Favorite Songs: "Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESZpBYtQj44 

Such a great song, from the Woodstock II album. 

Opera Theatre of St Louis

We've enjoyed each season of the Opera Theatre of St. Louis since we moved to St. Louis in 2009. The current season consists of four one-act operas, performed outdoors because of the pandemic. 

Sunday, we enjoyed "Highway 1, U.S.A." by African American composer William Grant Still. I enjoy his music but had never heard this one, which is reviewed by the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/arts/music/william-grant-still-opera-st-louis.html

Last night, we enjoyed "La Voix Humaine," reviewed here: https://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/reviews/one-woman-brings-cast-of-unseen-characters-to-life-in-otsls-la-voix-humaine/article_49b6139b-134a-5813-83c7-6a8562f83265.html  What an amazing drama, with only one cast member!  

Mona Lisa's Birthday

Italian noblewoman Lisa del Giocondo, member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany, was born on this day in 1479! Her husband commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint her portrait, which became kinda famous.... There was a big crowd to see it at the Louvre when we were there two years ago. Apparently (before the pandemic, anyway), there always is.

A Lark Ascending

 Ralph Vaughan Williams' piece, "A Lark Ascending" premiered in its familiar version (solo violin and orchestra) 100 years ago yesterday (June 14, 1921). It was performed by the dedicatee, Marie Hall (1884-1956), on this occasion and also the premiere with violin and piano in December 1920. The piece frequently appears at the top or the near top of polls of listeners' favorite classical music. It has certainly blessed and sustained me over the years!  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOWN5fQnzGk

Dear Evan Hansen. A Devotion

A devotion for our church for June 6, 2021. Our pastor is doing a summer sermon series around popular musicals.  

The musical Dear Evan Hansen opened on Broadway in 2016 and was later nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning six. A film adaptation is scheduled to premiere later this year. 

The plot reminds me of several movies and other stories, where the hero makes a big mistake and, as a consequence, must make amends in order to find redemption. Evan Hansen is a teenager with serious social anxiety. His therapist recommends that he write letters to himself to describe what will be good about his life that day. His mother also suggests that Evan have people sign the cast on his arm; he had broken his arm falling out of a tree. Evan has a crush on Zoe Murphy. Evan tries to befriend Zoe’s brother Connor. Connor finds one of Evans’ letters in a printer, reads it, and becomes angry at Evan for mentioning Zoe. Unfortunately, Connor has the letter when he (Connor) died by suicide a few days later. When the Murphy family talk to Evan about Connor, Evan makes up a story that he and Connor were close. The tale has unintended consequences, and Evan must make amends. Later, it is revealed that Evan himself had attempted suicide; the fall from the tree had not been an accident but rather an attempt to take his own life. As Pastor Linda pointed out in her message Sunday, most of the people in the story are lost in their own way. 

A couple devotions ago, I wrote about my own struggles with high functioning depression. I have never been so sad as to consider suicide, but I’ve been low enough—especially when I was young—to know what a person might be feeling before taking such a tragic action. 

When depression gets that bad, you know the obvious—suicide will result in death—but you’re so confused and lost that you just want the pain to stop. The prospect of stopping the pain blinds you to the finality of the act. You also may be so confused, that you think people will be relieved that you’re gone—rather than devastated. 

Since this is Pride Month, it’s worth noting teen suicide rates among LGBTQ youth are higher than the general population, and even higher in families with parents who identify as Christian.  

Our scriptures are classics of God’s great love. Jesus tells the parable of the shepherd who makes the effort to find the one lost sheep out of his 100 sheep. “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.” 

He also tells the parable of the woman who has lost one of her ten silver coins. Of course, she will make the effort to find the coin. “Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

I don’t want to imply that people who are depressed and suicidal are “sinners.” Of course, we’re all sinners; something is amiss in each of our lives. Rather, I want to highlight the deep love and anxious care that God takes toward people who are struggling—whatever may be the source of the struggle. When I was young—and today, too—I found these stories so comforting. They gave me a sense of value for my own life! God never, ever gives up on us. 

Jesus is particularly concerned about people who are lost in life. Jesus also directs these lessons toward anyone who are unfeeling toward those who are struggling. We should never let a veneer of respectability hide our own lostness and harden our hearts toward others. 

This week, check out the website of the National Alliance on Mental Illinois (https://nami.org). Also, make yourself aware of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which is available 24/7 (1-800-273-8255). Their website is https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org  Think about the issues of mental health and depression, not only for your own benefit, but in case you may need to help someone close to you!  

For your prayer this week: think about aspects of your own life where you feel the most vulnerable and confused. Pray about ways that God helps you in those aspects. 

Hello, Dolly! A devotion

A devotion for our church for June 13, 2021. Our pastor is doing a summer sermon series around popular musicals.  

By Beth Stroble

Money—It's all in how you use it

As we begin this sermon series, Stories Matter: Lessons Learned from Musical Theatre, so many stories, songs, lines, plots, performances leap to mind! I have never been very good at identifying a favorite book, food,or place,much less naming my favorite musical. But,the experience of getting to see Carol Channing in a reprise of her Tony Award-winning role in Hello Dolly!  is a joyful high point in Paul’s and my experiences as audience members for live theatre.

The musical, set in the 1890s in Yonkers and in New York City, tells a complicated story of how the matchmaker and widow, Dolly Levi, assists several romantic matches to be made, including her own with her client, “half-a-millionaire” widower Horace Vandergelder. Because Dolly frequently quotes her late husband Ephraim’s wisdom about the best uses of wealth, we cannot miss the message about why as a single woman in the 1890s she seeks to regain the status and capacity for generosity she once enjoyed as Ephraim’s wife. It is clear that she has plans for Vandergelder’s wealth, recalling her late husband’s advice: “Money, pardon the expression, is like manure. It's not worth a thing unless it's spread around, encouraging young things to grow. “

We recall the scripture passages that warn of the results of greed and urge us to place our confidence in God’s loving care, setting aside worry about our earthly needs, and instead to store up our treasures in heaven. Proverbs 23:5 compares a coveted possession to the elusive flight of a bird: “When your eyes light upon it, it is gone: for suddenly it takes wings to itself, flying like an eagle toward heaven.” As Jesus responded to a question about whether he would urge the questioner’s brother to share the family inheritance, Jesus shares a telling parable about the foolish man who built larger and larger barns to hold the bounty of his crops. While this man believed his future to now be secure, Jesus points out the folly of hording one’s treasure, “‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions’” Luke 12:15. Jesus tells his disciples to strive for God’s kingdom, taking comfort from the care God provides for the birds and the lilies of the field. I love these comforting words, “’Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom’” (Luke 12:32).

Finally, Jesus urges his listeners to be “rich with God” (verse 21). And it is here that we each can find ways that our wealth—the abundance of our talents, skills, time, attention, and financial assets—can benefit God’s creatures and creation rather than ourselves. As I read today that more have died from COVID in 2021 than in 2020 with ¾ of those deaths now in developing countries, I think of these wise words from Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director about another persistent and continuing health threat: “We’re not interconnected, we’re inseparable.  We cannot end AIDS in one country or one continent, we can only end AIDS everywhere.” As we celebrate being more social and enjoy being present without masks, pandemic disease continues to claim lives. There is an urgent and present need to share humanitarian relief, vaccines, medical knowledge and so much more.  Ending COVID here depends upon ending it everywhere.  And in the words of Rabbi Joachim Prinz, “Neighbor is not a geographic term. It is a moral concept.” We are called to love God and to love our neighbor.

For what purposes did Dolly Levi plan to use her unique skills and restored wealth?  We can only write our own next chapter of that story, heeding the lesson in her words, “The difference between a little money and no money at all is enormous and can shatter the world! And the difference between a little money and an enormous amount of money is very slight and that can shatter the world, too. It’s all in how you use it.”

Heavenly Father, we need your comfort, your reminder to fear not. In our worry, we know we miss the full joy of embracing your love and grace. In our focus on ourselves, we lose the call to love our neighbor. Help us to use our time, our talents, our treasure to shatter the world’s ills and to seek your Kingdom. Amen.

The Lovings

54 years ago today, the Supreme Court decided the case Loving v. Virginia, thus legalizing interracial marriage in the U.S. 

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/12/1005848169/loving-day-interracial-marriage-legal-origin?fbclid=IwAR3uJrFWPAWIyze9jjNJx99yy_eabq7RvpczOCqQ2jG-ixp7wHKsQzQPuFU

Pulse anniversary

Today is the fifth anniversary of the Pulse massacre. As this says, there are scholarship funds, and a congressional bill that will make the site a national memorial. 

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2021/06/10/remembering-the-pulse-49-read-their-stories/

Verdi's Operas: I due Foscari

This year, I am listening to the operas of Giuseppe Verdi. I’ve heard some of his operas and have seen Macbeth and Simon Boccanegra. But I’ve been curious about his several others. So, I decided to purchase the 2013 75-CD set of Verdi’s operas (and additional music), which I’ll listen to during the upcoming year. For reference I’ll study Charles Osborne, The Complete Operas of Verdi (New York: Knopf, 1979).

I due Foscari (The Two Foscari), Verdi's seventh opera, premiered in Rome on November 3, 1844. The libretto is based on Byron’s play of the same name. The story concerns the Doge of Venice (Francesco Foscari), his son Jacopo Foscari who is accused of murder, and Jacopo’s wife Lucrezia. On this recording, those three principles are sung by Piero Cappuccilli, Jose Carreras, and Katia Ricciarelli, with Samuel Ramey portraying Loredano. 

Osborne comments that Verdi develops the role of the orchestra in this opera. Still very much a vocal event, nevertheless Verdi uses leading motives to a greater extent and makes the orchestra more of a "junior partner" in the story. Again, this is not because of influence from Wagner but because of Verdi’s own compositional and dramatic development. 

Verdi's Operas: Ernani

This year, I am listening to the operas of Giuseppe Verdi. I’ve heard some of his operas and have seen Macbeth and Simon Boccanegra. But I’ve been curious about his several others. So, I decided to purchase the 2013 75-CD set of Verdi’s operas (and additional music), which I’ll listen to during the upcoming year. For reference I’ll study Charles Osborne, The Complete Operas of Verdi (New York: Knopf, 1979).

Ernani premiered at Teatro La Feinice in Venice on March 9, 1844. The story is based on the play Hernani by Victor Hugo. After the success of Verdi’s previous two operas, he received several possibilities for a commission. When he settled on the Venice, he stipulated terms for payment and performance, including the provision that the libretto should be first finished to his satisfaction. He noted that composition of the music flowed naturally for him from a suitable libretto. It was for many years Verdi’s most performed opera. In fact, the first recording of a complete opera was Ernani, on 40 single-sided discs in 1904. 

The story concerns the bandit Ernani, who is in love with Elvira, about to be married to Gomez de Silva. Ernani want his fellow bandits to kidnap her. She thwarts that, but the love between her and Ernani is still complicated! 

This recording is conducted by Richard Bonynge for the Orchestra and Chorus of Welsh National Opera. Joan Suterhland is Elvira, and Luciano Pavarotti is Ernani. 

Osborne writes, “The weak pages in Ernani are comparatively few. What is most impressive is the opera’s wealth of beautiful and gloriously singable tunes… perhaps it is worth pointing out the obvious: that Silva’s horn theme is Verdi’s earliest use of a primitive form of the Leitmotif, which he has often been accused of appropriating from Wagner. He had heard no Wagner in 1844… There is really no Wagner influence anywhere in Verdi… It is much more likely that Der fliegende Hollander contains music written under the influence of Verdi and Donizetti.” 

Verdi's Operas: I Lombardi

This year, I am listening to the operas of Giuseppe Verdi. I’ve heard some of his operas, and have seen Macbeth and Simon Boccanegra. But I’ve been curious about his several others. So, I decided to purchase the 2013 75-CD set of Verdi’s operas (and additional music), which I’ll listen to during the upcoming year. For reference I’ll study Charles Osborne, The Complete Operas of Verdi (New York: Knopf, 1979). 

I Lombardi alla prima crociata (The Lombards on the First Crusade) is Verdi's fourth opera. A four-act opera, it premiered at La Scala on February 11, 1843. This recording is conducted by James Levine with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus. Richard leech and Samuel Ramey perform Arvino and Pagano, while Luciano Pavarotti performes Oronte, and Patricia Racette portrays Vinclinda.  

The story, which takes place in Milan, the Antioch area, and the Jerusalem area, concerns the brothers Pagano and Arvino. They had feuded over Viclinda but had apparently reconciled. Now, Viclinda is married to Arvino. But he is called upon to lead a crusade to the Holy Land, and Pagano wants to use the opportunity to win Vinclinda himself. 

Osborne writes that the opera is “fairly typical early Verdi… The finest pages… have that melodic beauty and creative energy which, by the time of Il trovatore, were to become Verdian characteristics. But much of the opera merely matches the crudity of [the librettist’s] historical imagination." A few years later, Verdi revised the opera for a French audience, renaming it Jérusalem. I'll listen to that one later this summer. 

Verdi's Operas: Nabucco

As I wrote in my November 26, 2020 post, I like to use this blog as a record of year-long “projects,” often beginning on the first Sunday of Advent. A composer about whom I’ve always felt curious is Verdi. When I began in parish ministry in the early 1980s, in a very rural area of southeastern Illinois, I liked to listen to classical music and opera at my lonesome little parsonage. Anytime I listen to an opera, something in me connects back to that time when I was starting out in ministry. 

So, I decided to purchase the 2013 75-CD set of Verdi’s operas (and additional music), which I’ll listen to during the upcoming year. For reference, I’ll study Charles Osborne, The Complete Operas of Verdi (New York: Knopf, 1979). 

Little Taako’s death (see previous post) sparked in me a time of depression. I had trouble keeping motivated this past spring semester. I feel better now and am catching up on some things, like this blog. I haven’t posted about Verdi since January 20th. But I’ve still listened to his operas right along. 

Verdi’s third opera, Nabucco, premiered under its original title, Nabucodonosar, at La Scalia on March 9, 1842. Its plot concerned the exile of the Judahites under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II. "Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves", “Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate” ("Fly, thought, on golden wings") is a popular operatic encore. Verdi’s third opera, it established Verdi’s reputation as a popular and important opera composer. As Charles Osborne writes, it is perhaps not as satisfactory among Verdi’s early operas as Macbeth, but it is his earliest to remain in the repertoire. 

This set is performed by the Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper, conducted by Lamberto Gardelli. Tito Gobbi is Nabucco. Abigaille is Elena Souliotis, a Greek soprano, for whom this role was one of her best known. The peak of her career lasted only about ten years. She certainly had a thrilling voice!  

Taako

Earlier this year, Emily sadly called us that her three-year-old boy Taako (named for the Adventure Zone character) was failing. He had feline leukemia (undiagnosed when she adopted him in 2018) but was holding his own until that time. So we had Emily bring him over to our house, where he had more room to  explore, and we could pamper and love him until the end. Finally, a woman came over and did an at-home euthanasia. Again, we were all there to love him. 

Taako was a wonderful buddy for Emily while she did her masters degree in Tucson. Taako definitely got to travel a lot, to and from St. Louis for his sojourn in Arizona. He was also the subject of a lovely tattoo that Emily got from Mo Malone, now of Boulder, CO. 

His too-soon passing was so difficult. Taako was not even my cat, but I was really bereaved during this past spring semester. In the final picture, he is probably pausing from licking his leg, but he strikes a Fortune Cat pose and seems to send us wisdom--and assurance that his spirit lives on in some way we'll eventually understand. 

Emily soon adopted a black cat whom she named Poe. He has joined Siamese sister Maia in her household. I'll write about him soon. Most of these photos are ones that Emily took. 

 

Photos by Mauhaus

Thank you, Dr. Stuart

Just three months after one of my favorite college professors passed away, so has another. Jim Stuart taught religion at Greenville College (now University). Like Dr. Reinhard (see my February post), I took several classes with him. I still use the same study Bible that he assigned for Biblical Theology class in 1977! (It's in bad shape, LOL.)  I was grateful to be able to reconnect with him several years ago, and to tell him what a wonderful influence he had been. A wonderful, kind person. This photo is from his FB page. He and his family lived in Christchurch, New Zealand.