Using a cell phone during a concert is considered bad manners for the audience, until now. A new Hall near Seattle is encouraging patrons to send texts and they have installed an antennae inside the hall to improve reception. Sometime in the future, you might be able to request running commentary about the performance to appear right on your phone? (this could eventually be something like the “editor’s commentary” track on a typical DVD.
click here for the article.
Here is an interesting article that speaks to the issues of the Arts and Money, that we discussed in class recently:
In the article, Jeffrey Lewis discusses the economics of being an indie folk rock “star.” Interesting that he can 1)maintain the persona of a bohemian folk -rock independent musician, 2) run his own booking office 3) supervise and produce his own recordings, 4) maintain his web site and internet presence 5) compose and perform music that people want to buy 6) do all of this with enough creative and business savvy that he owns property in the West Village and a car. And he is doing all of this without the benefit of a union job and a regular reliable paycheck. Even so, I sense the push and pull between the rival (and disparate) forces of Art and Commerce. This is a very real and ongoing aspect of EVERY art form we have encountered. It just goes along with existing in the real world.
Dear Class,
The Occupy Wall Street movement has received more and more attention in recent weeks. Our “Arts in New York” seminar is not centered on politics, but the role of politics in the cultural life of the city (and the relationship between culture and politics cultural through artists’ reactions to politics) is a significant aspect of the Arts throughout history and throughout the world. The essential battle cry of the Occupy Wall Street movement is the claim that 1% of the population hold 99% of the wealth. This sounds strangely similar to the cries of 18th century revolutionaries, who complained of a similar disparity between the aristocracy and the rest of the European world. The American and French Revolutions were a fact of the political landscape at the exact time that Mozart and DaPonte were composing their greatest works for the Viennese Aristocracy. (It is also no surprise that the “Arab Spring” uprisings have found cause in the similar disparity between the wealth of the ruling class and the general populations). We will explore the relationship between the 1% and the 99% as it relates to the Arts.
The distinctions of wealth and class have always played a profound role in the arts. The internet has served as an enormously powerful tool to bring some aspects of the arts to anyone with a computer (or mobile phone) connection, but going to the Theater, the Opera, the Symphony or a museum (and certainly OWNING art), is still (and always has been) a distinct feature of the lives of a rich upper class. (And the wealthiest class has also typically been the ruling class. This is a natural outgrowth of the most famous “Golden Rule”; “He who owns the gold, makes the rules.”
The Occupy Wall Street movement is primarily concerned with the financial disparity between the 1% and the 99%, but the movement provides an opportunity for us to explore the relation of this struggle to the arts in general, and the Arts in New York in particular.
Because of a number of events taking place this week, we will devote a class assignment to the Occupy Wall Street movement. The purpose of this exercise is to explore the movement and its meaning for us (specifically what it has to say about the relationship between art and commerce; art and wealth; art and political expression; etc.).
Here is what is going on this week:
•Monday November 14, 2011
A Conversation About The 99% Occupy Wall Street
Where: Rosenthal 230 (Library Lower Level 2)
Time: 12:15pm – 1:30pm
Meet organizers of the Occupy Wall Street Movement
Learn about the causes behind the movement
Ask questions, seek answers/ Sponsored by Queens College Provost’s Office
•Wednesday Nov. 16 – Homelessness in Focus @ Patio Room (Dining Hall) – Free Hour (12:15 – 1:30)
•Thursday Nov. 17 – OWS Teach-In from 9am – 3pm @ Patio Room
•Thursday Nov. 17 – Mobilize for Economic Justice – The PSC (the Professional Staff Congress, the union to which the Professors at Queens College belong) will take part in a peaceful, permitted rally and march that will begin at Foley Square at 5:00 PM before winding its way around City Hall and across the Brooklyn Bridge. Our members will meet at the intersection of Broadway and Worth Street at 5:00 PM, before marching together into Foley Square. Earlier in day, people’s assemblies will be held near subway stations around the boroughs, and the organizers of the march are also planning civil disobedience actions. If you are interested in being trained and participating in a planned act of civil disobedience, contact Deirdre Brill (Dbrill@pscmail.org).
•Other information available at: nycga.net * takethesquare.net * occupytogether.org * wearethe99percent.tumblr.com – click here
Here is your assignment for this week:
1 – Attend – Everyone is required to attend at least one (preferably 2) of these events and report back to the group by posting about your experience on the Blog.
2 – Research – augment the experience of attending these events by reading some of the information found on the web sites listed above, and by reading and reporting about additional articles from major news sources (print, online, etc.).
3 – Focus – Your blog post can be general in nature, or focussed on a particular aspect of the movement, (or the rallies, or the experience, or historical connections, etc.) depending on what comes up in your research. remember to focus your blog post on the issue of how the Movement reflects issues that have resonance in the arts. What does the movement have to say about the position of the arts in general and the Arts in New York, in specific?
4 – Write – The actual assignment is to create a single, detailed and substantial blog post on this topic. These posts should all be in the “Politics” category I have just created and include “Occupy Wall Street” in the title. Your blog post should include links to articles you cite. Due Date: Monday, Nov. 21.
Further plans:
1 – I will be attending the “Mobilize for Economic Justice” event in Manhattan and will be at Broadway and Worth Street on Thursday. If anyone wishes to accompany me, we can travel together, or meet there. Take my cell phone number so you can find me: 516-850-9536.
5 – I cannot attend the conversation on Monday at 12:15. I would like at least a handful of volunteers to attend that meeting and report to the class at our regular meeting on Monday at 3:05.
This is a rare opportunity to engage in a major political movement that is right outside our door. I am especially interested in exploring ways that this movement informs the questions we are asking about the Arts in New York. Your blog post should address this aspect specifically. We will relate what you learn this week to the experiences in the arts we have had already this semester.
See you on Monday. The blog post on “Occupy Wall Street and the Arts” is due by Monday Nov. 21.
Best,
ES
Prof. Edward Smaldone, Director
Aaron Copland School of Music
Queens College, CUNY
Kissena Blvd.
Flushing, NY 11367
718-997-3800
I will be posting additional instructions for next week right here at the top of the blog. I can make a particular post “sticky” which means it will remain at the top and will thus be the first thing everyone sees when they go to the site. new posts from the students will begin below my “sticky” posts. I had previously made the Don Giovanni posts (from me) “sticky” but I changed that status, so those posts have slipped down in the blog. If you need to catch up on the YouTube Don Giovanni (or the other reading in those posts) you will have to scroll down to find them. They are still there.
In the meantime, today’s Doonesbury had an interesting commentary on “Occupy Wall Street.” More on that later:
Here is an overview of the entire opera. The numbers in parentheses for Act II refer to the clip numbers on the YouTube performance referenced below – follow this link to see the rest of the opera (The YouTube performance is also the NY Metropolitan opera and James Levine! We were watching a different Levine performance, and he was supposed to be the conductor of the performance we are seeing tomorrow night! It is interesting to compare these similarly staged performances.)
Highlights summary of Don Giovanni:
ACT I –
Notte e giorno faticar – Leporello – opening scene, Don Giovanni kills the Commendatore.
Madamina, il catalogo a questo – Leporello tells Elvira she is but one of many conquests.
La ci darem la mano – Don Giovanni – seduces the peasant girl Zerlina
Bati, bati o bel Masetto – Zerlina – Zerlina asks Masetto for forgiveness (and invites him to beat her.)
Finale Act I – Mash up of morality vs. immorality, (as well as “seria” and “buffa”): the masked guests seek revenge, and the Don seeks another conquest. Both are thwarted.
ACT II –
(12) Deh vieni all finestra – Don Giovanni – trying to woo another conquest (the maid of Elvira.) Leporello has switched clothes and is pursuing Elvira. (He can’t bring himself to close the deal!) Donna Elvira asks Giovanni if he repents, as Leporello, he does (this indicates how Leporello understands real emotions of love, betrayal, and forgiveness, emotions that are beyond Giovanni’s comprehension).
(12) Meta di voi qua vadano – Masetto arrives with townspeople and Giovanni, disguised as Leporello, gives them instructions on how to pursue and punish Giovanni -acnowledging that he deserves to be punished. He then disarms Masetto and beats him, then he escapes (Leporello has much more difficulty deceiving his pursuers in a future scene.)
(13) Vendrai Carino – Zerlina sings to Masetto, acknowledging his pain and offering comfort. Zerlina offers a simple and direct manner of appeasing the physical pain of her beloved (and one assumes his emotional pain at the same time): “toca mi qua” compare this with the formal manner in which Donna Anna consoles the suffering Don Octavio.
(13) Sola, Sola, in buio loco – Elvira and Leporello. Leporello can’t close the deal, he is confronted by the “seria” characters.
(14) Pieta Signori Miei – Leporello pleads his case as an honest man. The “seria” characters are moved by his sincerity, and then he slips out the back while they are not looking.
(14) Il Mio Tesoro in tanto – Don Octavio – he is off to avenge his beloved (among the most florid and “opera seria” pieces musically: lots of flourishes and long sustained notes…) and in an ABA form reminicent of DaCapo aria form. The rigid formality of the music A, B Dacapo and coda, is a musical representation of Octavio’s rigid character and limited humanity. Thought the coda is rather expansive for the aria that precedes it.
(15) Mi Tradi Quell’Alma Ingrata – Donna Elvira, lamenting that she still has feelings for Giovanni, despite acknowledging that he is a monster. More florid melismatic singing, another example of “seria” technique.
(15/16) “O statua gentilissima – in the cemetary: Leporello – on orders of Giovanni, invites the statue – a combination of comic and serious. (inclusion of magic and the supernatural is a conceit of opera seria.
(16/17) Non mi dir, bell’idol mio – Donna Anna professes her true love for Octavio. She expresses an honorable and honest love. Here an example of “seria” emotion is not presented as ironic, or comic or one-dimensional, but Mozart’s music seems to place Anna’s situation in a formal context that still resonates with genuine emotion.
(17/18) Finale – dinner and death for Giovanni. Leporello _”I am ready to serve.” Don G. – “Since I’m paying I want to enjoy myself.” These words portray a very earth-bound relationship: he who pays the piper calls the tune (quite literally in this scene.) Leporello comments on his master’s monstrous appetite, and he does not just refer to his desire for food. (They also comment on the music, and when they get to a tune from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, Leporello comments “that is a tune I have heard too many times.” Then they adapt the tune to to sing about the food.)
Elvira comes and offers forgiveness, Don Giovanni is unmoved by any emotions. She asks him again to change his ways, he laughs. “Long live women and wine, they both bring joy to men.”
The penultimate scene with the statue of the Commendatore come to life, is the opera coming full circle. This scene recalls the same three characters from the opening, but the dynamics have shifted. Each is still holding to the same moral position, but the winner will be different this time. This music from this final scene is also prominent in the opening overture). Giovanni is unrepentant, unafraid, unrealistic and ultimately one-dimensional. He is dragged to his death, and no one mourns.
(Last) Coda – Questo E Il fin Di Chi Fa Mal – “This is what happens to those who do bad things”
Anna and Octavio come in afterwards, they hope to find him in chains for their revenge, but he is gone. Octavio would like to finally get married and have the relief he seeks, Anna want another year, he says OK. He is compliant to a fault (literally, that is his greatest fault, he yields too much where Giovanni does not yield at all.)
Elvira is going to go to a convent. Anothe one-dimensional character incapable of the balance required of a happy life.
Zerlina and Masetto will go home together and make a life. (The peasants don’t have worldy resources, but they are happier and more content.)
Leporello – will go off to the inn to find another and better master. He seems to have learned his lesson and has maintained his integrity.
The final ensemble states the morality: Such is the fate of those who do wrong. It is an especially Christian reckoning: the wicked are punished, if they do not repent. Forgiveness is available, you must ask and it will be granted. The balance of the world of Mozart is achieved and re-affirmed.
A few final thoughts:
On balance, Leporello is the most human and fully formed of all the characters. He is motivated by desire, (dresses as Don Giovanni and pursues Donna Elvira), loyalty (he keeps returning to the Don) has a strong work ethic (Notte e giorno faticar, in the end he will also seek a new master to serve), is subject to temptation (at the wedding, and with Donna Elvira);, he feels fear (in the cemetary and in the final scene), he is also repentant “the fault is mine!” (when confronted by Anna, Elvira, Zerlina, Octavio, and Masetto). Imagine if the noblemen acted with the same moral integrity. But he is also cunning (when he is confronted by all those he – and Giovanni- have wronged, he tricks them to allow his escape!).
Octavio is motivated by duty and honor, as is Donna Anna (she can’t marry Octavio until she has sufficiently honored her father’s memory by waiting.) Donna Elvira is also highly motivated by an honor code: having been used and rejected by Giovanni, her only recourse is to go into a convent. Even the Commendatore lives up to his pledge to avenge the attack on his daughter, coming back from the grave to achieve it.
When we finished class the other day, we concluded with the final scene of Act I, in which Donna Elvira, Donna Anna and Don Ottavio come as masked guests. Here is how the article you are reading summarizes this scene:
“Don Giovanni hosts a party for the villagers so that he can have an opportunity to seduce Zerlina, but he is again frustrated by the intervention of Donna Elvira, Donna Anna and her betrothed, Don Octavio.”
Not much help, really.
I think we need some additional perspective to understand this, and many of the ensuing details of the opera.
One of the features of Mozart’s Don Giovanni is the fact that he incorporates aspects of the two major operatic styles of the day: Opera Seria and Opera Buffa. As these terms indicate, operas of the day tended to be either “serious” or “comic.” Don Giovanni is referred to as a dramma giocosa because it incorporates aspects of both traditions. What is special about the opera is the manner in which it does this. Specifically, particular characters in Mozart’s opera are either “seria” or “buffa” characters. Donna Anna, Don Ottavio and the Commendatore are pretty consistently “seria.” This is especially true of Don Ottavio, who is almost comic (ironic, don’t you think) in his seriousness. Leporello is a thoroughly “buffa” character, though he occasionally displays a spark of genuine insight that we would expect from a more serious character (another interesting combination, almost the opposite of Don Ottavio!) . In this way, Mozart’s opera is actually a more accurate (and in some ways a quite modern) interpretation of human emotions. Life, and people in general, are rarely so one-dimensional that they are thoroughly “seria” or “buffa.” Mozart and Da Ponte give us a rather rich view of carnal desire, honor, loyalty, love, morality, etc. as a result. (Remember, this was the Age of the Enlightenment, but Freud and the insights of psychoanalysis was a long way off in the future.
When we were watching the finale of Act I, it was clear (as we discussed in class) that the plot was rather jumbled and unrealistic. It was, however, a rather brilliant display of the seria and buffa aspects of the opera crashing into one another in a kind of rollicking 18th century “mash-up.” Don’t be too concerned with the lack of clarity or the unrealistic aspects of the individual characters. Not only is each something of a caricature, Mozart is also having fun with the traditions of the two opera styles he is combining.
Another aspect to keep in mind, is that the audience of the day was a highly sophisticated group, who were well versed in literature, languages, theatrical traditions and the expectations of those traditions. Mozart and DaPonte toyed with their emotions by mixing seria and buffa at every turn, though Don Giovanni’s character gets what he deserves in the end, the opera has a good time exploring both good and evil and the consequences of each.
Here is a link to the second Act. If you start listening here, you just have to keep clicking to hear the remaining scenes. This is a different production than the one we were watching, so you’ll have to figure out which character is which. Remember: Don Giovanni, and Donna Anna, Donna Elvira and Don Ottavio are all aristocrats, so their costumes are the fancier ones. Leporello, Masseto, and Zerlina are lower class characters.
(After this clip concludes, you will see additional clips. click on clip number 12, then 13, etc. – up to # 18 – for the rest of the opera. You have to click on clip called “last” –not the one that will appear with “19” — for the very final scene. After Don Giovanni gets dragged down to the gates of Hell, Anna, Elvira and Octavio come back to wrap things up!)
David Honeyboy Edwards died at the age of 96. He was the last living link to the original generation of Delta (as in Mississippi Delta) Blues Musicians, including Robert Johnson. These musicians are original “source” for much of the blues, soul and rock and roll of the 20th Century. I thought it was quite interesting that he actually played himself in the movie “Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox Story.” You can read the article here. Edwards performed with Robert Johnson, acknowledged as a foundational early influence for Rock and Roll (he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame at their very first induction ceremony.) This piece is in what is call a 12-bar Blues pattern, a formula that was the basis for hundreds if not thousands of songs.
I also found some video:
http://youtu.be/_C8BaalxCjg
Here is the Cream version:
http://youtu.be/ejPi8D8LFnI
One of the ongoing assignments we will complete for this class is the blog itself. Students are required to read news of the Arts (especially the Arts in New York) via the internet and post interesting articles to share with the class. You can post a link to the article, or video and your “post” should be a short reaction to and analysis of the item you have discovered. Think of the blog post as an opportunity to tell someone about something interesting you read. Your posting MUST be in formal English, with good spelling, careful word choices and proper punctuation. This is serious writing assignment, but it should also be “fun.” Look for interesting or quirky examples of the Arts in New York to report to your colleagues. Make your response entertaining and informative, and provide a link to the original article. Your colleagues are required to read ALL posts to the blog, and respond when they have something useful or informative to add (comments that say “nice post!” don’t count.)
I will expect each of you to complete at least 20 blog postings over the course of the semester. I will also keep track of the number of comments you provide. We will use some of the postings as a springboard for class discussion, and to fill up the “word hoard” and “name dropping” pages of the blog.
One of the first steps, is to make sure you learn how to post pictures and videos. The simplest way to embed a video, is to simply copy the “embed” code into the “HTML” tab of the post window. When you copy the code, it shows up as text, but when it is posted to the blog, it shows up as the video, ready to play.
Here is a video of something I did over the summer:
