Saturday, November 18, 2006

The Sound of Music !!!



A bit of a break really , having seen the Sound of Music I can vouch for the brilliance of Connie Fisher and the strength of the whole production. This week there has been a lot about paedophiles in the news . The absurd BA ban on men sitting next to children . The publication of names on the web and Michael Jackson .After being booed of stage he says he`ll never sing in public again . If only we had known it was that easy .

Lets forget all that and remind ourselves of innocence and hope . The Sound of Music is a show you have to take on its own terms . If you are able to do so the rewards are considerable

We think of it as something that's just there; overly sentimental and , those worst crimes against the modern (in)- sensibility, light , comic , poetic and sophisticated. It opened on Broadway in 1959 and, I would guess , was the last show of the incomparable duo R and H. There is an elegiac delicacy about it that is absolutely not what you expect Few big numbers for the coach party , but music scenery character and story knitted almost magically
It is strongly thematic .Music , life and the Hills of Austria are the subject of the arresting overture stating the main symbols, that will gather meaning. In the Nunnery Maria is, significantly, still out on the mountain ,, she is a "problem" , but Maria "makes me laugh" . The moral centre of the story is the Abbess, and in the show ,shorn of the need for cluttering reality ,the importance of the Nuns is more to the fore than one expects . The abbess sends her to find ,"Her dream "., to find herself In the house of the Von Trapps she meets a bereaved man ,distant from his children and headed for a marriage he feels would be "appropriate", with a Viennese sophisticate . She is everything that Maria is not She is rich , knowing and glamorous , but she cannot speak to the children and she does not know the mountains of Austria in her heart . Typically she is treated kindly as a divided character who seeing the nobility of Von Trapp , but unable to share it .Crucially she makes an accommodation with the Nazis. The Captain cannot
Maria rediscovers the Von Trapp music and through the course of some of the best songs. "Doe a deer .." , "favourite things" , reawakens the family through musical fun . Half childlike herself she and the children create a new hope, "When you know the notes to sing , you can sing most everything " This is music that does not advertise its complexity it appears to flow from the situation . The captain joins the life that Maria has brought
She dances with Von Trapp , a much older man than her , and says ."Its different to when you are girl isn't it ". All is decided , "lets ask the children". She returns ,once more, to the nunnery , now a woman ,and they are married.
Max the impecunious social butterfly ,who provides a cynical counterpoint , has mischeviosuly arranged that they appear in Salzburg for the folk festival . With the Nazi threat looming, Captain Von Trapp is offered a commission , and cannot refuse it outright . They must escape . He agrees to go as the newly invented ,Von Trapp family singers . They win the competition with Edelweiss. Edelweiss is the national flower of Austria and the song articulates mourning for its loss to the fascist jackboot . The children play their part ,with a comic orchestration of their play songs . Max finally shows the goodness we suspected ,and , by sacrificing himself ,allows them to escape to the nunnery.
Evil shows its dark face, as the family hide from stalking soldiers silhouetted in the moon light .Lisel , who herself is "sixteen going on seventeen" , sees Rolf , her first love for the last time as he redeems himself by passing the family by. Another passing from childhood to adulthood .
Then how will they escape , what can save them ? The roads are blocked .They must go to the mountains .
Finally the forces of good combine. The Nuns and the children climb through the night , the mountain protects them as the Nunnery had .The last tableau is of the iconic group looking down on Switzerland . The bright dawn is rising. The show builds to this end which coincides with the reprise of "Climb every mountain " . Not the strongest song in the show but its placement is powerful. With all the threads tied ,and Leslie Garret on hand as the Abbess ,to give it some serious welly , the happy ending is entirely satisfying.
I would argue that the American wave was the cultural fact of the last century , that Rogers and Hammerstein are the best exponents of its most distinctive form .In this their swan song they created the most complete work of art ,bar none ,in the last hundred years . It is as perfect as Pride and Prejudice . It will last forever .

Friday, November 17, 2006

Cameron`s Camelot


( Who will be his Lancelot )


Boris of course
. I have been raving about this titanic Conservative .



Boris , who I have just watched on question time performing brilliantly , reiterated the point that Reid is posturing by framing a law that will be resisted on Libertarian ground, so as to appear to be tougher on Terrorism, than thou .This is typical of the sophisticated news handling that Nu Lab have made the signature of their government . In this case they are appearing the opposite of what they are . From the Blackpool conference onwards ,they have been a party without the rudder of principle. As a result, the natural tendency for bureaucrats to want more power, for interest groups to want more tax money, and for politicians to want more laws has drifted calamitously. This is what the electorate have had enough of .They must therefore appear decisive, but it is sham . Most of the queens speech initiatives have no chance of becoming law, and exists for pantomimic effect. Reid ,( between the lines), is the worst offender .
There is an interesting code going on here . Nick Griffin has just been discovered ( oh my goodness) to be racist , or not, because he says Muslims are evil people intent on no good . We are , apparently , in such imminent Terrorist peril that we must be bunged in chokey , at the whim of plod . Meanwhile, further laws are being framed to deny me the right to say this is all the fault of Islam with its encouragement to ,"find the faithless and slay them". It is absolutely no coincidence that Boris mentions the telling fact about the number of Muslims who believe in Sharia law . The dove Muslim majority is largely a myth.
Behind all of this is the revolt of the white working class against Labour and often into the hands of the BNP . The Labour front bench have over the last two months made endless anti Islamic comments , ( quite rightly ) for the benefit of this audience , but they dare not take on their multicultural support .So , despite the official abandonment of catastrophic multicultural policy the Labour party ,hugely in the thrall of minority pressure groups , cannot act . As Boris points out there will be no compulsory English or cultural, induction of any sort.. No move to value the working people of this country to won two world wars for us .They will continue to be betrayed . Labours answer is to threaten to lock everyone up and to drag out M15 and Plod to back up their need to be tough .As if they were immune to political pressure ; I don't think.
Its birthday and Christmas for me . News lead legislative initiatives , coded racism, ( with no real help on immigration and housing), Braun Haus fire emergency shouting and illiberal statist bullying. Well done Boris well done indeed !You are the smiling cavalier who ,with a laugh and a swagger, impales the NuLab deceit time and time again.
What a fine cabinet minister you will be. Personally I hope to see you ,as Deputy Prime Minister ,Lancelot to Cameron`s Arthur in the new Camelot of the Conservative Administration.


Huzzahh!!!!!

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