Friday, 13 November 2009

1825 Honouring Pavarotti, Intrigue , The warrior and the slavegirl, and Merlin

To day I celebrated a meaningless personal achievement having completed the 22.3 of Luxor Majong, this recovered the Statue of Isis as I finally completed the trek across Egypt, also recovering various treasures along the way and being promoted to various positions of employment as I progressed, Because I ended the task with 4 lives I received an additional 400000 bonus points which sent the final tally to 13258200, demolishing the previous best total by some 10 million points having previous only reached level 9.1 I reckon that I have used about forty hours of precious time on the task over the past two weeks to achieve this self congratulation.

I accept it is a poor achievement but I suspect given the way our respective lives have progressed it is a feeling akin to that experienced by Luciano Pavarotti, when celebrating his three decades of performances at the Met Opera, New York, and one of the greatest tenors of the 20th century especially of you like mature powerful voices which can nevertheless communicate the sensitive and tenderest of feelings.

I say a similarity of feeling because when commenting on the occasion it was not the fine words or honour done to him which mattered, but that he was able to put in the best performance he was capable of on the particular night. I am usually hopeless as seeing what there and spotting pairs of matching tiles with unfamiliar symbols is not something I am naturally good at, although patience and persistence is something developed over the decades rather than something natural to my personality. So although the vast chasm in terms of skills and worldly recognition I reckon the sense of personal achievement was similar.

Most people in the world, unless they have to live as peasants or nomads without access to the radio will have heard the voice of Pavarotti and the majority will have at least seen his performance, along with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, as part of the three tenors concert during Italia 90.

Last night I experienced his performance at the Metropolitan Opera New York to celebrate three decades of appearances there. He played three roles from three operas in succession- the final act of L’ Elixir de Amor one of his favourites because he plays a character with whom he identifies and because of the vocal requirements of the role. This was followed by the penultimate Act of La Boheme which was the first role he ever performed after winning a competition in Italy while continuing his life as a young primary school teacher. He was not paid for the performance and his next two brought him £25 dollars each. This was however progress because he had grown up in combative poverty with his parents and their three other children in two rooms. His father a baker and an amateur tenor and his mother working in a tobacco factory. While he was influenced by Gigli and Caruso the individual who inspired his childhood was Mario Lanza, imitating his performances at the mirror when he came home from seeing the films. It was his success in the singing competition than made him decide to try and become a professional opera singer.

The final performance at the gala was the last scene from Aida and thus the gala evening included two of the operas which have influenced me so much over past weeks. At the end of the evening as the great and the good took the stage including Mayor Giuliani to name the day Luciano Pavarotti day in the city Luciano commented that when considering how to celebrate the occasion he had decided that what he wanted to do was to satisfy himself of his continuing ability to sing for that is all he ever wanted to do. He also spoke of Puccini who at the end of his life returned to his home for pasta and wine thus echoing the wisdom of the ages about what is important in life and what is not. Pavarotti was also able to die in thee town of his birth when the fight against cancer became lost

.For the first four years of his professional career he toured the opera houses of Europe but he did not become established as a leading tenor until touring Australia on the recommendation of Joan Sutherland in 1965 and it was not until 1968 that he first appeared at the Met, also La singing, La Boheme and then at La Scala in 1972. Luciano continued to perform until the end of his life dying before his 72nd birthday It was at the Winter Olympics at Turino in 2006 that he performed on the stage for the last time singing Nessum Dorma.

He was married twice with three daughters from his first marriage of 34 years and one from his second who he had married in 2003 having been his personal assistant for many years. As often happens with the death of men of wealth who have married more than once there were problems over the estate when it was found that he had made a new will which was different to the first which followed Italian law and practice. However the matter was settled between the lawyers representing the various family interests. He had owned property in Italy, Monte Carlo and three apartments in New York as well as having funds based in the USA and Italy. The family were well provided and we all have his records and DVD’s.

I had not planned to watch the Pavarotti Gala performance having decided on Renee Fleming who introduces many of the Live HD Relays but who I have not heard sing. I choose the first Opening Night Gala in which like Pavarotti she sings three Acts from three Operas and where the show was telecast live to Times Square. However for some reason I could not turn the picture into full screen and therefore abandoned and searched until coming across the Pavarotti. It was the first I had seen and heard him perform in these operas.

I had planned to write about O Lucky Man the 1970’s cult Lindsey Anderson film about aspects of the never have it so good post World Wear British Society starring Malcolm, McDowell and featuring Alan Price and his music. Unfortunately I fell asleep towards the end of last night’s Channel Four showing and very tired when I awoke made my way to bed and instant sleep. It was well after 1 am. So I will leave to another day. It does give me time to catch up with Intrigue, an excellent example of the post war approach to the Orient and the worldwide problem of the Black Market. In the cities of the UK families were used to surviving on very little as food and clothing was rationed and shops had very little to sell so that queues formed daily for whatever was available. There was always something however for those prepared to pay and who had the right connections. The film stars George Raft one of four men cashiered from the USA airforce after being caught with contraband on their plane.

Two of the four were dead as George and his dependent alcoholic comrade attempted to make a living flying freight in a ramshackle plane and ostracised by everyone he is driven to undertaking a smuggling flight of genuine US whisky. However this proves exceptionally perilous and George demands from his unknown employer a substantial increase in payment to undertake further missions. In order to get to see his boss he hijacks the whisky. He finds that the employer is a woman of undoubted sexual charm played by June Havoc. Madame Tamara Baranoff is indeed the lady from Shanghai where most films about the Orient were then set. He does a deal with the lady which includes a partnership and her personal favours much to the disgust of her former right hand man who goes off and joins her main competitor for the dark business.

This is the cue for the arrival of Linda Parker who is really Linda Arnold the sister of one of the discredited four flyers whose living parents remain emotional destroyed by what happened and the loss of her son. She has taken the job with an orphanage as a means of trying to clear his name and befriends Raft in an effort to uncover the truth. Raft likes her but is in ignorance of what happened and becomes even more embittered when his remaining colleague kills himself. He therefore embarks on his new career with enthusiasm and steals back several tons of rice which have been hijacked by the competition. Also arriving on the seen is an airforce friend of Raft who is a reporter attempting to expose those involved in Black Market and its impact upon the average citizens who sleep on the street and die of hunger. There are some heart rendering scenes at the orphanage of eastern child who speak English and like to play baseball and same heavily underlined statements about the evil nature of the trade. When the reporter discovers the identities of those involved and persuades and local editor to print the story he is mown down when an employee steals the copy and warns the competitor who in turn has a pow wow and together they first sanction the killing and that of Raft when he sees the error of his ways. Madame Baranoff and the competitors as well as her former assistant all meet appropriate ends as Raft discovers that she was behind the smuggling which got him discharged without honour from the service. He goes off to live happy ever after with the sister of his former comrade as he opens the store of food to the populace to help themselves.

The spirit of what is good and honourable also flows through a production on the latter years of St Peter played by Omar Sherriff. This has strong echoes of Quo Vadis, Demetrious and Gladiators and such like without the quality of script, acting and cinematic production. It is a blatant attempt to preach the original core value of Christianity but all too sugary to have any effect except with the already converted. It does not shy away from the barbarity and immorality of the time but somehow fails to have the edge which will have any effect, even if such films have little effect anyway. The exception being Mel Gibson’s Passion although I would be surprised if all but the already converted to a religious faith would go to see this film and which is a horror movie but not of the kind which attracts young people on weekend evenings.

The Italian film industry is understandably much into making films about the toga wearing decades and the latest in the genre is the Warrior and the Slave girl. The only true love during this period appears be between slaves and their masters! In this instance the young and upcoming son of a Senator close to the Emperor Nero fixes for his son to become the military head to Roman Consul or Armenia, ) I think) where the token King is a sickly child managed by his older and attractive sister who in turn has a chief adviser from a neighbouring nation anxious to take over the power and the riches not yet handed over to Rome. Enter the leader of the rebels who has earned his keep as a Gladiator and the requisite fiery slave girl. The young Warrior remains idealistic about Roman values which in reality never existed and frees most of the slaves and dissenting population who are in custody. The exception is the fiery slave who he packs off look after the ailing boy king suspecting something is not right and in fact he is being slowly poisoned by his older sister who pretends to be interested in the warrior as a means of gaining power of him. There are various adventures and double dealing before the Princess in stopped from taking over the throne and giving control to her advisers and his mercenaries. The ex Gladiator leader of the rebels losses his life on behalf of his people (the gladiator in the film of the life of St Peter lays down his arms and escapes with his wife and family in contrast). Also dying is the best friend of the Warrior and the midget fool, fool in the historical sense of entertainer, to the young king. The warrior and slave girl survive for each other and to protect the young king to achieve a model Roman controlled state within its empire.

I also caught up with three episodes of the second series of Merlin which included a two week episode called Beauty and the Beast which was great fun for five year old boys and the likes of me. A Troll, those who like to eat rotten food and dung and who farts at every opportunity finds with the help her serpent like assistant, the means to make her look not only beautiful but the grown up daughter of the deposed king and friend of the Prince Arthur’s father who has remained single since the loss of his wife. He is quickly besotted by the Troll in disguise who gives him a charm which makes him see her as he would like to, even when Merlin finds a way of destroying the potion which turned into a adorable human being. Everyone has great fun and five years old and the likes of me enjoyed the farting and the farcical situations.

It was a fitting end to a week of political hypocrisy.

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