MUSIC SATURDAY - IPHIGÉNIE EN AULIDE

“Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

 
'Iphigénie en Aulide' (Iphigeneia in Aulis) is an opera in three acts by Christoph Willibald Gluck, the first work he wrote for the Paris stage. The libretto was written by Leblanc du Roullet and was based on Jean Racine’s tragedy “Iphigénie”. It was premiered on 19 April 1774 by the Paris Opéra in the second Salle du Palais-Royal.
 

Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck (2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years. With a series of radical new works in the 1760s, among them ‘Orfeo ed Euridice’ and ‘Alceste’, he broke the stranglehold that Metastasian opera seria had enjoyed for much of the century.
 

The strong influence of French opera in these works encouraged Gluck to move to Paris, which he did in November 1773. Fusing the traditions of Italian opera and the French national genre into a new synthesis, Gluck wrote eight operas for the Parisian stages. One of the last of these, ‘Iphigénie en Tauride’, was a great success and is generally acknowledged to be his finest work. Though he was extremely popular and widely credited with bringing about a revolution in French opera, Gluck’s mastery of the Parisian operatic scene was never absolute, and after the poor reception of his ‘Echo et Narcisse’ he left Paris in disgust and returned to Vienna to live out the remainder of his life.
 

“ ‘Iphigénie en Aulide’ did not prove popular at first, although its overture was applauded generously from the start. [After the premiere] it was billed on 22, 24 and 29 April only to have its first run interrupted by the 1 May to 15 June 1774 closing of the theatre on account of the illness and death of Louis XV ...The opera was not returned to the stage until 10 January 1775, but it was revived annually in 1776-1780, 1782-1793, 1796-1824. It was mounted in Paris more than 400 times in this interval of 50 years.” It eventually turned out to be Gluck’s most frequently performed opera in Paris.
 

For the 1775 revival, Gluck revised Iphigénie en Aulide ... introducing the goddess Diana (soprano) at the end of the opera as a dea ex machina, and altering and expanding the divertissements. So, broadly speaking, there are two versions of the opera; but the differences are by no means so great or important as those between “Orfeo ed Euridice” and “Orphée et Euridice” or between the Italian and the French “Alceste”.
 

The plot has as follows: Calchas, the great seer, prophesies that King Agamemnon must sacrifice his own daughter, Iphigenia, in order to guarantee fair winds for the king’s fleet en route to Troy –- a demand that comes from the goddess Diana herself. Throughout the opera, Agamemnon struggles with the terrible choice between sparing his daughter's life and ensuring his subjects’ welfare.
 

Agamemnon summons his daughter to Aulis, the port where the Greek navy is gathering, ostensibly for her to marry Achilles, the great warrior hero. Then, reconsidering his decision to sacrifice her, the king tries to prevent her arriving with the fabricated explanation that Achilles has been unfaithful. Iphigenia, however, has already reached the Greek camp accompanied by her mother Clytaemnestra. The two women are dismayed and angered by Achilles’ apparent inconstancy, but he eventually enters declaring his enduring love for the girl, and the first act ends with a tender scene of reconciliation.
 

The wedding ceremony is due to be celebrated and festivities take place with dances and choruses. When the couple are about to proceed to the temple, however, Arcas, the captain of Agamemnon’s guards, reveals that the king is awaiting his daughter before the altar in order to kill her. Achilles and Clytaemnestra rush to save the girl from being sacrificed. Agamemnon finally seems to give up his plan to kill her.
 

The third act opens with a chorus of Greeks: They object to the king’s decision in case they are never allowed to reach Troy, and demand the ceremony be celebrated. At this point, Iphigenia resigns herself to her fate, and offers her own life for the sake of her people, while Clytaemnestra entreats the vengeance of Jupiter upon the ruthless Greeks. As the sacrifice is going to be held, however, Achilles bursts in with his warriors and the opera concludes with Gluck’s most significant revision of the original myth: Calchas’ voice rises over the general turmoil and announces that Diana has changed her mind about the sacrifice and consents to the marriage. In the second 1775 version Diana appears personally to consecrate both the wedding and Agamemnon’s voyage.
 

Here is the complete opera with De Nederlandse Opera (September 2011) with Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble – Directed Marc Minkowski and staging by Pierre Audi. Iphigénie: Véronique Gens; Diane: Salomé Haller; Agamemnon: Nicolas Testé; Clytemnestre: Anne Sofie von Otter; Achille: Frédéric Antoun.
 

http://youtu.be/XglTn41I7ok

GUILT-FREE CHOCOLATE CAKE

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” - Charles M. Schulz
 

Now that the holidays are over and we have had the rather rich fare of the Christmas and New Year festivities, we should be easing into a healthier diet. This chocolate cake recipe has reduced fat content and is a healthier, but tasty, option than the fully-fledged, butter-rich version.
 

GUILT-FREE CHOCOLATE CAKE

Ingredients – Cake
2 large eggs
2 large egg whites
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup fruit purée fat replacement (see below)
1/3 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons instant coffee granules
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 and 3/4 cups sugar
 

Ingredients – Fruit purée fat replacement
Purée 2/3 cup pitted prunes (or equal amounts of prunes and dried apples) and 1/3 cup water in a blender or processor until smooth. Add 1 tablespoon each of lemon juice and lecithin granules (available in health food stores) and blend again.
The dark colour and strong flavour of this fat replacement make it best suited to chocolate-based or heavily spiced baked goods. To replace 1/2 cup butter, use 1/3 cup prune purée (makes 1 cup purée).
 

Ingredients – Glaze
2 tablespoons chopped hazelnuts, or almonds
3 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons low-fat milk
 

Method
Prepare fruit purée fat replacement.

To make cake: Preheat oven to 165°C. Coat a 12-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray.
Place eggs and egg whites in a large mixing bowl and set bowl in a pan of hot water; stir occasionally to warm eggs.

Meanwhile, sift flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl. Set aside.
Whisk buttermilk, fruit purée, oil, coffee granules and vanilla in another medium bowl. Set aside.
Remove bowl of eggs from water. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed. Gradually add sugar. Increase mixer speed to high and continue beating until mixture is thick and pale, about 5 minutes.
Alternately fold the reserved dry ingredients and buttermilk mixture into egg mixture with a rubber spatula, making 3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 additions of buttermilk mixture. Scrape the batter into prepared pan.
Bake until top springs back when touched lightly and cake shrinks away slightly from sides of pan, 50 to 60 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Loosen edges and invert cake onto rack. Cool completely.
To make glaze and finish cake: Spread nuts in a shallow pan and bake in a 325°F oven until fragrant, 5 to 7 minutes. Let cool.
Combine chocolate and milk in a small heavy saucepan; heat over low heat, stirring, until glaze is smooth, and coat cake.
 

This post is part of the Food Friday meme,

and also part of the Food Trip Friday meme.

MUSICAL BIRTHDAYS

“I don’t know anything about music. In my line you don’t have to.” - Elvis Presley
 
Today is the anniversary of the birth of:
Lowell Mason, hymn composer (1792);
William Wilkie Collins, writer (1824);
Frank Doubleday, publisher (1862);
John Curtin, Australian Prime Minister (1885);
Jaromir Weinberger, composer (1896);
Dennis (Yates) Wheatley, novelist (1897);
Ron Moody (Ronald Moodnick), actor (1928);
Elvis (Aaron) Presley, singer (1935);
Shirley Bassey, singer (1937);
Little Anthony, singer (1940);
Stephen Hawking, physicist (1942);
Yvette Mimieux, actress (1942);
David Bowie (David Robert Jones), singer/actor (1947).
 
Laburnum, Laburnum anagyroides, is the birthday flower for this day.  It symbolises pensive beauty and in the language of flowers it carries the message: “Forsaken”.  All parts of the plant are poisonous.
 
Plough Monday was celebrated in Northern and Eastern England as the first day after the holidays when ploughing and other farm labours could begin.

            Plough Monday, next after the Twelfth Day is past.

            Bids out with the plough: the worst husband is last.
 
A “Fool Plough” procession was often carried out on this day when young farm labourers called Plough Jags, Plough Boys or Stots, as they were called, paraded through the streets. Sword dances were common, often culminating in a mock execution of a “victim”, who was invariably revived afterwards.  Such traditions can be linked to ancient fertility rituals to ensure good crops.  In particular, the ancient Greek Eleusinian mysteries in honour of Demeter, involved the ritual “sacrifice” of a youth to assure the success of that year’s crops.
 
On this day in 1896, Paul Verlaine, the French poet died. He took 20 years to sell 500 copies of his Poèmes Saturnias. He briefly taught in a school in Bournemouth in England, but returned to France where he drank heavily and died in poverty.
 
Also died on this day in 1198, Celestine III (Hyacinth Bobo), Pope of Rome died while in 1713, Arcangelo Corelli, the Italian violinist and composer expired. Another Italian, Galileo Galilei died on this day in 1642. He was a mathematician and astronomer, whose observations led him to accept the Copernican heliocentric solar system, invoking the wrath of the inquisition.

POETRY JAM - FIRE

 “Love in its essence is spiritual fire.” - Lucius Annaeus Seneca
 

Poetry Jam this week has chosen the theme of “Fire” to stimulate our creative writing endeavours: “However you want to write it, let the emotion and memories of fire flood over you and write how you feel when the word ‘Fire’ is spoken out loud.”
Here is my offering:
 

The Burning
 

The fire burnt my house
The smoke stifled my breath;
The flames licked my memories,
The tablet wiped clean.
 

Wind-carried sparks surround me
Igniting my flammable mementos.
The embers glow, the hot ash flies
My place of refuge, now a hell.
 

All’s lost up in smoke,
My eyes are blinded by my fears,
My tears making of the flames
A watery incineration.
 

The earth is roasted dry,
Even the air is fire-red.
My house no more a haven
My home no more.
 

My pockets empty,
All that I have the clothes I wear.
My mind is desiccated
All dreams have sublimated.
 

The fire burns, the flames destroy:
All my possessions charred and gone;
The fire cauterising wounds
It, itself, has opened.
 

The fire robbed me of my home,
The smoke asphyxiated me.
My souvenirs are smoke
All of my pages, ash now.
And yet you live, I still have you by my side,
The things lost, no more important than fallen leaves.
Stand by my side, hold my hand, and hope,
For the fire in our hearts, can make of this barren, deathly place
A paradise, again.

MOVIE MONDAY - MAN ON A LEDGE

“Crime butchers innocence to secure a throne, and innocence struggles with all its might against the attempts of crime.” - Maximilien Robespierre
 
We recently watched a good action thriller, which kept us amused on a rainy afternoon. It was Asger Leth’s 2012 “Man on a Ledge” starring Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell, Ed Harris and Genesis Rodriguez. Although there are plot holes in the screenplay by Pablo F. Fenjves, and although the ending is predictable, the movie kept us engaged and there was enough humour interspersed with the action and tension to make it an interesting and enjoyable film.
 
In Sing Sing prison, Nick Cassidy (Worthington), an ex-cop now a con, is informed that his appeal is denied by the court. When his father dies, Nick receives authorisation to go to the funeral escorted by two policemen. However, he has a fight with his estranged brother Joey Cassidy (Bell) and Nick manages to escape in the scuffle. Nick takes on an assumed identity and becomes a guest on a 21st floor room of the Roosevelt Hotel in New York. After leaving a suicide note protesting his innocence, he climbs onto the building ledge through the room window and threatens to jump off, attracting a crowd on the street below.
 
The negotiator Lydia Mercer (Banks) is assigned to convince the unknown jumper to give up his intention to commit suicide. Meanwhile Nick’s brother, Joey and his girlfriend Angela Maria ‘Angie’ Lopez (Rodriguez) break into David Englander’s (Harris) office building and the secure safe room to commit a heist. Nick claims innocence to Lydia and asks her to give him more time to prove that he is innocent of the crime he is accused. Lydia believes that Nick is honest and decides to investigate his claims. Meanwhile the special forces are called in to remove Nick off the ledge by force and several police officers become embroiled in what appears to be complicated story. Is Nick innocent or is he in cahoots with his crim brother? Is Nick’s partner cop, Mike (Anthony Mackie) a friend or a foe? Why did Nick choose the Roosevelt Hotel owned by Englander to stage his suicide? Does Nick intend to jump off the ledge at all?
 
The pace of the film is rapid and there are enough action scenes to keep friends of this genre very happy. There are some plot twists and the flash-backs and flash-forwards are done well, not at all confusingly. The characters and their parts in the plot are revealed as we the movie progresses, with plenty to keep the viewer on the edge of their seat as Nick dangles precariously on his ledge. This is definitely NOT a movie for acrophobics as there many dizzying views of the long way down from the ledge and Nick does slip a few times risking to fall off. The direction is good and the acting also very good.
 
It is a typical dick-flick, but with a lot of redeeming features. Many critics were rather caustic about this film, including Worthington’s lapse into an Australian accent (which we enjoyed!). The movie does not pretend to be something that it is not, and is thus good entertainment. This is something that the public recognised and the worldwide box-office revenue was a respectable $46 million. It kept us interested and amused and as the story unfolded we chuckled and gasped at the appropriate places.

ART SUNDAY - RAOUL DUFY

“In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
 
Raoul Dufy (1877 - 1953) was a French artist, who was born on June 3, 1877 in Le Havre, France and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, as well as with Othon Friesz and Lhuillier. Although inspired by Matisse and resembling him in his devotion to rhythmic line, pure color and decorative effects, Dufy was a painter of great independence and originality.
 
During the first half of the 20th century, the Fauves, the Cubists, and the Surrealists dominated the art of France. Throughout all of these developments, Dufy went on painting the most highly civilised subjects he could find, the elegant holiday places and events of the rich.
 
Dufy’s palette and his taste for beauty eventually led him to the world of fashion and fabric design. He formed a close relationship with the couturier Paul Poiret, for whose fashion house he designed a logo; he also designed silk fabrics. This association bought him financial security. He eventually became one of the most sought-after illustrators of his day and designed sets and costumes for the theatre as well as upholstery and wallpaper.
 
One of the largest paintings of modern times was the gigantic mural done by Raoul Dufy for the pavillion of electricity at the 1937 International Exposition in Paris. The finished work, depicting the history and importance of electricity to the 20th century, was 197 feet wide and 33 feet high. Dufy christened it “La Fée Électricité” (shown above).
 
After the Exposition closed, Dufy’s mural, too big for exhibition, was stored away from public view in 250 sections. Dufy worried about its neglect and sought some way to keep his gigantic work on view. The answer was provided by a Paris publisher, who proposed that Dufy reproduce the mural as a color lithograph. Dufy set to work in 1951 and shortly before his death in 1953 completed the most ambitious lithography project ever undertaken: Three feet high by twenty feet wide, done in twenty-two colours and printed in ten sheets.
 
He was devoted to America and the American scene, to which he paid two visits. The latter of these visits was in 1951, for medical treatment of his arthritis. Crippling as his ailment was, Dufy did not allow it to halt his work or to diminish his great joy in life. Treatment of his arthritis by injecting cortisone improved his condition so much that he was able to return to his farmhouse in Provence where he painted several hours a day. He died in 1953 at the age of seventy-five.

MUSIC SATURDAY - ALBICASTRO

“If I could I would always work in silence and obscurity, and let my efforts be known by their results.” - Emily Brontë
 

Giovanni Henrico Albicastro was the pseudonym of Johann Heinrich von Weissenburg (c. 1660 – after 1730), a talented amateur musician who published his compositions pseudonymously. Albicastro came from the village of Bieswangen, near Pappenheim in central Bavaria, not far from the village of Weissenburg (“White Castle”, thus “Albicastro”). Johann Gottfried Walther included Albicastro in his Musicalisches Lexicon (1732) under the mistaken supposition that Albicastro came from Switzerland; consequently he has often been included in lists of Swiss musicians. He might be classified as a Bavarian-born composer of Italian music that was published in both the Protestant and Catholic Low Countries.
 

In 1686 Weissenburg arrived in Leiden, in the Netherlands, where he registered at the University of Leiden as a Musicus Academiae, but his name does not appear in the university’s archives. In 1696 a collection of twelve of his trio sonatas appeared, entitled Il giardino armonico sacro-profano (“The Sacred-Profane Harmonic Garden”), Opus 3. Edited by Francois Barbry, it was published in Bruges by Francois van Heurck; no copies of the last six, or of Albicastro's opus 1 or opus 2 from Bruges seem to have survived.

In Amsterdam a separate set of opus numbers were published by Estienne Roger: Collections of violin sonatas (Opp. 2, 3, 5, 6 and 9), trio sonatas (Opp. 1, 4 and 8), and string concertos (Op. 7) in a Corellian idiom. During the last phases of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1713), he served as a captain of cavalry. He remained active in this position until 1730, the last that is heard of him.
 

Here are his complete opus 7 concertos, played by Collegium Marianum & Collegium 1704 Riccardo Masahide Minasi, principal violin Václav Luks, harpsichord & direction Luca Giardini, Eleonora Machová, Markéta Knittlová, Edouardo Garcia Salas - violin I Lenka Koubková, Jan Hádek, Lenka Zelbová, Petr Zemanec - violin II Josef Fiala Donate Schack, Katerina Trsnavská - viola Marek Štryncl, Detmar Leertouwer, Doris Runge - cello Xenia Löffler, Meike Güldenhaupt - oboe Jan Krigovský, Ondřej Štajnochr - double bass Evangelina Mascardi – theorbo.

The illustration is Poussin’s “Landscape with a Calm Lake (1650/1651).

FOOD FRIDAY - VEGETABLE SOUP

“Go vegetable heavy. Reverse the psychology of your plate by making meat the side dish and vegetables the main course.” - Bobby Flay
 

We are experiencing a bout of cool, rainy weather in Melbourne at the moment. As the temperature is low, it is a good idea to revert to some nice soup for a light dinner. Use your own resources and seasonal vegetables to make this a year-round treat.
 

Pureed Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
 

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme or parsley
6 cups chopped potatoes, broccoli, carrots, beans (or whatever other vegetables you have)
2 cups water
4 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
Pinch of ground mace
 

Method
Heat butter and oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat until the butter melts. Add onion and celery; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 4 to 6 minutes.
Stir in vegetables and cook for a few minutes to coat with oil and brown slightly.
Add garlic and thyme (or parsley); cook, stirring, until fragrant, about a minute or two.
Add water and broth; bring to a lively simmer over high heat. Reduce heat to maintain a rollicking simmer and cook until very tender.
Puree the soup in batches in a blender until smooth. (Use caution when pureeing hot liquids.) Stir in cream, salt, mace and pepper.
Serve with some crusty bread and butter.
 

This post is part of the Food Friday meme,

and also part of the Food Trip Friday meme.

URBAN GARDENS

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” - Marcus Tullius Cicero
 

Living in the city certainly has its advantages. Our society is becoming increasingly urbanised and therefore governments tend to look after city dwellers better than they do country dwellers – after all that’s where most of the votes are. A city can offer convenience in transportation, shopping, amenities, services, facilities, entertainment, sporting venues, etc, etc. The down side of all of this of course is that we are becoming crowded into smaller and smaller spaces, with a decreased privacy, more liable to the effects of excessive noise, pollution, congestion, crime, etc, etc.
 

One of the greatest things that city dwellers may need to sacrifice is the pleasure of natural ambience, be it the wide open spaces of the great outdoors or the tamed natural space of a garden. Sure enough there may be parks in a city and some houses may be lucky enough to have a garden, but for the most part, in most large cities around the world, the opportunity to interact with nature may be limited.
 

I consider myself exceedingly lucky to live in a major metropolis (Melbourne has a population of 4.25 million, and it also has the fastest growing population rate amongst all Australian capital cities), but still be able to enjoy the pleasures of an urban garden. Our garden is a sanctuary, a space where we can enter and unwind, observe the change of the seasons, and be able to extend our activities into, as weather allows. It is a place where we can plant and cultivate – flowers for our vases, herbs for the kitchen pot and even a few seasonal vegetables: Tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchinis, lettuce, Spring onions, spinach, silverbeet, according to the season.
 

We are gradually being surrounded by increased housing density. Single dwellings in our street are being demolished and in their place there are multi-dwelling developments being built. Units, flats, apartment buildings. It is sad to see the gardens gradually disappearing and what once was a green suburb become a place of concrete and multi-storey (generally ugly) buildings. Such is the way of urban agglomerations, human greed and increasingly lax building regulations that allow more and more people to live in smaller and smaller spaces. At the current rate, it looks like Melbourne will become more like another of the overseas ugly large modern cities with great aggregations of multi-storey apartment buildings everywhere.
 

When we lived in Athens, our suburb was green and gardens were not infrequently seen. Now visiting Athens one doesn’t recognise the place of old. Athens has become a large, sprawling concrete jungle. Only the very rich and privileged can afford dwellings with gardens. Melbourne is marching down the same path, unfortunately.
 

For the present, we can enjoy our garden, our urban oasis and be grateful that we are able to maintain it against the overdevelopment that is surrounding us. Inevitably of course, even our little Eden will disappear and concrete will be found where now there roses blooming…

NEW YEAR'S DAY

“Celebrate what you want to see more of.” - Tom Peters
 
New Year’s Day: The Romans introduced the custom of celebrating the beginning of the year on January 1st in 46 BC.  They called this celebration the January calendae, and they decorated their houses with lights and greenery for the three days that the festivities lasted. People exchanged gifts that were carefully chosen so as to ensure the propitiousness of the year ahead. Gifts of honey and sweets were given and meant that one wished the receiver to have a year of peace and sweetness; gifts of money or gold meant that the year would be prosperous; while giving lamps or candles meant that the year would be filled with light and happiness.  The emperor also received gifts from the citizens to wish him a happy year ahead.
 
This tradition was adopted by the countries that Rome had subjugated. In England, for example, the feudal lords received samples of produce from the peasants tilling their land.  The lords in turn sent to the King something more valuable (gold was always a popular gift!).  Amongst the common people a traditional New Year’s Day gift was a dried orange stuck with cloves and a sprig of rosemary tied with silk ribbons.
 
Many Englishmen used to give their wives money so that they could buy pins for the whole year ahead. Before the industrial revolution of the 1800s, pins and needles were very expensive as they were hand-made. After the 1800s when pins and needles were mass-produced, the custom disappeared, but the term pin-money is still used to describe money set aside for minor personal expenses.
 
Handsel Monday, the first Monday in the New Year, was a great holiday in Scotland in olden times. It was devoted to the giving and receiving of presents or money.  Handsel refers to a gift at the commencement of a new season, some new beginning or the enduing of some new garment. Farmers used to treat their workers to a hearty breakfast on this day and young children visited their parents and relatives requesting a gift.  Postmen, deliverers of newspapers and other neighbourhood providers of various services also expected some sort of present, this “handsel” being the equivalent of the Boxing Day gift in England (see December 26th).  “Handsel Money” can also refer to the first (and hence lucky) sum of money a trader receives at the beginning of the trading day.  This tradition is still very much alive and well in Greece and many of the Near Eastern countries.
 
St Basil was one of the Fathers of the Greek Orthodox Church. He was born in Caesarea (now, in Turkey) in the fourth century AD and during his life he sailed to Greece, where he was active, until his death on the 1st of January.  Many legends relating to his life commemorate his kindness to children.  This has led to the custom of gift giving on New Year’s Day in Greece.  St Basil thus has a similar role to the Santa Claus of other nations.  Being the first day of the year, tradition has it that one must receive money on this day (and hence continue to receive it everyday of that year!).  This is the Greek custom of the “bonamas” (a term perhaps related to the Italian buon anno or even the French bonne âme), a monetary gift to friends and relatives.
 
The vassilopitta, St Basil’s Cake, is another Greek tradition, and this is a sweet, raised yeast cake which contains a silver or gold coin (depending on the family’s finances!).  The father of the family cuts the cake after the New Year is heralded in and distributes the pieces in strict order: First, one for the Saints, then one for the House, then one for each member of the family, from the most senior to the youngest child. Then pieces for the guests, livestock and then for the poor, the remainder being for the “house”.  The person finding the lucky coin is assured of luck for the rest of the year.
 
The tradition of the “first foot” or podhariko is widespread in Greece, as it is in some other European countries, and the British Isles.  This involves the first visitor to enter the house on New Year’s Day.  He sets the pattern of good or bad luck that will enter the house for the year.  The luckiest first foot is a dark-haired stranger who must be male.  Unlucky first foots are female, red or blond-haired, cross-eyed, with eyebrows that meet across the nose.  The first foot must have been outside the house before midnight and must enter the house any time after the clock has struck midnight, as long as he is the first to come in.  Good luck is ensured if the “first foot” brings with him some token gift, a loaf of bread symbolising sustenance for the whole year, coal or wood symbolising warmth or a few coins or some salt, symbolising prosperity.
 
Other Greek traditional sweets for New Year’s Day (except the vassilopitta) are melomakarona (honey macaroons) and dhiples (thin, crisply fried pancakes served with honey and crushed nuts).  A renewal of the water in the house is another custom.  Fresh spring water is drawn and taken into the house on New Year’s morning as St Basil’s Water. This is used to fill ewers, jugs, vases and other containers, thus blessing the house for the whole year.
 
Carolling is popular and the carollers must be given some money to ensure prosperity for the coming year.  The carol sung is the New Year’s kalanda (from the Latin calendae, first day of the month). The carollers often hold a model of a sailing ship, beautifully made and decorated, symbolising St Basil’s ship on which he sailed to Greece. They accompany themselves with steel triangles, drums, fifes and other folk instruments while going around from house to house. Here is the Greek New Year’s Carol:

HAPPY 2014!

“In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, never in want.” Irish toast
 
“Resolve to make at least one person happy every day, and then in ten years you may have made three thousand, six hundred and fifty persons happy, or brightened a small town by your contribution to the fund of general enjoyment.” Sydney Smith
 
“The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.” G. K. Chesterton
 
“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.” T. S. Eliot
 
“Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each New Year find you a better man.” Benjamin Franklin
 
May what you see in the mirror delight you, and what others see in you delight them. May you live until you love and love until you live. May someone love you enough to forgive your faults, be blind to your blemishes, and tell the world about your virtues. May your path be straight and wide and easily trod; and if the path become hard and stony, may your shoes be strong enough to tread it to its end. May you have health and peace and happiness and a ripe old age. May you live until you want to and want to as long as you live.
 

Happy New Year to everyone!

MOVIE MONDAY - DJANGO UNCHAINED

“You don’t fight racism with racism, the best way to fight racism is with solidarity.” - Bobby Seale
 
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. His films have been characterised by nonlinear storylines, satirical subject matter, and an aestheticisation of violence that often results in the exhibition of neo-noir characteristics. Tarantino has been dubbed a “director DJ”, comparing his stylistic use of mix-and-match genre and music infusion to the use of sampling in DJ exhibits, morphing a variety of old works to create a new one.
 
Tarantino grew up an avid film fan and worked in a video rental store while training to act. His career began in the late 1980s, when he wrote and directed “My Best Friend’s Birthday”, the screenplay of which formed the basis for “True Romance”. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with the release of “Reservoir Dogs” in 1992; regarded as a classic and cult hit, it was called the ‘Greatest Independent Film of All Time’ by Empire magazine. Its popularity was boosted by the release of his second film, 1994's “Pulp Fiction”, a neo-noir crime film that became a major critical and commercial success, widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. Paying homage to 1970s blaxploitation films, Tarantino released “Jackie Brown” in 1997, an adaptation of the novel “Rum Punch”.
 
Tarantino’s films have gained both critical and commercial success. He has received many industry awards, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards, the Palme d’ Or, has been nominated for an Emmy and a Grammy, and has been named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine in 2005. Filmmaker and historian Peter Bogdanovich has called him “…the single most influential director of his generation”.
 
Last weekend we watched Tarantino’s 2012 “Django Unchained”, starring  Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio. This is an offbeat “Western”, set in the Deep South, two years before the American Civil War. This gives Tarantino ample scope for making a brutal, bloody, terrifying, hilarious and awe-inspiring film masquerading as a buddy movie. Akin to “spaghetti Westerns” this movie is a “gumbo Southern”.
 
The first half of the film takes place on the road from Texas to Mississippi as bounty hunting dentist Dr. King Schultz (Waltz) recruits a slave named Django (Foxx) to help him find three outlaw brothers known by appearance to Django alone. After Django helps Schultz with his job, it’s time for the doctor to aid his partner to rescue Django’s wife Broomhilda, who resides at “Candyland”, an antebellum plantation run by the sinister and sadistic Calvin Candie (DiCaprio).
 
The film is excessive on all counts and there are points of awkward humour, lots of bloody, gory violence and much pandering to populist racist/anti-racist sentiment. At 165 minutes, it is a long and meandering film, yet it has its moments and it does manage to keep interest up through a number of devices – plot twists, violence, character surprises, oddball humour, violence, playing on our expectations and did I mention violence? The movie is a western, a drama, a tragedy, a comedy, an action, a thriller, a parody, an anti-racist paean, and in its heart a romance as well. Typical Tarantino, with a cherry on top.
 
Not surprisingly, the film has polarised viewers. We saw it and were engaged by it, although some scenes were quite horrific and did not please us at all. If you can’t stomach violence this film is not for you. The idea behind the film was interesting and Tarantino’s screenplay showed originality – in answer to his critics perhaps, that his movies are derivative and a rehash of old ideas in new garb. The film is not in the best of taste, but somehow engages and the viewer watches helplessly. I am loth to recommend it, and yet will do so – watch it if you have a strong stomach and can cope with strong themes and colourful language.

ART SUNDAY - RAPHAEL SOYER

“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower
 
Raphael Soyer (1899 - 1987), was a Russian-born American artist, best known for his compassionate, naturalistic depictions of urban subjects. His sensitive, penetrating portrayals include a broad range of city dwellers: Bowery bums, dancers, seamstresses, shoppers, office workers and fellow artists. Historically, Soyer is associated with the social realist artists of the 1930s, whose art championed the cause of social justice.
 
Born in Tombov, Russia in 1899, Soyer emigrated with his family to the United States in 1912. His siblings included a twin brother, Moses, and a brother, Isaac, who both became successful artists. After settling with his family in New York City, the young Soyer pursued an art education at Cooper Union from 1914 to 1917, at the National Academy of Design from 1918 to 1922, and intermittently at the Art Students League.
 
Soyer was referred to as an American scene painter. He is identified as a Social Realist because of his interest in men and women viewed in contemporary settings which included the streets, subways, salons and artists’ studios of New York City, although he avoided subjects that were particularly critical of society. He also wrote several books on his life and art. Soyer’s earliest work was consciously primitive in manner.
 
Until the late 1920s, he typically used frontal presentations, shallow pictorial space and figures rendered in caricature. Later, he developed a brushy, more gestural style that was tonal rather than coloristic. These early works are reminiscent of the paintings of Edgar Degas. Soyer’s interest in depicting his urban environment was expressed early in his career in works such as “Sixth Avenue” (ca. 1930-1935, Wadsworth Athenaeum).
 
As the Depression continued, the artist turned more and more to subjects directly related to the prevailing economic difficulties. One result of the mass unemployment of the 1930s that caught Soyer’s imagination was the new role of independent working women. Hemmed in by the crowd, the self-absorbed women in “Office Girls” (1936, Whitney Museum of American Art) are shown walking to or from work. Soyer’s sympathetic study of unemployed men in “Transients” (1936, University of Texas) is an example of a less propagandistic social realist work. In addition to paintings, he executed a number of lithographs of Depression scenes.
 
Soyer developed his subjects from New York City’s poorer sections. Unlike the painters of the Ashean School 25 years earlier, Soyer and his contemporaries did not view the city as a picturesque spectacle. Instead, they dwelt on the grim realities of poverty and industrialisation. Soyer’s work, however, is less issue-oriented than that of fellow social realist artists Philip Evergood and Ben Shahn.
 
After 1940, Soyer began to concentrate on the subject of women at work or posing in his studio. His technique grew more sketchy during the 1950s, but in his ambitious painting “Homage To Eakins” (1964-1965, National Portrait Gallery), he rendered the figures in a manner typical of his early work. Between 1953 and 1955, he edited “Reality”. He later wrote “Painter’s Pilgrimage” (1962), “Homage to Thomas Eakins” (1966), “Self-Revealment: A Memoir” (1969) and “Diary of an Artist” (1977).
 
In 1967, Soyer was given a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and his paintings have been displayed at many museums and galleries. He has taught at the Art Students League, the New School and the National Academy of Design in New York City.
 
In his “A Railroad Station Waiting Room” painted around 1940 (Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC), we see a scene reminiscent of Daumier. An acute observation of ordinary people caught by the artist in an everyday situation. The linear composition framing the heads works well and allows the viewer to look at them all in succession. Each face tells a story and the props that surround them bring that story alive. The dark, sombre grays and browns are highlighted by the green striped wall and the splashes of colour here and there. The red headscarf of the young woman seeking work is a ray of hope, as is the baby in pink. However, when one looks at the older men further to the right, despair is seen. The yawning woman and the plump man look as though they are better off and hence in another compartment. The painting is social realism and depicts the issues of the day well.

MUSIC SATURDAY - BONONCINI

“Where words fail, music speaks.” - Hans Christian Andersen
 
Antonio Maria Bononcini (18 June 1677 – 8 July 1726) was an Italian cellist and composer, the younger brother of the better-known Giovanni Bononcini.
 
Bononcini was born and died at Modena in Italy. Like his brother, he studied with Giovanni Paolo Colonna. Between 1690 and 1693, he played in the orchestra of Cardinal Pamphili. In 1698 he composed an allegory, “La Fama Eroica”, for performance in Rome. He worked for some years with his brother, and joined him in the court orchestra at Vienna, where in 1705 he became Kapellmeister to the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI.
 
In 1713 he returned to Italy, where he worked in Milan, Naples and Modena. In 1721 he became the maestro di cappella in Modena, where he remained for the rest of his life. In addition to his stage works, he composed over 40 cantatas (most of them for solo voice and harpsichord), as well as sacred music including a Mass in G minor, a Stabat Mater in C Minor, and a Salve Regina.
 
Here are his Mass in G Minor and the Stabat Mater, performed by Concerto Italiano, directed by Rino Alessandini, with Silvia Frigato and Raffaella Milanesi, sopranos, Andrea Arrivabene, countertenor, Elena Biscuola and Sara Mingardo, contraltos, Raffaele Giordani and Valerio Contaldo, tenors, and Salvo Vitale, bass.

FOOD FRIDAY - SMOKED SALMON & SPINACH SALAD

“I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand.” - Benjamin Franklin
 
After the culinary excesses of Christmas it is a good idea to detoxify a little and have a light meal for a few days (before the New Year’s Eve excesses!). As we are having some hot weather in Melbourne at the moment, this smoked salmon salad foots the bill very nicely.
 
SMOKED SALMON AND SPINACH SALAD
Ingredients
 
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoon chopped dill
Salt and freshly ground pepper
8 cups baby spinach
6 ounces thinly sliced smoked salmon, cut crosswise into 1 cm ribbons
2 Lebanese cucumbers; peeled, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced
4 radishes, halved and thinly sliced
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
Pine nuts for garnishing (optional)
 
Method
In a large bowl, whisk the olive oil with the lemon juice and dill and season with salt and pepper. Add the spinach, smoked salmon, cucumber, radishes and onions to the bowl and toss well. Transfer the salad to plates and serve, garnishing with roasted pine nuts if desired.
 
Serve with crusty bread and a light white wine.
 
This post is part of the Food Friday meme,
and also part of the Food Trip Friday meme.

HOLIDAYS

“Every man who possibly can should force himself to a holiday of a full month in a year, whether he feels like taking it or not.” - William James
 

These days over Christmas and New Year are a perfect opportunity to take some holiday time and relax. Resting and taking one’s mind off work is something we should do daily and at weekends, so what is more opportune than doing so at the end of the year when the holy days also conspire to make us take some holidays also? However, today I heard from a friend who is working over this holiday break as he needs to catch up with work… This friend is a confirmed workaholic and having no family is something that unfortunately allow shim to work long and hard.
 

The workaholic is very much a product of our modern society and is nowadays in many cases the rule rather than the exceptional case that we were familiar with in the past. Work makes enormous demands on our time, not only in the workplace, but it also invades our own space and private life. How easy it is to take work with us every night. Simply a matter of loading some files into a USB drive and the computer at home takes over from where the computer at work left off. Email access is universal and we are expected to be able to send and receive work emails at any place and any time. Mobile phones increase our accessibility and before not too long we may be called upon at all hours to respond to employers’ demands.
 

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” is certainly something that applies to today’s world as much as it did, all those centuries ago when the folk sage came out with this saw. It is surprising that in this day and age of labour-saving devices, increasing leisure time and strictly regulated work hours many of us still manage to run out of time in order to amuse ourselves and take pleasure in the company of our friends and dear ones. A re-examination of one’s life is in order if this is the case, and the workaholic is certainly one who should be chastened by this re-examination.

CHRISTMAS 2013

“To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year.” - E. B. White
 

It’s Christmas Day and there is always time today to sit and reflect a little. It is a time for family, feasting and gift giving – a time for peace and togetherness and of spirituality. Yet even in our contentment, our minds should have charitable thoughts for those who are not able to celebrate as well as we are able to. There are many hotbeds of violence and warfare across the globe and the economic crisis still claims victims in many countries of the world. Extremes of climate and foul weather have made many people miserable on what should have been a happy day. This year, tens of thousands of Britons remain without electricity on Christmas Day after torrential rainfall flooded homes and hurricane-force winds battered the country.
 

Christmas in Australia tends to be a very relaxed time. It is usually hot across all of the continent and this means the holiday is celebrated out of doors. Barbeques, garden dining, Christmas by the beach and fun in the sun is what Christmas means to most Australians. However, we also have a problem with the homeless and the disadvantaged even here in the “lucky country”. Charity organisations do much to relieve the plight of beggars, homeless, the impoverished, the mentally unstable and the abused. The Salvation Army is the largest provider of homelessness services in Australia, and a report reveals that the Salvos helped 22,594 homeless people in the six months to December 31 last year. Furthermore, Australia-wide this Christmas the Salvation Army expects to assist more than 300,000 people during the Christmas period (this being double what is seen on average per month during the year). They will distribute nearly 500,000 toys to families in need; feed Christmas Lunch to over 14,000 people; distribute 100,000 food vouchers and hampers. You can donate to the Salvos here.
 

The plight of refugees is a worldwide issue currently and perhaps Australia does not have a very good record in terms of assistance to refugees. Many Australians view refugees unkindly as they regard them as “queue jumpers”, economic refugees, illegal immigrants. However, it is dangerous to tar all refugees with the same brush, as there are many who are people in genuine need and who face survival problems if they stay in their own country. Many of these refugees will be in mortal danger if they stay put because of civil unrest, warfare, political upheavals or problems of ideological conflict.
 

Australia for UNHCR is an Australian charity that raises funds to support the work of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Australia. The aim of this organisation is to help Australians change the lives of refugees and displaced people around the world. As well as providing emergency relief like shelter, food, water, and medical care, the generous supporters improve refugees’ future opportunities, providing infrastructure, schools, and income generating projects. Monthly donors also provide vital funding for UNHCR’s Emergency Response Teams who are on the ground saving lives within 72 hours, whenever and wherever crisis strikes. Australia for UNHCR donations can be made here.
 

I cannot help but think of the plight of many people in Southern Europe – Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal who are facing enormous economic problems. With youth unemployment close to 50% in some cases, draconian austerity measures in place, and many years of problems with negative economic development, have left many people desperate – so desperate that the only solution they see is suicide. Suicides increased by 45 percent during the first four years of Greece’s financial crisis, a mental health aid group recently stated that there are indications of a further “very large rise” over the past two years. The Athens-based group Klimaka said officially reported suicides rose steadily, accounting for an annual jump in deaths from 328 in 2007 to 477 in 2011, according to data from the Greek Statistical Authority. The group said, based on its own research, the number of suicides has continued to rise through 2012 and 2013. It should be kept in mind the official suicide rate in Greece is lower than the actual as there is still considerable stigma attached to suicide.
 

Every so often a dramatic act of despair catches the country’s imagination. In spring last year a 77-year-old retired pharmacist shot himself in the head in the central square of Athens, leaving a note saying that he could not bear the idea of “scavenging in dustbins for food and becoming a burden to my child...” And anybody who knows Greece well can probably think of at least one acquaintance whose death was prompted, entirely or in part, by financial desperation.
 

Christmas is a special time of the year. For children especially, it should be a happy, magical, bright and peaceful time. Yet how many children the world over not only will not have gifts this Christmas, but also will go hungry? Millions of children are poor; they lack access to safe drinking water, essential vaccines, education and nutrition; they are at risk of being exploited and abused. You can make a difference by becoming involved locally, but also donating to help children further afield. The crisis in Syria for example claims many innocent children daily. Save the Children is an organisation that does very good work and you can help here.
 

Have a Merry Christmas and enjoy the time with your family and friends. If you can, help make someone else’s Christmas happy too.

CHRISTMAS EVE 2013

“Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn't come from a store.” - Dr Seuss
 

Today is Christmas Eve. It is the anniversary of the birth of:

• Benjamin Rush, physician/humanitarian (1745);
• Kit Carson, Western scout (1809);
• James Prescott Joule, physicist (1818);
• Matthew Arnold, English poet (1822);
• Peter Cornelius, German composer (1824);
• Emanuel Lasker, chess champion (1868);
• Juan Ramón Jiménez, Nobel laureate (1956) Spanish poet (1881);
• Howard Hughes, USA millionaire (1905);
• Ava Gardner, actress (1922);
• Robert Joffrey, choreographer (1930).

The birthday flower for this day is the chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum sinensis X indicum.  It is an emblem of the solar disc and is under the dominion of Sagittarius.  It symbolises abundance and wealth, regal beauty and cheerfulness in adversity.  A red chrysanthemum in the language of flowers speaks the words: “I love you”; a white one stands for “truth”, while a yellow one implies dejection and slighted love.
 

“Silent Night” was composed on this day in 1818 by Franz Gruber and sung for the first time the next day, Christmas 1818.
 

On Christmas Eve all Christmas decorations should be put up, the Christmas tree trimmed and the ivy, holly and mistletoe brought it to the house for the first time only today.  The Yule Log or “Christmas Brand” must be brought into the house and this log should be taken from your own trees, found or be given to you, but never bought.  It should be lit at dusk with a splinter from last year’s Yule Log. It should burn all night, but preferably burn all night and then all through the twelve nights of Christmas.  It should not be left to go out but it can be extinguished and re-lit. The piece that is kept for lighting next year’s log will protect the house from burning down all through the year.  The Christmas candle should be lit for the first time tonight and it should be large enough to light the evening meal for the next twelve days.  It should be bright red in colour and must never blow out accidentally but always snuffed at the end of the meal.
 

The Finns have a tradition that recounts how on Christmas Eve, one of the longest nights in the year, ghosts roam the earth. They set out candles on the graves of dead relatives making the travels of the spirits from and to the graves easier. The candles also placate the ghosts and ensure that the family is safe.

MOVIE MONDAY - QUARTET

“How incessant and great are the ills with which a prolonged old age is replete…” - C. S. Lewis
 

We watched the Dustin Hoffman 2012 film “Quartet”  starring Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Billy Connolly, Pauline Collins and Tom Courtenay. The screenplay is based on Ronald Harwood’s play, and this stage origin sometimes shows. The film was very reminiscent of “The Very Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” which I have previously reviewed here. Maggie Smith’s character in particular was very similar.
 

The plot in a nutshell concerns former opera singers, Cecily (Collins), Reggie (Courtenay), and Wilfred (Connolly) who are in a home for retired musicians. Every year, on October 10, there is a concert to celebrate Giuseppe Verdi’s birthday and they take part. Another operatic soprano, Jean (Smith), who used to be married to Reggie, suddenly arrives at the home and disrupts their equilibrium. She still acts like a diva, but refuses to sing as she believes she has lost the agility of her voice. The three residents have to build bridges over broken relationships first and then to convince Joan to sing and take part in the gala concert.
 

This film is Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut at age 75. This is a movie for veteran actors, and there are many good, solid performances in this ensemble piece about the ageing residents of the retirement home. Hoffman doesn’t stray into overwrought drama or mawkishness and his direction is restrained. The humour ranges from the subtle to the occasional slapstick but there is also an emotional undercurrent. Although the stars play satisfying characters well (as they should at their age), the supporting actors are also well chosen. The sets and costumes are delightful, and the music is of course wonderful.
 

Although we enjoyed this movie, it is nowhere near the calibre of “The Very Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”, which deals with a similar topic. It is not as deep nor as satisfying as the “Marigold Hotel”. Nevertheless, it is a light-weight, enjoyable movie, perfect for a quiet night in or a lazy Sunday afternoon.

ART SUNDAY - CESAR SANTOS

“Every man with a bellyful of the classics is an enemy to the human race.” - Henry Miller
 

Cesar Santos (born 1982) is a Cuban-American artist. He studied at the Miami Dade College and the New World School of the Arts before travelling to Florence, where he trained at the Angel Academy of Art under the tutelage of Michael John Angel, a student of Pietro Annigoni. He returned to Miami, where he developed his philosophy of marrying both the classical and the modern juxtaposed within one painting.
 

His influences range from the Renaissance to the masters of the nineteenth century to Modernism. With superb technique, he infuses a harmony between the natural and the conceptual to create works that are provocative and dramatic. He has been the recipient of numerous accolades including a first place award from a competition sponsored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Santos has had exhibitions throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America, including the Villa Bardini Museum in Florence, Italy, the National Gallery in Costa Rica and the Frost Art Museum in Miami, Florida.
 

With his paintings, Santos proves that beauty is timeless. Influenced by the Renaissance, masters of the nineteenth century and Modernism, his works reflect both classical and modern interpretations. In many of his works, a refined painting technique comes together with colourful and at times abstract contemporary fragments. And the results are amazing: Men, women, and icons such as “The Girl with a Pearl Earring” and “Mona Lisa's Niece” become personages of today while keeping their original charm. His "Rebirth of Painting" above shows evidently his homage to classicism, but once again there are modern elements that surprise and intrigue. It will be interesting to watch this artist's maturation and development of a style that goes beyond the derivative.

A video about his activities (not only in painting!) can be seen here: