Open Thread September 7 2025

Yesterday, the radio opera was a double bill: “Dido and Aeneas” by Henry Purcell and “The Seven Deadly Sins” by Kurt Weill. The performance was from Copenhagen. The two don’t have much in common, but perhaps that was the intention. Purcell lived from 1659-1695, during the baroque period. Kurt Weill lived from 1900 to 1950. We all know Weill from “Mack the Knife,” of course – but (at least in my generation) know “September Song” equally well but don’t know that it was also from a Broadway show – “Knickerbocker Holiday.” His “The Seven Deadly Sins” was called a “ballet chanté” rather than an opera because the man who commissioned it was married to a dancer who bore a strong resemblance to Weill’s wife, singer Lotte Lenya, and it was written for them, so the central character, Anna, is written as a split personality. I have heard of it, and read about it, but never actually heard it until yesterday. It is satirical – I would not take moral advice from it. For just one example, the last sin addressed is greed – and the conclusion is that Greed is good – just like Gordon Gecko. Danielle de Niese, who doesn’t just sing opera, but also on Broadway, in films, and on television – though much of that is not in the U.S. – but y’all might have heard of her – sang both personalities as well as Dido in this broadcast. The most famous aria from “Dido and Aeneas” is one of those “Don’t Cry for Me” pieces which irritate me in principle, because I don’t think you need to be Elizabeth Kübler Ross to be aware on some level that grief for someone’s death is really grief for our own loss of that person, not “for” the person who has died, so telling us not to grieve is really telling us not to heal. Not that I would expect the character of Dido, who, if she lived, did so in the 12th or 13th century BCE – and the aria is well known because it is beautiful. Off to see Virgil – will check in upon return.

NBCU Academy is clearly associated with the National Broadcasting Company, since the peacock is in their logo. And it appears to be working to ensure that aspiring journalists can get excellent education for that career. Given that (for just one example) Alan Dershowitz was educated at (and later even taught at) Yale Law school, their participants are not going to be 100% ethical. But it’s still a good thing, and far better than nothing. And this story from their project really is good news.

And this story from The 19th is really just amazing – and, in Louisiana, you know they did not get a lot of encouragement or assistance from the state, so they were working with virtually nothing but themselves.