Book Review

My Life
by Isadora Duncan

Born in the late 19th century and living until her tragic accidental death in 1927, Isadora Duncan is credited with beginning the art of modern dance in the western world. This book is her autobiography. Duncan started dancing when she was a little girl and, despite lacking any formal training, devoted her life to dance. Her free and improvisatory style took a long time to gain popularity even among the artistic and intellectual community, but Duncan did eventually achieve quite a lot of success.
While Duncan is pretty honest about her early artistic and commercial struggles, I did get the sense that she had a certain agenda in presenting her life. Her prose is quite romantic and at times overly flowery and emotional. I often thought that she was quite deliberate in her omissions and emphasis, in order to present herself as a great artist, passionate woman, and elevated soul. While I don't necessarily think that she wasn't any of those things at all, I often felt that she was trying to hard and perhaps exaggerating in presenting herself as such. Nevertheless, I did find My Life interesting as a view of the artistic world at the turn of the century and as a look at the way artists and performers viewed themselves.

Juventas Opera Project 2009

Last Friday, I attended Juventas' presentation of two new one-act operas. It was a really interesting and beautiful evening.

The Hourglass - Matthew Vest
This opera was based on a novel by Danilo Kis that fictionalizes his father's experiences and fate in Yugoslavia during WWII. The music itself was very attractive. The staging and content appeared to be fascinatingly symbolic and surreal. However, the singer's lines overlapped into such dense polyphony that in the text was utterly obscured. That really put a damper on the experience for me. I couldn't tell what was going on, what the four singer's relationships were to each other, or what any of the staging's striking images meant. It left me wondering what was the point of staging the piece as opposed to letting it be a concert work. Without any ability to figure out anything about the action, relationships, or meanings, I was unsure what the staging was really adding.


The Year of the Serpent - Erin Huelskamp
I really loved this opera, which was based on a Chinese legend and belonged firmly in the classic kung fu genre. It was witty and stylish. I truly enjoyed the eclectic styles that made up the music (which was just plain great), and Huelskamp made them all work together seamlessly. The costumes were wonderfully over the top, and the staging was relatively simple, which made it work very well.

General updates

Today I mailed out my last check to Sallie Mae for the forseeable future. All my student loans (masters degree edition) will be paid off once they receive and process the check in a few days. It feels great now, and it will feel even better next month when I don't receive a loan bill.

I saw my doctor for my stubborn elbow tendonitis. She referred me to an orthopedist, whom I will see on Monday. I also have prescription anti-inflammatories to take. They are already making a difference, and the orthopedist is likely to prescribe some additional treatment to completely take care of the problem.

Other Kenjari are going to the Berkshires for August vacation. We're going to see two shows at Tanglewood: Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1 and Orff's Carmina Burana; and then Yo Yo Ma doing the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 and the Faure Elegie along with orchestral works by Perle and Bizet. I looked at the contemporary music festival offerings, but I wasn't terribly excited by them (too much Boulez!). I found myself more drawn to the big early 20th century works, so that's what we're going to go for. We'll probably also do some hiking and other vacation-y things.