From the mundane to the sublime

One of the hallmarks of greatness at writing opera is the ability to take some mundane aspect of the plot, or somewhat banal text, and turn it into a beautiful aria.  It's one thing to create a great aria out of a poetic declaration of love, a fit of jealousy, sorrow, ambition or whatever.  But being able to create something sublime out of nothing requires genius.  To forestall the likely criticism of my thesis as so far described let me point out that, in the examples that follow, the number might in fact relate to a relatively significant plot element or character development.  But in such a case the text will deal with apparently ideas, or will use just plain ordinary words.

A few examples will suffice, although there are indeed plenty to go around.  And I mean no disrespect to any of the great opera composers not mentioned here.  Let's take as exhibit one, a piece of music so familiar that as kids, who knew nothing of classical music, let alone opera, we even bowdlerized its common name: Handel's Largo which we irreverently referred to as Handel's lager.  I've only recently come to really know this piece which more properly is referred to as Ombra mai fu from Serse, the story of Xerxes I of Persia, successor to Darius the Great.  Xerxes sings this aria in praise of the plane tree and the wonderful shade it provides:

Never was the shade
of any plant,
dearer and more lovely,
or more sweet.

There's a wonderful video and recording on YouTube with Cecilia Bartoli [recall that Handel wrote many of his lead male parts for castrato voices which are generally sung these days by women].

My next example is from Mozart and you might quibble with my interpretation of the text as mundane as it tells of lovely fresh breezes in a romantic setting.  Yet, the purpose of the letter which the Countess is dictating is to expose her husband's infidelity, it is not an outpouring of some noble emotion.  She's not even particularly upset -- she just wants to teach him a lesson.  But I don't think you can disagree with my assessment of the sublimity of the duettino from The Marriage of Figaro: Sull'aria che soave zeffiretto.  You may even recall one of my all-time favorite movies scenes, from the Shawshank Redemption, when Andy (Tim Robbins) broadcasts this over the prison P.A. system to the consternation of the warden and the wonder of Red (Morgan Freeman).

A little song on the breeze
What a gentle little Zephyr
This evening will sigh
Under the pines in the little grove.
And the rest he'll understand.

Easily the best sound quality that I found on YouTube is the recording (without video) of Jessye Norman and Mirella Freni. The balance, and playing, of the oboe and bassoon are just perfect.  Incidentally, there's a clip of Dame Kiri which should be the best but the sound quality isn't good.  In particular, the bassoon overpowers the oboe!  [I'll bet you never thought I'd say that!]

My final example is by Puccini from that intrinsically mundane seeming story about the canal people: Il tabarro.  Even the title refers to something seemingly (though not in fact) insignificant: a cloak.  But don't be fooled.  This is verismo opera at its absolute best.  What appears ordinary is loaded with passion, repression and violence.  This rather long aria and duet is known as E' ben altro il mio sogno (I have a different dream) and tells of very ordinary life in the suburbs of Paris (in particular Belleville).  Here are Teresa Stratas and Placido Domingo.  Giorgetta's aria starts at about 0:40 and the duet, some of the most powerful music Puccini ever wrote, starts at 4:12.  Here are the words of that section (my own translation):

But whoever leaves the suburbs wants to come back
And whoever returns cannot leave.
Over there Paris is crying out to us,
with a thousand happy voices,
about its eternal enchantment.

I hope I've convinced you that ordinariness or banality is no bar to glorious opera when at the hands of a real master.

Birthday fun

Exceat and the Seven Sisters, East Sussex, England -- by John Allen

While it's no fun having a zero in your birthday, we nevertheless made the most of it. Kim helped arrange for me to enjoy several of my favorite Bs: bassoon (playing Bach in Belmont), bridge, (draft) beer.  We made a weekend of it by overnighting in a super old inn in Marblehead: the Harbor Light Inn.  Added to that, the Patriots crushed the Bears on their home turf in their own weather (wind, snow).

I also wanted to share some photos with you from my cousin John who is a very talented photographer.  The one at the top, especially, is spectacular.  The one below was taken nearby during nature's icy grip early this month.

Icy Friston Church, East Sussex, England -- by John Allen

Central Florida

The "boil" pool at Blue Spring State Park

Way back when explorers were first getting to know Florida, they sent a party up the St. Johns river to find the source.  When they got to the area near present day Orange City, they followed the short tributary and found that it dead-ended in a blue pool that had occasional "boils" surfacing.  They had found the warm spring that feeds this little creek.  But the manatees had found it eons ago.  Manatees don't do well in cold water (below about 60F is deleterious to their health), so in winter they swim a couple of hundred miles up the river to this warm sanctuary.  The Blue Spring State Park provides a board walk along this stretch and we must have seen well over 100 individuals (which you can see if you look carefully in the photo below which Kathy took).

Manatees hanging out in the "hot tub"

As it happened, we also saw a Bald Eagle up close and personal when it swooped in just a few feet away (twelve perhaps) to harass a Cooper's Hawk, which later perched less than ten feet from us.  There was lots of other wildlife including alligators, anhingas, black vultures, white ibises, etc. etc.

We really had a very enjoyable morning there.  It felt really good to get out into the fresh air after all that bridge.  But it didn't stop Kim and I from going straight back in to the two-session open pairs at 1pm.  We did fairly well, although we definitely could easily have done better if tiredness hadn't intervened again.

The timeshare condo which we had this time at Cypress Point was really nice.  There was a very nice pool with large jacuzzi which was only a stone's throw from our door.  The apartment itself was palatial and included its own jacuzzi.  There were about five TVs altogether, none of which ever got switched on.  Furthermore, we also got lucky with the car from Alamo.  Not only are there no lines now (because they have an automated check-in kiosk) but they are also on-airport.  When we got to the compact row, we could choose any car, including one of several minivans.  That turned out to be a great boon as we several times had quite a few in the car with us.  And all for less than $20 per day :)  Alamo gets kudos from us!

Chef Remy

Our favorite place to eat was Tommy Bahamas' which we visited three times.  It was a 15-20 minute drive so wasn't the most convenient for the tournament but was well worth it.  They do a $33 prix-fixe menu which has smaller portions than the regular a la carte menu: perfect for people who have to go back to the tournament and think!  I had a great Dark and Stormy on the one evening we weren't going back to play bridge.  We also ate at Roy's which was actually even better than Tommy's and Bahama Breeze which I liked more than my fellows.

Our day at Epcot was very enjoyable.  No lines, lots of fun, and two pretty good meals (Chefs de France and the brand new La Hacienda de San Angel).  The former was enhanced by a visit from Chef Remy (Ratatouille) - see photo above.  The firework show at the end of the day was really terrific - I think they've improved it quite a bit in recent years.  At right is a picture of two happy Disney-goers at the start of the day.  Note the magic sunbeam which was a good sign.

Flying High

Not everything about air travel is increasingly irritating.  Yes, we have more complex scanners to go through, and we have to pay for baggage.  And of course, meals are a thing of the past.  Long gone are the days that you could run to your gate with 15 mins to flight time and get on the plane.

But with laptop computers and, now, wi-fi on the plane, I can sit here at 34,000' a little East of Washington D.C. on my way to Orlando and the fall North American Bridge Championships and write this blog :)

I've been chatting to Miranda on gtalk, I've checked my email and facebook.  It's all good.

This is my first time flying with Airtran and the experience has been pretty good.  Also my first time on a Boeing 717.  Must be one of the shortest take-off jets I've ever been on.  We'd barely made it to the half-way point when we were up and away.  I tried to take a photo with my cellphone of downtown Boston but yesterday I upgraded the iPhone version and it took about 10 seconds to update my library - then the view was gone.  Oh well.

We're really looking forward to our bridge experiences this week.  This is the first time that we've planned to enter all "National" events.  Usually we try one or maybe two National events and spend the rest of the time in the Regional events.

But our philosophy is that we can enjoy regional competition at, well, Regional tournaments.  The only opportunity to go up against the best in the world is at one of these NABC tournaments.  Why waste it?  As I'm fond of pointing out, Bridge is one of the few competitive endeavors where you can find yourself playing against current world champions without any qualifiers.  Some claim that poker is like that, but I'm not sure if that's really true.

Kim and I are playing with different partners in the first event, the Life Master Pairs.  In fact, Kim will be playing in the Women's LM Pairs.  Our partners are a married couple, Dave and Donna.  Kim and Donna have played lots before, but I've only had four sessions with Dave.  It's going to be interesting!  The Life Master Pairs (and Womens) are four-session events.  About half the field will make it to the third and fourth sessions.  So far, we've always managed to get through but who knows.  The competition is tough!  The good news is that if you get any points at all, they are "platinum" points.

Kim is busily planning a day at DisneyWorld which is scheduled for the third day of the Blue Ribbon Pairs.  But if we make it to the third day (wouldn't that be nice), we would have to go a different day, I guess.

So, we have a busy time ahead and all so far augurs well.  We'll keep you posted.  I probably will be posting a few bridge blogs so if you want to stray into that territory, go ahead :)

Watson and the Shark

Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley, Boston MFA

 There's a huge celebration in the Boston art world this week as the new wing of the Museum of Fine Arts is opened.  For the moment, members only (I gave up my membership about five years ago) but open to the public Nov 20th.

According to the MFA supplement in the Sunday Globe, one of the 10 must-see pieces in the new Art of the Americas wing is John Singleton Copley's Watson and the Shark.  I've seen it many times (and I've seen the smaller copy in the Detroit Art Museum).  I've also seen the original long ago, though only briefly and somewhat darkly.

This all prompted me to do a little more research because I recall very well when my school, Christ's Hospital, sold the "monstrosity" to some Americans in my second year (1963).  In our naivety, we thought they must be mad or have made a mistake.  It was about this time that London Bridge was being sold to other Americans to end up in the Arizona/California desert.  In any case I decided to check which version that was, where it is now, and how come we had it at C.H

The original Watson and the Shark (National Gallery of Art, Washington DC)

Well, it turns out that "our" copy was indeed the original, commissioned in 1778 by Brook Watson (who later became Lord Mayor of London, and therefore the nominal patron of our school).  Watson was a friend of Copley's when the latter went to live in London and wanted to commemorate the incident when he lost his leg at age 14 to a shark in Havana harbor.  I'm not sure why he wanted to commemorate the event!  But in any case, he bequeathed the painting to my school in his will of 1803.

Our painting was hung in a side gallery of our dining hall, if I recall correctly.  It was at the other end of hall, and so I never normally went over there.  When we first heard that Americans wanted to buy a painting, we (or at least I) naturally first thought of the Verrio, a huge painting which takes up most of the long dimension of the dining hall.  There's a story to this one too.  Antonio Verrio began the portrait of Charles II and his court in 1684.  Charles II was the founder of the Royal Mathematical School which in some way I've never quite understood became part of Christ's Hospital (which had been founded over 100 years earlier).  However, before Verrio could finish it (in 1690), Charles was dead and his son James II was king.  The painting therefore has the body of one king and the head of another.  This painting is notoriously difficult to photograph (it is about 60 feet long) but the photo below gives you an idea (thanks to Julian Taylor Leigh-Hunt).

You can probably get a more succinct and objective view of the present and ancient history of Christ's Hospital on its Wikipedia page.

Fall (continued)

 

This (top) was the view outside my office building earlier this week. More fall color photos below.  Tomorrow will be Hallowe'en [interestingly, spell checker doesn't like that spelling even though it is technically correct] and winter isn't far off.  The leaves have been quite spectacular, although I don't think this is the best year ever.  Right now the oaks (my favorites) are pretty much at peak (below).

I'm sitting here with the dogs watching, of all things, Comedy Central's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.  It's fairly entertaining and, courtesy of Stephen Colbear, appropriately parodies the "right" as the merchants of fear.  It's beautiful weather in D.C. for this rather zany event.  Great to see Yusuf (a.k.a Cat Stevens) singing the Peace Train.

Pixie is now an apparently happy, comfortable monocular dog. She seems to be completely back to normal.  She's still a little rascal when it comes to protecting us from each other, but we're working on it.

The garden has been decommissioned for the winter, well almost.  There are still a few carrots to come and some winter crops.  But the tomatoes, all of those green ones, are gone as are the pumpkins and most everything.  The owls have been busy cooking lately.  A few nights ago, there were three quite close having a very animated conversation: who cooks for you, who cooks for you too?  And the Carolina wren is busy getting ready for the winter.

I recently finished reading Richard Dawkins' The Devil's Chaplain (a literary image originally created by Darwin).  It's quite unlike his other books, being a series of otherwise unconnected, personal essays.  Particularly good examples being eulogies for Douglas Adams and W.D. Hamilton.  There are also a few essays on the late great science essay writer, Stephen Jay Gould.  So I've gone back to re-reading some of the Gould essays.  They're great.  One of his great loves was baseball.  As he points out, Joe DiMaggio was running his 56-game streak while Stephen was undergoing gestation.  Incidentally, that streak is beyond all reasonable statistical expectations and is likely to remain intact for ever as it is 11 games beyond the next best effort.


Meanwhile, our dogwood and Japanese maples are a riot of color, see photos left and right.