Open Thread September 3, 2023

Yesterday, the radio opera was Richard Wagner’s “Tannhäuser,” from Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA). The events of the opera have a definite historical date – during the lives of the real people Wolfram von Eschenbach and Walther von der Vogelweide, but it’s far from historical. As it starts, Tannhäuser has been living in the Venusberg (which means “the mount of Venus,” and yes, the double meaning in English also exists in German) where the goddess Venus has been keeping him satisfied for at least months if not years. The “Venusberg music” is supposed to be a bacchanale (orgy), but I certainly don’t think “orgy” when I hear it and I doubt anyone here would. Now, Saint-Saëns bacchamale from “Sanson et Dalila” is hot. Richard Strauss’s “Dance of the Seven Veils” from Salome is wicked hot. The Venusberg music is inspiring and even noble, but not hot. But Wagner’s (IMO very odd) attitudes toward sexuality don’t really come out until later. Anyway, Tannhäuser decodes he wants to go home where there are other minstrels and a girl, Elisabeth, who loves him, and he arrives just on the eve of a big singing contest, in which he is expected to participate. His entry is too erotic for everyone else, and when it comes out he has been in the Venusberg, all heck breaks loose, and Elisabeth’s uncle (the local feudal lord) in particular, but everyone really, demands he travel to Rome and get absolution from the Pope. He goes to Rome, and the Pope tells him that his staff (a piece of pretty old, very dead wood) is as likely to bear green leaves as he is to be forgiven (terrible theology, BTW). He comes back, travelling with a bunch of ordinary Pilgrims, whose chorus is very familiar outside the opera house, as is Wolfram’s song to the Evening Star, which he sings not long before Tannhäuser gets back. Tannhäuser tellsWolfram what the Pope said, Elisabeth dies (the salvation of men through the deaths of women is a very common 19th century romantic trope, it’s not just Wagner, but Wagner kind of did beat it to death), and green leaves burst out of his staff (very glad I never had to build that prop). It really is beautiful musically, which certainly saves the ridiculous (even offensive) story line. Wagner is not known for realism – his one comedy, Die Meistersinger, does actually show people with real feelings and quirks, and if you can get past the magic love potion, so does Tristan und Isolde, but mostly his characters – humans, gods, giants, dwarves, witches, dragons, birds – seem a little off. But one can get carried away by the music in spite of that.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Zip Recruiter – Professional Troll
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Click through. It likely wil come up with information on your area. Someone at Democratice Underground found this … and found it scary. I concur.

MSN/Axios – AG Merrick Garland denounces election worker threats as DOJ charges over a dozen people
Quote – The DOJ announced Thursday that two men in two separate cases in Arizona and Georgia had pleaded guilty to threatening election officials in Arizona and Georgia in separate cases, brought by the the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force — which has now brought charges in 14 cases…. “The Justice Department will continue to investigate and prosecute those who target election officials and election workers as part of our broader efforts to safeguard the right to vote and to defend our democracy.”
Click through for a bit more. I’m glad they are taking this seriously, and hope there are not people failng to report for fear nothing – or worse – will be done.

Food For Thought