Well, so long as we're sharing YouTube videos and discussing Bach... This isn't either ballet or opera (though it includes a few oratorios), but the Netherlands Bach Society is gradually recording all of Bach and putting the videos online:
www.youtube.com/channel/UC2k...
Oh, please don't misunderstand me - I adore Bach. As a young cathedral chorister, singing Bach was always a highlight. I only note that even Bach wasn't immune to political manipulation under the Nazis, and this mirrors Putin's modern manipulation of Russian classical music.
As a baroque composer J.S. Bach obviously isn't as overtly aligned with the roots of Nazi ideology as Wagner. But he was upheld as a 'pure' and 'safe' German composer. Also worth acknowledging that Bach's otherwise glorious passions aren't particularly friendly to Jews (particularly the St John).
And yes, we can separate the music from politics (Tchaikovsky and Taneyev didn't invade Ukraine); but I find it difficult to ignore how the music is manipulated.
Noting that I've published on the archaeology of nationalism and my wife is Russian-Australian; so I might be biased. 3/3
Leaving aside for the moment how music and culture were manipulated under the Soviet Union (see, for example, Shostakovich's entire career), meanwhile in Putin's Russia....
mccs-journalism.gold.ac.uk/wp/polyphony... 2/3
It was a general reference to how awkward it must have been at times for lovers of German classical music when the Nazis were in power.
encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/a... 1/3
I'm quite fond of the organ concerto!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=errS...
Anyway, two closing thoughts:
A) One day I'll be able to indulge my love of Russian classical music again without feeling guilty about it (I have some sympathy now for Bach lovers in the 1940s).
B) I think we can all agree that young Mr Chalamet was wrong. 6/6
![Francis Poulenc - Dialogues des Carmélites [2019] (English Subtitle)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:z2xkyk5vwwybhfvfhcdksu2h/bafkreie3272gfxocz52fvp3onzfy3tht3hnaijayywrenrlqziyw4cwgk4)
But again closing with a geographical shift, this time to France (but sticking to powerful but depressing endings for nuns)
8) Poulenc - Dialogues des Carmélites (English subtitles)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvfY... 5/6
And closing with two operas that have powerful but depressing endings for nuns...
7) Prokofiev - The Fiery Angel
Again the best not-in-Russia YouTube version is in two parts (English subtitles)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMN5...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIKr... 4/6
6) I suppose we can hardly list some performances of great Russian operas without Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin (subtitles in Spanish).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=quWF... 3/6
5) Rimsky-Korsakov: The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya.
The best not-in-Russia YouTube version is inconveniently in two parts (no subtitles but English scene intros)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKil...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxVC... 2/6
Thank you! These aren't enthusiasms I get to share much, so it's nice to have an excuse to get slightly carried away.
I'm going to risk overstaying my welcome, and make four more recommendations. Again, mostly Russian... 1/6
Sorry; got a bit carried away there...
4) And then a total geographical and tonal shift, Argentine compose Astor Piazzolla's 20th-century 'tango operita' Maria de Buenos Aires (which I saw performed in Ljubljana, Slovenia, last year; not the most likely of locations for Argentina's greatest opera!):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-X3... 4/4
3) Mussorgsky - Boris Godunov (French subtitles; I personally prefer a more traditional staging, mind):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUdU... 3/4
2) Sergei Taneyev - The Oresteia:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RQ_... 2/4
There's so much good opera on YouTube!
If I can indulge my weakness for 19th- and early 20th-century Russian opera (but deliberately avoiding links to performances in Russia)...
1) Shostakovich - Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpDY... 1/4
On the plus side, 'don't be so careful in time of death' does strike me as fairly sensible advice.
Working on this museum from 2019 to 2020 (until Covid brought my time on the project to a crashing halt) was simultaneously one of the strangest, most stressful, and most rewarding experiences in my career.
The cover to Grant Hart's 1988 debut album intolerance. It consists of apparently random newspaper cuttings plastered across a red background. Samples of some of the cuttings include "Under the big tent!", "poetry and sound louder bolder WANT", "ROCK POP" (the former superimposed on the latter" "Everyday Everyday Every Year Every Year", "It started as a couple of pages on a legal pad", and "Run Run Run Run". There are also a couple of mentions of Minneapolis. It's difficult to get across the messy anarchic energy of all of the newspaper clippings in alt text, but they sort of reflect the messy anarchic energy of the album itself.
#5debutalbums8589 and Grant Hart's 1988 debut solo album Intolerance.
Bob Mould had the more successful post-Hüsker Dü career, but I would take Hart's Intolerance - in all its glorious rough-edged messy beauty - over anything Mould's done solo or with Sugar.
Thanks, Sarah.
Lots of people are getting in touch with me expressing concern, but really... I'm safe, I'm getting on with my work, and Jordan is almost entirely functioning as normal. Just feel a slight need to reassure people.
Correction on the below... Have since seen it confirmed that Jordanian airspace has now fully reopened; flights to Europe, North Africa, and North America are running as normal again. Only flights to destinations that have separately closed their own airspace are still impacted.
Jordanian airspace is also now partially closed between 6pm and 9am, so no nighttime commercial flights. But really, I still feel safe, I'm still just getting on with life and work as normal, and I'm mainly posting this to reassure all the people who keep sending me worried messages! 3/3
The proximity of my apartment to the US embassy is a minor concern, and security protocols near the embassy seem to have been beefed up (Uber won't work near the embassy; a colleague has children in a nearby school, and they've moved to online learning) 2/3
Latest update from Amman...
Still mostly quiet here, still just getting on with things normally. Noticeably fewer sirens the last couple of mornings, but still the occasional muffled distant explosion. 1/3
Also worth remembering that before the World Cup draw was made, the Seattle local committee designated the 26 June match as a 'Pride Match' to align with Seattle Pride.
The teams drawn to play in that match were then ... Iran and Egypt, those well-known centres of LGBTQ+ rights. 2/2
It's only just occurred to me that Iran is supposed to be playing in the FIFA World Cup in just three months, with all three of its matches due to take place in the US - two in LA, and one in Seattle.
I assume that they may well withdraw, but if not that could be ... interesting. 1/2
The cover to Thin White Rope's 1985 debut album Exploring the Axis. It's mostly black and white. The band name is written across the top. The album name is written along the edge of a black square that encompasses most of the cover. In the bottom left is an outline sketch of a... I've never been entirely sure. I think it's supposed to be a dog, but it's rather impressionistic. A red dot obscures part of the 'dog', making it difficult to decide if it's a nursing female or the dot is partly obscuring something else. As I said, it's rather impressionistic. At least the 'dog', which is sitting on its hind legs, has recognisable legs and a face.
#5DebutAlbums8589 and the debut album by the great lost American guitar band of the late 80s and early 90s: Thin White Rope's Exploring the Axis.
Better - and more terrifying - albums were to come, but this successfully sets the base template.
And 'minor Uber inconvenience' isn't really that much of an impact, especially compared to what many people are going through in the broader region.
Really, things are fine. You can all stop sending me worried WhatsApp messages. 🥰 2/2
