Aida - sexing up Opera and pseudo Marxist interpretations.
BBC4 7.30pm. Verdi imbued his work with a quintessentially 19th century theme. Copied by Gilbert & Sullivan (in The Sorcerer) the eponymous heroine of Aida is a slave but in fact (of course) secretly the daughter of the King of Ethiopia. Hidden class and the empire building of Egypt and England or Italy. Tonight the use of quasi modern costume detracted from what is essentially an opera of great scale and epic vision. Black bags over the choruses heads made it unclear whether they were leopards or slaves.
What is opera save somebody singing "I am going to pork you" in Italian? Or is Donizetti better than Verdi? ( In the realm of art Renoir versus Van Gogh?) How can I get one of those little "r" things to go over Dvorak?
Finally, this would appear to be the last weekend of "Independent Minds". I shall try and link up something if any readers wish to stay in touch. Some parting penultimate thoughts that I distilled over the last eighteen months and 500 plus postings.
Free Tibet.
Free Burma.
Free Leonard Peltier.
You will find it far easier to establish a de facto police state than to dismantle one.
What is opera save somebody singing "I am going to pork you" in Italian? Or is Donizetti better than Verdi? ( In the realm of art Renoir versus Van Gogh?) How can I get one of those little "r" things to go over Dvorak?
Finally, this would appear to be the last weekend of "Independent Minds". I shall try and link up something if any readers wish to stay in touch. Some parting penultimate thoughts that I distilled over the last eighteen months and 500 plus postings.
Free Tibet.
Free Burma.
Free Leonard Peltier.
You will find it far easier to establish a de facto police state than to dismantle one.