Yesterday, the radio opera was a double bill of Ravel’s “L’enfant et les sortilèges” (on the one hundredth anniversary, to the day, of its premier) and Poulanc’s “Les Mamelles de Tirésias.” The former “is the story of a rude child who is reprimanded by the objects in his room, which he has been destroying. After being scolded by his mother in the beginning of the opera, the child throws a tantrum, destroying the room around him and harming the animals nearby. He is then surprised to find that the unhappy objects in his room come to life.” (Wikikpedia) The latter is absurdist, in the literary sense, which was written and performed right after the first World War. It takes off on the idea of Tiresias having been “the only human ever to have experienced being a man and also being a woman” (without surgery – since Tiresias was a mythical character dating from about 1000 BCE). Its premise is to convince French people to be as fertile as possible in order to replenish the population losses of the Great War. It has a plot, but that plot is so absurd I’m not going there. Off to see Virgil now – will check back in in a comment.
Yes, I’m having to go to sites like Good New Network to find anything calm enough for Sundays. And, while current, this story harks back to history – not just the obvious WWII history, but back to the Middle Ages. Take that, “Monument Men.”
Colorado Public Radio often has good news, but I’m behind (surprise, surprise!) on reading their newsletters. I found this story from Grist by searching sites which specialize in finding good news – a particular site which additionally specializes in finding happy stories written by proven, experienced, real journalists. It’s about what locals are doing to speed recovery from the devastating wildfires in California so recently.
