Dennis is coming…..
Last year my family dealt with IVAN and our house on Santa Rosa Island (Navarre Beach).
Then we sold it – so this year is the first time in a long time we don’t have to worry about possible destruction. But our hearts go out to the residents of the Gulf Coast for their annual brush with wind, rain and destruction – the price paid for living in that beautiful region.
And let’s hope my sister and her family in New Orleans do not get floods and too much bad weather.
Link: Guardian Unlimited | Arts features | ‘I must live up to what people expect’.
On
stage he is the embodiment of operatic passion and fire. In real life
Placido Domingo is the gentlest of men and driven by his art – to the
world’s greatest tenor, mañana is just another working day
I
have the big passion,’ said Plácido Domingo. He beamed and spread his
arms to enfold a global contingent of fans. In his endearingly
unidiomatic English, he was declaring his passion for singing. ‘It is
for me still like the beginning of my career.’
And take a look at the opening weeks’ schedules of this year’s PROMS
A bit of history of the Proms from the BBC Proms website
The first Proms concert took place
on 10 August 1895 and was the brainchild of the impresario Robert
Newman, manager of the newly built Queen’s Hall in London.
While Newman had previously organised symphony orchestra concerts at
the hall, his aim was to reach a wider audience by offering more
popular programmes, adopting a less formal promenade arrangement, and
keeping ticket prices low.
Born in 1869, Henry Wood had undergone a thorough musical training and,
from his teens, began to make a name for himself as an organist,
accompanist, vocal coach and conductor of choirs, orchestras and
amateur opera companies.
Newman
arranged to meet Wood at Queen’s Hall one spring morning in 1894 to
talk about the project. ‘I am going to run nightly concerts to train
the public in easy stages,’ he explained. ‘Popular at first, gradually
raising the standard until I have created a public for classical and
modern music.’ In February 1895 Newman offered Wood conductorship of a
permanent orchestra at Queen’s Hall, and of the first Proms season.
The series was known as ‘Mr Robert
Newman’s Promenade Concerts’ and the programmes were perhaps
over-generous by today standards, lasting around three hours. The
informal atmosphere was encouraged by cheap tickets – one shilling (5p)
for a single concert, or a guinea (£1.05) for a season ticket.
Eating,
drinking and smoking were permissable (though patrons were asked to
refrain from striking matches during the vocal numbers). The more
‘serious’ items were confined to the first half, and a major attraction
of the shorter second half was the Grand Fantasia – choice morsels
extracted from popular operas.
The Guardian’s Top Ten Picks for this year’s PROMS
From the NYTimes Editorial Page, July 8th
We watched the scenes of mass murder in the heart of London
yesterday with a cascade of emotions, starting with raw outrage.
Memories of Sept. 11, 2001, flooded back – the slow realization of the
magnitude of that crime, the nagging worry that we had not seen the end
of it. The images were tragically familiar: the bloodied faces as
survivors trudged to the light through smoky darkness, screaming sirens
and terrified onlookers.
But the familiarity does nothing to mitigate the pain of those who
lost loved ones, of the many injured and of the millions of Londoners
who watched as the weekday morning calm in their city was shattered by
the bestiality of people capable of setting off bombs in packed subway
trains and a crowded bus.
The anger and pain mixed with admiration for the strength and calm
of those who live in a place that has seen more than its share of
domestic tragedy: the bombings by Nazi warplanes more than a
half-century ago, and the mindless terrorism of Irish militants more
recently.
Sadly, this attack came just at a moment when there were glimmers of
hope and unity. The day before, London had won the right to be host of
the Olympics, that great display of international understanding and
peaceful competition. And on the morning of the bombings, Prime
Minister Tony Blair, President Bush and the leaders of six other rich
and powerful nations were meeting in Scotland to work out a common plan
to help those who live in despair in places like Africa, where poverty
and disease breed resentment among those have nothing for those who
have so much. That juxtaposition of hope and fear is an integral weapon
of the terrorist, who seeks not only to destroy life and property but
also to disrupt our lives in ways that bring more destruction.
Fear was another inescapable response – the natural fear that this
kind of attack, carried out by people with no regard for their own
lives or anyone else’s, could happen anywhere.
That fear has already led to questions about why the British
security agencies did not anticipate the attacks, why the wealthy
nations have not done enough about the root causes of terrorism and why
Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden continue to function after almost four
years of the so-called war on terrorism. Many will wonder why the
United States is mired in Iraq while Al Qaeda’s leader still roams free.
There are no easy answers to these questions, just as there is no
easy defense against acts of terrorism. What ordinary people can do is
to carry on. Just as the world leaders kept meeting in Scotland
yesterday, we can go back into the subway (and the London Underground
when it is reopened), back onto the streets and back to work.
Terrorist acts are meant to show us how thin the veneer of order and
decency in the world is, but they can demonstrate just the opposite if
we use them to deepen our commitment to the richness and civility of
our lives. That sends a message to the terrorists: You have failed
again.
Link: BBC – Radio 3 – Opera On 3 – 8 July 2005.
Mozart, Cosi fan tutte.
Friday 8 July 2005 19:00-22:15 (Radio 3)
Stephanie Hughes presents Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte from The Sage, Gateshead. Sir Thomas Allen directs this simply staged new production of Mozart’s well-loved opera, featuring six gifted young singers supported by the Hexham-based youth arts outfit, The Samling Foundation. Northern Sinfonia is conducted by Thomas Zehetmair.
Fiordiligi …… Henriikka Gröndahl
Dorabella …… Carolyn Dobbin
Guglielmo …… Mattijs van de Woerd
Ferrando …… Rafael Vasquez
Despina …… Amy Freston
Don Alfonso …… Richard Morrison
Northern Sinfonia
Northern Sinfonia Chorus
Thomas Zehetmair (conductor)
Sir Thomas Allen (director)
Link: BBC NEWS | In Depth | london explosions.
Prime Minister Tony Blair made two statements about the series of explosions in London on Thursday morning. Here is the second one
STATEMENT FROM DOWNING STREET, 1730 BST
This is a terrible and tragic atrocity that has cost many innocent lives.
I have just attended a meeting of the Government’s emergency committee. I received a full report from the ministers and officials responsible.
There will be an announcement made in respect of the various services, in particular we hope the Underground as far as is possible and rail and bus services are up and running as soon as possible.
I would like again to express my profound condolences to the families of the victims and to those who are casualties of this terrorist act.
I would also like to thank the emergency services that have been magnificent today in every respect.
There, of course, will now be the most intense police and security service action to make sure we bring those responsible to justice.
I would also pay tribute to the stoicism and resilience of the people of London who have responded in a way typical of them.
In addition, I welcome the statement put out by the Muslim Council who know that those people acted in the name of Islam but who also know that the vast and overwhelming majority of Muslims, here and abroad, are decent and law-abiding people who abhor this act of terrorism every bit as much as we do.
It’s through terrorism that the people that have committed this terrible act express their values and it’s right at this moment that we demonstrate ours.
I think we all know what they are trying to do, they are trying to use the slaughter of innocent people to cow us, to frighten us out of doing the things we want to do, of trying to stop us going about our business as normal as we are entitled to do and they should not and must not succeed.
When they try to intimidate us, we will not be intimidated, when they seek to change our country, our way of life by these methods, we will not be changed.
When they try to divide our people or weaken our resolve, we will not be divided and our resolve will hold firm.
We will show by our spirit and dignity and by a quiet and true strength that there is in the British people, that our values will long outlast theirs.
The purpose of terrorism is just that, it is to terrorise people and we will not be terrorised.
I would like once again to express my sympathy and sorrow for those families that will be grieving so unexpectedly and tragically tonight.
This is a very sad day for the British people but we will hold true to the British way of life.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“I have learned through bitter experience
the one supreme lesson is to conserve my anger,
and as heat conserved is transmitted into energy,
even so our anger controlled can be transmitted
into a power that can move the world.”“Hatred can only be overcome by love.”
Mahatma Gandhi
This is where I wish I were going to be this weekend.
Link: Knitting Camp.
but once again, i didnt get my application mailed during the time period in April and missed out. One of my goals next year is to GET my application in on time and hopefully be selected to attend. Knitting Camp has become such a legendary experience among those who attend (and there apparently are many regular returning attendees). It was started by Elizabeth Zimmermann many years ago; her daughter, Meg Swansen, carries on the tradition as she does with the Schoolhouse Press (one of the first mail order yarn stores). oh well, one day i'll get there.
in other news, not much knitting – last weekend i did extensive updating of my blogs and started a webring for opera blogs (the music, not the browser) and finished setting up my laptop (which had died the week earlier).
yesterday, was a 12+ day (ugh) and today i was at home from work with a migraine (double ugh) and so no knitting except vicariously thru others blogs.
Link: Judith Miller Goes to Jail – New York Times.
Read it. Journalism will be changed forever.
Link: Behind the Curtain, Classical Music Shows It Has Serious Flaws – New York Times.
Ms. Midgette (who wrote the Breslin/Pavarotti bio "The King and I") talks about the similarities between herself and Blair Tindall. Ms. Tindall, a professional Oboist, has authored MOZART IN THE JUNGLE a fairly controversial book about the "scandalous rock and roll lifestyles of the musicians, conductors and administrators who inhabit the insular world of classical music." (from her website)
Link: BBC NEWS | Americas | US reporter to speak in CIA trial.
US reporter to speak in CIA trial Both reporters made inquiries about the source of the leak A US journalist who had faced jail for refusing to give evidence to a court investigating the unmasking of a CIA agent has said he will testify. Matthew Cooper of Time magazine said he changed his mind after receiving a "dramatic" message from his source.
New York Times journalist Judith Miller – who was also asked to reveal her sources – has said she will not do so and has been ordered to go to jail.
Robert Gottlieb (formerly of THE NEW YORKER) writes passionately about Suzanne Farrell’s revival of DON QUIXOTE in Washington in his latest column in the the New York Observer. Created for Ms. Farrell by Balanchine at the height of his discovery of her and her talents, its an ode to her genius as an artist. Balanchine left it to Ms. Farrell in his will and this is its first revival.
“The important practical question raised by her production is whether such a large-scale, problematic work can become a permanent part of the Balanchine repertory. Certainly it will stay alive as long as Farrell has the opportunity to present it, and perhaps there are major companies—the Kirov, say—who might take it on. It’s even possible, I suppose, that Farrell and New York City Ballet might eventually accommodate each other. But is Don Quixote worth preserving? After all, other important Balanchine works have vanished—Cotillon, the full-length Le Baiser de la Fée, the early versions of Mozartiana, Balustrade, Bourrée Fantasque, The Seven Deadly Sins. ”
“None of these works, however, was as meaningful to him, or as revealing. The lesson we just learned in Washington is that although we didn’t know we’ve been missing it since it vanished almost 30 years ago, Don Quixote does still matter, both for its own sake and because of its unique place in the Balanchine canon. When you’re dealing with a supreme master—a Shakespeare, a Mozart—you need to be able to revisit his entire corpus of work. You need King Lear all the time, but every decade or so you also need Timon of Athens. Otherwise your understanding of a genius like Shakespeare––or Balanchine––is diminished, and so are you. “
As a lifelong fan of Balanchine and observer of Ms Farrell at the end of her dancing career, it continues to pain and puzzle as to why the current NYCB is without Ms. Farrell’s contributions. Lucky Washington to have her.
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