I'm pretty sure that I will never be a bonafide opera critic, but generally that is what I got from the The Marriage of Figaro performed at the Chan Centre at UBC on Sunday. Oh and they all had great voices. In particular, I liked the signing of Cherubino, a role I assume was originally written (by Mozart) for boy sopranos, but in today's "civilized" times is performed by a young(ish) woman.I have long appreciated opera, classical music and other colonial favourites and despite nodding off a couple of times, which ALWAYS seems to happen to me at live musical performances of any kind no matter how much I enjoy them, I really did enjoy my first live opera. Kleco Ly, for getting the tickets and accompanying me and of course for nodding off a couple of times yourself so I didn't have to feel bad! ;-) Another one (#40) bites the dust off my list.
2 comments:
Right on W! It is nice to see a brother admit to liking classical/opera, I like classical alot and I know that it does not always jive with the edgy native activist thing, but who cares? I guess being 35 helps to stop caring about what others think, and to also be able to see how we (native folks) stereotype ourselves ("real indians don't listen to white mans music!"). Anyway, crank up the opera and smile...oh yeah, Dead Prez is the shit, too!
Yashkanda.ets'
Auk Kwaan Tlingit Territory
Alaska
grazzi...I think there was a time I used to be pretty self-conscious about such things, trying to de-colonize and all but over time I came to realize that what is important is be true to our Indigenous values and principles and recognize that our practices will adapt and change. It is critial, however not to mix the two up, like advocate for oil and gas development (clearly destructive and inconsistent with Indigenous values) and call it "progress." In the quest to being more Indigenous, I have found it helpful to measure various activities against those principles our people have held sacred for millenia and not just some other person's opinion of what is or isn't "real."
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