Re-writing, editing - existence

Been a few weeks since coming back from New York. Working on photo edits and all.

Also revisiting the meaning of Balse. The existence. Been re-writing the About page.

Here are some of the latest edits.

What to make of this?

How to live?

Our eternal questions.

No body can advise you and help you, nobody. There is only one way. Go into yourself. Examine the reason that bids you to write; check whether it reaches its roots into the deepest region of your heart, admit to yourself whether you would die if it should be denied you to write. - Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

In a way, Balse is a research institute. In another, simply an experience of life, the NOW.

How I feel. My journey. Real human drama through photography and words.

Things are not all as graspable and sayable as on the whole we are led to believe; most events are unsayable, occur in a place that no word has ever penetrated, and most unsayable of all are works of art, mysterious existences whose life endures alongside ours, which passes away. - Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Key areas of research are:

  • Art, Music, and History

  • Philosophy

  • Environment

From ancient to contemporary.

What we consume, how we spend time, shapes us. Consume less, consume consciously.

A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity. The verdict on it lies in this nature of its origin: there is no other.

Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Follow the fun. Experience the world - LIFE.

With your needle, feel the groove - Focus.

Signal - seek with heart - Phono stage.

Find your message, expand with light - amplification.

Energy, vibration, form, harmony, emotion, being, breath in, and breathe out - Sound.

Now - DANCE.

Life.

success/failure

Feeling notes - life, worry of success/failure

Rilke had a sense of the land to which his gifts might lead him, but he was also anxious that he might never get there. He lived in fear of two false fates: either that he might end up as lost as the ragged poor who had surrounded him in Paris or else that he might succumb to the safe but numbing comforts of convention.

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, Intro, by Lewis Hyde 2011

Narrative

Head spinning

What is it you are searching for?

Meaning.

but there is no meaning, you know that right?

as she might say.

I understand that.

I am creating Story

: meaning


My grand narrative

 

Belini's Norma & our next goal

Back from NY. Catching up on research. Now on Belini’s Norma.

What is it that we can learn from Opera?

What are we seeking?

How can music and art influence our life?

How will it transform you?

These are the questions that is constantly on my mind.

I have no classical training in art or music, but I want to learn and be able to purely enjoy and be inspired. By studying important music pieces, we will learn history, philosophy, physiology, story telling, life, desperation, love, and hope. Drive to change, and better live.

Same for visual and contemporary art, but it may be more so with some of these major music pieces.

This is why Balse is increasingly focusing on Opera at this time.

What if we researched the 20 most important Operas and summarized them in our own ways, for us to be educated and truly studied the context and messages. I think it will have an impact on our lives.

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.

BALSE Newsletter 0003

Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos.22 & 27

Alfred Brendel • Scottish Chamber Orchestra • Charles Mackerras

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 in C Minor, WAB 108 (Edition Haas)

Christian Thielemann • Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra

Composer: Anton Bruckner

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.