Re: Wagner and Liszt

[Alex Lubet <lubet001...>]

At 02:55 PM 3/12/2003 -0500, you wrote:

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Alex J. Lubet" <lubet001 (at) umn(dot)edu>
>To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2003 4:49 PM
>Subject: Re: Wagner and Liszt
>
>
> > I should go further and note that I've heard (can't verify) that Liszt not
> > only loved Sulzer's singing, he regarded him as the best vocalist of their
> > time.  Sulzer did apparently hang out with some august company, having
>also
> > known Schubert.
> >
> > This is getting to be quite a long and interesting thread.  Off this
>track,
> > I'm wondering if anyone out there has seen the film Cradle Will Rock,
>about
> > composer Marc Blitztein?  It's been around for a few years, but I just
> > taught it in my film class and spoke about it at the Society for Cinema
>and
> > Media Studies.  Blitztein is probably best known for his adaptation of The
> > Threepenny Opera, not only translating the words, but making the music
>sound
> > more American and jazzy.  Some of the music in the score is Blitztein's
>but
> > some of the original music is probably best described as Yiddish swing.
> >
> > The film has some currency because of the inclusion of Mexican painters
> > Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.  I just saw the new film Frida and really
> > liked it.  The music is wonderful, not Jewish in style, but it is by
>Elliott
> > Goldenthal, whose work I've found to be very good.  I learned quite a few
> > things from this film, among them that Kahlo's father was a German Jew.
> >
> > Shevua Tov,
>
>That is quite explicit in the beautiful film "Frida".

Actually, there's a lot that's explicit in the film , so be warned if that 
sort of thing is a problem for you.  If one is really concerned about 
historical veracity, let me wear another one of my hats briefly--as a 
researcher on disability and the arts--and note that Frida's disability is 
depicted as resulting exclusively from an accident and not from her polio 
or (suspected) spina bifida.  Some of my friends who study film find this 
really problematic, because of the assumption that it's honorable  to be 
'wounded', shameful to be 'diseased'.

If this seems truly off-topic, let me bring it just a tad closer to home by 
saying that I just taught a documentary film about Hitler's treatment of 
people with disabilities to my music and movies class and that I'm 
currently involved in a project that will bring together Holocaust and 
disability scholars around these issues.  Part of the project is the 
dance-drama "Hannelore", about the brilliant artist Hannelore Baron, a 
German-Jewish Holocaust survivor who was also a person with mental 
illness.  If you happen to be in Vancouver, BC, Wednesday, March 19, 
choreographer/dancer Judith Brin Ingber and
I will be performing that and other works on Jewish themes at UBC Woodward 
IRC Lecture Theatre 6, 7:00-9:20 pm.   To the best of my knowledge, free 
and open to the public.

We have a bunch more performances of this and other works coming to a city 
that may be near you.  We'll keep you posted.

Shalom,





Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
Adjunct Professor of American and Jewish Studies
University of Minnesota
100 Ferguson Hall
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624-7840 (o)
612 699-1097 (h)
612 624-8001  ATTN:  Alex Lubet (FAX)

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