Starting on Der Rosenkavalier
Finished an overview of Falstaff. Will come back to it to review it in more detail, but now onto an overview of Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss. Seems to be a good number of Youtube content around this, so will be going into these in the next few days.
Verdi Falstaff - continued
Yesterday, I posted the method of having the libretto, Italian and English side by side to go over. Great in theory, but for me, I first need to understand the story. So, I have decided to go through this Youtube clip, which has the English caption, with a production that is easier to follow.
Once I get the overall story, I may have time to get back to the libretto.
I also need to get onto Der Rosenkavalier and Norma, both coming up in a week… a lot to study.
Verdi's Falstaff Libretto in Italian and English
Getting into the detail.
Following the lyrics in Italian and English.
Open the two windows side by side and follow.
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and more Verdi
When Verdi died, half the population of Milan showed up for his funeral, wow.
Here is the link to the photo at the time.
“To date, it remains the largest public assembly of any event in the history of Italy.”
The best books on Verdi recommended by Francesco Izzo
Great summary of books to read on Verdi. Introduction is also an interesting and educational read.
Just ordered his first pick, below.
more on Verdi and Falstaff
This morning, expanding on the study on Verdi and some more specifically on Falstaff.
Found this summary of Verdi’s essential works. Very useful with Youtube links.
Best Verdi Works: 10 Essential Pieces By The Great Composer
La Forza Del Destino
Aida
Don Carlos
Falstaff
Il Trovatore
La Traviata
Otello
Rigoletto
Un Ballo In Maschera
Messa Da Requiem
For me to listen to, Falstaff recording with Claudio Abbado, Berliner Philharmoniker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADn3CtCPh0Q&t=39s
At nearly 76 years old, Verdi loved the libretto on Sir John Falstaff, written by Boito. Verdi originally wrote to Boito how he was too old to write another large scale opera, but eventually decided to write the piece. Took him four years to complete. Boito’s libretto for Falstaff is undoubtedly his finest work, and among the finest libretti ever written. Boito was odd, and frankly terrified of editing, altering, and adapting the play, by the man, Shakespeare, on an Italian opera stage. Verdi complained how he was not able to write productively as he once did when he was younger.
Giuseppe Verdi study
Continuing my study of Verdi’s Falstaff opera. Today I summarized Verdi’s life.
Opera Philadelphia
Giuseppe Verdi | Short Biography | Introduction To The Composer
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), Roncole, Italy (at the time Italy did not exist, and as the region was controlled by the French, he had a French birth certificate). Comes from a family of traders and small landowners. Mother was a spinner, father a innkeeper. Verdi’s musical talent was evident from his early years, and was trained at the local church, where he was full-time organist by age nine. In 1823, moved to a nearby larger city of Busetto, where he composed and performed. Eventually moved into the house of Antonio Barezzi, a local merchant and amateur musician. Taught singing and piano to Barezzi’s daughter,Margherita, who he would later marry.
At age 18, moved to Milan and applied to the conservatory, but was rejected due to being over the age limit. Instead, began to study with Vincenzo Lavigna, a composer and maestro at the La Scala. In 1836 he married Margherita and accepted the position as maestro at Busetto Philharmonic.
1839 first opera Oberto - accepted by La Scala
Next opera Un giorno di regno - was a failure, and he would not compose again until the maestro at La Scala, Bartolomeo Merelli, forced the libretto Nabucco on him. This opera became a major success and ascended him to the light across Italy and Europe. He became a leading figure in the movement toward a free, united Italy.
After Nabucco, Verdi wrote 16 operas in 11 years. Rigoletto (produced in Venice), Il Trovatore, La Traviata. He spends time in Paris, once back in Rome premiered Un ballo in maschera.
He traveled extensively in Russia, Paris, Madrid, and London, supervising his operas. In the final three years, wrote Aida, Otherllo, and Falstaff.
Total 26 operas were written, died in Milan at 87, in 1901.
Verdi's Falstaff study
Starting to gather information and study Giuseppe Verdi’s Comic Opera ‘Falstaff’. You might want to tag along and check it out.
Listening to an interview with the Italian Conductor Daniel Gatti. Verdi composed three Operas based on Shakespeare: Macbeth, Othello, and Falstaff. He considers Falstaff to be “a great Italian Opera masterpiece, written for musicians, not for the audience in a way… a very sophisticated opera.”
Story of a man at the sunset of his life. No friend, completely alone. “I’m very fond of the first scene, the monologue…so sad, so dark, so pessimistic in a way…but it is not a monologue of a man at his end of life, but a monologue of a man that has to start his last part of his life….maybe because I am not so far from this age….it’s an opera that is growing every time, because I think I am growing as a human being.”
“...after [writing] the three or four operas, he began the study of human being. And this is the greatness of the theatre of Verdi, it is not the melodies, not the arias, no, it is how he developed the character. And sometimes it is very uncomfortable to listen to Verdi opera, because he shows the human being misery…Verdi is all the time, very modern, because he talks about all the problem that we have nowadays… and by going there you may see yourself, in Falsestaff, in Othello, Trovatore, and Rigoletto.”
Two flights that merge
A friend from Tokyo reached out to me last fall that he will be in LA in early March after his business trip to Barcelona. No idea why he flies from Barcelona to LA to go back to Tokyo but it's wonderful to catch up. Last time he was in LA was three years ago. A few months ago, another best friend calls up and says that he wants to stay over at my place on his way back from his business trip to Mexico City. They happen to arrive on the same day, on different flights, but leave on the same flight back to Tokyo. They don’t know each other, I am the connection.
What a coincidence. A world full of coincidences.
Cezanne: London - Chicago connection
I found out that there is a large Cezanne exhibition at the Tate, London. Stumbled upon this Youtube clip. Well, it is almost ending. (ending March 12th, 2023). The largest Cezanne exhibition in the last 30 years in the UK.
Checked out the Tate site
At the time, still life was, at least traditionally, considered the least important of art genres, but he wanted to show the art establishment just how meaningful these modest objects could be. ‘With an apple, I will astonish Paris!’ he declared.
It reminded me of the Cezanne exhibition at the Chicago Art Institute that I visited in June, 2022, the first major retrospective of the artist’s work in the United States in more than 25 years.
And of course they are related. I completely forgot, but The Art Institute of Chicago organized this with Tate. So, the art work that I saw last year is now in Tate London.
It all came back to me. That the Cezanne exhibit experience in Chicago was one of the most memorable, and impactful that I have ever experienced (I need to add this to the photo essay section in the future). I would have loved to see it again, at the Tate London. Especially since I have never been to London.
I need to survey the word more closely to know what other significant exhibitions are on at any given time.
This we will do at Balse.
Zettelkasten, 2023 concerts schedule, and Paul Bowles
I had a breakthrough in my daily knowledge management system. A significant one. I said to my friend, ‘before Zettel’ and ‘after Zettel’. Not an overstatement. By implementing this process, it fundamentally changes how I interact with knowledge. It forces me to slow down, reconstruct, and connect with a piece of knowledge, in personal ways. Zettelkasten is a knowledge management system. Gathering information, summarizing them on index cards, connecting them with various themes across your other cards (Zettels), and, most importantly, enables you to retrieve them in your desired use case/context. It’s hard to explain here, so I will promise to create a separate page to gather the year of research on this.
2023-24 concert schedules are being released from major venues around the world. MetOpera released last week, Carnegie yesterday. We will be reviewing those soon.
Revisiting Paul Bowles lately. Digging up some docs from the library. The Sheltering Sky, my favorite, and The Spider’s House, which I have not read.
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Back through the photo album.
Hear me out, better in color?
Monochrom thoughts.
Pull out the guitar. That you don’t have.
Pop music. Sometimes.
Oh how I wish it rained every weekend.
The Sunday Times, throw away, before reading.
The vast and near. Horn in the horizon. I see the sunset across all fields. Singing.
Past two weeks at Balse at a glance.
Kassem Mosse - Workshop 32 A1 [WORKSHOP32]
techno, freshness burger
The Terror of Everything Everywhere All At Once
quantum superposition. There was a doc called ‘what the bleep to you know’, ten years ago. I used to own that DVD, I can’t find it anymore, but I do agree with this guy, quantum physics is certainly entering our shared consciousness.
Alexandre Saturday morning screening sessions. Can’t believe I had not seen this film before. Such a great one. Must see.
Classic, techno.
New Poetic Visions: Rainer Maria Rilke
More on Rilke. Continued.
Björk shows residential recording studio in Spain
Rita Ackermann - Vertical Vanish
I really like this painter. Now on view at H&W downtown LA.
0:05 / 4:11 M:I:5 - Logorrhöe 3
Giuseppe Verdi - Falstaff - Georg Solti, Gotz Friedrich
Preparing for the Met Opera, later in March.
A deeply spiritual place.
When heard sound, he saw color. When he saw color, he saw music.
“The more abstract the form, the more clear the more clear and direct its appeal” Kandinsky
Life's meaning is found in nature - Hermann Hesse's Genius Philosophy
The Big Year
If you had one year of sabbatical, what would you do?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3MiQHyOAyM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAN1G22Mty4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGgq5FdaaA8
I came across these guys on Youtube, and immediately sent it over to my best friend, who loves bird photography. And what do you know, he says he was thinking of taking a break from life and doing something like this.
It is the ‘Big Year’.
What is a ‘Big Year’? It is a challenge to see as many bird species in a set period of time, in this case, one year. Here’s the Wiki.
A big year is a personal challenge or an informal competition among birders who attempt to identify as many species of birds as possible by sight or sound, within a single calendar year and within a specific geographic area. Popularized in North America, big years are commonly carried out within a single U.S. state or Canadian province, or within larger areas such as the Lower 48 contiguous states, within the official American Birding Association (ABA) area, or sometimes the entire globe. The ABA big year record of 840 species was set by Andrew Pochonita of Southern California in 2019.[1] The big year world record of 6,852 species was set in 2016 by Arjan Dwarshuis of the Netherlands [Wiki]
Fascinating.
I bought several books to learn for myself.
Birding Without Borders, by Noah K. Strycker
Birding on Borrowed Time, by Phoebe Snetsigner
rest and docs
Caught a cold and stayed in. The rain hitting the window and thunder approaching. Watched the film Banshees of Inisherin. No affirmations, no yoga, not even coffee, just time to rest. One of those Saturdays. Headache and exhaustion, but the space and time is a bliss.
Pondering whether to re-watch the documentary on Bruce Chatwin next.
80/20
The focus. 80 percent of your outcome is derived from 20 percent of causes. Focusing on the 20 and trimming down on the 80 percent will increase the velocity of crystallization. Here is the question. What is that 20 percent? This is where I must stop and ponder. Observe, picture, and strategize. Scrutinize the list of goals and areas of focus. Without careful selection, I risk wasting years. Worse, I may end up elsewhere, which is terrifying. The next step is to increase the 20 percent, which is to identify the ineffective 80 percent, and to trimming. This will increase the outcome.
The focus is clear: studying Art History, and writing. Deep read The Story of Art, and gain knowledge for application. What does that look like? It is an index card database, a knowledge box that has wealth of knowledge. Each card is full of nutrients. Neurons that talk to each other. My concept fermentation ground, which will turn into my magic mushroom. A universe, a start to a project.
So, the focus is getting through The Story of Art, by E.H. Gomrich, re-reading and summarizing as the knowledge base.
Goal: get through the book by the end of March. Re-read three times throughout 2023.
How to Achieve Impossible Goals: video
Today’s listening selection by ClassicAsobi:
Rain and bliss
I hear the precious rain, a week of is now here. Along its path, tension soothed, and a gift of solitude, delivered. I will choose a book, and a film or two. Watch the cats sleep on the sofa. Take long walks in my dark raincoat. Spend days sequencing photographs with the image of faraway places. More Bach and some techno.
ClassicAsobi album pick -
Jump in, stop to listen
Reading, writing, photography, publishing.
Put another way:
Research, output, curation, with style.
Element to make a decent issue. Working, improving on these daily. Keep this going for five, ten, 20 years, it will reach unimaginable heights.
One more word, 'experience'. Experience, such as seeing Falstaff, Norma, or Der Rosenkavalier, at the Met Opera in NYC. Going to the Guggenheim Museum to see, in person, the art by Alex Katz. Walking through the wonderful scent of spices in the markets of Marrakech. Seeing the migrating Cranes in the winter snow fields of Hokkaido. But then there is the life and death that is all around us. The everyday, when I stop and listen, the songlines.
So I jump in, stop to listen, then paint.
Today's sound pick by ClassicAsobi - Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos 27, 30, 31 & 32
Rilke & Zettelkasten
Only someone who is ready for anything and rules nothing out, not even the most enigmatic things, will experience the relationship with another as a living thing and will himself live his own: existence to the full.
Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
Finished picking important quotes from the book over the weekend. I am building up my first Zettelkasten box. A completely manual index card, real paper, and a box. Started trying this about a month ago, still 20 or so cards. Pretty exciting. More posts that I found interesting here.
Back to the quote. No preconception, no judgement, no expectation, in a good way. No limits or restrictions, so naturally lives and breathes possibilities, sky is the limit, open minded, here and now, amor fati. These things come to mind. 'Existence to the full' sound exciting.
Georges Pompidou
Found a great documentary on the development of the Pompidou Centre. Watched half of it yesterday, planning to watch the rest today and will take notes.
Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou (5 July 1911 – 2 April 1974) came from a modest farmer family. He studied literature, and started as a teacher a public secondary school in Paris. In 1953, Rothschild, a bank, hired him, and appointed him general manager in 1956 - 1964. President Charles de Gaulle hires him to manage a Down Syndrome foundation. Becomes Prime Minister under President Charles de Gaulle from 1962 - 1968. President of France from 1969 - 74. He continued the de Gaulle policy of modernizing France. 1977 Centre Pompidou inaugurates.
His ascent from teacher to banker to politician is impressive. Especially with he was a novice as banker and as politician.
Based on the documentary, Pompidou was an avid art collector. He had a keen eye on modern and contemporary art. The story of having a conteporary art hung in his presidential office was quite telling.