Sep 09

Orpheus in der Unterwelt

Media, Music, Opera No Comments »

Orpheus in der Unterwelt, by Jacques Offenbach, Hamburg Opera ????

This opera is part of a set, whose review you will be seeing in completion in the next six months, titled Cult Opera. These are operas filmed at the Hamburg Opera, in color, and meant for television. Regardless, they are very well done, with modest but adequate staging, and superb performers. The opera is a comic opera spoof by Offenbach on the Orpheus motif, and a touch raucous, thus, not suited for young children, who wouldn’t be watching this opera anyway. It is a fun opera to watch, and gives the viewer the lighter side of opera, though laced with much speaking. This production ranks with the other Orpheus opera productions that I have. This opera does not have many available productions on DVD, and so it’s difficult to compare with other Aufführungen. That’s too bad. I still prefer Les Contes d’Hoffman as my favorite Offenbach opera, but this ranks high.

 

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Sep 08

The Wisdom of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes

books No Comments »

The Wisdom of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes, an introduction to Wisdom Literature, by Derek Kidner ????

Derek Kidner is one of the great Hebrew scholars of the late 20th century, and has written a number of commentaries on Psalms, Proverbs and the wisdom literature. This book provides a summary of information. It is organized by a chapter discussing the themes of a respective book, followed by a chapter of discussion of the current textual criticisms of the book. At the end, a summary chapter of the global impact and value of these three books is discussed. There are three appendices, the first discussing the existent knowledge of contemporary wisdom literature of the mid-east, the second discussing Ecclesiasticus, and the third the Wisdom of Solomon. The book is solid conservative scholarship, though mildly dense to read, and more encyclopedic than devotional. This is a good read, but not the first book I’d pick up on the subject.

 

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Sep 03

Adventures with Russ and Jon

Adventure, Bicycling No Comments »

Dates 28,29AUG- Mowich, Wonderland Trail Attempt, 31AUG-02SEPT Century Drive, Crater Lake Loop Success

I had planned on 9 days to do the Wonderland loop, starting at Mowich Lake. All looked good at the start. . .

Unfortunately, it started to rain the first night, and we were rather wet by the second day. After lengthy and careful consideration, realizing that the rain was not going to let up, we decided to abandon ship.

Otherwise, we would have never seen the mountain, even when the weather let up a bit. Therefore, we headed home, and decided to do some cycle riding. We decided to do a loop around Mt. Batchelor (Century Loop) as well as a ride I failed last year, from Diamond Lake around Crater Lake, and back to Diamond Lake. The weather was fantastic for both rides. The first (Century Drive) was 54 miles, but only 764 ft. elevation gain. In spite of that, I wasn’t feeling the best the few days before, and seemed to be killed by the hills.

Thus, I was quite worried about the Crater Lake loop, which is nothing but climbing. We drove down to Diamond Lake, and camped there. The next day, we attacked with vigor. I didn’t think I was going to make it, but took up a slow pace, and five hours later, 64 miles, and 6000 ft. elevation gain, arrived back at Diamond Lake with bit grins on our faces. It was wonderful being able to finally complete the loop.

 

My bike again did a fantastic job of keeping us going. Traffic was light, and we met only one other rider, a retired school teacher from Phoenix, AZ with a titanium bicycle. He was getting some end-of-season riding in. Sounds like a great thing to do in retirement. This ride around Crater Lake is a classic that I wouldn’t mind repeating from time to time.

 

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