Duo Dinámico, gira 2015

 

Domitian's Spectacles

 From Robert Graves's translation of Suetonius's The Twelve Caesars. Domitian, the last of the twelve, was for some time an enthusiast of poetry, but later neglected it altogether and even forbade actors from appearing on the public stage at one point —perhaps in part because his wife Domitia had fallen in love with the actor Paris. (He also had a student of this actor executed because he looked like Paris). He prohibited stage lampoons of known citizens as well. But he did provide other spectacles in the Roman taste:

Domitian presented many extravagant entertainments in the Colosseum and the Circus. Besides the usual two-horse chariot races he staged a couple of battles, one for infantry, the other for cavalry; a sea-fight in the Colosseum; wild-beast hunts; gladiatorial shows by torchlight in which women as well as men took part. Nor did he ever forget the Quaestorian Games which he had revived; and allowed the people to demand a combat between two pairs of gladiators from his own troop, whom he would bring on last in their gorgeous Court livery. Throughout every gladiatorial show Domitian would chat, sometimes in very serious tones, with a little boy who had a grotesquely small head and always stood at his knee dressed in red. Once he was heard to ask the child, 'Can you guess why I have just appointed Mettius Rufus Prefect of Egypt?' A lake was dug at his orders close to the Tiber, surrounded with seats, and used for almost full-scale naval battles, which he watched even in heavy rain.

He also held Secular Games, fixing their date by Augustus's old reckoning, and ignoring Claudius's more recent celebration of them; and for the circus racing, which formed part of the festivities, reduced the number of laps from seven to five, so that 100 races a day could be run off.  In honour of Capitoline Jupiter he founded a festival of music, horsemanship, and gymnastics, to be held every five years, and awarded far more prizes than is customary nowadays. The festival included Latin and Greek public-speaking contests, competitions for choral singing to the lyre and for lyre-playing alone, besides the usual solo singing to lyre accompaniment; he even instituted foot races for girls in the Stadium.When presiding at these functions he wore buskins, a purple Greek robe, and a gold crown engraved with the images of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva; and at his side sat the Priest of the Capitoline Jupiter and the Priest of the Deified Flavians, wearing the same costume as he did, except for crowns decorated with his image. Domitian also celebrated the annual five-day festival of Minerva at his Alban villa, and founded in her honour a college of priests, whose task it was to supply officers, chosen by lot, for producing lavish wild-beast hunts and stage plays, and sponsoring competitions in rhetoric and poetry.

(The Twelve Caesars, p. 308)

ÓPERA ALEMANA

 Así empieza una entrada de la ENCICLOPEDIA NAZI CONTADA PARA ESCÉPTICOS de Juan Eslava Galán (Planeta):

ÓPERA ALEMANA. "Hitler tuvo la habilidad de inventar una coreografía del Estado convincente —escribe Sujic—. Necesitaba ceremonias, además de saludos, protocolos y una serie de rituales diarios, igual que necesitaba uniformes, bandera e insignias, a los que dispensó tanto cuidado y atención." (13)

Nota 13. Sudjic 2007, p. 33. Véase Nazi Germany: Pictures of the Madness (1937-1939). <https://www.youtube.com/watch/v=AkXPD92Fg2c>

Con Hitler toda Alemania se convirtió en un gigantesco escenario en el que se representaba una magna ópera, ese género musical que abarca no solo la música y el texto del libreto, sino variadas artes escenográficas (vestuario, decoracvión, iluminación, pintura, arquitectura, atrezo). 

Nota 14. Speer (v.), responsable un tiempo de aquel tinglado como "decorador jefe", lo confiesa en sus memorias: "En aquella época sentía una gran afición por las banderasy las utilizaba siempre que podía: permitían introducir una nota de color en la arquitectura de piedra. Advertí que la bandera de la esvástica (v.) diseñada por Hitler se adaptaba mucho mejor al uso arquitectónico que la bandera de las tres franjas de color [...] y la empleé como objeto decorativo para cubrir desde le alero hasta la acera los feos edificios de la época de la fundación del Segundo Reich (Speer, 2001, p. 111, v. banderas a la gresca).

De todo ello se ayudó Hitler para representar su ópera, en la que él interpretaba al personaje principal, sus compinches hacían los papeles secundarios, a cuál mejor caracterizado (el gordo pomposo, el redrojo cojito enredador, el malvado y pálido gafitas, el siniestro letón, etc.), y el pueblo alemán en su colectividad hacía los coros y la multitud de figurantes. Esa ópera a la que todo contribuía se representó durante 2 años ininterrumpidamente y respondió, dependiendo de la época, a las distintas clasificaciones que se hacen de la ópera: comenzó siendo bufa, con modestos actores que la representaban por las cervecerías de Múnich, tuvo su momento de disparatada opereta en el Putsch (v.) de 923, creció en talla actorial y escenario hasta la grand opera de los años centrales del nazismo, desfiles, concentraciones de Núrembert (v. congresos del partido), Olimpiadas (v.)..., mutó a pastoral heroica con la Blitzkriegt  (v. guerra relámpago), pasmo del mundo, y finalmente se desinfló hasta dar en una penosa tragedie confundida con el wagneriano crepúsculo de los dioses (v.), con ese "estruendo final amenazador que los alemanes confunden tan de buena gana con la grandeza" (Nota 15)

Nota 15. Ludwig, 2011, p. 25.

¡Ópera alemana!  Todavía fascina al mundo, ahora que podemos ver en color sus performances prolijamente rodadas por la Riefenstahl (v.) y la UFA, con sus coreografías multitudinarias, con sus banderas, fanfarrias e himnos, con sus desfiles y coros, con sus efectos de iluminación y proyectores capaces de crear catedrales de luz, con sus ciudades convertidas en braseros de danzantes torbellinos de fuego por la aviación aliada que les aseguraba "el sacrificio por la comunidad".

"Las espectaculares concentraciones del partido con cientos de miles de participantes y su fastuosa decoración e iluminación con reflectores antiaéreos, sus desfiles de precisión milimétrica, sus ritos paganos y su monumentalidad, su reivindicación de la fuerza, la camaradería, le épica y la acción, la oportunidad que ofrecía al individuo de disolverse en el grupo, la evocación de un pasado legendario junto a la promesa de un futuro radiante... Todo ello atrajo a muchos elemanes." (Nota 16)

(Nota 16). Bilbao, 2102, p. 1.

¿Qué decir del amor del pueblo alemán por los uniformes? Había uniformes para cada oficio, para cada situación de ese "cada oficio", e incluso a veces para cada hora del día. "Hay en Alemania más botas de montar que en la pampa argentina—escribe Ludwig—; lo que no hay son jinetes." (Nota 17).

(Nota 17) Ludwig, 2011, p. 29.

La cualidad teatral de todo el montaje la detectan los buenos observadores. "Como si de una obra teatral o de cine se tratara, aparecen unos guionistas (ideólogos nacionalistas, antisemitas y racistas del siglo XIX), una productora (Partido Nacional Socialista del Trabajo Aleman [v. NSDAP]), una realización (Waffen-SS, Wehrmacht [v.]), colaboracionistas de los países ocupados), un director (Adolf Hitler) unos actores protagonistas (arios, alemanes, austriacos, nazis) y antagonistas (judíos, eslavos, comunistas, etc), unos extras (Sonderkommando [v.], Einsatzgruppen [v.]), un público espectador (mayoría del pueblo alemán-austriaco y nativos de algunos países ocupados), una coreografía hábilmente orquestada (nacionalismo, socialismo étnico, racismo y antisemitismo) y un decorado (Segunda Guerra Mundial, campos de exterminio [v.] y campos de concentración [v.] en Europa), así como un final impactante (Holocausto [v.]). (Nota 18).

Nota 18. Olmo, s.f. p. 1.

Man Praises Man

 

Sobre el éxito y las conmemoraciones, la fama, la moda y la envidia mimética, los espectáculos y celebridades, la admiración y la vanidad, en The Task, de William Cowper:

Man praises man.  Desert in arts or arms

Wins public honour; and ten thousand sit

Patiently present at a sacred song,

Commemoration-mad; content to hear

(O wonderful effect of music's power!)

Messiah's eulogy for Handel's sake.

But less, methinks than  sacrilege might serve—

(For, was it less, what heathen would have dared

To strip Jove's statue of his oaken wreath,

And hang it up in honour of a man?) 

Much less might serve, when all that we design

Is but to gratify an itching ear,

And give the day to a musician's praise.

Remember Handel! Who, that was not born

Deaf as the dead to harmony, forgets,

Or can, the more than Homer of his age? 

Yes—we remember him: and, while we praise

A talent so divine, remember too

That His most holy book, from whom it came,

Was never meant, was never used before, 

To buckram out the mem'ry of a man,

But hush!—the muse perhaps is too severe;

And with a gravity beyond the size

And measure of the offence, rebukes a deed

Less impious than absurd, and owing more 

To want of judgment than to wrong design.

So in the chapel of old Ely house,

When wandering Charles, who meant to be the third,

Had fled from William, and the news was fresh,

The simple clerk, but loyal, did announce,

And eke did rear right merrily, two staves,

Sung to the praise and glory of King George!

—Man praises man: and Garrick's memory next,

When time hath somewhat mellow'd it, and made

The idol of our worship while he lived

The God of our idolatry once more,

Shall have its altar; and the world shall go

In pilgrimage to bow before his shrine.

The theatre too small shall suffocate

Its squeezed contents, and more than it admits

Shall sigh at their exclusion, and return

Ungratified: for there some noble lord

Shall stuff his shoulders with king Richard's bunch,

Or wrap himself in  Hamlet's inky cloak,

And strut, and storm, and straddle, stamp and stare,

To shew the world how Garrick did not act.

For Garrick was a worshipper himself;

He drew the liturgy, and framed the rites

And solemn ceremonial of the day,

And call'd the world to worship on the banks

Of Avon, famed in song. Ah, pleasant proof

That piety has still in human hearts 

Some place, a spark or two not yet extinct.  

The mulberry-tree was hung with blooming wreaths;

The mulberry-tree stood centre of the dance; 

The mulberry-tree was hymn'd with dulcet airs;

And from his touchwood trunk the mulberry-tree

Supplied such relics as devotion holds

Still sacred, and preserves with pious care.

So 'twas a hallow'd time; decorum reign'd,

And mirth without offence. No few return'd,

Doubtless, much edified, and all refresh'd,—

Man praises man. The rabble all alive

From tippling benches, cellars, stalls, and sties,

Swarm in the streets.  The statesman of the day,

A pompous and slow-moving pageant, comes.

Some shout him, and some hang upon his car,

To gaze in's eyes, and bless him. Maidens wave 

Their kerchiefs, and old women weep for joy:

While others, not so satisfied, unhorse 

The gilded equipage, and, turning loose 

His steeds, usurp a place they well deserve,

Why? What has charm's them? Hath he saved the state?

No. Doth he purpose its salvation? No.

Enchanting novelty, that moon at full,

That finds out every crevice of the head

That is not sound and perfect, hath in theirs

Wrought this disturbance. But the wane is near,

And his own cattle must suffice him soon.

Thus idly do we waste the breath of praise,

And dedicate a tribute, in its use

And just direction sacred, to a thing

Doom'd to the dust, or lodged already there.

Encomium in old times was poets' work;

But poets having lavishly long since

Exhausted all materials of the art,

The task now falls into the public hand;

And I, contented with an humbler theme,

Have pour'd my stream of panegyric down

The vale of Nature, where it creeps, and winds

Among her lovely works with a secure

And unambitious course, reflecting clear,

If not the virtues, yet the worth, of brutes.

And I am recompensed, and deem the toils

Of poetry not lost, if verse of mine

May stand between an animal and woe,

And teach one tyrant pity for his drudge.

 

Dando Caña | 06/06/25

"He visto el vodevil."

 

Oscars 2015

El mago yunke

La Nuit de Metal - Boxe

 

Performing Arts Top Ten

 Me llega esta carta de la SSRN, diciéndome que tengo un artículo entre los más leídos de la red de artes visuales y teatrales:

Dear Jose Angel Garcia Landa:

Your paper, "ATONEMENT AND ADAPTATION (ON IAN MCEWAN'S NOVEL AND JOE WRIGHT'S FILM)", was recently listed on SSRN's Top Ten download list for: PVFA Subject Matter eJournals and Performing, Visual, & Fine Arts Research Network.

As of 17 November 2014, your paper has been downloaded 540 times. You may view the abstract and download statistics at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1091883.

Top Ten Lists are updated on a daily basis. Click the following link(s) to view the Top Ten list for:

PVFA Subject Matter eJournals Top Ten and Performing, Visual, & Fine Arts Research Network Top Ten.

Click the following link(s) to view all the papers in:

PVFA Subject Matter eJournals All Papers and Performing, Visual, & Fine Arts Research Network All Papers.

Hasta aquí hemos ascendido. Vale, no es mucho, estoy el último, pero fíjensen que hay gente de universidades muy buenas, y que de la de Zaragoza sólo estoy yo. Qué digo, es que no hay otros españoles ahí. La película es ésa de Keira Knightley que aquí se tituló Expiación.

 

On Chesil Beach

 

—oOo—

Espectáculo que Dios se da

 De Miguel de Unamuno, Del sentimiento trágico de la vida, III:

Ante este terrible misterio de la mortalidad, cara a cara de la Esfinge, el hombre adopta distintas actitudes y busca por varios modos consolarse de haber nacido. Y ya se le ocurre tomarlo a juego, y se dice, con Renán, que este Universo es un espectáculo que Dios se da a sí mismo, y que debemos servir las intenciones del gran Corega, contribuyendo a hacer el espectáculo de lo más brillante y lo más variado posible. Y han hecho del arte una religión y un remedio para el mal metafísico, y han inventado la monserga del arte por el arte.

Critical Election Theory

 

La clá de la Sra. Gusano

Hell House

 

El frágil teatro del mundo

 

Armas de DISTRACCIÓN Masiva

Circo del Tormento

The Pink Floyd Tribute Show

 





Remember when you were young...

La Iglesia Católica del Papa Pancho

 

La Iglesia Católica bajo el mando del Papa Francisco: pic.twitter.com/2J5K6EvnYa

— Emmanuel Rincón (@EmmaRincon) October 4, 2023

La Esfera