Oberto: opening opera...

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Last month was Joe Green's 200th anniversary: and today the 174th anniversary of his first opera: Oberto. Joseph Fortune Francis Green - or one of his works or themes - is one of the first names most people would mention if asked about Opera, (or certainly Top 5 along with Puccini, Rossini, Mozart and Wagner...or maybe Bizet?). I am of course playing by using an anglicised version of his name; I mean Giuseppe Verdi, a composer who - if we were to have such vulgar and useful things as opera stats and tables...oh, we do - would be well ahead in terms of performance runs (how many times a work was programmed not the number of performances) and five of the Top 20 operas. He almost ended his career before it had begun as his two young children and wife died before the debut of his 2nd opera [Bio], Un Giorno de Regno; this wasn't successful; ironically it means 'A One-Day Reign' and Verdi was almost a one hit wonder.

"Verdi’s music transcends the barriers between high and low culture. Many of his arias count among the greatest songs ever written, streaming out of opera houses and into football stadiums and even the charts."

[from video debate: Verdi vs. Wagner]. What is Ows on about opera for? Well, opera is posh, innit, and that last quote mentioning football chants reminded me that last week Paul, writing about class envy, put up some very interesting information: "Class envy unfortunately is deeply routed in the British psyche, like subconscious racism it is always with us. Football is 'the working mans game' at £50 a ticket (the cheaper end) whilst the English National Opera (£22) and the Royal Ballet (£24) are for 'toffs'."



P.S. If you think I'm being inventive or pretentious I have written this listening to the Overture from Nabucco.

Oberto: opening opera...

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Last month was Joe Green's 200th anniversary: and today the 174th anniversary of his first opera: Oberto. Joseph Fortune Francis Green - or one of his works or themes - is one of the first names most people would mention if asked about Opera, (or certainly Top 5 along with Puccini, Rossini, Mozart and Wagner...or maybe Bizet?). I am of course playing by using an anglicised version of his name; I mean Giuseppe Verdi, a composer who - if we were to have such vulgar and useful things as opera stats and tables...oh, we do - would be well ahead in terms of performance runs (how many times a work was programmed not the number of performances) and five of the Top 20 operas. He almost ended his career before it had begun as his two young children and wife died before the debut of his 2nd opera [Bio], Un Giorno de Regno; this wasn't successful; ironically it means 'A One-Day Reign' and Verdi was almost a one hit wonder.

"Verdi’s music transcends the barriers between high and low culture. Many of his arias count among the greatest songs ever written, streaming out of opera houses and into football stadiums and even the charts."

[from video debate: Verdi vs. Wagner]. What is Ows on about opera for? Well, opera is posh, innit, and that last quote mentioning football chants reminded me that last week Paul, writing about class envy, put up some very interesting information: "Class envy unfortunately is deeply routed in the British psyche, like subconscious racism it is always with us. Football is 'the working mans game' at £50 a ticket (the cheaper end) whilst the English National Opera (£22) and the Royal Ballet (£24) are for 'toffs'."

P.S. If you think I'm being inventive or pretentious I have written this listening to the Overture from Nabucco.

Olympian overhaul...

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"Olympics 'dominated by privately educated'" screams the headline. I ask how many of those Chinese, US, Korean, Kazakh, and Russian athletes are privately educated. Not so: Conservative politician Lord Moynihan, Chairman of the British Olympic Association [BOA] (and a gold medal winner himself: cocks cox) says that the number of British medallists that were educated at independent schools was one of the "worst statistics in British sport"; he was on about the percentage of Beijing medal winners over half of whom were from the 7% of the UK population that are privately educated. A 'Future priority' must be identifying and developing the talent from the other 93%. I would say that the fact that "The vast majority of Britain's athletes competing in London 2012 were state-educated" [DT] shows things are already being done.

Readdressing my sarcastic comment about the other countries: very few sports these days, at elite level, are simple or cheap; apart from natural talent and parental (and/or coach) support and encouragement to get the ball rolling, it takes time and money and dedication; and then more time and money and time and money and dedication. (gratuitous sexy photo of Victoria Pendleton, click for a better view)



Update: "But is the under-representation of state-school-educated athletes in Britain's Olympic medal table really down to the sharp elbows of the posh? Or is it down to the retiring of the competitive ethos and the rise of a culture of low expectations in state schools themselves? I think it's the latter. [so do I!!] Just as state-school pupils are no longer considered capable of learning Latin or of reading too many classic texts that are not "relevant" to their lives, so they are also considered incapable of handling the pressures of competitive sport. On many state-school playing fields, all-out, hardcore competition, the ideal of being the best and proving you are the best, is frowned upon as inappropriate, as potentially giving rise to an unacceptable social divide between "winners" and "losers". State-school sports lessons are now more about boosting kids' self-esteem and shrinking their waistlines than about encouraging them to be singular, head-strong winners – and that is not conducive to creating future Olympians." Brendan O'Neill, State School attitudes...[Link]

Olympian overhaul...

---

"Olympics 'dominated by privately educated'" screams the headline. I ask how many of those Chinese, US, Korean, Kazakh, and Russian athletes are privately educated. Not so: Conservative politician Lord Moynihan, Chairman of the British Olympic Association [BOA] (and a gold medal winner himself: cocks cox) says that the number of British medallists that were educated at independent schools was one of the "worst statistics in British sport"; he was on about the percentage of Beijing medal winners over half of whom were from the 7% of the UK population that are privately educated. A 'Future priority' must be identifying and developing the talent from the other 93%. I would say that the fact that "The vast majority of Britain's athletes competing in London 2012 were state-educated" [DT] shows things are already being done. Readdressing my sarcastic comment about the other countries: very few sports these days, at elite level, are simple or cheap; apart from natural talent and parental (and/or coach) support and encouragement to get the ball rolling, it takes time and money and dedication; and then more time and money and time and money and dedication. (gratuitous sexy photo of Victoria Pendleton, click for a better view)

Update: "But is the under-representation of state-school-educated athletes in Britain's Olympic medal table really down to the sharp elbows of the posh? Or is it down to the retiring of the competitive ethos and the rise of a culture of low expectations in state schools themselves? I think it's the latter. [so do I!!] Just as state-school pupils are no longer considered capable of learning Latin or of reading too many classic texts that are not "relevant" to their lives, so they are also considered incapable of handling the pressures of competitive sport. On many state-school playing fields, all-out, hardcore competition, the ideal of being the best and proving you are the best, is frowned upon as inappropriate, as potentially giving rise to an unacceptable social divide between "winners" and "losers". State-school sports lessons are now more about boosting kids' self-esteem and shrinking their waistlines than about encouraging them to be singular, head-strong winners – and that is not conducive to creating future Olympians." Brendan O'Neill, State School attitudes...[Link]