Gergiev and Lepage: Modern Magicians

I was lucky enough to have caught two musical gems - well one was a musical gem, the other a visual gem that had, almost apparently by accident, been paired with musical content - over the course of these past two days.

For two glorious evenings, I pretended I was a well-heeled, intellectually (and financially) patrician New Yorker. In a word, I caught two shows at the Lincoln Centre, the first the reknowned Valery Gergiev conducting the Kirov (Mariinksy) Orchestra and Choir in a performance of Sergei Prokofiev's scores for Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible and Alexander Nevsky and the second a production of Hector Belioz' La Damnation de Faust whose visual design was created by Canadian techno-wizard Robert Lepage (aided by an able team of light and effects mages, not to mention the superlative acrobats of Cirque du Soleil).

The Gergiev show (yeah, at heart, I'm really a bourg-y philistine) was the most thrillingly annihilating piece of live music I'd heard in a long time. And it really spoke to my obessesion with brooding, powerful, depraved personalities. On film, that is. I caught myself thinking all the while... if a score can so effortlessly convey the conflict between a despot's out-and-out brutal, powerhungry nature and his more patriotic intentions, it is no wonder that tyrannts like Stalin exercised so much control over the arts, especially the peforming arts. They speak directly to that subliminal, primal part of the human psyche that could be used either for mass revolution or mass control.

Other than the barrage of incredibly cinematic music, infused with that brooding, intense, savage quality that is a hallmark of Russian creative expression, I was mesmerised by Gergiev himself, a rough-yet-graceful Pan in white tie and tails, his hands, wrists, arms and shoulders all moving in a melange of circular and sawing motions that made for a totally individual semiotics. A code his musicians obviously knew unto the last flick and sway and with which Gergiev seemingly casually created an awesome array of dynamics.

Particularly hypnotic (though my beloved who accompanied me would have offered 'distracting' instead) were his fingers, which seemed to be playing an invisible fretboard one minute, then flicking phantom raindrops at great speed the next.

The evening also made me silently vow to myself to put Eisenstein's Ivan (thank you YouTube for clips to whet my appetite), and maybe even Alexander Nevsky on my 'to-view' list of DVDs. Given that my paternal grandmother was always reading the Russian literary greats, and my father's family spoke with such nostalgia for the heydey of the arts in Soviet Armenia, I've always felt I should dip into the mighty canon of, at the very least, Russian cinema. Alas, limited time and a somewhat short attention span has hitherto put paid to most of that ambition - though my love for the film version of Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago - admittedly a diluted version of life under the Bolsheviks - directed by Englishman David Lean no less - might have, perhaps, gone some way to mitigating the blame!

If you want a less-salutory but more technical appraisal of the performance, go the New York Times' write-up by James R. Oestreich here.

As for Faust, despite the rather forgettable music, the pleasures for the eye were unrelenting; the high-point for me was the way interactive video technology that was part of the grand, multi-panel, multi-level stage brought the lighting and weightlessness of the ocean bed to life.

To sample some of the production's magic-making, go here.

An afterthought: I almost caught Lepage's one man techno-take on Hamlet - Elsinore - back at the Edinburgh festival of 1996, but his set had some glitch that prevented him from performing on the day I had free to see it. The beautiful artifice he created for Faust that I witnessed last night made the regret of my missed opportunity all the keener.



The image by Jennifer Taylor was taken from this site.

In the Midst of Joy, Sorrow

Proposition 8, banning gay marriage in California has now passed, basically 'un-marrying' all those who had rushed to take advantage of the right to be wed while it still stood.

Bummer for Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi and all those other smug queers, eh? They were getting mighty uppity. Good thing they got put in their place.

Here are the salient paragraphs from the New York Times' reportage today:

California Voters Ban Gay Marriage

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD and ABBY GOODNOUGH

LOS ANGELES — California voters have adopted a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, The Associated Press reported Wednesday, joining voters in two other states who went to the polls Tuesday to overturn such unions.

. . .

Only three states this year had ballots that included bans on same-sex marriage, compared with 8 in 2006 and 11 in 2004.

The ban passed in all three states — the other two being Florida and Arizona — but its success in California, a trend-setter in so many arenas, was seen as major defeat for gay rights activists.

A total of $73 million was spent on the race there, a record for a ballot measure on a social issue, resulting in incessant television and radio commercials from both sides. Advocates of the ban played up their belief that without it, children could be taught about gay marriage in schools, while opponents likened approval to denying fundamental civil rights.

The measure came only months after California’s highest court ruled it constitutional, spurring thousands of gay couples to marry there.

“We pick ourselves up and trudge on,” said Kate Kendall, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “There has been enormous movement in favor of full equality in eight short years. That is the direction this is heading, and if it’s not today or it’s not tomorrow, it will be soon.”

The article may be found in full here. Further coverage can be found at abc local's site here.

Meanwhile, you can sample the sort of viewpoint behind 'Yes on 8', at a blog run by Stephen Black of Oklahoma, a self-professed recoverer from, among other things "sex, drugs, sexual abuse, sexual distortions, and identity conflict in homosexuality".

The post of Black's that I'm referring to - actually an article by the similarly-minded Oklahoma pastor Paul Blair - has the following highlights:

We in America have taken great care for the well being of our fellow man.

We require seat belts to be worn in order to save lives. Cigarette smoking is discouraged because of the increased risk of lung cancer. We even have limitations on vending machines in schools because of the danger of obesity. Yet, if someone dares raise a question about the obvious dangers associated with homosexual behavior, that person is labeled a homophobe. It is more loving to speak the truth in love than to placate those practicing self-destructive behavior.

Homosexuality is dangerous. Homosexuality is sinful. Homosexual marriage will destroy the very existence of the home in America. Never in the history of America is the traditional home facing the threat of extinction as it is today. Christians, we must take a right stand and cast our vote in defense of the sanctity of the Traditional Judeo-Christian Home. There are over 60 million “Evangelical” (political definition of professing believers with more traditional beliefs) Christians in America. We need a Spiritual Revolution and Awakening in America. If we wake up, pray up, show up and vote we can BEGIN to take a right stand for America.

As ever, you can read the whole of the post here.





The above image was taken from this site.

Yes, He Could. Yes, They Did.

I cannot begin to say how much it meant to me to have been able to witness first-hand the election of the US' first Black president from the heart of Harlem.

The above image was snapped in the wee hours of this morning as I perched precariously on top of a small table at the back of the packed 8th Avenue restaurant/bar Londell's, watching and listening to those momentous images and words of president-elect, Barack Hussein Obama. People round me - black and white alike - whooped, clapped and wept openly. I was no exception.

Let the healing begin, and praises to the divine intelligences that be. That's God to me.

Obama, 2012 and the Saturn-Uranus face-off

You may ask, what has Obama to do with 2012 and today's exact Saturn-Uranus opposition, which has been much touted across the Astroblogosphere in the past six months. Here's the connection that I can see - and bear in mind that I don't profess to be an advanced astrologer (though I'm slowly getting there - just took NCGR's level one exam towards professional certification this past Sunday):

Re. 2012 and the dreaded end of the Mayan Long Count, etc: President Barack Obama could be the metaphorical pole-shift which the survivalists are expecting to end this present age on December 21, 2012, according to that ancient Mesoamerican calendar. Except Obama's presidency will only just have got cooking by the time the next election date swings round - November 6, 2012 - only a month away from the fateful Winter's Solstice that the doomsayers have marked down on the calendar as the end of the age.

My guess is that, irrespective of whether Obama gets a second term (since I'm counting on him to make history today) or not, his election will have set in motion a change (Uranus) so profound, that it will not merely challenge the traditional hierarchies (Saturn) of our globalised world, but force international leaders to confront the limitations of power to such a degree that the current patterns of geopolitics will have to shift in response.

Of course, I would hate for the survivalists to be right anyway - just take a glance at some of my earlier posts - on the other hand, the cultural paradigm shift has already begun, given the unique nature of how this election was waged. Check out the following from today's New York Times online:

After Epic Campaign, Voters Go to Polls
by Adam Nagourney

The 2008 race for the White House that comes to an end on Tuesday fundamentally upended the way presidential campaigns are fought in this country, a legacy that has almost been lost with all the attention being paid to the battle between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama.

It has rewritten the rules on how to reach voters, raise money, organize supporters, manage the news media, track and mold public opinion, and wage — and withstand — political attacks, including many carried by blogs that did not exist four years ago. It has challenged the consensus view of the American electoral battleground, suggesting that Democrats can at a minimum be competitive in states and regions that had long been Republican strongholds.

The size and makeup of the electorate could be changed because of efforts by Democrats to register and turn out new black, Hispanic and young voters. This shift may have long-lasting ramifications for what the parties do to build enduring coalitions, especially if intensive and technologically-driven voter turnout programs succeed in getting more people to the polls. Mr. McCain’s advisers expect a record-shattering turnout of 130 million people, many being brought into the political process for the first time.

And so on - you can read the rest here.

Meanwhile, Lynn Hayes, one of my favourite astrobloggers has a great, more technical analysis on the Saturn-Uranus face-off here, and includes some very positive transits for today, too. Not least, a Moon-Jupiter conjunction in Capricorn - which bodes well for the masses (Moon) electing a more inclusive, expansive (Jupiter) government - trined by a supportive, responsible Saturn in Virgo, and sextiled by a compassionate, humanitarian and progressive Uranus in Pisces.

Well, that's the positive spin, at least, and I'm going to erase thoughts of a potential GOP Old Washingtonian (Saturn) last minute victory over the forces of Change (Uranus). Then again, as any modern astrologer will tell you, no planet, symbolically, is all positive or negative. It all depends on how its energy is harnessed. So Uranus is less-than-warm-and-cuddly in its association with sudden 'liberation' from people/situations, whether you're ready for such freedom or not, and Saturn is not-as-limiting as the bad astro-press would have you believe, given his connection to the structures that ground and support us.

Basically, I'm not expecting a miraculous, overnight Shangri-La when Obama takes the White House, but hope, rather, for the best blend of the opposing planets' energies - namely a creative, positive dialogue between the forces of tradition, conservatism and strong government and the powers of innovation, radical change and individualism.

Meanwhile, I'll be glad when today is over and we get the final result.