18 thoughts on ““The Charles Ives Opera Award”

  1. Moses Herzog

    To steal a line from one of America’s greatest living comedic philosophers, that’s pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty cool.

    High honors and well deserved. Congrats to “Mrs Chinn” (if that isn’t offensive in some shape or form, which I feel somehow certain some woke person will tell me it is)

  2. Macroduck

    I’m going to hit the Vimeo link this evening.

    Hope you get extra “good spouse” points for this post.

  3. ltr

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/arts/music/classical-music-youtube.html

    March 8, 2019

    Like Caravaggio before her, the Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi knew how to build scenes of taut drama with far-from-idealized figures crammed into a constricted pictorial space and bathed in harsh light. The composer Laura Schwendinger and the librettist Ginger Strand achieve something similar in their potently claustrophobic opera “Artemisia,” which received its staged premiere at Trinity Wall Street’s St. Paul’s Chapel on Thursday (and repeats on Saturday).

    Gentileschi’s life story could provide fodder for many hours of music drama. The daughter of a painter, she was raped by her teacher when she was a teenager. At a court trial, her assailant was convicted, but only after she had been subjected to torture to verify her testimony. She went on to attract the attention of Cosimo II de’ Medici, befriended Galileo Galilei and worked in London at the invitation of King Charles I.

    “Artemisia” lasts just 80 minutes, but fits in big themes set to music of quivering intensity. The story of the rape is there, blended with Gentileschi’s unbearably compassionate painting of the biblical character Susanna, who was ogled and shamed in her bath. But larger questions of idea and form, image and projection, sight and gaze also find nuanced and intelligent treatment. 

    — CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM

  4. Macroduck

    In other news…

    Peru has suffered considerable upheaval recently, including the ouster and imprisonment of President Castillo by Vice President (now President) Boluarte and the legislature. Public support for the legislature is at rock bottom and public unrest is on the rise. Something like 70 protesters have been killed by government forces.

    So it’s probably bad news that the U.S. has been invited to send troops to Peru:

    https://www.breakinglatest.news/news/congress-in-peru-authorizes-us-armed-presence/

    Reporting is thin, and I can’t find much detail. Mexico’s Lopez Obrador puts the number of U.S. troops being sent at 700, but I don’t know his source.

    Here’s a rundown of political events as of late January:

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/01/26/peru-sees-possible-transformative-change-and-us-intervention/

  5. Macroduck

    On the debt ceiling –

    Treasury Secretary Yellen has identified June 5 ( or June 6, depending on how you read it) as the likely date of default if the debt ceiling isn’t lifted:

    “Based on the most recent available data, we now estimate that Treasury will have insufficient resources to satisfy the government’s obligations if Congress has not raised or suspended the debt limit by June 5.”

    https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1506

    Congress has ten days, one day less than Senate Majority Leader Schumer has said is necessary to pass a debt ceiling bill through Congress. Those are calendar days; the House is out of town, under instruction to be able to return on one day’s notice, so knock off one day. Today’s negotiations narrowed the gap between the two sides at the table, but did not reach a deal. Right-wingers in the House are still indicating unwillingness to support what is being negotiated, though they don’t actually know what is being negotiated.

    So as things stand, McCarthy will need Democratic votes, and Schumer will have to find a way to shorten the normal period of Senate debate to make up for delays in the House. Or default. ‘Cause MAGA types have told us that’s OK.

  6. Moses Herzog

    Awards and/or membership in this group include (but obviously not limited to) Ira Glass and John Cage. Pretty much giants in music. Frances McDormand (in my opinion the greatest living actress) is a member. And in the Literature category, one of my personal favorites William Burroughs won an award in 1975. Pretty high company there. And that was just a shortlist because I’m lazy.

  7. Moses Herzog

    I was sitting on an inconspicuous throne in my house, doing a “morning chore”, and I heard some music introduced on NPR radio. It was some music made by this woman. They said it was “A folk song for piano”. But I think the host of the show made a serious blunder. He said this woman was the “mother” of Pete Seeger. I mean he said it in such a fashion it made you think she was his biological mother. But it looks like she was his stepmom. Still interesting, and she may have still had some influence on his music. But this makes you understand, if you do the family history, why Pete Seeger had such a strong inclination for music and he was so influential.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Crawford_Seeger

    She was the first female winner of the Guggenheim award. I just found it fascinating they were playing music by her on the radio not long after you guys had shared the great news with us.

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