SWAN LAKE at San Francisco Ballet

Tonight my friend Adam K and I saw San Francisco Ballet's new production of "Swan Lake."

World Premiere

Composer: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Choreographer: Helgi Tomasson after Marius Petipa

Odette/Odile: Vanessa Zahorian

Prince Siegfried: Ruben Martin

Since his last triumphant production of this revered classic debuted over 20 years ago, Helgi Tomasson is proud to unveil a spectacular, all-new production of Swan Lake. Set to one of Tchaikovsky’s most beautiful scores, this completely restaged ballet features elaborate new scenery and costumes by critically acclaimed European designer Jonathan Fensom.

It was wonderful in every way. Adam particularly loved the music. The new sets and costumes are splendid...and the dancing was magical! 

The First Act had an imposing Palladian gate with a broken pediment. It was architectually stunning. The Second and Fourth Acts were set with a massive basalt rock formation, which reminded me of my brief visit to the Black Sea when I visited Umur in Istanbul a year ago last September. Above it was an impressive full moon, also featured at the center of the divided curving staircase in the Third Act. In addition the sets were greatly enhanced by creative projections. 

The costumes were beautifully coordinated in subtle and appropriate hues. The period was the early 19th Century just before the time of Tolstoy's War and Peace. The program notes mentioned that some of the adults were dressed more in the style of the late 18th Century. That was probably true of Prince Sigfried's mother -- slightly anachronistic, but very elegant.

The heart of the production, of course, was the music of Tchaikovsky, Tomasson's choreography and the splendid dancing. The Corps de Ballet was superb. Vanessa Zahorian and Ruben Martin were absolutely marvelous together.

Swan Lake was the last ballet Dennis ever saw before we left for Venice three years ago. That was on a Friday night. I returned by myself that Sunday to stand for the matinee to see Gonzalo Garcia dance the role of Prince Siegfried. He is one of my favorite dancers. Gonzalo is now in New York. I miss him a lot, as I'm sure most of the San Francisco dance community does as well!

ASH WEDNESDAY ~ 2009

Photo:catholicinformationcenter.org/ash2006.jpg

"It's tricky to make generalizations about Christians. After all, there are hundreds [...] of independent Christian sects, each one formed by followers who believed that all the other Christian sects were not following the proper Christian path. Such widespread lack of aggreement is remarkable given that the heart of Christian dogma is the assertion that the Bible is the single written text of divinely-revealed truth. [Actually, Rome and some other churches maintain that there is a living tradition and continuing revelation. RB] If all Christians accept the same book as the word of God, containing absolutely unquestionable instructions about how to live in the correct way, how come Christians end up dividing themselves into competing groups according to their disagreements about the right way to live?

One explanation is that the Bible is poorly written, with vague instructions, faulty logic, and an inconsistent collection of messages which contradict each other. Another explanation is that Christians don't really base their religious lives upon the teachings of the Bible.

The latter explanation is supported by the public, ostentatious manner in which most Christians pray. The Bible is very clear in what it says about the proper way for Christians to pray, stating in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6, verses 5-6,

'When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. '

'But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.' (King James Bible)

The message is clear: if you claim to follow Jesus you ought to pray in secret, avoiding ostentatious displays of prayer intended to serve as a display of holier-than-thou pride before others. Most Christians seem either to be ignorant or to just not care about the message of these Biblical verses, contradicting the instructions of their own divine savior in order to satisfy their own egotistical religious identities." (courtesy: irregulartimes.com)

The above quotation from somebody else's blog may be a little harsh-- though perhaps appropriate as we begin Lent; but I find it ironic that one of the standard readings for Ash Wednesday is the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, verses 5-6. What could be a more public display of piety than walking around with ashes on one's forehead?

CHATTANOOGA CHAMBER MUSIC

On a rainy Sunday afternoon--after subbing at Grace Cathedral for a sick substitute-- I celebrated the 31st anniverary of the founding of Chanticleer by attending a delightful chamber music concert at a handsome Queen Anne home on Chattanooga Street just a few blocks from my flat. The series had been recommended to me by my friends Ted and Irene. They weren't able to make this particular concert, but I saw their friend Annie, whose 86th birthday dinner I had attended a few weeks ago.

The layout of the house reminded me of my late friend John Blauer's home in Pacific Heights. He used to have musicales and old time projector movie shows in his back parlor.  The audience would sit in the front parlor. On Chattanooga Street, the audience faced the other direction in two handsome rooms tastefully decorated with William Morris revival wallpaper.

The concert on Sunday featured five string players from Sonoma County. They called themselves "Very Old Time Music."  With five players, they had two violins, two violas, and two violoncellos. (Two of them played more than one instument.) Their period instruments-- with gut strings and old bows-- ranged from the late 17th Century through the early 19th Century.

The music included quintets by Muffat, and Boccherini, and smaller ensembles by Merula, Lalande, Matthew Locke, and Albrechtsberger. The entire afternoon was thoroughly enchanting. I will sign up for the series next year, and put my name on the waiting list for the next scheduled concerts.

Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Carnevale 2009

Photo:musicplace.it/public/shots/carnevale-di-venezia-2008

Sunday was a busy day. It started with breakfast with my friend Szilard visiting from Las Vegas. Then I subbed at Grace again. I wasn't supposed to, but John's other sub was sick, so I subbed for a sub! I'm glad I did. The music for Transfiguration was intriguing and the sermon, very powerful, as delivered by The Rt. Rev. Stephen Charleston, Assistant Bishop and Provost of the Cathedral. He talked about fog. Afterwards, we celebrated Shrove Tuesday... transferred. We did it two days early. So I had pancakes and sausage. It brought back memories of Dennis' Shrove Tuesday Suppers during the building of the new Cathedral House. When the old Cathedral House was demolished, the 'powers that be' were going to suspend the traditional pancake suppers until the new one was completed. That wasn't good enough for Dennis. So for at least two years, we had Shrove Tuesday Suppers at IHOP (International House of Pancakes) on Lombard in the Marina district. They were a big success and helped build community spirit.

Later Sunday afternoon, I went to a household chamber concert (about which I'll write a separate post), then watched part of the Academy Awards, and had a two-hour rehearsal and meeting with the Schola Cantorum... and so to bed.

First Printing of GUTENBERG BIBLE ~ 1455

Photo: copy of the Gutenberg Bible owned by the US Library of Congress
Taken by Mark Pellegrini on August 12, 2002: Wikipedia.com

GIORDANO BRUNO burned at the stake 1600

Giordano Bruno, born Filippo Bruno (1548 – February 17, 1600) was an Italian philosopher best-known as a proponent of heliocentrism and the infinity of the universe. In addition to his cosmological writings, he also wrote extensive works on the art of memory, a loosely-organized group of mnemonic techniques and principles. He is often considered an early martyr for modern scientific ideas, in part because he was burned at the stake as a heretic by the Roman Inquisition (in the Campo de'Fiori just a few blocks from the convent where Dennis and I stayed several times near Piazza Navona in Rome --- the statue above is at the center of the campo surrounded by fruit stands and flower stalls).

Morris West (26 April 1916 - 9 October 1999) Australian novelist and playwright, best known for his novels The Devil's Advocate (1959) The Shoes of the Fisherman, (1963), & The Clowns of God (1981) died while working at his desk on the final chapters of his novel The Last Confession, about the trials and imprisonment of Giorano Bruno, who was burned at the stake for heresy in 1600.

Bruno was a figure with whom West had long sympathized and even identified. In 1969 he had published a blank-verse play The Heretic on the same subject. This was staged in London in 1970. Of all his writings, he said this play had "the most of me in it." In 1998 he converted it into a libretto for an opera, which was set to music by Colin Brumby, but it has not been staged. In early 1999 he also contemplated a film script based on the play.

He wrote The Last Confession in the form of the diary that Bruno might have written knowing that execution was approaching. The diary was intended to cover the period 21 December 1599 to 17 February 1600, however it covers just 14 days; the entry West was writing when he died was dated 4 January 1600, and he had written only about half as much as he had intended.

Nevertheless, the last paragraph he ever wrote was poignant: I can write no more today … who knows to what nightmares I might wake. West himself had had several severe heart attacks, and had undergone double-bypass surgery. Murray Waldren writes: "This is a book written by a man aware death is imminent about a man aware execution is near" (Courtesy Wikipedia.com)

DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is coming up for review, and perhaps this time, we'll get it right. Randy Shilts died in 1994 thinking his final book Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the U.S. Military had failed to change U.S. military policy. (My Dennis had been a colleague and friend of Randy Shilts' former partner. I'm sorry I didn't get Randy Shilts to inscribe my copies of his several books.)

There's a general misconception about mistakes made by President Clinton at the beginning of his administration. Consenus seems to be that he blundered in choosing to deal with this policy change in the first two weeks of his Presidency. (I heard Walter Cronkite make this same assertion during a Q&A after lunch at the Summer Encampment, when I was part of the entertainment. I didn't have the nerve to contradict him, particularly at a camp with a lot of retired military officers.) The Right is very adroit at manipulating issues. They contend first that President Clinton raised the issue right away, and second, that he did so as a complete surprise to the country. Well, the fact is, candidate Clinton had mentioned during the campaign his plan to change the policy; but he had intended to wait at least six months. The only reason Clinton had to deal with it at the beginning, is that the Right Wing knew about his plan and tried to prevent its implementation. They brought it up... and were successful in blocking it. But after sixteen years, a number of opponents of Gays in the military have evolved in their thinking. Below is an Op-Ed piece from today's New York Times.

February 9, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor
By OWEN WEST

An About-Face on Gay Troops

GENERALS are scolded for preparing to fight “the last war,” but if President Obama intends to keep his promise to allow gays to serve openly in the military, he would do well to study President Bill Clinton’s attempt of 16 years ago.

The Clinton argument, based largely on protecting the civil rights of gay troops, was systematically dissected by senior officers and legislators, who focused on how the presence of homosexuals could affect combat readiness. Generals circulated videos made by conservative groups depicting “gay agendas.” Senators brought television crews into cramped berthings. Congress reached a bizarre compromise: a law rendering homosexuality incompatible with military service, but allowing gays to serve under a closet-friendly “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

The lesson for President Obama is that this fight is not about rights, but about combat readiness. This is a propitious moment for seeking change: a nation at war needs all its most talented troops. Last year the principal architects of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” former Gen. Colin Powell and former Senator Sam Nunn, said it was time to “review” the policy.

That’s a polite way of saying they’ve changed their minds. So have many of us who wore the uniform in 1993 and supported a policy that forced some of our fellow troops to live a lie and rejected thousands who told the truth.

There are other aspects of history that may be helpful as well. The armed forces initially resisted President Harry Truman’s 1948 order to integrate the ranks. But the Korean War forced trials by fire — in fact, the units with the highest casualty rates in Korea integrated the swiftest — and the Pentagon ultimately acknowledged that recruiting from across America’s socio-economic spectrum produced the best force. After that, the military swiftly set the standard for race relations.

Servicemen continue to be fierce believers in the idea that diversity equals strength, yet during the Clinton effort on gay troops most of us rejected analogies to racial integration. The homosexual threat to good order and discipline was behavioral, we argued, not physiological, and therefore unrelated.

It was a flawed argument. The underlying fears were the same as with integration: homosexuals jeopardized unit cohesion not because of their own conduct — after all, military law and command discretion encompass behavioral breaches — but because of the perceived reaction of those xenophobic troops who didn’t want to cohabitate with people different from themselves. Today, this sounds like one of the “worn-out dogmas” President Obama identified in his inaugural speech. And it does a disservice to the ranks.

Maintaining “don’t ask, don’t tell” ignores a vast social shift since 1993. Only 26 percent of Americans supported Truman’s order, so it was little wonder that desegregation stalled. When President Clinton announced his initiative, 44 percent of Americans were in favor of homosexuals serving openly, which perhaps explains the split decision of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

But today nearly 80 percent of Americans feel that way. As our troops tend to reflect the values of our society, lifting the homosexual ban will be easier now.

In addition, six years of war have clarified priorities. The battlefield has its own values, starting with courage. Sexual orientation falls somewhere below musical taste. What a person chooses to do back stateside, off-duty, in his own apartment is irrelevant in a fight. For months I lived with 12 other American advisers on an Iraqi outpost. There was a single pipe shower next to a hole that masqueraded as a sewer. But the reality of combat dominated personality quirks — nobody wondered about sexual orientation.

Most military jobs are office-based and provide sufficient individual privacy. Even in Iraq many of our fighting forces are comfortably housed with compartmentalized showers.

A 2006 poll of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans showed that 72 percent were personally comfortable interacting with gays. Bonnie Moradi, a University of Florida psychologist, and Laura Miller, a sociologist at the Rand Corporation, summarized the study this way: “The data indicated no associations between knowing a lesbian or gay unit member and ratings of perceived unit cohesion or readiness. Instead, findings pointed to the importance of leadership and instrumental quality in shaping perceptions of unit cohesion and readiness.”

The other readiness argument concerns recruiting. To fill its swelling ranks, the military now grants one in five recruits waivers for disqualifications that run the gamut from attention-deficit disorder to obesity to armed robbery convictions. In a press conference last fall, Maj. Gen. Thomas Bostick, the head of Army recruiting, said the relevant question in considering such applicants was, “Does that person deserve an opportunity to serve their country?” That’s exactly right. And to choose a felon over a combat-proven veteran on the basis of sexuality is defeatist. Ask any squad leader.

In the end, however, there is one factor that outweighs public opinion, troop morale and recruiting combined. The military is a dictatorship, not a republic. It is built to win in combat. Its strict codes of conduct ensure good order and discipline.

If “don’t ask, don’t tell” is rescinded, military leaders will ensure smooth compliance, as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, has said. Cohesion depends on leadership. Our troops will follow the lead of our combat-tested professionals who base their opinions on what a soldier brings to the fight, and little else.

Owen West, a commodities trader, served two tours in Iraq with the Marines.