"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.
I'm still obsessed with Wagner. Mozart too, but mostly Wagner. Such a fascinating personality. So many positives and negatives. A great victor and great victim.......victor in the realm of art......victim in the realm of ideology. I can't get enough of Wagner. I love him and hate him and his music quite simply puts me on fire. That Tristan und Isolde prelude rattles me like nothing else. To me its better than drugs or sex. Lohengrin is amazing too. I love all his stuff. I love listening and watching and just absorbing the immense breadth of his art. There is so much to it. Its medieval, its Christian, its archaic, its modern, its so chalk full of paradox and power.
Anyway. If you can't tell......I am into Wagner. The good and the bad.
"I should only believe in a God that would know how to dance. And when I saw my devil, I found him serious, thorough, profound, solemn: he was the spirit of gravity- through him all things fall. Not by wrath, but by laughter, do we slay. Come, let us slay the spirit of gravity!" - Nietzsche
Half the time I'm conscious I have this tune buzzing my head. I find its a good one, really sets the mood for half the things I do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSY4Yi2ypno
Now this was absolutely delicious... and oh so fun!
An absolutely irreverent and outlandish retelling of the Orpheus and Euridice tale... complete with parodies of Gluck's famous aria, Che farò senza Euridice? from his opera, Orfeo ed Euridice...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HuxJEfsxeI
an absurd "seduction" scene in which Zeus takes the form of a fly...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi6SDINpeTw
and of course the famous can-can:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38lIfgWIg8o
As Jules Noriac wrote in the review in Le Figaro, the day after the premier:
"Unheard of,
Splendid,
Outrageous,
Graceful,
Charming,
Witty,
Amusing,
Successful,
Perfect,
Melodius.
If despite all that you are not entranced by Orphée, you have only yourself to blame..."
All I might add to Noriac's list is the word "naughty"... for the work is surely a bit "naughty"... sexy... is the manner of fin de siecle Paris. I will most certainly be picking up Minkowski's other performances of Offenbach's operettas:
Beside which... I gotta admire Offenbach simply for his ability to have pissed off Wagner. Much as I love Wagner, I gotta wish that he could have loosened up now an then and given us something as absurd as Orphée aux Enfers.
Beware of the man with just one book. -Ovid
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.- Mark Twain
My Blog: Of Delicious Recoil
http://stlukesguild.tumblr.com/
I recently listened to La Belle Helene. While I don't think it's as good as Orféo, the music is very playful, and enjoyable. It seems to be more a satire on the opera form than anything else.
I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...
Which "Helen" opera is it a parody of? Gluck again (Paride ed Elena)? Or simply the entire Helen of Troy narrative? Strauss has a Helen opera as well, Die Ägyptische Helena. It was initially intended as a comedy but then became a tragedy... and tragic it is... tragically bad. Perhaps the worst libretto ever penned... which is a loss considering that Strauss wrote some rather lovely music for it.
Beware of the man with just one book. -Ovid
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.- Mark Twain
My Blog: Of Delicious Recoil
http://stlukesguild.tumblr.com/
Flash Mobs and Classical music are quite fun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrEk06XXaAw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotat...w9_S4PNV0#t=2s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAXAs...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRKKmY5yCv0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBaHPND2QJg
These surely do much to undermine the notion that "classical music" is not for everybody.
Beware of the man with just one book. -Ovid
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.- Mark Twain
My Blog: Of Delicious Recoil
http://stlukesguild.tumblr.com/
"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.
More of Emil's imitations of Henny Penny/Chicken Little.
Beware of the man with just one book. -Ovid
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.- Mark Twain
My Blog: Of Delicious Recoil
http://stlukesguild.tumblr.com/
Poor Emil will probably slit his wrists when he comes to fully realize that the non-Western cultures are quickly absorbing all he most "loves" about Western popular culture and are far from being some last bastion of an illusory "high culture" and sophistication:
[IMG]http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg581/StlukesguildOhio/th_puppy2Yo****oroNara.gif[/IMG]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKxebYpt95Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuF2tNl-nRQ
Emil's living in an "Oriental" fantasy that is about as real as the orientalist fantasies of 19th century painters and writers.
Beware of the man with just one book. -Ovid
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.- Mark Twain
My Blog: Of Delicious Recoil
http://stlukesguild.tumblr.com/
As I recall it, Chicken Lilttle thought the world was collapsing because an acorn fell on her head. It's interesting to note that Western administrations, of whatever complexion, consider the economic meltdown in the US and Europe and China's enormous economic strength to be somewhat larger than an acorn.
On those occasions when I have been in China, I have noticed Western meretriciousness but on nothing like the scale that Europe has absorbed since WWII and it's important to remember that China has a form of government that will, when it suits them, eradicate it because mass produced decadence, no matter how profitable in the short term, runs contrary to their long term objectives.
Moreover, as China's economic and military power increases, other countries in the region will inevitably come under its sway and it's likely that Western excess will decline as traditional values begin to reassert themselves.
In short, they will keep what's best of Western civilisation and ditch the rest.
Last edited by Emil Miller; 07-22-2012 at 12:43 PM.
"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.