Placido Domingo as Oreste Dear friends and readers, I assume no one needs me to say the Met has produced and made an HD choice of Gluck’s Iphigenie en Tauride, so we now have an 18th century play adaptation (French, Nicolas-François Guillard) to enjoy. Basic information is here. The world shrinks apace the BBC account. [...]
Archive for February, 2011
Gluck’s Iphigenie en Tauride: the HD Met production
Posted in 18th century, 20th century culture, Costume drama, Uncategorized, tagged Georges de la Tour, Gluck, Goethe, Iphigenie en Tauride, Kleist, met opera, Mrs Siddons on February 28, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Foremother Poet: Francis Power Cobbe (1822-1904)
Posted in feminism, Foremother Poetry, Travel Writing, Trollope, women's memoirs, women's poetry, women's art, tagged foremother poet, Francis Power Cobb, male violence on February 27, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Francis Power Cobbe, her own illustration for a travel piece, “A Lady’s Ride through Palestine” Dear friends and readers, This is another in my series of foremother poet blogs — whence the label “poet” when it should really be writer and splendid human being, for if the world were filled with people like Cobbe what [...]
Winston Graham’s The Miller’s Dance (Poldark 9, Cornwall 1812-13)
Posted in 18th century, historical fiction, Poldark, political novels/films, Winston Graham, tagged miller's dance, ross poldark on February 25, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Robin Ellis as a young bitter Ross Poldark (1st season); Ross still withdrawn, saturnine in the 9th novel Dear friends and readers, So I returned to Graham and his ninth Poldark, this time with some trepidation, but like The Stranger from the Sea, it opens very well. It drew me right in. I’m beginning to [...]
Nadine Trintignant’s Ma fille, Marie
Posted in 18th century, 20th century culture, feminism, French culture, French novels, women's memoirs, women's art, womens' films, tagged jean-louis trintignant, male violence, marie trintignant, Mary Trouille, nadine trintignant, wife abuse on February 20, 2011 | 11 Comments »
Marie Trintignant Dear friends and readers, I’ve just spent some two months carefully reading and reviewing a somber telling history of wife abuse in France in the 18th century by Marie Trouille: her sources are court cases, memoirs, documents, novels and statistics. Trouille’s is a book whose importance goes well beyond that of the 18th [...]
Foremother Poet: Judith Wright (1915-2000)
Posted in feminism, Foremother Poetry, Travel Writing, Trollope, women's poetry, women's art, tagged Judith Wright on February 19, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Judith Wright when young Dear friends and readers, A second foremother poet posting (the first was Anne Vavasour). I love Australian literature, art, history, the landscape, and am persuaded the angle on reality that Wright’s background gave her is part of why I love her poetry. And the tone of her mind. Her typical imagery. [...]
Tom Stoppard’s On the Razzle at the Source
Posted in 20th century culture, Plays, Theater, tagged On the Razzle, Source on February 18, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The Constellation Company forming itself into a carriage, Dear friends and readers, Another short one. Last night Jim and I went into DC to see Tom Stoppard’s witty (what that he writes is not?) farce, _On the Razzle_. It’s a re-write, re-do, adaptation, theft of an 1842 Viennese comedy by Johann Nestroy so would appear [...]
Nixon in China: contemporary political grand opera
Posted in 20th century culture, Met HDOperas, opera, politics, Theater, tagged James Maddalena, John Adams, Mark Morris, Nixon In China, the Met on February 16, 2011 | 1 Comment »
The powerful ballet Dear Friends and Readers, This past Saturday, Jim, I and Izzy saw John Adams’s Nixon in China broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera through HD technology in our local movie-house. I thought I’d send along a few electrons, a short blog, agreeing with the strong praise this opera has received in most production [...]
Foremother poet: Anne Vavasour, later Field and then Richardson (c 1560-after 1620)
Posted in European Renaissance, feminism, Foremother Poetry, Poetry, women's poetry, women's art, tagged foremother poet on February 12, 2011 | 16 Comments »
Old Woodstock Manor, Oxfordshire: Scott’s Woodstock; or, The Cavalier is set there Dear friends and readers, While last weekend for two afternoons and one morning, I saw myself at the AWP (American Women Poets) conference, an umbrella get-together for all sorts of (basically) non-commercial creative writings, I went ot the Wompo breakfast where I met [...]
Emilie de Varmont, ou le divorce necessaire by Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvray
Posted in 18th century, 18th century novels, 20th century culture, feminism, French culture, French novels, political novels/films, politics, tagged French revolution, illegitimacy, natural daughter, rape on February 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
An 18th century French wedding announcement: celebrating the new civil secular companionate egalitarian marriage ideal Dear friends and readers, As part of my project (reading around) a review of Mary Trouille’s Wife Abuse in 18th Century France, I’m reading through (half-skimming) Suzanne Desasn’s important The Family on Trial in Revolutionary France. Dezan’s is yet another [...]
