Author Archive: Peter Jakobsen
Bel Canto, davvero!
Alberich monsters Mime (by Arthur Rackham)
Richard Wagner Society of South Australia – Wake for Wagner (18 for 13) February 2024 President Geoffrey Seidel welcomed, and Barbara Fergusson interviewed, tenor Andrew Goodwin. Andrew grew up in the inner west Sydney suburb of Summer Hill and after certain vicissitudes, got the opportunity, arranged by Mira Yevtich, to study at the St Petersburg State Conservatory. Since then, he has appeared in numerous roles* and performed with all the major Australian symphony orchestras, but thus far at least, in few Wagner operas (when this was pointed out, he hilariously channeled “The Fast Show” and said: “I’ll get my coat.”)…
Continue Reading →qui tacet consentire videtur
Who wants suppression, of our hearts and minds, To herd a throng assaulted? Sheep fit to bleat such that all one finds Is oppression, exalted? Open their heads and then probe inside And gasp at the lacuna. You’ll find, not affairs that rise like any tide: Vamped Fortuna. When they run astray, when their passion is all spent Context is absurd, not the Go; When he who is silent seems to shrug and feign consent The strongest word is, until Doomsday, “No.”
Continue Reading →Ring the Division Bell
Recently, we were sent an interesting take by George Monbiot, published in the Guardian, suggesting the likely Republican nominee for U.S. President this year, Donald Trump, was “king of the extrinsics.” Now we have expressed concerns about George before, but felt he deserved respectful consideration none-the-less. By ‘extrinsic,’ Monbiot did not mean a “basket of deplorables,” exactly. He wrote: “Some psychologists believe our values tend to cluster around certain poles, described as “intrinsic” and “extrinsic”. People with a strong set of intrinsic values are inclined towards empathy, intimacy and self-acceptance. They tend to be open to challenge and change, interested in…
Continue Reading →Maestro
(Directed by Bradley Cooper – Netflix, 2023) Maestro is not a biopic of Leonard Bernstein, a popular and influential conductor, composer and musicologist. We do follow his career, but high and low points are marked by whirls of scenic grabs and musical snatches. The film’s focus is on Bernstein’s long and bumpy marriage to Felicia Montealegre, going from breathless first-flush intimacy, to star couple, to cold understanding, to a final tenderness. Whilst this renders the film a little thin, putting it mildly, it succeeds upon its chosen horizon. This is due to great turns by Bradley Cooper and, in particular,…
Continue Reading →Dream Scenario
(Directed by Kristoffer Borgli, 2023) “The general function of dreams is to try to restore our psychological balance by producing dream material that re-establishes, in a subtle way, the total psychic equilibrium.” (Carl G. Jung, “Approaching the Unconscious.”) “Humani nihil a me alienum puto” (“nothing human is alien to me”) – Terence. If the ‘ Viennese quack’ (according to Nabokov) Sigmund Freud is correct, all dream content is disguised wish-fulfillment. So mind what you wish. In Dream Scenario, Professor Paul Matthews (a sublime Nicolas Cage) is a balding, middle-aged academic, the type Dirk Bogarde used to play – bright, ineffectual,…
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