, women can borrow men's clothes for any occasion. </span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdLPH6i67FrLJ3ZWeMCI8gAuqgqFrnScjiNeDE60FM0qklDjEfeS3ekIggt3rOjcy1U53PsSaQEM0AaiEgzaaxUHTMOOMDPu3xov-VcYL3pCMOngukMUifuygedoX3MJfhDBa28iBr8A/s2048/00007-BALENCIAGA-SPRING-21-RTW.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1365" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdLPH6i67FrLJ3ZWeMCI8gAuqgqFrnScjiNeDE60FM0qklDjEfeS3ekIggt3rOjcy1U53PsSaQEM0AaiEgzaaxUHTMOOMDPu3xov-VcYL3pCMOngukMUifuygedoX3MJfhDBa28iBr8A/w426-h640/00007-BALENCIAGA-SPRING-21-RTW.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Balenciaga, Spring 2021 </span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><i> </i> </div><span style="font-family: georgia;">I have been a great fan of Scandinavian fashions for years. But the Nordic favorite this year - a sleeveless sweater I have always hated - takes it down a notch or two on my top list. The reincarnation of my grandmother's knitwear looks to be crocheted from the yarn leftover from a cottage blanket she made all those winters ago. When I was the age of the model in the photo below, you would not see me dead in the concoction she is showing off. But knitting has seen revival during Covid and designers are letting you know they approve.</span><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNzZHiOfx6r6OwSbeTqOtpFMar9oTKmNXXUrlFEODlGcv5vOoOr3dE8WFp3CfhQIgjQ-XURSJ6Yu_uUKl9XJ4q347hW9A_AG99_13YUeCY8Sy06MSJMUE9r77-pnzt06FkbDVtLSG_2w/s500/copenhagen-fashion-week-fall-winter-2021-trends-291452-1612415709532-main.500x0c.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="500" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNzZHiOfx6r6OwSbeTqOtpFMar9oTKmNXXUrlFEODlGcv5vOoOr3dE8WFp3CfhQIgjQ-XURSJ6Yu_uUKl9XJ4q347hW9A_AG99_13YUeCY8Sy06MSJMUE9r77-pnzt06FkbDVtLSG_2w/w640-h480/copenhagen-fashion-week-fall-winter-2021-trends-291452-1612415709532-main.500x0c.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">Copenhagen, 2021</span></i></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Now the shoes: they must be super comfy, with solid </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">wide</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">bottoms and tight ankles to ensure that you don't wobble during the five-mile daily exercise walks, or cause even a hint of a blister.</span></div><div><br /></div><br /><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbvzaVJ1Dgsk1chaa9WGE_c0pHy_RYsOkkGyKllKknCIJh8ArPp6qUofjW28BHNI4Cphxv6WT-Mzlq9ZL4TAJLz0yfDqGBs1Dk41Y65vfARPfpbOKrhyx_kIkhla4wmIH7inbnnS5VcA/s640/IMG_0526.jpeg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbvzaVJ1Dgsk1chaa9WGE_c0pHy_RYsOkkGyKllKknCIJh8ArPp6qUofjW28BHNI4Cphxv6WT-Mzlq9ZL4TAJLz0yfDqGBs1Dk41Y65vfARPfpbOKrhyx_kIkhla4wmIH7inbnnS5VcA/w192-h283/IMG_0526.jpeg" width="192" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">Platform boots, 2021</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_3kU5gVeZg6148JmWF7fv1Glc2vNYVpwG5y7lRvtvF00_4Z9HGV_LqWFEpPqtff0PMplyeQhRcug1k39YmQbcatMCkPKvoPu-QS8Wz-PXRyEbT0zhw-OjZnsXWe_OOZM3fYKxAPOSlg/s1241/IMG_0527.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1241" data-original-width="700" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_3kU5gVeZg6148JmWF7fv1Glc2vNYVpwG5y7lRvtvF00_4Z9HGV_LqWFEpPqtff0PMplyeQhRcug1k39YmQbcatMCkPKvoPu-QS8Wz-PXRyEbT0zhw-OjZnsXWe_OOZM3fYKxAPOSlg/s320/IMG_0527.jpeg" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_EZqOifGXRSd4MmAyrhXto8MxzC8ae7biDFoDCOZRVXPzqQubY5kw0hxNtUSxDgDAb7Qun_gkGCldBXkAcDWuXn7MNjG3eYXmFyUUK3KLZBCz6ZDikqCXlQTfLcy50EPotONAA1zNhA/s2048/IMG_0528.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAxAclkzU8e8rEoVfS7YmJ3CaMX5-sT4ZqfPdIqes8zXitDR6IMvstPM4i6Lx-LOpqjbCtlCQWkDVeyE1DxgZXjZSMI9tU3Z_6gbrayBaMaAqgpxqRKtgj4wqlO9qEMqu_Ui7uwL-SYA/s1013/0fe25210-e266-449a-a422-56dc2fa89cb9-courtesy-of-rosetta-getty.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div></div></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisdqHdcS92QA80rVmDT47yNSoV5SzmlOWzg1TGVHbzFFUin8_5llQrHyAm7gIsigw-ITjng9j1iBmyDa_7M9SAkzn7jfW4Q6ukFQB6syVLV_BtlygpbgnquVEPfBX3qSiuavpzEqu6Yw/s1013/0fe25210-e266-449a-a422-56dc2fa89cb9-courtesy-of-rosetta-getty.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1013" data-original-width="760" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisdqHdcS92QA80rVmDT47yNSoV5SzmlOWzg1TGVHbzFFUin8_5llQrHyAm7gIsigw-ITjng9j1iBmyDa_7M9SAkzn7jfW4Q6ukFQB6syVLV_BtlygpbgnquVEPfBX3qSiuavpzEqu6Yw/w480-h640/0fe25210-e266-449a-a422-56dc2fa89cb9-courtesy-of-rosetta-getty.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">Spring Fashion 2021</span></i><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: georgia;">While the winter apparel leans toward comfy and cosy, designers show optimism that the pandemic might subside by the summer and turn to light, airy and cheerful items. We see a plethora of fluffy concoctions for women and colorful creations for men.<br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeZaNifPFBpsLHynAagPl-vrd2GOkymukWph4u_PU3pKspLNIAVLXPsHbJO_TscXfL95b8rHWqUQ9ZhVjWQuncblwir3t2-yG-3SZ812pripm-aeg0D-CWWmBl7mwbG64pdXltT9sXdg/s1140/31cce353-e17e-4548-bf61-0f50aa8464d6-ss21-look-13.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1140" data-original-width="760" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeZaNifPFBpsLHynAagPl-vrd2GOkymukWph4u_PU3pKspLNIAVLXPsHbJO_TscXfL95b8rHWqUQ9ZhVjWQuncblwir3t2-yG-3SZ812pripm-aeg0D-CWWmBl7mwbG64pdXltT9sXdg/s320/31cce353-e17e-4548-bf61-0f50aa8464d6-ss21-look-13.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> Summer fashion, 2021</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg098Lf64GbCT8gDXfuCUP7f9Yn2ITymPcKUjchXZ9ze9bzTIewxZjav5STf0zAr4nv3Nf9Kdm_pRxjgsu6MFY8vbPclYqFzz2tv_Ix6MHKgW04_7jKG9mAiSP2kDiIC9o5jfjy3W41pg/s1145/8b11dcd1-7d70-457a-b970-4adbb4109845-gettyimages-1278855568.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1145" data-original-width="760" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg098Lf64GbCT8gDXfuCUP7f9Yn2ITymPcKUjchXZ9ze9bzTIewxZjav5STf0zAr4nv3Nf9Kdm_pRxjgsu6MFY8vbPclYqFzz2tv_Ix6MHKgW04_7jKG9mAiSP2kDiIC9o5jfjy3W41pg/w212-h320/8b11dcd1-7d70-457a-b970-4adbb4109845-gettyimages-1278855568.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><div style="text-align: right;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: right;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: right;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh68PBHGAojB1C1u7fdnSQ7Jo6k_Ulu2b6chAX_RQCFQG61Kr-zc9S6Sw1iJ4qfsTAkxxT0sYAmfnDpqoCAfibJElDbYd-G9-afUSNaE979FawxmulOw5tkyOe4RJjy-hUHGvUc4-TvXA/s768/20200717-roundup-trends-10.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="768" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh68PBHGAojB1C1u7fdnSQ7Jo6k_Ulu2b6chAX_RQCFQG61Kr-zc9S6Sw1iJ4qfsTAkxxT0sYAmfnDpqoCAfibJElDbYd-G9-afUSNaE979FawxmulOw5tkyOe4RJjy-hUHGvUc4-TvXA/w640-h426/20200717-roundup-trends-10.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i>Men's fashion, spring 2021</i><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Much to look forward to, even though we are not quite sure if there will be occasion to show off our new wardrobe. Will anyone still have desire to dress up if you cannot join a crowd that might admire your latest look?</div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Let's see: D.C. restaurants are currently able to serve indoors at 25% capacity. Valentine's Day is coming up, and though large gatherings are discouraged, couples are acceptable. With love and engagements in the air, people will surely want to don something other than training pants. I'll go check the evening spots this weekend and make that five-mile walk on the asphalt. I may wear comfortable shoes, but I promise to put on a skirt. Even if it snows!</div></span></td></tr></tbody></table>
Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com0Washington, DC, USA38.9071923 -77.036870710.596958463821153 -112.1931207 67.217426136178844 -41.880620699999994tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-83756944259988755652021-01-17T20:22:00.017-05:002021-01-17T20:31:19.461-05:00Minorities Dominate Upcoming Opera Seasons<p> <b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Minorities Feature Prominently in Upcoming New Operas</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Contemporary operas can be an ordeal to sit through. Composers are pressured to offer some new and groundbreaking concept, which usually means hard-to-like music, black-and-white scenography, and absolute absence of tradition. Melody is anathema. A few years ago, I came to Jake Heggie’s <i>Dead Man Walking </i>at the Washington National Opera almost directly from the world premiere of <i>La Ciudad de las Mentiras</i> (City of Lies) in Madrid. While Heggie’s opera leaned toward traditional, Elena Mendoza’s opus at Teatro Real in Spain’s capital, bore all the characteristics of a modern work.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><div align="center"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 3pt; width: 220.5pt;" width="294"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHaxdahYiTPMLgbK-Es31mbxHSGyw0lCsOQVgXMWdz5n5PRtnW_J2X2wMGwXf8Jd2XGZRWytqdFPxK3-K_et2BtAyNWZO7kaUW7-VCkTXOrEXgQQ396o2uhIGqdeRr4AuIxYJ5T3eFBg/s2048/IMG_3669.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHaxdahYiTPMLgbK-Es31mbxHSGyw0lCsOQVgXMWdz5n5PRtnW_J2X2wMGwXf8Jd2XGZRWytqdFPxK3-K_et2BtAyNWZO7kaUW7-VCkTXOrEXgQQ396o2uhIGqdeRr4AuIxYJ5T3eFBg/w640-h480/IMG_3669.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #444444;">La Ciudad de las Mentiras, Teatro Real, Madrid, 2017, photo: Z. Hoke</span></i></blockquote></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 3pt; width: 220.5pt;" width="294"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #444444;"> </span></i></p></td></tr></tbody></table></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Mendoza used four stories by Juan Carlos Onetti to explore theatrical and perhaps some musical possibilities, but her sopranos, tenors and baritones never sang. They recited lines from the stories so intertwined that only those familiar with Onetti's work could hope to understand what was going on. The English language surtitles kept the uninitiated out of a complete fog, and a written introduction gave some clarification, but I had to agree with a co-spectator who argued that if a work of art needs so much explanation, it is not a good work of art. If Mendoza's singers did not sing, neither did the musicians played much music. At one point a man appeared on the stage with an accordion only to tap his hand on it a couple of times. An actor portraying a bartender scratched a metal tray with a knife, a piano player hit the keyboard a couple of times and the orchestra produced some <span style="background-color: white;">"atmospheric" sound, sort of like a distant wind howling. Overall, it was an interesting, innovative stage production, but it was not what an average person would call an opera. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">That word typically conjures images of Figaro, Carmen or Violetta singing their hearts out in melodies most opera lovers can hum in the shower. We usually think of opera as a dramatic or comic story related through song and instrumental music. It consists of melodic arias that express a character’s feelings, and spoken or almost spoken <i>recitativi</i>, which move the action forward. Of course, today, if you google the word “opera”, you may come across information about a browser for Android devices.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Many modern operas veer away from the standard structure.</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> In September of last year, the historic Bavarian State opera in Munich, Germany, premiered a new music-theater work <i>7 Deaths of Maria Callas </i>by controversial performance icon Marina Abramović. The New York-based artists is perhaps best known for her 2010 MoMA performance <i>The Artists Is Present,</i> in which she sat at a table speechless while long lines of visitors waited to sit across her and watch her expressions. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">7 Deaths of Maria Callas</span></i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> was presented as an opera. It featured seven arias Callas was most famous for, such as <i>Vissi d’arte</i> and <i>Un bel di </i>sung by various sopranos, while Abramović, occasionally joined by actor Willem Dafoe, recited her own narratives. Music by composer Marko Nikodijević accompanied her recitatives and video projections, which showed Abramović being strangled by snakes or die in some other torturous manner. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">For a classical opera fan, the one-hour performance was an outrage as was Abramovic’s claim that she and Callas have a lot in common. But perhaps more importantly, Abramović’s latest opus was an homage to a great soprano that some of performance art fans may not have been interested in. Similarly, the television series <i>Lovecraft Country</i> features an episode based on the 1921 Tulsa massacre that is accompanied by operatic music at the request of composer Laura Karpman. The soundtrack ends in a requiem. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Belgian composer Jean-Luc Fafchamps opened the 2020 season at the La Monnaie opera house in Brussels with a “pop requiem” <i>Is This the End?</i> Éric Brucher's libretto focuses on a woman caught in a twilight zone between life and death. There, she meets other people in a kind of transitional state between this world and the next. The staging by Ingrid von Wantoch Rekowski contrasts the live action on stage with film sequences shot inside the theatre and then integrated into the live performance. But the piece is conceived for watching from home.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Fans of the traditional music theater may wonder why we even call some of these modern pieces of theater “opera.” </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">But we should be reminded that in Italian, opera means work, labor or opus. Operaio is a worker or laborer. So the word opera is not restricted to the kind of music performances with which it is most often associated.</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">The new works we sometimes dismiss too quickly actually bode well for the future of the opera. Their creators acknowledge and often build on the timeless masterpieces and pay homage to old masters. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Let’s look at some of the novelties in the pipeline for the upcoming opera seasons. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">In the United States, hopes are high that the Metropolitan Opera will be able to re-open on September 27 and make history by staging its first ever opera created by an African American composer and an African American librettist. </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Terence Blanchard’s <i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;">Fire Shut Up in My Bones </span></i>with a libretto by Kasi Lemmons, is based on the memoir by Charles M. Blow and will star Angel Blue, Latonia Moore, and Will Liverman.</span><span style="background-color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">The Met will premiere two other operas in its new season: Matthew Aucoin’s </span><i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;">Eurydice</span></i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">, starring Erin Morley in the title role, and Brett Dean’s </span><i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;">Hamlet</span></i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">, with Allan Clayton portraying the tortured Danish prince. </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Cincinnati Opera’s ambitious plan for the next season<b> </b>includes two world premieres: <i>Fierce</i> by <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">William Menefield and <i>Castor and Patience</i></span><b><span style="letter-spacing: 0.75pt;"> </span></b><span style="letter-spacing: 0.75pt;">by </span>Gregory Spears<b>. </b><i>Fierce </i><span style="color: #191919;">focuses on four teenage girls who struggle to adjust to school, family, and friendship, and follows their journeys toward empowerment. In their college essays, one mourns the loss of a special friend. Another one hides behind her popularity. The third feels oppressed by her parents’ expectations. And the last one struggles with a troubled home life. Despite the chorus of trolls that taunts them, the girls unite in their fight against adversity.</span></span><span class="CommentTextChar"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #191919;"> </span></span><em><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #191919;">The libretto is </span></em><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #191919;">inspired by life stories of real Cincinnati-area teenage girls.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Castor and Patience</span></i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"> is centered on two cousins from an African American family who find themselves at odds over the fate of a historic parcel of land they have inherited in the American South. The opera probes historical obstacles to black land ownership in the United States. </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #191919;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #191919;">Spoleto Festival USA</span></i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #191919;"> has commissioned a new opera by </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; padding: 0in;">Grammy Award-Winner Rhiannon Giddens, inspired by a real-life character from the American South. Titled Omar, the opera is based on the autobiography of Omar Ibn Said – an enslaved African man from the Futa Toro region of present-day Senegal - who was brought to Charleston in 1807. Thirteen years later, Omar, a Muslim, converted to Christianity, but his manuscripts written in Arabic, especially his autobiographical essay, suggest that he remained faithful to Islam. </span><strong><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; padding: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><strong><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; padding: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></span></strong></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;">Dayton Opera will present its first ever full-length opera premiere in its coming season. <i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;">Finding Wright</span></i> is a result of creative collaboration of four talented women: composer Laura Kaminsky, librettist Andrea Fellows Fineberg, conductor Susanne Sheston and stage director Kathleen Clawson. In <i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;">Finding Wright, </span></i>21st century Charlotte (Charlie) Tyler, a young, recently widowed, aerospace engineer and researcher learns about the extraordinary life of Katharine Wright, younger sister of flight pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright. The Wrights siblings were born in Dayton, Ohio.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">The Washington National Opera is planning to continue its new opera initiative as soon as the circumstances allow with a short work intended for all ages, titled <i>Elephant & Piggie</i>, based on the book <i>I Really Like Slop!</i> The music is by D.C.-based composer and 2021</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;">Sphinx Medal of Excellence winner Carlos Simon. The libretto is by author and illustrator Mo Willems, who is the Kennedy Center’s first education artist-in-residence. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;">Looking beyond 2021, we can expect to see an opera adaptation of Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel <i>The Hours</i>. The film adaptation featured Hollywood stars Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman. Co-commissioned by</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;">the Metropolitan Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra, the opera by c</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">omposer Kevin Puts<span style="color: #222222;"> will bring back star soprano Renee Fleming from her semi-retirement. </span>Puts, whose opera <i>Silent Night </i>won the Pulitzer Prize in 2012 is collaborating on <i>The Hours</i> with librettist Greg Pierce. The staged premiere, also featuring Joyce DiDonato and Kelli O’Hara is slated for 2022. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="arial, sans-serif">San Francisco Opera is likely to bring in a performance of the new Finnish opera <i>Innocence</i> in the near future. The work by composer <span style="color: #333333;">Kaija Saariaho and novelist Sofi Oksanen</span>, <span style="color: #2a2a2a;">is a co-production of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Finnish National Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, the Dutch National Opera, and the San Francisco Opera and is sung in nine languages: English, Finnish, Czech, Romanian, French, Swedish, German, Spanish and Greek.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="arial, sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="arial, sans-serif">Here is how</span><i style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"> Music Finland</i><span face="arial, sans-serif"> online describes the opera: “</span><i style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Innocence</i><span face="arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: #2a2a2a;">takes place at a wedding in present-day Helsinki, Finland, with an international guest list. The groom is Finnish, the bride is Romanian, and the mother-in-law is French. But the groom’s family has a dark secret – ten years earlier, these characters were involved in a tragic event. When the events from long ago begin to unravel and the ghosts of the past revive their memories of the trauma, the family faces the question: where does the innocence end and guilt begins? </span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #2a2a2a;">Sounds bergmanesque and intriguing. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #2a2a2a;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #2a2a2a;">Los Angeles Opera’s new season is highlighting a one-man opera by </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Du Yun. In the work titled In Our Daughter’s Eyes, baritone Nathan Gunn portrays a father struggling to become a man his daughter would be proud of. As a gift for his unborn daughter, he writes a diary documenting his journey to fatherhood. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">More new operas than ever are written by and about minorities. Just a few years ago the best that a female or African American composer could hope for was a performance at a smaller local theater. Now, the world’s most eminent opera houses are fighting to commission their best efforts and turn the spotlight on them. If successful, these works may change the world of opera in unexpected ways. <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #2a2a2a;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></p>Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-53543435331170925922021-01-14T01:57:00.006-05:002021-07-27T10:43:15.838-04:00The End Is Near<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><br />Like the rest of the world, I've been glued to the news feeds for the past few months, but unlike many, I have not been able to articulate what I feel about the current US state of affairs. The reactions from the US media and political leaders have been largely predictable, analyses largely superficial. So I am more interested in how the rest of the world is reacting, especially ordinary people - not pundits or philosophers. One comment from Croatia strikes me as typical. Many others are either too nasty or too gleeful, but this one, though not reflecting my opinion, reflects some of my confusion and, I am sure, the confusion of many other people around the world. Here is my approximate translation of the piece:</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a class="fn" href="https://hr.n1info.com/kolumne/boris-dezulovic/kraj-je-blizu/?fbclid#" rel="author" style="bottom: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e; cursor: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1; margin-right: 10px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;">Boris Dežulović</a>for <i>N1</i> : THE END IS NEAR</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">"There was a guy throwing money around, installing gold toilets, dying his hair with orange juice and grabbing women by the pussy, who also believed that the noise from wind turbines caused cancer and suggested that tornados and hurricanes could be stopped with nuclear bombs, and that Covid-19 could be cured with Clorox. And that guy was the U.S. president. </span></p><p><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">On one occasion he gathered Baltic leaders and blamed them for the Balkan crisis. On another, his wife visited a camp for immigrant children, dressed in a jacket with a sign "I really don't care." And on yet another occasion his election-campaign chief organized a press conference in the luxury <i>Four Seasons Hotel</i> in Philadelphia but which took place outside a <i>Four Seasons Total Landscaping</i> center in a Philly suburb, in a parking lot between the local crematorium and a sex-toy shop.</span></span></p><p><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">So when he lost the election, the president urged his voters and followers to march on Washington and prevent the announcement of the voters' choice for the country's new leader.</span></span></p><p><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">There was another guy in the US state of Georgia who heeded the president's call to come to Washington, but he did not have a flag of his home state, so he ordered one from the Amazon. He logged into his account, typed in "Flag of Georgia" and placed an order. The next day he received an Amazon box containing a large, beautiful flag of the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, which he hung on a pole, mounted on his car and drove nearly a thousand miles from his southern state through both Carolinas and entire Virginia to the nation's capital. He was cheered by truck drivers along the way while he turned up the volume on Willie Nelson's "Georgia On My Mind". Surreptitiously, he wiped away a tear or two of his patriotic pride, as he listened to "just an old sweet song keeps Georgia on my mind."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e;">"Which flag is it, my friend?" shouted </span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e; font-family: georgia;">the truck drivers</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e; font-family: georgia;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e; font-family: georgia;">through their open windows, and he lifted his chin importantly and said: "Georgia, my friend." "Georgia?" they wondered, slightly ashamed of not recognizing the southern state's flag but he would just croon along with Willie Nelson, "I said </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e; font-family: georgia;">Georgia, heh, maybe it’s because I’m from Augusta, Georgia.“ His compatriots responded with wows and</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e; font-family: georgia;"> thumbs up.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEWopR1pQa1l_U1zFg75sI1zoL95-t-NRK3EmGYaiJJN_N09gXoNfNLeiEkqSNlERaw1v7Pgi8MNdjTszHthzHVbbztzfqX28vk79Ql35AIbuREXCbueR7_IQwPxgSwp8C2f0IrjEM8A/s544/Screen+Shot+2021-01-14+at+1.34.39+AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="544" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEWopR1pQa1l_U1zFg75sI1zoL95-t-NRK3EmGYaiJJN_N09gXoNfNLeiEkqSNlERaw1v7Pgi8MNdjTszHthzHVbbztzfqX28vk79Ql35AIbuREXCbueR7_IQwPxgSwp8C2f0IrjEM8A/w640-h450/Screen+Shot+2021-01-14+at+1.34.39+AM.png" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #05131e; font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30);">That guy was among the first to attack the US Capitol. His photos appeared in all the news and were scattered all over the internet. Reddit was on to him, the whole planet saw him charging the Congress with a flag offered by the Amazon when you search for "Flag of Georgia." Little did he know that the first Georgia on Amazon's mind was a Caucasian state, on the shores of the Black Sea. And so the man waved a white flag emblazoned with five red crosses as he climbed the Capitol steps. Tovarish Stalin, </span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e; font-family: georgia;">Soviet Georgia's greatest so</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e; font-family: georgia;">n,</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e; font-family: georgia;"> would have been thrilled to see it.</span></p><p><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Then there was an average American housewife with average American intelligence, from an average U.S. city, who looked as if she had walked straight out of <i>The Simpsons</i> animated series. She was determined to prevent satanist-pedophile-vaxxer-communist conspiracy against Donald Trump and America. She was in all the papers all over the internet, and Twitter filled its pages with her memes and gifs. The entire globe saw her charging the Congress and, in her patriotic fervor, attack journalists of the mainstream media and foreign reporters. Noticing their Cyrillic and Arab letters - she accosted Russian and Al Jazeera reporters telling them to go back to the communist China where they came from.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #05131e; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">There was also a guy from Arkansas who broke into the office of House </span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e; font-family: georgia;">Speaker</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e; font-family: georgia;"> </span><span style="color: #05131e; font-family: georgia; letter-spacing: 0px;">Nancy Pelosi. He also was in all the news, the internet and social media and the whole world saw him break into madam speaker's office, sit in her armchair, lift his booted feet on her desk, take a hundred selfies and then - in case he had not yet been identified - pose for TV outlets in the street with items belonging to Ms. Pelosi in his hands. He bragged he did not steal anything because he had left 25 cents on her desk.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: #05131e; letter-spacing: 0px;">Then there was an expert fighter from Maryland, who watched in disbelief as the moron from Arkansas practically wrote his own arrest warrant. He left work at the local branch of <i>Navistar Direct Marketing</i> to join the siege of the US Congress and, having learned to be cautious </span><span style="color: #05131e; letter-spacing: 0px;">from the experience of living under the dictatorship of the Deep State,</span><span style="color: #05131e; letter-spacing: 0px;"> he took steps to ensure he was not recognized. He wrapped himself in the U.S. flag, pulled a hood over his head and a MAGA hat over it, and entered the Congress in the way General Lee entered Veracruz. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: #05131e; letter-spacing: 0px;">He appeared in all the newspapers and internet portals; Facebook and Twitter and the entire globe saw him marching through congressional halls. Upon return home that evening, he found Deep State agents waiting for him as well as a notice of termination of employment form <i>Navistar.</i> When he asked how they identified him so quickly, the agents showed him Facebook photos of him strutting through the Capitol with a <i>Navistar Direct Marketing</i> ID hanging around his neck.</span><span style="color: #05131e; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #05131e; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Finally, there was also a failed actor-singer from Arizona, who after mindless wondering through the wasteland of his life, re-invented himself as shaman and joined the people's liberation army of QAnon. He came to the Congress naked to the waist, with a fur hat and bison horns on his head. He urged people over a loudspeaker to topple the dictatorship of Masonic-Hollywood-satanistic-pedophile elites that kidnap little kids and take them to the infamous Washington pizzeria with a secret entrance into a large global network of underground tunnels, in which Soros, Gates and Rockefeller sexually abuse children and drink their blood to stay young.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #05131e; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The guy also appeared in all the newspapers, internet, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. The whole world could see and hear QAnon's shaman with bison horns as he explained to the international press corps that he can hear high-frequency sounds, not audible to the ear of a mere mortal, and that he had a passport for all the galaxies of the universe.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #05131e; font-family: georgia; letter-spacing: 0px;">In short, those answering the call of the president who confuses the Balkans with the Baltics were people like the guy who does not know the flag of his native Georgia, a woman who does not distinguish Arabs from Asians, a thief who takes selfies while committing crime, and a guy who is hiding from Deep State by wearing a badge with his personal information on it. They were led by a shaman who can hear frequencies of a bat and is leading an international movement against a network of satanist pedophiles from the basement of a Washington pizzeria (which does not have a basement). The imbecilic group that could have come straight out of <i>The Simpsons </i>psychiatric clinic<i> </i>entered </span><span style="color: #05131e; font-family: georgia; letter-spacing: 0px;">one of the most protected buildings in the world, in the most protected capital of the world and the most protected country in the world as if they were walking into a suburban Walmart. </span></p><p><span style="color: #05131e; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This is not the first time we have seen such scenes on TV. A few years ago, for example, there was a broadcast of Ronald Emmerich's movie <i>White House Down</i> in which terrorists attack the White House. James Vanderbilt's team had to re-write the scrip at least 20 times to make the story of invading the stronghold of the American democracy believable. </span></span><span style="color: #05131e; font-family: georgia; letter-spacing: 0px;">But while the fictionalized attack was masterminded by sophisticated operatives and was carried out by elite special forces, in real life the Congress was demolished by a cast of characters from </span><i style="color: #05131e; font-family: georgia; letter-spacing: 0px;">Dumb and Dumber. </i></p><p><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e; font-family: georgia;">These characters announced their march on Washington at </span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e;">least a month before. </span><span style="color: #05131e; letter-spacing: 0px;">US Capitol Police, Homeland Security, FBI and CIA, agents that stage coups in foreign countries - all were activated. Video footage was showing convoys of vehicles pouring toward the US capital, and Facebook published the exact route to the Congress and the time of the planned attack, January 6. And still the invasion of the Capitol shocked the security experts. They watched in daze as the man who took Nancy Pelosi's lectern to sell it on eBay cheerfully waved to them. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #05131e; font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30);"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: #05131e; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp00hqrsWKKjfc7_EZlTVrRXdKB7UeFUvw5lYJfkeifhNZs_YBCSp60tN9EXR6rj4R4-C5zMII6Tgjf0a5kLLzAM96sbTbJG1-4GiYCinM2MOfkUQI1kUwC5fhQDqbi4lLwkkSbM4y5A/s2048/F5F3A9E2-346D-4528-8C96-3B5B19BD90AB.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp00hqrsWKKjfc7_EZlTVrRXdKB7UeFUvw5lYJfkeifhNZs_YBCSp60tN9EXR6rj4R4-C5zMII6Tgjf0a5kLLzAM96sbTbJG1-4GiYCinM2MOfkUQI1kUwC5fhQDqbi4lLwkkSbM4y5A/w640-h480/F5F3A9E2-346D-4528-8C96-3B5B19BD90AB.jpeg" width="640" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 19, 30); color: #05131e; font-family: georgia;">Some of the best photographs from the riot were sold to Getty Images Inc. and published all over the internet with the logo "Via Getty." Afterwards, </span><span style="color: #05131e; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Google was literally flooded with questions "Who Is Via Getty?" and the police and secret service were promptly informed of Trump's new guerrilla operative named Via Getty, who is self-advertising on the social media.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #05131e; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">What you have seen is jackass civilization in the era of imbeciles. The 20th century had its romantic revolutions, dark lieutenants, secret agents, spies, mercenaries, inglourious basterds and ailing poets - dreamers who believed in equality and a just new world. The revolutions of our time will be led by shamans with bison horns, who buy liberty flags on the Amazon; conspiracy theorists who believe that the recent earthquakes in Croatia were caused by satanist-pedophile elites mining their underground tunnels for ritual drinking of children's blood; and those who believe that pandemic was created on purpose so people can be vaccinated with microchips, and controlled by dark powers. These revolutionaries will be confronted by conscientious citizens chasing over the Internet new Che Guevaras such as Via Getty.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #05131e; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The global revolution of our century is led by the prophets whom you may remember standing on banana crates with a sign: "The end is near - prepare!" </span></span></p><div class="post-3753969 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-boris-dezulovic tag-boris-dezulovic" id="post-3753969" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="entry-content" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #05131e; font-stretch: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.7647; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Hasta la victoria siempre!</span></span></p></div></div>Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-65401264471204263252020-08-20T22:44:00.002-04:002020-08-22T16:02:00.801-04:00American Opera Follows Its Own Path<b>Washington National Opera’s premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s opera <i>Blue</i>, a tragic story about an African-American family in New York, would have been timely in March 2020 when it was scheduled for introduction to the nation’s capital. It will still be timely in May 2021, the new premiere date, coinciding with the first anniversary of the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man killed by the police in Minneapolis, during an arrest.</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A performance cancellation or delay is usually cause for regret, but for participants in this opera, mostly black singers and actors, it was a reprieve. Star singer Kenneth Kellogg said in a recent interview that "there wasn’t a day in rehearsal that somebody didn’t break down and cry,” because for many of the protagonists, the opera’s story was too real. Kellogg portrays the opera’s leading character, a black policeman whose son is shot to death by a white policeman.</span><br />
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Libretto by Tazewell Thompson has three main characters: the Father, the Mother and the Son. The opening act comprises a series of discussions among family members and friends about their aspirations in the context of everyday injustice in minority neighborhoods. When a baby boy is born the family rejoices, but there are also apprehensions about his future amid growing police intimidation of young black men.<br />
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Things turn tense when the teenage Son, dressed in a hoodie and glued to his laptop becomes involved in protests against police violation. His father’s argument that he and his fellow officers risk their lives to protect communities is wasted on the angry young man, who calls his father a pathetic "black man in blue."<br />
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<i>Photo by Karli Cadel: Kenneth Kellogg and Aaron Crouch as the Father and the Son at the Glimmerglass Festival, 2019</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The family is devastated when the Son gets killed during a protest, leaving the Father struggling to reconcile the faith in his profession with the tragic loss of his son. The funeral scene offers some of the opera’s most ambitious choral pieces, accented in places with the soaring duet of grieving parents. <br /><br />American composers have developed a unique American operatic style, with recognizably American sound and unmistakably American themes. The effort to branch away from the European opera was there from the very beginning. As early as 1855, New York saw the premiere of George Frederick Bristow's opera <i>Rip Van Winkle</i>, based on Washington Irving’s short story. The composer championed American music and themes throughout his life and was critical of his contemporaries who did not. <br /><br />Since then, other American literary masterpieces such as <i>Little Women, The Great Gatsby </i>and <i>A</i> <i>View from the Bridge</i> have been adapted for the musical theater. But few have been as successful as the works based on true events. One of the first ones was <i>The Ballad of Baby Doe</i> by Douglas Moore, which premiered in 1956 at the Central City Opera in Colorado, where the real historical figures that inspired the opera, had lived.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">When John Adams presented his opera <i>Nixon in China</i> in 1987 in Houston, some of the main characters were still alive. Initially considered a gimmick, the so-called docu-drama gained worldwide recognition and started a new trend that eventually caught on in Europe. In 2011, London’s Royal Opera House premiered <i>Anna Nicole</i>, an opera about the tragic life and death of American celebrity model Anna Nicole. Critics were not sure how to look at this provocative work, but all the six performances were sold out. Anna Nicole was portrayed by star soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek who then went on to New York to sing Sieglinde in Wagner’s <i>Ring.</i><br /><br />But the most performed American opera of all time is <i>Porgy and Bess</i>, which premiered in 1935 and has remained a symbol of American culture worldwide. There is hardly a place where the Summertime tune is not recognized even by people who do not know the opera. The music drama about African-American experience was crafted by three white men, the fact not lost on many black composers whose work has been ignored or neglected. Critics have described <i>Porgy and Bess</i> as a symbol of systemic racism in the American artistic world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Many Americans would be surprised to learn that one of the earliest American opera composers, producers and teachers was a black man. Harry Lawrence Freeman wrote more than 20 operas and founded several music schools and organizations, including the Negro Opera Company. At the age of 22 he produced his first opera <i>Epthelia </i>in Denver. His second opera, <i>The Martyr</i>, was performed in several U.S. cities, while the others could not garner sufficient support in the U.S. music circles of his time. Still, during his lifetime Freeman was known as “the black Wagner.” </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Scot Joplin’s 1911 <i>Treemonisha</i> is the only opera by a U.S. black composer that is still performed from time to time, albeit in smaller theaters, and there is a commercial recording of it.<br /><br />Despite being ignored, African-American composers have created ambitious music pieces, some of which have survived. Scholars as well as music companies are now working to bring some of them to light and reverse years of neglect.<br /><br />Among them is Freeman’s <i>Voodoo</i> that was performed in semi-staged production in 2015 in New York.</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBMZymNy8Nc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBMZymNy8Nc</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Shirley Graham du Bois’ epic work <i>Tom-Tom</i> was performed at Harvard two years ago, for the first time since its 1932 premiere at Cleveland Stadium.<br /><br />The Metropolitan Opera has announced plans to bring Terence Blanchard’s work <i>Fire Shut Up in My Bones</i>, based on Charles Blow’s 2014 memoir, which was first performed in St. Luis last year. This will be the first production by a black composer and black librettist (Kasi Lemmons) staged by the Metropolitan Opera in its 136-year history. <br /><br />American opera companies have long fought to diverse their audiences, which are predominantly white people. One way to attract new audiences is to produce a new opera. But with most operas written by white composers on white themes, it is hard to attract people of different backgrounds. <br /><br /> “Rarely do you go to the opera and see black people onstage really letting you know how they feel with a story written by a black librettist,” said Kellogg. The music for <i>Blue </i>is composed by a white woman, but the libretto is written by a black theater director. <br /><br />With the story so close to real life events, many people will wonder why go see it in the theater. Certainly, it is easier to escape the harsh reality with the music of Mozart or Rossini, but opera is ultimately about real people and their emotions in conflict or tragedy, as well as in joyful times. An average opera goer will go to see <i>Carmen </i>or <i>La bohème, </i>attracted by name recognition more than a sense of discovery. But a more avid fan is curious to examine a new work or at least a re-invented production of an old one. The advent of live opera simulcasts in movie theaters, and online opera streams has made the discovery of opera, both the time-tested classics and daring new productions, accessible to everyone. The most recent Met production of Glass’s <i>Akhnaten</i> must have dazzled even a complete novice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Unlike <i>Akhnaten, Blue </i>is an intimate drama intent on inspiring contemplation of current events rather than dazzling. It premiered in 2019 at The Glimmerglass Festival and received the 2020 award for best opera from The Music Critics Association of North America. </span>Performances in several cities have been cancelled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Lyric Opera of Chicago has rescheduled performances for January of 2021 and Minnesota Opera for February 2021. Washington’s premiere has been rescheduled July 2021 and Toledo opera in Ohio announced plans to produce <i>Blue</i> in February 2022.</span></div>
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Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-34371114334362998082020-06-02T20:25:00.000-04:002020-06-06T00:42:25.768-04:00Opera in the Time of Coronavirus<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>This is a preview of my article written for the Washington Opera Society Magazine, June 2020 issue.</b><br /><br />Arts organizations, especially opera houses, have put up a heroic fight to stay relevant during the pandemic, primarily by offering free streaming of their best stage productions. Individual artists have done their part by posting highlights from their repertoire in the social media and participating in organized outreach programs. The excuse of not seeing opera because of its prohibitive ticket prices is no longer valid.<br /><br />No other opera company has done more than New York’s Metropolitan with its nightly presentation of Live in HD series on its web site, that includes such rarities as Berlioz’s <i>Les Troyens </i>and popular works like <i>L’elisir d’amore,</i> interspersed with memorable historic productions of <i>La bohème, La sonnabula </i>and <i>Tosca.</i> In addition, the Met is offering a free 8-week Opera Global Summer Camp via Google and Zoom classrooms, from June 15 to August 7.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><br />Even smaller educational outlets, such as the Castleton Festival in Virginia, have made their productions available free online. Puccini's <i>La fanciulla del West </i>stands out.<br /><br />The end of the COVID-19 crisis, unfortunately does not mean the end of problems for the performing arts that depend on large audiences. <br /><br />Social distancing and other restrictions have forced the Metropolitan Opera to cancel all performances until the end of the year, including a new staging of the opening night <i>Aida </i>with Anna Netrebko. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"The health and safety of our company members and our audience is our top priority, and it is simply not feasible to return to the opera house for a September opening while social distancing remains a requirement,” General Manager Peter Gelb said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The company had earlier cancelled its planned premiere of Prokofiev’s T<i>he Fiery Angel</i>, while the new productions of <i>Don Giovanni </i>and <i>Die Zauberflöte </i>had been postponed to future seasons. All the performances of <i>Die Zauberflöte</i> will feature Julie Taymor's production, rather than the new production by Simon McBurney originally announced. The revival will be part of the December 31 opening night and social gala.<br /><br />On the positive note, the Met still intends to go ahead with its premiere of Jake Heggie’s modern opera <i>Dead Man Walking.</i> Netrebko appears to be forging ahead with preparations for her debut as Abigaille in Nabucco. She posted a video of a rehearsal session for the role at her home in Vienna. <br /><br />The Washington National Opera is scheduled to open its 2020-2021 season with a new production of Beethoven's <i>Fidelio</i> on October 24, in celebration of the composer's 250th birthday. The season is to follow with a new production of John Adams’s <i>Nixon in China</i>, as well as Musorgsky’s<i> Boris Godunov</i> and an “American opera initiative.” But at the time of writing this article, the company was still waiting for guidance from federal and local and health experts on when and in what manner it will be safe to resume. The Kennedy Center press office told the Washington Opera Society that “we do anticipate changes to our previously announced programming."</span><br />
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The 2019-2020 WNO season was cut short just ahead of the Washington premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s <i>Blue</i>, a work that grapples with a contemporary tragedy — the killing of an unarmed black man at the hands of a police officer. There could be no better time to show it than now, and one would hope the company will modify its fall season to include <i>Blue</i>.<br />
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Washington Concert Opera has confirmed plans to perform Rosini’s <i>Maometto II</i> on November 22 and Bellini’s<i> I puritani</i> in May of next year at the Lisner Auditorium, and is adding Verdi’s <i>Simon</i> <i>Boccanegra</i>, which was cancelled in the spring due to the health crisis.<br />
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<i>MButterfly</i>, a brand new work by talented Chinese-American composer Huang Ruo will not see its world premiere in Santa Fe this summer since its summer festival has been cancelled. The Wolf Trap, the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and many other summer opera groups also have cancelled all performances.<br />
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Seattle Opera has also reached a moment of reckoning, announcing this week the cancellation of its first opera of the 2020/2021 season: <i>Cavalleria</i> <i>rusticana</i> & <i>Pagliacci</i>. The cancellation represents a loss of work for more than 220 singers, crew, and musicians in addition to the almost 60 percent of its administrative staff that has been furloughed.<br />
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“It is a deeply painful moment for us as a company, region, and world,” said General Director Christina Scheppelmann, one time director of the WNO. </div>
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Theaters worldwide have been forced to reimagine their summer and fall seasons amid financial and other post-COVID restrictions.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Italy’s Teatro alla Scala in Milan had planned a grand fall season with 15 opera titles. But instead of conducting <i>Tosca</i> on the opening night in September, Riccardo Chailly will deliver Verdi’s <i>Requiem</i> in honor of the victims of COVID-19, as Toscanini did in May of 1946 to reopen the theater after World War II. The company has announced a new lineup including revivals of <i>La bohème </i>and <i>La traviata</i>, which had not been previously scheduled, but it is not clear what the whole season will look like.<br /><br />The management of the Opera of Rome announced that it is cancelling its fall season due to the restrictions in closed venues.<br /><br />The San Carlo Theater of Naples has announced a summer season featuring two concert opera performances at a central city square in July: <i>Tosca</i> with Anna Netrebko and husband Yusif Eyvazov and <i>Aida </i>with Jonas Kaufmann. Live streaming will make both available to audiences around the world.<br /><br />The Royal Opera House in London had planned Offenbach’s <i>Les Contes d’Hoffmann, </i>Händel’s <i>Ariodante </i>and Janaček’s <i>Věc Makropulos </i>among its offerings for the fall season, but the company has yet to announce if and when it might reopen. And just this week ROH chief executive Alex Beard said the company will "not last beyond autumn with current reserves."<br /><br />The Paris Opera was forced to cancel new productions even before the pandemic amid a series of strikes in the French capital. Between December and January, the company cancelled more than 70 performances and lost about 15 million euros. It expects to lose another 40 million euros as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company's two venues, Palais Garnier and Opera Bastille, are hoping to re-open in the fall, but the schedule could be heavily disrupted according to the company’s general director, Stéphane Lissner.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />“It’s impossible to attract 2,700 people and respect distancing. It’s impossible to maintain distances in the orchestra, the chorus… It’s impossible. We are waiting on a vaccine, medication… Maybe the virus disappears. We have to be optimistic,” said Lissner.<br /><br />Germany's legendary Bayreuth Festival has been cancelled for this summer and patrons are being reimbursed or can use the tickets for the 2021 festival.<br /><br />The lockdown of concert halls and opera houses, cuts in air travel and other restrictions have devastated careers and livelihood of artists worldwide. Star tenor Jonas Kaufmann started a petition in April, calling on European politicians to support the performing arts. “What is Germany, for example, other than language, culture, art, architecture, music and…well, also football ? This is the essence of our society. If you destroy that, what is left?” said Kaufmann.<br /><br />European arts organizations can actually count on some financial support from the state, since culture in Europe is generally considered essential to a personal well-being. Germany, for example, approved an initial relief package of $54 billion for freelance artists and businesses in the cultural, creative, and media sectors at the end of March. Cultural ministers of all 16 states are now asking Berlin for additional funds to keep culture alive and thriving. <br /><br />That idea is strange to the U.S. political establishment, which has been steadily cutting down funds for art institutions and education for decades, making art dependable on rich donors. There is no doubt, however, that American arts organizations, especially opera companies large and small, will survive the pandemic thanks to determined performing art professionals and their passionate audiences. <br /><br /> “Our mission is to draw our community together through opera, a unique blend of music and drama that speaks to the mind and spirit—especially in difficult times like these,” Seattle Opera's Scheppelmann said.</span></div>
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Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-61480325668067192302019-09-22T00:37:00.002-04:002019-09-22T13:14:09.124-04:00Kennedy Center's Reach - Compounding the Failure<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Kennedy Center is an embodiment of the disconnect between the rich and the other Americans. Perched on a plinth overlooking the Potomac River, the Watergate complex and the Saudi Embassy, and encircled by highways, the original building is as separated from the rest of the city as if it were on an island. With a grand staircase leading up to it, the gleaming white marble facade and gilded pillars, it could be a temple, a shining city on the hill or just a mirage, visible, but hard to reach. Its $250-million new expansion project, dubbed the <i>Reach</i>, aims to change that. </b></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>View of the Kennedy Center from the south lawn, featuring Joel Shapiro sculpture Blue</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">The Kennedy Center has always felt more like a mausoleum to the 35th American president than the nation's center for the performing arts, which it purports to be. For years its managers, the board and the wealthy donors have struggled to bring it to life, attract people of every walk of life and dispel its image as an institution for the elites. They have staged musicals such as <i>Maleficent</i> and <i>Aladdin</i>, free <i>Messiah</i> sing-alongs, New Year's balls and exhibits. They created the Millennium Stage - a program of free performances by never-before-heard-of artists on two stages, each at one end of a huge hallway outside the three main performance halls. And now the <i>Reach</i>, which promises even more variety.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br />The annex is a bit of an architectural wonder with its three super-modern pavilions scattered over a smallish lawn, landscaped with indigenous grasses and a rectangular pond. A bridge running across Rock Creek Parkway connects the <i>Reach</i> with the river-bank promenade. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">There is also a video wall for future, presumably free shows. </span>The tree moderate size buildings - Welcome Pavilion, Skylight Pavilion and River Pavilion - contain surprisingly many large rehearsal and conference rooms, theaters and halls, because the structures spread into the ground. Huge widows and glass walls ensure they get enough light. <br /><br /> To introduce the "historic" expansion to the public, the Kennedy Center staged a two-week opening festival with free events. A visit required an online reservation and a timed-entry pass. I was not planning to go, but while looking for some ballet tickets, I ran into the page for the <i>Reach</i> passes and decided on the spur of the moment to go with a friend since the passes were - surprisingly -available. They did come with a warning that "all performances and events are first-come, first-served general admission until venue capacity has been reached." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">As it happened, last Thursday morning there were no lines. In fact there was no one. The organizers clearly expected crowds because there were two cordoned lanes leading to four or five gates with metal-detectors, controlling the access to the <i>Reach</i> area. One of the guards at the start of a lane looked at our printed passes and sent us back into the main building where, he said, we needed to sign up for real passes. We returned to the Kennedy Center entrance, bewildered and nor really clear what to look for, but a girl in a red T-shirt came up, checked our home-printed passes and said they were valid. We just needed to go out and stand in line, she explained. "What line?" we asked, "there are no lines. There are no people." She insisted that the empty lanes were lines and after some back and forth we got past the guards, through the metal detectors and to the door of the first new building. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>Kennedy Center's Reach expansion on the south lawn</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A person at the door said we had to sign up for a 3-D presentation and wait. I thought we would be shown a 20-30-minutes introductory video with information about the project and its purpose. Instead, we were ushered into a room with round tables and swivel chairs, each equipped with three gadgets: a 3-D virtual reality headset, headphones and a remote control. While struggling to hold on to the two wiggly pieces on my head with one hand, I was feeling my lap for the remote control with the other to start one of the six video clips. Managed to play a clip from the <i>Lion King</i> musical, a very grainy one, but still providing a good glimpse into what seems to be a fun production. The next piece, a ballet from Sweden, freaked me out with its Lilliputian-size 3-D dancers who seemed to be emerging from under my feet. Skipping to the next video proved impossible before finishing the one you started (Honey, you can't get the desert before you finish your broccoli!) Just as I pulled the gadgets off my head in frustration, my fried did the same and said, "I am ready to go when you are."</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>3-D gadgetry at the Reach opening festival</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /><br />Outside the gadgetry room, a KC employee or volunteer asked about our impressions. We said the video was grainy, the gadgets didn't work well and we still were not clear what the project was about. She launched into a speech about connecting with the community, making art accessible, reaching out to people instead of asking them to come in, and the usual spiel spewed by promoters of newly opened art institutions. But the lady showed us around the building and gave some orientation, however meager it may have been. Most of the rooms deep below us were empty except for a presentation to a group of students that we could see but not hear through a glass wall. One room contained electronic drawing booths that project images of drawings made in them on a big wall. Something kids might like to do.<br /></span></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>Rich annex pavilions are mostly under ground.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">From that building we proceeded through a lovely open space, along the pond to the next, smaller pavilion that houses a snack shop and a conference room where several chefs were conducting a workshop. It was probably one of the festival events that we were not guaranteed an entry to. On the way, we looked back on the original Kennedy Center to see newly installed Joel Shapiro's sculpture <i>Blue</i>, a gift from the artist.<br /><br />The most prominent indoor piece of art was a video screen displaying the names of the donors - one percent of the one percenters. A leaflet picked up at the entrance showed there were other pieces of art, most of them on loan, such as Roy Lichtenstein's <i>Brushstroke.</i> A lengthy piece of canvas hanging in one room, which I had thought was a used drop cloth, turned out to be a piece of art by someone named Sam Gilliam.</span> <br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Bridge connecting KC's Reach annex with Potomac River promenade.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I thought the bridge was a good idea, but wondered whether anyone could come up from the riverside promenade, considering how heavily guarded the main entrance to the annex was. We did not check. On that gorgeous Thursday morning the two 99-percenters decided to descend from the shining city on the hill into the plebeian valley below to enjoy a much better espresso in a more relaxed milieu. <br /><br />I am not sure how soon I'll return to the <i>Reach </i>(what a weird name!). The place is gorgeous but not inviting, especially not with metal detectors and (as I discovered the next day), security guards at the entrance to the bridge. Nothing I've learned about the <i>Reach</i> concept, or a lack thereof, during this first visit looked promising. I would not be surprised if the project turned out to be a variation of the <i>Millennium Stage,</i> which for me only means having to elbow my way into a performance hall through the foyer filled with psychedelic-rock and flying-dancer crowds. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>The Reach concept is not well defined</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I blame much of it on Placido Domingo. Everybody is ganging up on him these days, why shouldn't I. Not that he has ever harassed me, or anything. But he had a downtown Woodward and Lothrope building handed to him on a platter in the late 1990s to turn it into an opera house. The conversion was estimated at a little over $100 million and the city fathers' arms were twisted to grant a zoning permit. And then Domingo went and made a deal with the Kennedy Center to stay with them, and the building was sold to someone else. I wanted to howl. Now, instead of hopping on the metro that would take me straight into the opera house, I have to schlep across the wasteland between the George Washington Hospital, the Watergate and the avenues converging at Juarez Memorial, and fight the vagaries of Washington's weather.<br /><br />It was another thing in the 1970s when most people lived in the suburbs and Washington DC had no night life. You could park anywhere. When I first visited the city in 1978, my hosts took me to see the musical <i>Annie</i> at the National Theater on Pennsylvania Avenue. We drove into the city from Annandale, Virginia, parked on the almost empty street right outside the theater (no meters, of course) and when we got out, the place was dark and deserted except for the patrons exiting the theater. Today, no one could pay me to drive through any part of Washington D.C. on Saturday, least of all Pennsylvania Avenue. <br /><br />The Kennedy Center, with its expensive parking and a free but infrequent shuttle from and to the metro is not a place where people want to converge without a compelling reason. The only nearby restaurant is a pizzeria-</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">café</span></span><em> </em></span>at the Watergate. The KC cafeteria is an elevator-ride away on the roof terrace and always crowded. The full-service upscale restaurant on the same floor is too expensive for most patrons. The market-style stalls in the main foyer sell sandwiches, brownies and beverages that have to be consumed on your feet or, if the weather permits, outside on the riverside terrace, which has only recently got some tables and chairs.<br /><br />So I can't help but think that all the money squandered on keeping the Kennedy Center alive could have been better spent on making a new performing art complex from scratch, in a more accessible part of town, where it could attract other businesses and art groups, and infuse new life into a larger area. I do have faith in our one-percenters though: as they accumulate wealth, they'll need new screens and walls to display their names and maybe, just maybe, they'll sponsor a better project, like the donor of the Woodward and Lothrope building wanted to. Let's just hope another recipient will seize the opportunity. </span></div>
Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-39240099001213190162019-06-27T02:09:00.000-04:002019-07-17T10:00:47.564-04:00Wolf Trap Opera's Emperor of Atlantis<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Wolf Trap Opera's performance of a double bill titled <i>The World Upside Down</i> on Saturday drove home what has long been at the back of my mind: that the company has developed into the area's most creative artistic organization, in some ways probably the best. If there had been any lingering doubt about the WTO's excellence before, the production of Viktor Ullmann's <i>The Emperor of Atlantis </i>paired with Gluck's comic piece <i>Merlin's Island</i> removed it.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Created in the Theresienstadt Nazi concentration camp just a year before Ullman's death in a gas chamber in Auschwitz in 1944, <i>The Emperor of Atlantis</i> is an hour-long piece comprising four scenes and 20 musical sections. The music combines several genres, ranging from Bach-style oratorio and German folk song to contemporary styles and the orchestration is for 14 instruments, including<span style="caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111;"> </span>a banjo, probably representing what
was available in the camp. The work is styled roughly after the Italian <i>commedia dell'arte</i> in that it opens
with a character, called Loudspeaker, introducing the players:
Harlekin, Death, Emperor Overall, Drummer, Soldier and Girl. Like in <i>commedia
dell'arte</i>, the characters represent certain social types, but that's
where the similarity ends. The latter part of the original German
title, Der Keiser von Atlantis, oder die Tod-Verweigerung,
translated in turn as The Refusal to Die, The Denial of Death or
Death Goes on Strike, augurs a somber theme.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZWcSjVyDRTubqZZGnmNvf4HgrWAijNZziAjTd7wgbELS5Wz_T_4y-vstaKjsu88voTNX3UkyaqPwPaQnx6W-ZLYfoFu6V_OawHA_VW-mPYNmP4YpwubuJVzJEgfdnQbO1N6Tv8m6BXw/s1600/EMPEROROFATLANTIS_0094.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="467" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZWcSjVyDRTubqZZGnmNvf4HgrWAijNZziAjTd7wgbELS5Wz_T_4y-vstaKjsu88voTNX3UkyaqPwPaQnx6W-ZLYfoFu6V_OawHA_VW-mPYNmP4YpwubuJVzJEgfdnQbO1N6Tv8m6BXw/s640/EMPEROROFATLANTIS_0094.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Emperor Overall and Death in Wolf Trap Opera's Emperor of Atlantis</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Written in 1943, the one-act opera echoes the chaos of the world swept in a global war and the insanity of the final years of the Nazi era. A mad ruler declares a universal war in which no one is to survive. Death is offended because deciding who will die is his mission and he also feels that mass killing diminishes his glory. Therefore, he refuses to act on Overall's orders. As a result no one dies and the world turns upside down. Enemies embrace and dance together, people fall in love and stop obeying Emperor's commands, conveyed through the Drummer. Harlekin bemoans the loss of natural order with tears in his eyes. Death says he will resume work only on condition that Emperor dies first. The ruler relents and agrees to die so Death can restore order. The opera ends with a quartet singing, “Come, Death, our honored guest…Lift life’s burdens from us,” words especially poignant coming from Ullman and his librettist Petr Kien shortly before they were sent to their own gruesome deaths.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Nazi authorities banned the performance after a dress rehearsal and t</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">he work</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> was not staged before </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">1975 in a Dutch theater. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I first saw <i>The Emperor of Atlantis</i> when it
premiered in Washington's Holocaust Museum in 1998 to mark the centenary
of Ullmann's birth. The award-winning production by the Austrian
group Arbos was suitably solemn for the occasion. The stage was dark
and sparse, the costumes solid gray or striped like the uniforms of camp
prisoners. The impact was powerful and depressing. I didn't think I would
ever see it again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">More than 20 years later, I could
barely remember where and why I had seen <i>The Emperor </i>the first time. But I knew I had a recording of the production which was given to me by a visiting artist whom I had interviewed and that CD helped bring the memory back. I was impressed by the WTO's choice </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">of such a rare and harrowing piece </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">and curious what its creative team would make of it. As I should have expected, what it did make was outstanding. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Unlike Arbos, the WTO highlighted the satirical
side of the work, without turning it into a comic parody. The silliness went away with Gluck's little known introductory piece <i>Merlin's Island</i>, about two shipwrecked men stranded on an island where social mores differ from theirs. Men are thrown in jail if they are not faithful, all businesses are honest, court cases are decided on the basis of common sense, and wisdom is found in laughter. Yet the two short operas worked well together, each enhancing the other.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The glittering tinsel backdrop and a playground slide from <i>Merlin's Island </i>segued into in Ullman's piece, but were lit in dark hues. The emperor's
office was superimposed above the black tinsel curtain and characters descended on the stage from the slide, then disappeared through the strips of tinsel as the situation required. While most were dressed in neutral colors, gray, khaki, beige and white, each also wore a red or a sparkling accessory, such as the red bullhorn on the Loudspeaker's head and a red ruff around Harlekin's neck. The characters were generally energetic and rebellious as opposed to
being sad or depressed. They conveyed the madness of the world they
inhabited as well as resilience that enabled them to overcome it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I have always felt that a good work of art must be uplifting even if it deals with a most tragic of topics. Instead
of beating me down, the WTO's performance of <i>The Emperor of Atlantis</i> left me feeling energized and optimistic, most of all impressed. What a powerful and memorable production by a relatively small company! Kudos to the WTO's creative team! Details from the performance are still swirling in my mind: Death wailing that people used to dress up for him, Loudspeaker telling the emperor of a strange disease befalling soldiers that prevents them from dying, Emperor Overall declaring the people should be grateful to him for sending them to eternity....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The first WTO opera I saw at the Barns at Wolf Trap was Rameau's <i>Dardanus </i>in 2003. Since then, I
have gone back almost every summer to see at least one of the season's productions, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">whenever possible </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">choosing operas I have not seen before, like Poulenc's <i>Les Mamelles de Tirésias,</i> Corigliano's <i>Ghosts of Versailles</i> and Britten's <i>Rape of Lucrezia.</i> There is usually at least one element of craziness in Wolf Trap opera productions: French-style soubrettes cleaning up Giulio Cesare's palace in Egypt, kids in green-striped pajamas frolicking in the woods of the <i>Mid-summer Night's Dream</i>, <i>Il Viaggio a Reims</i> set in the mid-20th century, an ensemble of most eclectic characters in <i>Aridane auf Naxos,</i> to name a few. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7a9upBO6kBuAL85HJ8FxU2Fam2n4TdGZddh2Pb_JiYKn65pLk1t2HcOvgddR-dcvQe1O_TiIOkNFYMAcdf_euh8SPoTwJQ87Yixvg1ttCfa5hLNgGsL6VguUn88J1zKR1VSA0WwmNIg/s1600/MERLINSISLAND_0115.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7a9upBO6kBuAL85HJ8FxU2Fam2n4TdGZddh2Pb_JiYKn65pLk1t2HcOvgddR-dcvQe1O_TiIOkNFYMAcdf_euh8SPoTwJQ87Yixvg1ttCfa5hLNgGsL6VguUn88J1zKR1VSA0WwmNIg/s1600/MERLINSISLAND_0115.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">WTO's Production of Merlin's Island, a little know short opera by Gluck</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Most productions have offered perfect summer entertainment after a leisurely picnic on Wolf Trap's manicured lawn. Mellowed by a glass (or two) of chilled rosé, a person may be less engaged in the show and more inclined to snooze to a pleasant classical tune. But the WTO does not allow that. Their up-and-coming young singers are bursting with infectious energy and ready to engage in any and all shenanigans, silliness or real drama on the stage to wake you up just as you begin to nod off. You'll never look at an opera the same way after you've seen it at the Barns.<br /><br />Exceptions are few and far in between. For me one of them was the 2016 production of Britten's Rape of Lucrezia. It was depressing, perhaps rightfully so, but not uplifting. Yet, what's that in comparison with some grand opera companies that surprise you when they do something extraordinary. <br /><br /> As an educational institution with a highly acclaimed opera residency program, Wolf Trap can afford to pick lesser known and short operatic works. It often chooses operas to match the singers who have come for a three-month-long intensive workshop. One thing to look forward to every summer are fresh new voices: agile, distinctive and clarion. The company also gives its set, light and costume designers freedom to be creative. The results are fascinating. </span></div>
Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-57752389837866667712019-03-13T00:28:00.003-04:002019-04-02T20:25:11.207-04:00Portugal to the Rescue<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The winter in D.C. is always ugly, and it is especially tenacious </b></span><b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">this year. T</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>he need to escape became overwhelming in February. Portugal, with temperatures 20 degrees Fahrenheit higher than here and mostly sunny skies, made its siren's call. I had always wanted to see it, or at least since Sean Connery made it look so sexy in <i>Russia House </i>when he reunited with Michelle Pfeiffer in Lisbon. And that was many years ago, so there was no excuse to postpone a visit any further. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b>Let me admit that before this trip I could name perhaps three things about Portugal: Lisbon, port and <i>fado.</i> I planned to get more basics before setting sail, but what with the work and fatigue piling up, I decided it was more important to rest, and learn what was necessary when I get on location.<br /><br />Please don't tell anyone, but I wasn't even sure if Portugal was a monarchy or republic. Never even thought about it. The Portuguese are self-effacing and have not been in the headlines since the signing of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007. You have to have a compelling reason to think about them. So when the taxi drove me along the vast Tagus River on arrival in Lisbon, I thought it was the ocean. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">OK, this is becoming too embarrassing, so I am not admitting to anything else. After all, I did recognize names such as Vasco da Gama and Magellan, as well as St. Anthony. Just had to be reminded they were Portuguese - yes, even St. Anthony (born Fernando Martins de Bulhões) who is claimed by Padua, where he only spent the last years of his life. Let's not forget Fatima. Who has not heard of Fatima? I just needed a little reminder that this particular pilgrimage is in Portugal. But, for the sake of honesty, names such as Sidónio Pais, the first president of Portugal and Luís de Camões, the 16th-century poet, drew a blank.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqEGQ36XT-q1LRlfHNsaNIOWpdG2Bv2asc9auv5mZdZO9TGu2a7bfPEZMf1q59f0QjtSa21BkUOtC1ioMx1FKc8agfIkfU8s0LWk2aysIuJs97RzXaKE5Yk9MUrs1PiMlsW8vXLNCVGw/s1600/IMG_7065.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="974" data-original-width="1600" height="389" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqEGQ36XT-q1LRlfHNsaNIOWpdG2Bv2asc9auv5mZdZO9TGu2a7bfPEZMf1q59f0QjtSa21BkUOtC1ioMx1FKc8agfIkfU8s0LWk2aysIuJs97RzXaKE5Yk9MUrs1PiMlsW8vXLNCVGw/s640/IMG_7065.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>A very hot day in February, Praça do Commércio, Lisbon</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">On that first sunny day in Lisbon, none of that mattered. I walked out in a cotton shirt and thin jacket (just in case) and by the time I hit Praça de Commercio, Lisbon's huge main square opened toward the river, I was drenched in sweat. As I pealed off layer after layer of clothing, wondering if St. John was looking on, I felt sorry for the poor souls who have planned their visit for April or May. Tourist lines were already forming outside museums and amenities, and services were not rushed to accommodate the crowds. What's it going to be like in May, or June? Italian was the most frequently heard foreign language. Hats off to the Italians who obviously know when to visit Portugal. Mine was not an informed decision, just a random search for a warm escape from the winter.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8tN6t9Fb9do-72wVPqRvWgA9IrhY3nHcz6no0SwTcJHFffxPzfqObDbyfJ9DKyQeu5doQhsrV93U3RY-7glFLwh9ZNucOz0OEQdFXG0aUXegVnRNm6BrHnt4U7RUb_gxK85mC5SA6gw/s1600/IMG_7100.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8tN6t9Fb9do-72wVPqRvWgA9IrhY3nHcz6no0SwTcJHFffxPzfqObDbyfJ9DKyQeu5doQhsrV93U3RY-7glFLwh9ZNucOz0OEQdFXG0aUXegVnRNm6BrHnt4U7RUb_gxK85mC5SA6gw/s400/IMG_7100.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Belém Tower in early morning, lines are already forming</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Joined by a friend from Croatia, I proceeded to all the "tourist traps" in and around Lisbon, felt really ripped off in Sintra, awed at Cabo da Roca and Boca do Inferno, and relaxed in Cascais, which actually is on the coast. All the places were as beautiful and charming as in the guide books, and more, because I did not expect so many tiled facades and I am a sucker for tiles.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Gorgeous tiled facade in Cascais, Portugal </i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A good place for a quick summary of the Portuguese history was an exhibit at <span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">t</span></span>he Jerónimos Monastery in Belém, where you can also pay homage to the tombs of da Gama and de Camões at the Santa Maria Church. And while admiring the grandeur of the imposing exterior of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, I did not immediately recall that leaders of 27 European nations posed there for a family photo in December of 2007, after signing a treaty to formalize their Union.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Belém is also a good place to taste Portugal's most famous pastry - <i>pastel de nata</i>. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia1TC1A_3qKgETtTRzxFtzdjieDDtwf4lETHWx1xITjauFTAC1KORMuiXQyIMXXrRgZshEm3TjkeuzyjpVQY8WLN3Iiu52WQEBSJI2Dv8C3Dn_ytaqGGDA0qqazNLZwLWn3tPDlvwl8A/s1600/IMG_7256.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia1TC1A_3qKgETtTRzxFtzdjieDDtwf4lETHWx1xITjauFTAC1KORMuiXQyIMXXrRgZshEm3TjkeuzyjpVQY8WLN3Iiu52WQEBSJI2Dv8C3Dn_ytaqGGDA0qqazNLZwLWn3tPDlvwl8A/s640/IMG_7256.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The little custard pies are sold everywhere, but the <i>pastelaria </i>in Belém serves them straight from the oven. The lines to get one are long, but the wait is worth it because they are truly the best. They may even contain a secret ingredient, as the bakery claims, that makes them better than any other <i>pastel de nata</i> in the world.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Long lines outside Lisbon's most famous pastry shop </i></span></td></tr>
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While in Lisbon you must do <i>fado</i> - it originated in the area and it has made UNESCO's list of World's Intangible Cultural Heritage. I think I would love <i>fado</i> a lot more if I understood what the songs say, but the two performers at Fado in Chiado made every effort to keep the largely international audience engaged for an hour.</div>
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The National Ballet Company's performance of <i>Don Quixote</i> took us all the way to the Parque das Nações, a new part of Lisbon, near the Oriente Station. Unfortunately, there was no time to take a cable car ride along the river, but we took a good look at Europe's second longest bridge - the Vasco da Gama - which spans the Tagus River banks where they are farthest apart. The spectacular modern architecture around the Oriente Station is proof that new sections of large metropolitan areas don't have to be dull and dreary as they are in many cities.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Oriente Station, Lisbon</span></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Vasco da Gama shopping mall</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Camões Theater, on the river bank is plain inside and out and the ballet was performed to recorded music, which was a significant let down. Costumes and settings were far from innovative, but the dancers' enthusiasm made up for all the weaknesses. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A carnival-themed concert at the Coliseu included a Berlioz piece, which for me is always a sign of higher taste. Granted, it was the usual <i>Roman Carnival Overture</i>, but it was Berlioz -who is avoided like plague in most American music institutions. And to be fair, it was Fat Tuesday, the last day before Lent, so the choice was justified. The orchestra members were dressed in silly costumes; confetti were thrown on the stage and streamers from the upper tiers to the parterre; Polish conductor Sebastian Perlowski engaged the audience, and good time was had by all, as the Brits would say.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The most creative performance we saw in Lisbon was the opera </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">at the Cultural Centre of Belém. Pairing Bartok's Bluebird's Castle with Poulenc's La Voix humaine was unusual in itself, but what made it special was the way the producers made one opera out of the two. The soprano in Poulenc's one act/one voice piece first appeared in the last room of Bluebird's castle as one of his former wives. In La Voix humaine she seemed to be telling us how she ended up in the castle's dungeon. Especially if your French was not good enough to understand her and the surtitles in Portuguese did not help.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But even without the cultural attractions, Lisbon in February would have been paradise. It is the law of the nature though to inflict punishment for any lengthy period of enjoyment. Flying into the Dullas Airport was a penance all by itself, but to add insult to injury, it snowed the next morning in Washington with heavens sending the message: you can enjoy Portugal all you like, but you can't escape the D.C. weather. </span></div>
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Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-42245454415867872402019-02-11T18:22:00.002-05:002019-03-10T19:20:47.067-04:00It's That Time of the Year....<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">February is the longest and most boring month of the year. I don't care what anyone says. It may have only 28 days, but they are interminable. Even if you get flowers, chocolates and dinner invitation for the Valentine's Day, it's still<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>a<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">n</span> awful month. Every year I have to devise an ever more elaborate routine to see it pass. Anticipating cheerful spring fashions is part of that routine. Alas, this year, there is little to cheer you up in the spring collections. A lot of beige, off-white, taupe and camel shades. More autumn than spring, if you ask me. But I know the "classical" look will make many of my friends happy. Personally, I think these colors, with few exceptions, make everyone look drab and washed out.</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEhbXi44D3SjABRTXeQD5373bDAd5qmqb_czo98Ehuv8JpFixRLAkU9pEgKvsqewL2fWUj5Z6ll98gdMr7dZ0Hq6BXp20tp8b7rJOKj_M63E9T5eCBRQqyxlWU6XY26XDwmGDdH_yoUw/s1600/marimekko-ss19-pfw-5461.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEhbXi44D3SjABRTXeQD5373bDAd5qmqb_czo98Ehuv8JpFixRLAkU9pEgKvsqewL2fWUj5Z6ll98gdMr7dZ0Hq6BXp20tp8b7rJOKj_M63E9T5eCBRQqyxlWU6XY26XDwmGDdH_yoUw/s400/marimekko-ss19-pfw-5461.jpg" width="300" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZRArtlFHXJaif3BfTtL0Vr_3XC2c-crTjDB_10RgX3fASz7ws41bh4Y00vG2AV0K-UcEEjLJgtVm1jGQcXpVe63E3zb6SzhqV5Pmici6pbjVuAPVqMBCLeNVGT0s5nVLoHxXRyXQ2vQ/s1600/ferragamoef58e2e6fb2d154a8df65-opt-resp600v.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="400" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZRArtlFHXJaif3BfTtL0Vr_3XC2c-crTjDB_10RgX3fASz7ws41bh4Y00vG2AV0K-UcEEjLJgtVm1jGQcXpVe63E3zb6SzhqV5Pmici6pbjVuAPVqMBCLeNVGT0s5nVLoHxXRyXQ2vQ/s400/ferragamoef58e2e6fb2d154a8df65-opt-resp600v.jpg" width="266" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgraCl-BE4z_QFr79WDju8ACE0MBrAoU_MvIEpRyP-vmzgDVsLxvO7OWoAjRDJlmUGhOqiwWFaCXJvTzZ_IB2-WbgaYkoQcL4_pGPgJxREjbVczb0j10ZO6KjB-8wwa_Csdc6hchy9JSw/s1600/max-mara-s19-032-1548874130.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1472" data-original-width="980" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgraCl-BE4z_QFr79WDju8ACE0MBrAoU_MvIEpRyP-vmzgDVsLxvO7OWoAjRDJlmUGhOqiwWFaCXJvTzZ_IB2-WbgaYkoQcL4_pGPgJxREjbVczb0j10ZO6KjB-8wwa_Csdc6hchy9JSw/s400/max-mara-s19-032-1548874130.jpg" width="266" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8FVfZWspfMXKMHUmagA0s7kBm4l25c21E7VB_PCSYwnLXmYbVfLkMuGVc7_oLJSQVhCL40WcxNna6x14lHwTUqo1MOHurTiLckN4naAupd2TkAqnOb-bqdJTS9q21NFCCnI2Jk3zm2w/s1600/tom-ford-s19-067-1548874133.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1472" data-original-width="980" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8FVfZWspfMXKMHUmagA0s7kBm4l25c21E7VB_PCSYwnLXmYbVfLkMuGVc7_oLJSQVhCL40WcxNna6x14lHwTUqo1MOHurTiLckN4naAupd2TkAqnOb-bqdJTS9q21NFCCnI2Jk3zm2w/s400/tom-ford-s19-067-1548874133.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbFT3hLzU0ujX9yviHrucLCtdbgDBW0HP5we566C7uurubaIpk-Aniza4OtP4xg3pVQq-sb2hyXAdJ6ptLbqIxXRs0Y_3qbxssRapJYiWR7b_aEkl_DyvLZQm-35dG4pDou9UwOw0iWg/s1600/zaar022756_2_1_1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="1024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbFT3hLzU0ujX9yviHrucLCtdbgDBW0HP5we566C7uurubaIpk-Aniza4OtP4xg3pVQq-sb2hyXAdJ6ptLbqIxXRs0Y_3qbxssRapJYiWR7b_aEkl_DyvLZQm-35dG4pDou9UwOw0iWg/s400/zaar022756_2_1_1.jpg" width="266" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimE646x9-26g-KoGiAA0XHr0BQnwiQ2PfeM_4FuWTg9iuw2CITPGqj-1WBNh0Nr6E5D2AeMe5bS-Z2GdlRSMU5y49znxpc1U0d3bPfhl6WCJFlqaNNqxdsQOCnlHXhzxqtYKkr0EkbqQ/s1600/zara048704_1_1_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="1024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimE646x9-26g-KoGiAA0XHr0BQnwiQ2PfeM_4FuWTg9iuw2CITPGqj-1WBNh0Nr6E5D2AeMe5bS-Z2GdlRSMU5y49znxpc1U0d3bPfhl6WCJFlqaNNqxdsQOCnlHXhzxqtYKkr0EkbqQ/s400/zara048704_1_1_1.jpg" width="266" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">From top left: Ferragamo men's coat, Marimekko night g....<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> no wait</span>, long day dress, Tom Ford, Max Mara an<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">d</span> believe it or not - Zara bottom left and right. If you guys get really bored with beige, green is another fashionable choice, especially green lamé.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Another big trend, allegedly, is chrocheted fabric and fringe. Lots of crocheted dresses. My crocheting-expert friends will love it. Please note that the Zara model on the left <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">above </span>also has some sort of chrocheted/macramé handbag. <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the same vein</span>: fishnets. Bellow <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">are</span> Michael Kors on the left, and Altuzzara on the right.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlWN6zejAmgGinHlGLFph5TLzajZM2myGCI5xKJDOnLVSY9lH-V0LGNMXZJGc8fCEUKaBHyuJC8GBgdRD2SWZOd1qXtq8kQfVWKNytwgK1v8zbVwqSvJxQ_W_7uXysiWj3p7hOfwOr2w/s1600/kors-s19-078-1536955473.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1476" data-original-width="980" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlWN6zejAmgGinHlGLFph5TLzajZM2myGCI5xKJDOnLVSY9lH-V0LGNMXZJGc8fCEUKaBHyuJC8GBgdRD2SWZOd1qXtq8kQfVWKNytwgK1v8zbVwqSvJxQ_W_7uXysiWj3p7hOfwOr2w/s400/kors-s19-078-1536955473.jpg" width="265" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbd8E7ZvDCIwiFHFDRcz-Dit5nzqnRpEOKv7UOcGpwNlzzshpqvnVhXnMpC61YxFLY7aQWHHh6axnPYFxzp4ON8vIdjBFaYgrbjR8qCjuIR-MPzqfEfjJQR4lvxab1ZUgtlzn6an-s5A/s1600/altuzarra-s19-059-1548874223.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1472" data-original-width="980" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbd8E7ZvDCIwiFHFDRcz-Dit5nzqnRpEOKv7UOcGpwNlzzshpqvnVhXnMpC61YxFLY7aQWHHh6axnPYFxzp4ON8vIdjBFaYgrbjR8qCjuIR-MPzqfEfjJQR4lvxab1ZUgtlzn6an-s5A/s400/altuzarra-s19-059-1548874223.jpg" width="266" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Furthermore: polka dots are back. And when are they not? Carolina Herrera and Celine.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijyk_eWIWPaFq1-INKqXysrOqGBdAIulAaErn-JMv8hHrTAR1U9-cQbW-Fs3TdHDvZWsQnm92QXlM4XrfoxUCtZMvcgFNW7zWDnzrlzn27_B1QBKira_3cQiJn2QuWs_lbCMAOrsezdA/s1600/https+_hypebeast.com_wp-content_blogs.dir_6_files_2018_09_celine-hedi-slimane-spring-summer-2019-paris-fashion-week-show-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijyk_eWIWPaFq1-INKqXysrOqGBdAIulAaErn-JMv8hHrTAR1U9-cQbW-Fs3TdHDvZWsQnm92QXlM4XrfoxUCtZMvcgFNW7zWDnzrlzn27_B1QBKira_3cQiJn2QuWs_lbCMAOrsezdA/s400/https+_hypebeast.com_wp-content_blogs.dir_6_files_2018_09_celine-hedi-slimane-spring-summer-2019-paris-fashion-week-show-6.jpg" width="266" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidc4h3kYVM2679SAje3o-zF81mwf-izG3ycezOwlo1fAiocyEG1s5CHvxEBG7DWjoAbnBcD6qJWNOIkUGuwWPtR3OcY4X_30y4d2U_fVTcYVWbdp5gDwRTYkIPonTY0lxTHx2xJ0bDFA/s1600/herrera-s19-072-1548874456.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1475" data-original-width="980" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidc4h3kYVM2679SAje3o-zF81mwf-izG3ycezOwlo1fAiocyEG1s5CHvxEBG7DWjoAbnBcD6qJWNOIkUGuwWPtR3OcY4X_30y4d2U_fVTcYVWbdp5gDwRTYkIPonTY0lxTHx2xJ0bDFA/s400/herrera-s19-072-1548874456.jpg" width="265" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Two more trends are transparent vinyl raincoats and feathers, especially on shoes. The coat is available on Etsy.com, the sandals are Valentino.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnp1qOUJlJGWXyah5MjvfjOUjhB2XKT2RAJ_icUup2_71dsX0l_ES1guuSGTg4k3s3bpD8kUD3vTizW2Dgtk9D1EpZAC5h_9XGbRuRgg3fZjaE5vhDgOuBJAr2KwN0hvTU-OcFlt96yA/s1600/valentino-clp-rs19-2828-1538431091.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnp1qOUJlJGWXyah5MjvfjOUjhB2XKT2RAJ_icUup2_71dsX0l_ES1guuSGTg4k3s3bpD8kUD3vTizW2Dgtk9D1EpZAC5h_9XGbRuRgg3fZjaE5vhDgOuBJAr2KwN0hvTU-OcFlt96yA/s400/valentino-clp-rs19-2828-1538431091.jpg" width="265" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6pTo5I0KshXg-ScnugDSlse51ey0CNjgzNz5c26szhYBGsE8m74u9iIk3bZlhiCp-XatSnYihM42mJOJxJ_TeFy1p3eyWX0wr4Gh_lTcDiOIC8cT8rsMGUIwJK_QhsKlnTqqFy4Po6g/s1600/vinyl.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6pTo5I0KshXg-ScnugDSlse51ey0CNjgzNz5c26szhYBGsE8m74u9iIk3bZlhiCp-XatSnYihM42mJOJxJ_TeFy1p3eyWX0wr4Gh_lTcDiOIC8cT8rsMGUIwJK_QhsKlnTqqFy4Po6g/s400/vinyl.jpg" width="266" /> </a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So, I don't know, it does not look like spring to me. The fishnet dress looks somewhat summery, but that's too far away. I guess, <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I have</span> to move on with the February routine: look for the first crocus poking out <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">of</span> the snow or so<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">me</span>thing.</span>Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-13385077732552618742019-02-09T00:50:00.002-05:002019-06-18T15:08:30.588-04:00Kennedy Center 2019-2020: Something Old, Something New ....<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Washington's premiere performing arts center has announced its upcoming season of opera and music concerts. The programs include something tried and true, i.e. old, and something never before performed at the Kennedy Center, i.e. new. There is a lot that could be characterized as borrowed, at least in terms of repertoire, and there is even something blue. I don't know if the wedding theme was <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">intentional</span> - probably not - but that's the first association that came to my mind as I perused the press material.</b><br /><br />The National Symphony Orchestra led by Maestro Gianandrea Noseda seems to be living up to the expectation that it <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">is <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">r</span>eady to</span> reinvigorate the staid Washington's classical music scene. What a pleasant surprise to see the inclusion of Poulenc's <i>Litanies à la Vierge Noire</i> in a concert of choral music. I was introduced to that jewel of sacred music years ago by the composer's grand nephew, or great grand nephew, who lived in the US at the time.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTXf4wJ9xD0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTXf4wJ9xD0</a><br /><br />Chris Poulenc made a documentary about his famous ancestor and about the Rocamadour pilgrimage site, which is the home <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">to the title's</span> Black Virgin - black from years of candle smoke. He conveyed that Poulenc had become very religious after the tragic death of his close friend, composer Pierre-Octave Ferroud in a 1936 car accident. <i>Litanies</i>, written in the same year, was Poulenc's first sacred work to be followed by such masterpieces as <i>Stabat Mater,</i> <i>Gloria, Mass in G</i> and finally <i>Dialogues des Carmélites</i>. Poulenc is not a rarity in Washington where one or another of his works shows up in a program every time a music organization feels the need to include a 20th-century piece. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Noseda convinced me of being special when he included a segment from Berlioz's <i>Romeo and Juliet</i> (why not the whole piece?) in the NSO's Valentine Day concert. Unlike Poulenc, Berlioz is virtually shunned by the Washington D.C. classical music organizations, who seem to believe that they can fill the halls with a staple diet of "three B's" and Mozart, interspersed with an occasional Poulenc or Shostakovich. In 1997, Leonard Slatkin, then NSO director, proved otherwise.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><br />Through what must have been a super human effort, Slatkin managed to bring Berlioz's monumental <i>Requiem</i> to Washington's Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, with the participation of several area ensembles, orchestras and choirs. The cavernous church (one of the largest in the world) was packed for both performances and people traveled from far and wide to attend the historic undertaking.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It was too much to hope that <i>Romeo and Juliet Suite,</i> from the current season, would be followed by a complete Berlioz work in the coming season. One suspects, the suite made its way into the February 14 and 16 concerts by virtue of its name. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Still, the NSO is offering some rarely performed or brand new pieces, notably by American composers. The new season also includes what promises to be a thrilling operatic evening, featuring Act II of Wagner's </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Tristan and Isolde </i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">with soprano Christine Goerke, mezzo Ekaterina Gubanova, tenor Stephen Goeld and others. And of course a lot <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">of the </span>old, but good, such as all nine of Beethoven's symphonies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Now we come to something borrowed and something blue. The Washington National Opera is to be commended for its effort to stage the latest that there is on the U.S. operatic scene. This year's work is Jeanine Tesori's opera <i>Blue</i> (yes, that's the blue I've been referring to), set in Harlem and based on literature and contemporary events. A black policeman has to deal with the killing of his teenage son by a white policeman. Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, says she feels that art organizations have a responsibility to explore contemporary issues. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">However, some of the new works the WNO presented in recent years dig into history: <i>Appomatox by </i>Philip Glass<i> </i>and <i>Silent Night</i> by Kevin Puts, come to mind. Nevertheless, most of them offer something well worth seeing in comparison, for example, with WNO's recent production of <i>Aida</i> which, as seen in the National's ballpark, was simply awful. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Apart from <i>Blue</i>, the new opera season, touting an expanded program of six "spectacular" productions, does not strike me as irresistible. At least not on the paper. We live in an era of live Met broadcasts, and opera-ballet-drama in cinema with top-notch performances from around the world. We saw the Met's new <i>Otello</i> last year, and an old one (Botha/Fleming) before that. <i>The Magic Flute</i> re-occurs in encores year after year for those who missed it the first time, or whose kids have just now reached the age when they can sit through it. In recent years, we saw Mariusz Kwiecien's sexy Don Gionvanni, and just a couple of months ago an innovative and exciting new production of <i>Samson and Delilah. </i>Sure, a broadcast cannot compare with a live performance. (Or can it?) But after seeing Alagna and Garanča in a Met simulcast, and while the memory of Olga Borodina's electrifying Delilah, paired with Carl Tanner's unimpressive Samson <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">in</span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">the<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> previous</span></span> WNO production, still lingers in mind, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">how many people are going to flock to the Kennedy Center to see Roberto Aronica and J'Nai Bridges?</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Who will rush to </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Porgy and Bess</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, which is still remembered from the WNO's 2005 season? And especially after the Met shows its <i>Porgy and Bess</i> in cinemas in February. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Washington must be forever grateful to Francesca Zambello for bringing the complete Wagner <i>Ring </i>to us in 2016, an achievement hard to match by any subsequent effort. But a company with "national" in its name should not rely on a repertoire of </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">recycled </span>war horses, dressed in new costumes, packaged in ever sparser stage settings and peopled with performers at the start or the end of their careers - rarely real stars.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Instead of looking to the Met, the WNO would do well to borrow some ideas from other local companies. The Washington Concert Opera<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>is well aware that <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">it</span> cannot compete with big houses and so <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">it's director Antony Walker</span> offers something entirely different: rarely performed works by well known composers. Walker's formula which pairs gorgeous music with fresh new voices is almost fool-proof and has served him well for years. Opera Lafayette is devoted to 17th and 18th-century French pieces and is doing so well that most of <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">its performances</span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">get</span> recorded on Naxos. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">An opera company performing at the Kennedy Center has to do better in creating its own distinctive brand.</span></div>
Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-68666814081430341982019-01-26T00:50:00.000-05:002019-01-26T23:30:23.227-05:00Lucia di Lammermoor for Shutdown Era<b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Misery loves company. Maybe cliché. But the fact is that watching the torment of a young girl forced into an unwanted marriage, albeit only on stage, helped alleviate the tension on the 34th day of the government shutdown and fear of the misery it could produce. Maryland Lyric Opera's Young Artists Institute presented </b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Donizetti's opera <i>Lucia di Lammermoor </i>at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, College Park. In the opera, a<i> </i>sister is used and manipulated by her brother in the name of the family's honor, something more important than her. It ended tragically. Some 800.000 government workers have been used and manipulated in the name of a greater goal, something more important than their livelihood. We hope it won't end tragically.</b><br /><br /><i> Lucia </i>is based on Sir Walter Scott's romantic novel <i>The Bride of Lammermoor</i> set in the 17th-century Scotland and, according to some sources, on a real life event. Lucia is in love with Edgardo, a young man from a rival clan, while her brother is arranging a marriage for her to save himself and the family name from ruin. She is bullied, threatened, betrayed and coerced to the point of exhaustion. But only when she is convinced there is nothing left to live for, she succumbs. <br /><br />Three hundred plus years after Lucy of Lammermoor (or Janet Darlymple, whose story inspired Scott) millions of young girls worldwide are equally forced to marry for the benefit of the family, often before reaching adulthood. They are controlled, bullied and threatened at what is supposed to be their home, but feels more like a prison. If they manage to flee, they are hounded, caught and beaten into submission, or disposed of. If they do reach freedom, they are disowned.<br /><br />I am not talking only about Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or Afghanistan. A new bestselling memoir, "Educated" by Tara Westover, reminds us that the United States is no exception. So we applaud young Saudi Rahaf al-Qunun, whose escape was successful and whose future in Canada will be in her own hands, her mistakes her own, and her success also her own.</span>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Maeve Höglund as Lucia and Yi Li as Edgardo in MDLO's production of Lucia di Lammermoor</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Maryland Lyric Opera could have moved Lucia out of Scotland - such transfers are common in new opera productions. But it chose not to, despite a large number of Asians in the cast.<br />In the end, it may have been the best decision. The performance turned out to be surprisingly convincing for a lesser known company and mostly unknown cast. </span><br />
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In my view, the relationship between Lucia and her brother is central to the opera, not the tragic love story. If the two singers portraying the Ashton siblings are weak, the performance is doomed to fail. MDLO's Lucia, Maeve Höglund was utterly captivating, once she overcame initial self-consciousness. By the time she reached the famous "mad scene", immortalized by Lily Pons, Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland, she really let go, while retaining control of her voice and precision of her delivery. Höglund was a thrilling Lucia.<br />
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SeungHyeon Baek as Lucia's brother Enrico had a commanding stage presence due mainly to his powerful baritone and expressive vocal delivery. In terms of acting, his facial expression did not change at all at any point in the evening. Perhaps it was a deliberate effort to show the brother's insensitivity. But when Lucia breaks down, Enrico expresses remorse, as well as fear for his future. Some of this should reflect in the performer's face.<br />
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Yi Li's Edgardo was no match to Höglund's Lucia. He visibly and audibly struggled with the high notes and with the Italian language. "L'alma innamorata" from one of his two final arias sounded like "l'arma innamorata." He has a lot of work still to do to improve his technique so he can inhabit his role more naturally.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Second act sextet, Lucia di Lammermoor</td></tr>
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Bass Wei Wu was a remarkable Raimondo. In addition to his ringing voice, he made a good effort at acting. The clumsiness in his last act encounter with Yi Li is more likely an omission in directing, than in Wei's acting. Instead of trying to prevent Edgardo from stabbing himself, Wei's Raimondo stands right next to the desperate man and does nothing but call him "sciagurato."<br />
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My personal favorite was Roy Hage, a unique Arturo. Hage stepped on the stage with the swagger of a proud young man, with a conquering smile and puffed up chest. He strutted around like a peacock, shaking hands with men and nodding to women, secure in his welcome. In most productions Arturo comes off as an insufferable snob or just a bore, but this one was charming and likable. I am looking forward to seeing him again.<br />
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Yang Chen was a promising Normanno and Daiyao Zhong was a gentle and caring Alisa. She also would benefit from some additional Italian lessons.<br />
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The choir and orchestra under the baton of Maestro Louis Salemno did a wonderful job. Kudos to the harp and piccolo.<br />
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The set and costumes were as good as anything you see on the Kennedy Center's opera stage, except for the shoes. They were clearly from the present era and did not match the costumes.</div>
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One of Donizetti's most successful works, <i>Lucia</i> has two crucial pieces - the second act sextet and Lucia's mad scene. The first is a climactic confrontation between the feuding families, which needs to rouse the audience and keep it on its toes. The second requires a soprano with the stamina to deliver the long aria with a fresh voice after singing and acting throughout the first two acts. In addition to that, the interpreter needs to project the various emotional stages of the maddened girl and gain compassion.<br />
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MDLO triumphed in both and Thursday's <i>Lucia </i>can be considered a resounding success for the company of mostly young singers with limited stage experience.<br />
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Keep up the good work!</div>
Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2522012839707410310.post-85799023417778137812018-11-13T12:45:00.004-05:002019-01-30T15:12:28.332-05:00Goran Bregović: a Polish View<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Goran Bregović was in the area recently with a concert titled <i>Three Letters from Sarajevo.</i> I could not make it, quelle dommage, but I alerted all my Slavic friends to go if they can. I have been a Bregović fan since seeing the <i>Queen Margo</i> movie many years ago on VHS and <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">being</span> startled <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">by</span> the opening bars of the soundtrack: "Ju te san se zajubija....", a traditional Dalmatian song. Rushing through the credits, I learned that the movie music was <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">arranged</span> by one Goran Bregović. </b></span><b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Later, I got a CD from a Polish friend featuring Bregović in concert with Polish musician Kayah and heard that he was immensely popular in Poland. Wow! It so happened that another Polish friend of mine actually made it to the concert and here is his account.</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Three Letters from Sarajevo, review by Wojciech Zorniak</i></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUiDGEfb0XULDK9_J_R5sy57KYEqktbmtvOUDEw41_pAD-oZaDvBNyltZz4ghi5MPtaQm6imYF-sU0pbAUQ-lQzxRRc5ViRWLW3tt6KGhiHLb0XS3mBRAk7rSu5nNflUMIPdZZsZ6ykw/s1600/Unknown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUiDGEfb0XULDK9_J_R5sy57KYEqktbmtvOUDEw41_pAD-oZaDvBNyltZz4ghi5MPtaQm6imYF-sU0pbAUQ-lQzxRRc5ViRWLW3tt6KGhiHLb0XS3mBRAk7rSu5nNflUMIPdZZsZ6ykw/s200/Unknown.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<i>I had never seen Goran Bregovic live on stage before this Saturday. I overslept his biggest Polish hit "Sleep baby, sleep," recorded with Polish singer Kayah, I did not hear his duets with another Polish singer Krzysztof Krawczyk. I had heard a few of his pieces on YouTube. But, I knew that Brego, as he is known in Poland, was big because my friend was his Polish manager, wrote a book about him and as a result of this association he was able to buy himself a villa in the posh part of Warsaw. <br /><br />Therefore, when I learned that Goran would appear in the Strathmore Music Center, which is within the distance of a Kalashnikov shot from my home, I would not miss the chance to see him. After all, man does not live by McCartney alone. Strathmore Hall, in suburban Maryland, juts outside Washington DC, was filled to the brim. From the conversations I overheard, I gathered that the audience was mainly the immigrant population from former Yugoslavia. Serbian and Croatian dominated. Not that I could capture the linguistic nuances, but I could tell that much. <br /><br />I was hoping to eat čevapčići at the bar and wash them down with slivovitz, but no such luck. I paid ten bucks for a lousy plastic cup of mediocre wine from Chile. I sat next to my Balkan brothers who spoke the language so similar to mine, but still hard to understand. I felt at home, but a stranger all the same. An interesting feeling!<br /><br />Finally, Goran walked on the stage in a white suit (as always), with a guitar and computer, immediately followed by three violinists, two bulky Bulgarian ladies in folk costumes, a brass band, a guy with a large drum and a male choir. And it started. Like a thunderbolt from the clear sky, like a volcano eruption, like an avalanche in the Alps, like the end of the world. I hit the back of my chair as if I were taking off in a space rocket. Ethnic music crucible dazed. The drummer hit the drum, the Bulgarian ladies climaxed in mezzo-soprano, the trumpets thundered straight from Jericho, and I, with horror, noticed that my legs began to shake dangerously, as if they wanted to dance. Strathmore is absolutely not fit for wild dancing. So I resorted to jumping up and down. <br /><br />On the stage, it was getting more and more lively. "Three Letters from Sarajevo" is the title of the new Bregovic album and the program in Strathmore. The artist combined the music of three religious groups here, hence the three violinists. Three melancholic and romantic violin spacers gave us a chance to take a breath and recuperate. And then full throttle again. The walls were trembling, as did the candelabra, and the floors vibrated. The audience went crazy. People around me were on cloud nine, possibly ten. I had the feeling that in the heat of the sound battle some toothless Baba Yaga jumped into my bed. And Marshall Tito was looking down on us from above, smiling benevolently.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Another, non-Slavic, friend posted this on Facebook, also raving about the concert at the Strathmore.</span><br />
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https://www.facebook.com/betsysmithplatt/videos/10214760739946966/<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPsAEvC_Mhm-woZAx3cZAO8_ZmmRdxulLJrWbnVuoLMZHCczSzK0n7wYNpE_rXtEYBfwVkPlhuyDYkR52MlxibviTq8FV68iPJ6xo3pQrlbrDiqNmHtk21GPl55MC-eEV8jhdYTc71Bw/s1600/Bregovic-mn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="622" data-original-width="350" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPsAEvC_Mhm-woZAx3cZAO8_ZmmRdxulLJrWbnVuoLMZHCczSzK0n7wYNpE_rXtEYBfwVkPlhuyDYkR52MlxibviTq8FV68iPJ6xo3pQrlbrDiqNmHtk21GPl55MC-eEV8jhdYTc71Bw/s640/Bregovic-mn.jpg" width="360" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>Poster for the Bregovic Chicago concert</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Back in Zagreb, I would have been hard pressed to identify Bregović as a member of the t<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">hen popular </span>Bosnian rock band <i>Bijelo Dugme</i>. Even though many of us snubbed the band in favor of British and American groups, some of its hit songs, rooted firmly in the Balkan tradition, tugged at our heartstrings: "It's like this, my dear, when a Bosnian loves you" (Tako ti je mala moja kad ljubi Bosanac), "<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Speed</span> on my horses" (Po</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="st"><em>ž</em></span></span>urite konji moji) .... They were too close to home for those of us striving to get away from the local culture. Sometimes one needs to see things from far away to understand their value. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">When the band fell apart, Bregović did not. He left former Yugoslavia for the west and greater glory<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, </span>based on his Sarajevo memories, poking fun at those of us who had rejected all things made at home.</span><br />
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fJP1seQFtY<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Good for you, Brego!</span><br />
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Zlatica Hokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16885755457119347785noreply@blogger.com1