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Minnie: Puccini's Girl of the Golden West

By Patricia H Kushlis

The Santa Fe Opera’s production of Puccini’s Girl of the Golden West (La Fanciulla Del West) opened the 41st season July 1 with Patricia Racette starring as Minnie. Although Giacomo Puccini considered it his best opera, the reviews at the time were mixed.  He composed the opera between 1907 and 1910 and based it on a popular play by American David Belasco which Puccini had seen in New York.

The play and the opera were set in a gold mining camp in 1849 in the “Cloudy Mountains” apocryphally named for California’s Sierra-Nevadas.  Minnie was the keeper of the camp’s Polka Saloon yet supposedly as pure as the driven snow and as pious as Jesus.  In the opera, but not the play, she was portrayed as a teacher who taught the supposedly illiterate miners not only how to read but also good old fashioned redemption through Bible verses.   Her sole rival was Nina Micheltorena, a prostitute from Cachuca who ran the local brothel.  Nina, however, never appears on or off stage, but we hear plenty about her nevertheless.  (Photo left: Patricia Racette as Minnie, (c) Ken Howard for the Santa Fe Opera courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera)

The reviews suggest that The Girl of the Golden West was basically ahead of its time perhaps most importantly musically.   The major melodies are assigned to the orchestra and they, unlike in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and La Boheme, are also often fragmented, presented in slivers and not necessarily developed beyond the initial phrase or phrases.  Two of the three major themes at least are distinctly American folk but neither have California roots.    Furthermore, Minnie’s theme is never sung by Minnie but played by the orchestra during her various entrances as well as sung by her lover (Johnson/Ramerrez) near the opera’s conclusion.

Yet if you think of the period in which this opera was written and that Puccini was influenced by Richard Wagner, Debussy and Puccini's contemporary Richard Strauss, Puccini composed The Girl of the Golden West during a time of tremendous artistic and social flux, innovation and impending international turmoil and disintegration.  This had been set off by incompetent political leaders harnessing  the immense physical power of the industrial revolution.  From Russian composers Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev, Spain's early Pablo Picasso, the Russian Avant Garde movement and the soon to come tragedy of World War I which tore Europe and the Middle East apart, it’s easier to understand the context of Puccini’s innovations in this ahead-of-its-time opera.

Art is not created in a vacuum.

Puccini had already broken ground by featuring stories about everyday people so The Girl of the Golden West follows in the same vein but, despite its happy ending, it's the musical fragmentation that most foreshadows the disturbing future.  His musical innovations also include use of the whole tone scale as well as the incorporation of a Zuni (New Mexican, not California Native American tribe, located 150 miles west of Albuquerque) melody as one of its three main themes.    A second melodic fragment and leitmotiv is the theme of the African-American dance known as “The Cakewalk” which was wildly popular throughout the US at the time Puccini was composing the opera.

Much is made of the redemption concept but in this opera, that really pertains exclusively to men.  Either women are apparently not redeemable – as in the case of the never-seen-or-heard Nina - or didn’t need redeeming, as Minnie.

But what seems to be shorted in reviews of the time and has reverberated in some later ones too is the importance and centrality of women in America’s settlement of the West.   Minnie’s personification of the independent, take-no-prisoners Western woman is, I would argue, the real theme of this opera.  Not only did she carry a gun and knew how to use it, (see photo right (c)Ken Howard for the Santa Fe Opera 2016) but she also owned property - in her case the Polka and her cabin in the woods – unlike women in the US and elsewhere yet to obtain even the basic right of property ownership let alone the vote. 

The letters home and journals that women who took part in the Western migration kept religiously or otherwise detailing their experiences demonstrate this unequivocally. 

Capriol for your 2014 Holidays Listening Pleasure

By Patricia H Kushlis

In October 1926 Philip Arnold Heseltine, publishing under the nom de plume of Peter Warlock, composed a set of six dances called "Capriol" based – likely loosely - on Renaissance dances from Thoinot Arbeau’s Orchesographie, a manual of Renaissance tunes also published the same year.  Drawn to the study of Renaissance music himself as well as much drink and sex, Heseltine’s own life was certainly  as bawdy and out of control as "Bransles" and “Matachins” (The Sword Dance)” but perhaps also at times as soothing, smooth and sensuous as “Pavane” and “Pieds en l’air.” 

Heseltine likely chose the pseudonym of Peter Warlock for his compositions because of his fascination with the occult retaining Heseltine for music criticism and other writings.

He dedicated "Capriol" to the Breton composer Paul Ladmirault.  Heseltine first wrote the suite for piano duet then later scored it for string and full orchestras. Warlock as Heseltine conducted the "Capriol Suite" at a Proms Concert in 1929, the “single public conducting engagement of his life.”   

"Capriol" was transcribed for wind ensemble by Martin Tousignant in 2006. Each dance is brief. The suite in its entirety runs for just over 10 minutes. The movements are entitled: 1. Basse-Dance; 2. Pavane; 3. Tordion; 4. Bransles; 5. Pieds-en-l'air; and 6. Mattachins. 

The Santa Fe Concert Band performed five of "Capriol’s" six dances in its holiday concerts December 13 and 15, 2014.

  

Here is an engaging performance of "Capriol" by the Norwegian String Orchestra for your holiday listening pleasure. 

         

Season's Greetings 2013

 

Happy holidays from Pat Kushlis and Pat Sharpe

PEACE ON EARTH...GOOD WILL TO ALL

And here's Alfred Reed's Russian Christmas Music, a favorite of wind ensembles throughout the world.  The Santa Fe Concert Band performed it in its Christmas concerts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, December 2013.  This lovely performance below was by the Hamonie St. Caecilia En Laak, January 7, 2012 in Prague.    Enjoy!

 

Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me ‘round - reclaiming a decent society

By John Charles Dyer, UK Correspondent

17 Jan 2013. Parliament back benchers debated ATOS’ performance of Work Capability Assessments for those receiving benefits based on disability. It was more damnation hymn in round than "debate." All sides of the Commons’ several sides laid out in detail the many failings of the Work Capability Assessment process conducted by ATOS under the direction of the Department of Work and Pensions.  Many -- including Conservatives -- demanded that the government dump the contractor if not the entire programme. 

Then Mark Hoban rose to speak.  

Mark Hoban is the most recently appointed Minister in charge of the government’s programme. Hoban allegedly attended the debate to listen and respond constructively. Hoban’s reply, however, more resembled Alabama Gov. George Wallace’s “Speech at the Front Door” at Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama.  Where Wallace snarled, Hoban sneered. Hoban’s reply simply wasn’t up to the standard of the debate either in quality or tone. It was an anti-climax after so many clear, impassioned, thoroughly researched and documented -- and sometimes awe-inspiring -- backbench speeches.   

Muttering I returned to U-Tube  

I had been listening for sometime to Sweet Honey in the Rock. This remarkable group and its music embodies the challenge, the energy, commitment and courage of the American Civil Rights movement.   

Theirs is a type of music that has been a part of my life since I was a small child. My parents had been missionaries in the West Indies. My mother’s fondest lifelong dream was to replicate that experience in Africa. It was not to be. She nearly died from Malaria shortly before I came along.  My father loved his time in the West Indies. He was blessed with a remarkable voice. The spirituals and gospel of choirs almost exclusively "of colour" --  sounding much like Sweet Honey in the Rock -- resonated within my parents' souls and in our home. It -- and the sense of connected mission -- helped bind the family together. 

American Civil Rights Movement 

The music of Sweet Honey in the Rock reconnects me both to my roots and to that very special time in American history called the Civil Rights movement.  15 January would have been Martin Luther King Jr’s 84th birthday. As the world knows, he became the inspiring and unifying face of the American Civil Rights movement.  Almost uniquely eloquent, his “I have a dream” speech etched itself into the consciousness of a generation.  

Dave Brubeck's Legacy: Jazz Makes an Impact

By Wendi Maxwell, Guest Contributor

Wendi Maxwell, jazz vocalist and band leader, performs regularly in Northern California with her own Tres Hot Jazz Band, singing straight-ahead jazz, up-tempo swing and vocalese, sambas and ballads. You can visit her website at www.wendimaxwell.com.

The flags were at half-mast on Dave Brubeck Way. Dave Brubeck, jazz pianist, composer, and worldwide ambassador of peace, died in mid-December, one day before his 92^nd birthday. Here in Stockton, home of the Brubeck Institute, we mourned Dave’s spirit of improvisation and innovation.

 Dave was featured in the 1950s on the cover of Time magazine. His ground-breaking album “Take Five” remains one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time. His poly-tempo, poly-rhythmic compositions caused audiences to listen to jazz in an entirely new way, leaving behind standard time signatures and rhythms, and causing new musicians of all genres to find ways to break free of the habits of centuries of Western music.

In our poverty-stricken town, Dave’s impact was more immediate and more personal. A graduate of the University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music, Dave endowed the university with one of the world's largest and most comprehensive collections from a contemporary musician, establishing the Brubeck Institute. The archives hold correspondence, legal and business documents, recordings, manuscripts, photographs, and printed programs. But more than papers, the Institute supports active jazz performance ranging from students to world-class professionals.

I had the opportunity to meet Dave a couple of times. He was a tall, distinguished gentleman with a ready smile and twinkling eyes. When he played on stage with young musicians, he beamed love and support their way. People who met him felt he was a personal friend, even after only a couple of sentences. Those of us in the jazz community heard “Take Five” (or sang or played “Take Five”) so many times that we joked it should be the local ringtone…

The emergence of the Brubeck Institute brought local jazz into focus. Our blue-collar town of 300,000 currently boasts jazz performances and jams five nights a week. Nowadays, when a local group looks for music for a fundraising event, jazz is often the first place they turn. For a community reeling from years of financial hardship, music is solace to everyone.

Improvisation and innovation are the hallmarks of jazz, and individuals and groups across our town find themselves in the midst of innovation and improvisation at all levels. Neighborhoods and the community as a whole are banding together in unprecedented ways. I have to believe that Dave would applaud the creativity and spontaneity that’s emerging around town as we tackle some really tough problems. Maybe having jazz as the sound track of our community life is helping us come together, trust each other, and find new ways to get along.

 

How not to do public diplomacy in Laos or Any Where Else - Hip-Hop, Hippity Hop, Hop, Er Flop

By Patricia H. Kushlis

Update:  See Addendum below.

When Condoleezza Rice was Secretary of State and criticized for the State Department’s lack-luster handling of America's image abroad, she exuberantly claimed that “we all do public diplomacy now.”   Suddenly Foreign Service Officers who had never before spoken in public and had other pressing responsibilities – like adjudicating visas (you wonder why appointment times for visa interviews take so long?) or helping American citizens in distress - were suddenly fanned out throughout whatever country they were assigned to on public diplomacy gigs.  Meanwhile, 30% of the public diplomacy positions were left vacant. (Aerial Poto left of the Mekong in Laos by PHKushlis 2009)

It’s unclear to me whether an increase in State Department hiring a year or so ago made a dent in the high public diplomacy vacancy rate but I do know that too many American public diplomacy positions abroad are being filled by officers who are not public diplomacy specialists and do not have the requisite skills to perform the job adequately while those that supposedly do are assigned to other specialties or a few – likely more than when USIA was a separate agency – are moving up the hierarchy into Deputy Chief of Mission and Ambassadorial positions. 

Although a look at the promotion statistics from a year or so ago, suggests that these higher level opportunities for public diplomacy officers are far fewer, than let’s say, for almost any other State Department Foreign Service specialty.

Meeting-the-public is part of Ambassadorial job requirements

Now Ambassadors do, in fact, have a meet-the-public component in their job descriptions.  The best ones know the country to which they are assigned, speak the language fluently or at least passably well and are able to make the case privately and publicly for US foreign policy as it pertains to the country and region in which they serve.

If they don’t have those attributes – as I saw particularly in the case of a variety of political appointees over the years– those with common sense and a modicum of smarts take the advice of the embassy’s public affairs officer as well as the career diplomat (the DCM) who is charged with making the embassy run smoothly and, as importantly, keeping the ambassador from becoming a public embarrassment for the United States.  The advice is usually to keep a low profile and let someone who does know something talk with the media especially about substantive issues.  And, not-so-by-the-way, to refrain from making a public spectacle of himself or herself thereby introducing an unnecessary irritant into relations between the two countries.

There are, of course, also a few political appointees who are immensely popular in ways difficult for a career Ambassador to emulate.  They include both of President Obama’s appointments to China: former Ambassador John Huntsman and the current Ambassador Gary Locke as well as years ago the late Senator Mike Mansfield to Japan where he became almost a permanent fixture (1977-1988) regardless of administration because the Japanese liked and respected him so much.

But that’s not the issue here.

 

If you have not had the opportunity to view a couple of recent videos of Karen Stewart, US Ambassador to Laos, attempting to perform hip-hop at a public concert, may I suggest you let your fingers run, not do the walking to Youtube. Or just click on the video above.  The second one is below the fold. These questionable exhibitions of hubris are blissfully short and, at least for a while, the least offensive one (above) can also be found on the US Embassy Vientiane’s webpage.  My guess is it won’t last there all that long – but something posted on You-Tube as well as in the Lao electronic media as these are – can seemingly last forever.

 Tone Deaf and judgment poor?

Sadly, Ms. Stewart is a career senior Foreign Service Officer and she may well have had – and continue to have a terrific career. But I wonder.

1968, a Call to Candles in the Rain

By John C. Dyer, UK Correspondent

Whatever happened to 1968?  

I ask the question as the fabric of Eurozone collective will thins to fraying, the promised resolution to the Eurozone “debt crisis” breaking down in the very weekend it was to be announced.  The tele hums to the sound of riots in Greece, brought to me courtesy of BBC. The tweets carry interviews with the new face of China, its credit master confidently lecturing European reporters that European workers must accept significantly lower compensation, longer hours, and harder work.  Bad news for the UK economy mounts amid reports of serious divisions between the Chancellor and the Business Secretary. But the Prime Minister remains feet firmly planted in the cement blocks that, if I am right, will carry both him and the country to the bottom of the Thames.             

It is a question I often ask myself.    

1968 means different things to different people, of course. But It was a special time for my generation. Some marched with King, others with the anti war movement, others in Vietnam’s jungles.  Some boycotted grapes. Some sought White Rabbits along the streets and in the back rooms of San Francisco’s “Hashbury.”  Others trained as Marines and MBA’s.  

I watched my university football team the Pacific Tigers, danced to “Acid Rock,” played at Disk Jockey and announcer for my University FM and AM radio station, and, in the embrace of the Raymond College Common Room, dreamed happy daydreams of doing great things.  I smile to myself remembering Robin Williams character in “Hook” saying he didn’t do the 1960s. He was an accountant.  I did not catch up with the movements to make a better world until years later as the world convulsed with fear of Nuclear Weapons. 

1968 was a wonderful time to be a 19 to 20 year old California boy. But it was thought by some to be a pivotal moment in human history.  Tonight I am not so sure it turned out that way. 

Proms, Protesters and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra – Where Culture Meets Politics

By Patricia H. Kushlis

Last week 30-some, well- organized pro-Palestinian protesters effectively disrupted the Israel Philharmonic’s popular summer Proms concert at Royal Albert Hall in London four times in two hours prompting the BBC to cut off its live broadcast.  Whether one agrees or disagrees with the protesters’ motives or behavior, their actions are just the most recent example of people using culture to send political messages that are otherwise being ignored by the government in question.

Yet it wasn’t just the protesters – some of whom were themselves professional musicians -who were in the hall that night to send a political message:  their actions were in direct response to the Israeli government’s decision to send its premier orchestra to London to perform as a cultural ambassador in the first place.  Here’s what Zubin Mehta, the orchestra’s Indian born and raised conductor, told the media in anticipation of the concert and possible protest according to John Burns of the The New York Times:

 “The IPO is a cultural ambassador for Israel, and it is not “whitewashing Israel’s crimes,” Mehta said quoting a pro-Israel boycott campaign. “People who make music have to be politically aware; we have to know what’s going on.  We have to bring people together.  In Israel, Arab and Jewish audiences, and on quite a few occasions every year, at least for two-and-one-half hours, there is some sort of peace in the hall.”

I think that’s about the best explanation Mehta could have given in the orchestra’s and the Israeli government’s defense. Music should and often does bring people together and, as Mehta pointed out, the Israel Philharmonic does just that for a few hours several times a year in Israel.

Music and the Beast

Remember the old saying: “music soothes the savage beast.” It may well but it also depends upon the kind of music and the beast’s mood. The wrong music at the wrong time can enrage the beast as well.   

Throughout the eons, music is, and has been used as a terrific unifier – but it has equally been a horrific divider that brings out the worst.

The use and misuse of the emotions that music engenders are legion.  Just think of Hitler's use of Richard Wagner’s operas in inciting the Holocaust against Europe’s Jews – powerful music, that I believe is still not performed in Israel. 

Or consider the proud nationalism encapsulated in Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture which depicted Russia’s defeat of Napoleon’s Army or Jean Sibelius’ soaring Finlandia composed and performed in the years leading up to Finnish Independence in 1917.  Or the singing of equally nationalistic choral music by the Estonian independence movement prior to 1991 poignantly depicted in the film “The Singing Revolution.”  These are but a few examples of music as politics.