Monday, September 24, 2007

An Operatic taste

My late Sunday morning was fast becoming a lazy one, and the fact that Chelsea lost to Manchester United 0- 2 wasn't going to help either.

Then came that phone call,
"Gustaff would you want to watch a live simulcast of an Opera at the arts center?"
I immediately agreed for the benefit of having some fresh air and participate in something I have never done before-- watch an Opera.

Opera to me: was listening to the radio and hear high pitched vocals and trained tenors sing out sad love stories in Italian. And it was a hobby of Old rich people who didn't know what to do with their spare time. End of story.

That all changed after watching the live simulcast of La Boheme
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_boh%C3%A8me

It was a performance at the Washington DC Opera house, and I was watching it in Gainesville-FL--Thanks Technology!!!!!

I enjoyed it mostly because it was a passionate love story with intricate lessons. A poet falls for a seamstress who dies at the end because of an illness? In addition to that, there is Marcello my favorite guy-- he is the photographer (A painter in the original version as written by Puccini) whose love story is filled with broken hearts, with a good sense of humour.

The director of the show gave the original an update, bringing the characters lives similar to modern days. A milky-white couch as a prominent stage prop--something the college students can relate to, symbolizes college life and all that associates with it.

The goal of the simulcast to Universities and High schools across the country was to reach out to the younger generation and get them interested in Opera.

I would say for sure, they got that goal met. From that Sunday afternoon September 23 2007 at the Phillips Arts cennter then on, Opera is no longer a hobby for old rich people who don't know what to do with their spare time. Opera is more of a passionate and lively display of love stories?

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Shadows

Shadows on the walls
Of no reflection
Crawling along a hollow path
Of diced bricks, cobbled with pointy rocks
Leading into a dark room
Filled with the stench of misery and abandon

Memories of hate and famine crouching
On the faces of wasted hangers
Piles and heaps of dirt flirting
With the angers of scavenging insects
Who’ve built an empire of a flourishing garden
On the foundations of a desk of fine carpentry
With an inside rot giving way to the tempo of collapse

Shadows on a wall
Of no reflection
Rages on the backs of a mountain
Of macho granite crushed into sand dunes
By the fancies of flamboyant storms

Memories of hate and drudgery
Plastered as rickety carvings
Waiting to be swept into oblivion
By the bulldozers of woeful codes

Sunday, September 02, 2007

May It Be

There are times when you think things are not moving along
When you scratch your head for answers, but get more questions
When the path is narrow, dark and uncertain
When you think that the journey you've undertaken isn't worth the patience
And that your input and energy may have been of waste,
But
When your heart is still connected to your Life's goal
And your dreams are alive
And you are certain and believe in the Goodness
Of your sincere endeavours,
With glorious certitude,
The light will shine and bring you the dawn
You'll see the glimpse of a day of abounding Grace
And
Through your moments of meditation and reflection,
You wont give up.

Someone did an incredible job, visually bringing to live a wonderful song by Enya. A song filled with Hope, evokes Beauty and the reach of a Promise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww8wqEgFIA8&mode=related&search=
Hope by sharing this, Your soul will be uplifted in your moments of Meditation and Reflection and keep you grounded in your Life's goal.