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Visual-minded

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“The animals that come out to dance to Tamino’s flute have walked off of every Chagall canvas we have ever seen.”

On this day in 1967 the Marc Chagall production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte was unveiled at the Met. Soprano Lucia Popp made her Met debut as the Queen of the Night. 

Alan Rich in the World Journal-Tribune:

By the end of last evening, many members of the Metropolitan Opera House’s audience were convinced that Marc Chagall had not only designed the new production of “The Magic Flute,” but had also composed the music, written the libretto, sung the major roles and conducted. It was decidedly Chagall’s evening, judging from the conversation and from the wild applause that greeted each new stage picture (often to the detriment of the music); seldom has a Met audience come to a performance so visual-minded.

What the painter has provided is certainly worth discussion, to be sure; it may well turn out to be the conversational gambit of the season. He has not so much designed a scenic production of the opera as he has provided a commentary on it. There is no scenery at all, in the usual sense; the action unfolds, rather, against a sumptuous series of Chagall paintings and forms that deal in some general way with mood, and in some even more general way with symbolic significance.

He has not stinted himself. Everything is rich, recognizable, vintage Chagall, the fanciful figures, the slashing, vibrant colors. The animals that come out to dance to Tamino’s flute have walked off of every Chagall canvas we have ever seen. The costumes are Chagall paintings wrapped around people, and they, too, are wildly, vividly colorful.

Reservations, however, must be expressed. One is constantly busy with the settings, simply because they do stand so completely for the man’s viewpoint on the opera. There is a sense, almost, of redundancy, of two “Magic Flutes” simultaneously presented. And sometimes his viewpoints are so personal as to clash with that of any other viewer (and listener). The brilliant reds of the final temple scene are splendid translations of the triumph, but what about the deep mauves of the previous scene? Is that what you and I feel as the Queen of the Night is banished? Possibly not.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDUyA-fVie8

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courtwatson
2465 days ago
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Fitness app releases data-set that reveals the location of sensitive military bases, patrol routes, aircrew flightpaths, and individual soldiers' jogging routes

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Strava is a popular fitness route-tracker focused on sharing the maps of your workouts with others; last November, the company released an "anonymized" data-set of over 3 trillion GPS points, and over the weekend, Institute for United Conflict Analysts co-founder Nathan Ruser started a Twitter thread pointing out the sensitive locations and details revealed by the release. (more…)

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courtwatson
2487 days ago
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S t r a v a
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Phone

6 Comments and 19 Shares
[*disables social networking accounts*] [*social isolation increases*] Wait, why does this ALSO feel bad?
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courtwatson
2828 days ago
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Yup. 2017...
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5 public comments
emdeesee
2827 days ago
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Well, when you put it that way...
Sherman, TX
acdha
2828 days ago
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Close to home
Washington, DC
rraszews
2828 days ago
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It's so sad that we can choose our friends from the entire world based on commonalities of interests and values, rather than the old fashioned way of choosing them based on accident of geography.
Columbia, MD
MaryEllenCG
2828 days ago
But sometimes it's good, because what if you live in a super-rural area, and there aren't really any people who share your interests?
MaryEllenCG
2828 days ago
Or, on review, you were being ironic, and I misread. Oops!
Covarr
2828 days ago
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You may lose the sea of toxicity, but you also lose cat videos. Is that really a trade-off you want to make?
East Helena, MT
olliejones
2828 days ago
Did it. Never felt better. But, I have a silly meatspace cat in my house.
Lythimus
2828 days ago
@olliejones, jokes on you, you're participating in a social network.
alt_text_bot
2828 days ago
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[*disables social networking accounts*] [*social isolation increases*] Wait, why does this ALSO feel bad?

2016 says it’s really sorry about the mess.

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2016 says it’s really sorry about the mess.

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courtwatson
2880 days ago
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NOT my mom's house...
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I'm With Her

5 Comments and 22 Shares
We can do this.
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courtwatson
2935 days ago
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5 public comments
MaryEllenCG
2935 days ago
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I unabashedly love this. I love it. Thank you, Randall.
Greater Bostonia
satadru
2935 days ago
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Hell^Yeah.
New York, NY
chriscrouch
2935 days ago
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Yay
FNUPP
2935 days ago
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Do not feed the trolls
alt_text_bot
2935 days ago
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We can do this.

The Perfect Gift For Building a Geeky-Romance

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funny dating image star wars lego figures is the prefect geeky romance gift

Submitted by: (via afl1019)

Tagged: geek , star wars , legos , perfect , girt , dating
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courtwatson
2952 days ago
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