Ethiopians Returning To Israel. These are people of mixed ancestry who for three thousand of years - give or take according to tradition - believe in belonging to the Jewish people - and so they do indeed. Now some of them live in Israel and this play presented their new found home. Visiting Ethiopia last sumer I met some of these Ethiopians of Israel who came back to show off their roots to their Israeli spouses. I had the chance to meet them, because of my visit to Ethiopia with one such descendent living now in New York - where she arrived after years she lived in Israel tool. In today’s world - when you have roots and you feel that you belong to a nation-state - you can in effect take this feeling with you and live in other places too. The trick is that you must have such roots before you start on your mobility trek. This does not make you then a migrant, but you are rather a traveller. So, the issue is the need of a rooted feeling to start with - rather then a will to escape.

 Let Us Say Right Here In Front That We Are Not Against The Interpretation Of Art As A means To Provoke Our Senses and Our Minds. Showing that exhibit in “Jaffa, Amman, Beirut, Cairo, Belfast and Amsterdam” as the article says (Jaffo is now just a tiny part of the city of Tel-Aviv - mainly populated by Jews and Christian-Arabs, that is where you go to eat Arab food) So, showing the exhibit in Tel Aviv, in Amman where many Palestinians are by now Jordanians - in effect they are the majority in Jordan, in Belfast and Beirut - cities that understand strife and relocation, Cairo and Amsterdam - cities that have segments of well informed parts of the population that can be expected to make up their mind by themselves (see I included in this Cairo with its “Muslim Brotherhood” that wants to see all those that are not like them leave the Middle East) - but London is different.

London was bought up by Arab-Oil-States’ money - these are the same folks that are actually responsible for the uprooting of part of the original Arab population of what was going to become Israel - and also for the fact that no parallel Palestinian State was allowed to come into existence right then - in 1948. But London is also the capital of the former British Empire that ruled by dividing the locals in that Empire. London today is the home of a lot of infighting going on between groups that are effectively foreign to the body of the British - just think of what the Muslims did to Mr. Salman Rushdie who these days, April 29 - May 4, 2008, is chairing in New York  the Festival of International Literature, organized for the American PEN Center that he chairs.  London is also the home of a lot of ignorant British people that, though good willing, may get incited by reading those captions.

Is above something so farfetched? I mean the collusion between ignorance, money, and pandering to Arab-oil-States?  We will post an analysis of what the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is saying in his run-up to the 60th anniversary  of the establishing of Israel as balanced by the Naqbah - the catastrophe that befell the Arab population of the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine.

Further, any criminologist will tell you - victimization comes usually from what those closest to you do to you. In the Middle East the flight of  Arabs is what Arab did to Arab - and we do not try to absolve the Jews from the known 2-3 places where some Arab villagers (this happened mainly in the case of two villages on the boder line with Lebanon and one village in an area not far from Jerusalem.) On the other hand - equal numbers of Jews where forcefully expelled from Arab States - All of North Africa - and it was only this week that the UN finally recognized that there was also this other refugee problem that was started in 1948. But then nobody talks of the 20 times larger exchange of population that happened the same year with the creation of India and Pakistan. Now also that year the UN gave birth to the UN Declaration of Human rights. You Barbican - How about organizing A Real Tribute to 1948!        Art can also be viewed not just as provocation but also as honesty.

Barbican’s tribute to 1948 accused of demonising Israel.

By Arifa Akbar, Arts Correspondent for The Independent, Wednesday, 30 April 2008.

As far as the organisers of the exhibition are concerned, these photographs of Arab refugees, displaced from their homes in Israel in 1948, are merely an artistic slice of life from a dramatic point in Middle Eastern history.

But the Barbican Arts Centre’s show Homeland Lost, consisting of 16 black and white images taken by the photojournalist Alan Gignoux soon after Israel gained independence, is the unlikely frontier of new hostilities between Britain’s Israeli and Arab communities.

Mr Hoffman insisted he was not speaking on behalf of the federation, on whose board he sits, but added: “The exhibition contains historical distortions which have the effect of demonising Israel.”

Similarly, Lior Ben-Dor, a spokesman for the Israeli embassy, said the language used in the exhibition, which was originally funded by the British Council and staged in Jaffa, Amman, Beirut, Cairo, Belfast and Amsterdam without causing offence, did not reflect reality.

He claimed it ignored the fact that the “refugee problem” was caused by Arabs refusing to accept a United Nations resolution for the establishment of a Jewish state alongside an Arab one. “They refused a UN resolution and started a war. The result of war was the creation of a refugee problem,” Mr Ben-Dor added.

He also criticised the Barbican for not staging an Israeli film festival for 18 years, despite repeated requests, yet regularly hosting a Palestinian festival, the latest of which closes this week. “We would like for them to open their doors to us,” Mr Ben-Dor said. “The embassy would be very happy if the Barbican chose to balance its activities with the Palestinian Film Festival with an Israeli one.”

Last night, the Barbican dismissed the accusations and insisted it would not bow to political pressure. It said it had received only two other complaints and defended the decision to stage the show, as well as the language used in the captions.

It said: “We appreciate that interpretations of historical events can potentially be controversial and may inspire strong reactions, but are clear that decisions on such matters need to sit firmly with our artistic and curatorial team.

London’s Palestinian Film Festival is Europe’s biggest and has been held at the Barbican for four years. The centre is planning a Yiddish film festival next year, and there was an Israeli Cinema Showcase across the capital earlier this month.

For Mr Hoffman, though, a celebration of Yiddish cinema is not enough. “If the Barbican thinks a Yiddish film season in 2009 goes any way towards balancing four successive years of Palestinian film festivals, they are wrong. It is about as much balance as would be putting chicken soup and salt beef on their restaurant menu.”

Mr Hoffman said he objected to the language in a caption describing the forced expulsion of Palestinians. He said: “Many Arab inhabitants left or sold their homes to Israelis.”

The London-based Palestinian Solidarity Campaign insisted that the language used was “appropriate” and hailed the  festival and exhibition as a success. Its spokesman, Martial Kurtz, said: “It is widely accepted that the creation of Israel involved massacres and villages being erased.”

Subject: On Saturday, at Rutgers U, April 26, 2008, IRAN TODAY or The Persians - at least how the 60s paved a process that brought us where we are today - but all this without mentioning for the day the word “oil.” Next Weekend, April 30 - May 3, 2008, Mahmood Karimi-Hakak Brings Aeschylus’ The Persians to Siena College, Albany, NY.

That was indeed an extraordinary event. I decided to drive to the Bush Campus Of Rutgers University, on the grounds of what was Camp Kilmer in the WWII days, Piscataway, New Jersey, because I knew that Trita Parsi was going to speak there. As we already reported about him, he seems to have very good insights on the US - Israel - Larger-Middle-East triangle - even though that we already observed that even he avoids mentioning the word oil - and in our view of the world this is a sign of incomplete truth. Otherwise the insights are nevertheless very helpful - because oil is a topic for the elite-few, while mass psychology - based on the relation to national mythology or, even true historic facts - is what moves the big masses of people that end up moving history.

I mentioned WWII because I found it very appropriate Camp Kilmer as a locale for this meeting. As I explained many times in the past, modern history of the Middle East is an outcome of settlements that resulted from the two named world wars of the 20th century. WWI created Iraq, and set Inter-State borders for the Middle East; WWII partitioned the world at Yalta so that Britain will have in its zone of influence Iraq and Iran, while the Soviet Union exited Iran and got in exchange Eastern and Central Europe. This had to do with oil - but then, as now - the real topic was not out in the open. It was only over 50 years later that the Freedom of Information Act started to trickle out facts - and now as then - State rulers prefer to divert our attention from rigorous economic interests, to the softer sciences. Anyway - it is nevertheless important to have at least the understanding of these soft sciences right.

I thought I was the only one that will be thinking so at the “Iran Today” meeting, but after I had asked a question about oil - the only time during the day that this word was brought up, one of the Iranian business people that came to listen in - told be without my having prodded so - “at these meetings oil is never mentioned, there must be a reason why they do not mention it.”

THE PROGRAM FOR THE DAY:

THE COVER OF THE PROGRAM FOR THE CONCERT by the Chakavak Ensemble of Traditional Persian Music:

The First Panel Dealt with Iranian Identity:

Professor Ahmad Ashraf Explained the place of the story-tellers in shaping the culture from pre-Sasanian times. Even the political integration setback during the Mungal period actually helped forge the Iranian identity that via a hybrid Iranian-Shia identity moved to the forming of an Iranian Nation concept. It still did not make for an Iranian Nation State in the 19th century - it only provided the basis for such a state. It was the reviewing of the architectural archeological factual historical evidence that in 1971 led to the celebration of 2500 years to the establishing of the Cyrus empire - that was when from the mythos - the Shah then declared the modern nation.

Dr. Hashani-Sabet, reviewing identity and borderlands - said that modern nationalism still did not get cover for all Iran’s areas - at best there is a romantic nationalism. Real Nationalism, something not too prevalent in the Moslem Middle East puts according to a poll taken in 2001 - 14% of the people in Jordan that say the “Nation” is the most important factor that makes them Jordanians. For Egypt the comparable question yielded 10% and for Iran just 4%.

Nevertheless - the identification as Iranians (even though modern Nationalism did not catch their eye) it was 58% that said they are Iranians. She spoke of academic reconstruction and deconstruction of the Iranian image and the politics involved. There is a clear frontier policy now.

The British Foreign Secretary, Lord Curzon, effectively controlled the politics of Iran between 1918 and 1923 but Winston Churchill, the New Secretary of State for The Colonies created in 1921 a State called Iraq that resulted in an unclear border for Iran. (Just Think what others already called as - “Churchill’s Folly.”) For many years Iran did not even recognize Iraq. People that considered themselves Iranians were placed by the British in Iraq. In a Saudi article about Karbala - they did not accept these “Iranians” as real Arabs.

Problems of unsettled borders were also on the Baluchistan frontier with Pakistan. Though arid land, the problem one got into the open after the Pakistanis detonated heir nuclear bomb. The Shifting river border with Iraq requested several times the involvement of Turkey as an arbitrator - but then the Kurds did not get any place n such negotiations.

The third presentation - Dr. Shouleh Vatanabadi - dealt with Iranians outside Iran. That was the progression from 3,000 years ago to Today. 9/11 brought many issues to the forefront - among these the place of the women in Iranian-American society. There is the multiplicity of identities in full bloom - right here. She made points about abstraction of identities: of Iran in the US, but also of the US in Iran. She found ideas so different that they were astonishing. The American colonizer in Iran and some nostalgia to life in Israel. She finds that in the US they are not ready to accept that there are different abstractions in Iran - one expects in a book about Iran only reality - but why not see that - more a French book deals with abstractions - so it becomes more valuable. I got from this that we are wrong in taking Iranians by the word of what they say.

The Second Panel Expanded Further Into Cultural Issues:

Majid Muhammadi described the Iranian politics on cinema matters. He defined three economic means for a politically driven and controlled cinema - both for the production of Iranian movies and for the allowing in and the the showing of foreign movies: Hedayati, Hemayati, and Nezarati. Thus each year there is a political target se for the movie making industry. This policy is then driving the funding of the making of movies and the funding of showing the movies. Film directing is a privilege given by the system to political insiders.

In term of numbers - cinema houses are closing - in a country of 70 million people there are now 300 cinemas (compare this to 14,000 in the US). There are 500 movie directors but only 45-65 movies are made per year. Out of these there are 3-5 that are high box office movies. In 2007 20 million tickets were sold.

Peter Chelkowski showed us political Wall-Art. That is Wall Graphiti and political posters. Some of the samples were astonishing - some blunt and some more abstract. I will see to it to post some of them at a later date.

Mahmood Karimi-Hakak who studied at NYU Drama Department 1977-1979, with Richard Schechner - the guru of the Off-Off- Broadway those days - went back to Iran 192-19999 and directed a Mid-Summer Night’s Dream Production. Hell broke lose - it was forbidden - and eventually he left the country. He is an optimist. The society is young and most young are intelligent and breeze for fresh air. They succeeded despite difficulties. He says that Shakespeare is as relevant even when censors cut the production. Now, the closing of the show became the subject of a documentary movie.

Now, back in the US, Mahmood is directing “The Persians” for Sienna College in Albany - with shows from April 30 till May 3, 2008.

Please see some pages I scanned:

THE THIRD PANEL WAS ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE IRANIAN SOCIETY TODAY - This WAS A LEGAL PANEL:

Mehrangiz Kar pointed out that in 1963 women got the right to vote { OK that was ahead of Switzerland!}. They can even be elected but will not hold important positions. The problem is more serious in inequality in daily life in ares such as inheritance or compensation for damages - simply a woman seems to be only half a human being. A campaign for women’s rights gathered one million signatures! The woman that organized this got the Olof Palme award.

Farhad Khosrokhavar followed with Young people.

The Fourth and the Last Panel was on International Relations - the original reason for my coming for the day. The first speaker was Trita Parsi, the President of the National Iranian Council in the US:

He grew up in Sweden where he got his M.Sc. in International Affairs at The University of Stockholm - then his PH.D. at SAIS, Johns Hopkins U. in Washington DC. He worked for the Security Council of the Swedish Government and got to washington August 2001 - right in time for 9/11. That sealed his activities since - as he decided to concentrate on next conflict in the Middle East - on Iran. This came about as he realized that last book was written about Iranian-US relations in 1987. Actually it was by Israeli Journalist Tom Segev who, though very good, had at the time access only to Israeli documents.

The main push to do a new book came from the realization that in 1987, when Khomeini was still alive, Yitzhak Rabin CALLED IRAN - ISRAEL’s BEST FRIEND. That clearly was so in the 60s and 70s when both countries faced threats from the same enemies Pan-Arabism of Nasser and the Soviet Union push into the Middle East.  Israel wanted the relations with the Shah out in the open - but Iran preferred to keep it all secret in order to avoid needless reactions from the Arabs. There was an Israeli mission in Tehran but no lags and no visibility whatsoever. Parsi challenges the idea that in 1979 there was a root-change.  He thinks that despite the new government in power in Iran - basic relations stayed on. Paradoxically, because of the hostage crisis, the Iranians became even more dependent on Israel for access to US Congress - and for spare parts to US previously supplied equipment. It all boiled down to Vietnam and Israel when it came to replacement parts to American arms.

Trita Parsi points out the Israeli of National Security as being a No-Arab Periphery Doctrine involving Turkey, Ethiopia and Iran. Only three days after Saddam’s invasion of Iraq, the Israeli Minister of Defense held a conference about the need to keep up the Iranian defense.

THE MOST EXCESSIVE RHETORIC AGAINST ISRAEL COVERS OVER THE SUBVERT IRAN-ISRAEL RELATIONS.  israel lobbied in Washington to continue helping Iran.  What changed was the collapse of the Soviet Union so in 1991-93 and then Israel was ready to have a new look at Iraq. now there was an Iran-Iraq balance in Israel relations.  From the Iranian perspective they also allowed a change and promoted their own utility to the Us by allowing shipments of oil while Father Bush dealt blows to Saddam. On the other hand, Israel felt that without the SU it is losing its own utility to the US. Now the alliance of the US with other Arab states in the war against Saddam required putting Israel outside the circle - with an added promise that after the war they will turn their attention again to the Palestinian issue.

Iraq thought they can push Israel to disrupt this new found Arab-US entente by enticing Israel to react to the shelling. Israel did not allow Saddam to dictate its policy, but what will happen if the US and Iran find a way out to their conflict? The Periphery Doctrine will then fall and Israel must decide on a new policy. Will Israel be interested to support Hamas in order to undermine the PLO? The first are Sunni fundamentalists while the Latter are Sunni Nationalists. The US can only relate to the Nationalists -= not the Fundamentalists. If the peace process succeeds - then Iran is isolated! So - Now Iran will Support Hamas in order to avoid an outcome that marginalizes them also.

So - again - a collusion of Israel-Iran interests. When does one take posturing serious and when does posturing translate into action?

THERE IS NO COMPROMISE IN IDEOLOGICAL BATTLES BUT THERE IS AMPLE WINDOW SPACE FOR COMPROMISE IN STRATEGIC BATTLES.

The Arabs support the US to stabilize Iraq - then go to Damascus and declare readiness to negotiate with Israel but the Bush Administration does not react very much to the Damascus Declaration. of May 17, 2003. The problem is that Chamberlain is remembered and nobody wants to become the new Chamberlain of the Middle East.

{A question from the floor asked and who are the Molotow-Ribentropps of the Middle East.}  Parsi’s answer was that this is an excellent question - the best that was ever put to him. I DO NOT THINK THAT WASHINGTON HAS THE INTELLECTUAL CAPABILITY TO TALK TO IRAN - he said. it will completely require a change in the climate for the ME. It is not all bad when human rights is on the table - he continued. If the Marshall plan would have been about containing Germany it would not have been the success it became. Diplomacy has to be the first option, but we did not spend the time to figure out what it means to bring in Iran.

In the last couple of years we have seen Iran drifting reluctantly in the direction of Russia, China….  In 1995, the first Reagan Administration started to isolate Iran and Pushing it to China and Russia. US allies become discouraged also of the way the US handles the situation and may even pull the rug from under the US diplomacy.

Hamid Zangeneh, who published a book titled: “Islam, Iran, and World Stability,” was the last speaker. His topic was Iran-Us but much was already taken from him by Parsi.

He stated flat - “The overthrow of Mossadegh has denied Iran 30 years. Americans don’t understand this - WE DO!”

ALL OF IRAN REMEMBERS “THE COUP - “The American’s Ask What Is Iran Good For”"

There was an affection in Iran to Kennedy. Nixon years were good for the Shah! It was the Americans that made hen the Shah to Buy the nuclear system. We could do the dual containment of Iran-Iraq - specially now that the UN Security Council gave the Us the go on Iran.  Saudi Arabia is in the Foundation of all three countries but they never fought in any of these regional wars. The Israeli have! India, China, Europe, Japan, the US will have to sit down.

So what does Iran Want? Actually they do not want to make the bomb - all what they want is to be like Germany - to have the know-how - the capability to make a bomb without making one.

if America has to leave Iraq in disgrace - the military will move all over and there will be a loss for Iran and Israel - that is why Israel sees in the loss of Iraq a disaster. israel does not want to see the US cozy up with the Arab countries. SO NEXT PRESIDENT SHOULD GO TO CHINA AND GET THEIR HELP IN ORDER TO FIND A SOLUTION.

OK - You see - We Talked about the whole world and managed not to say the word oil once - that is except my own question that was addressed to Panel No.2 and was about the oil money - easy come to the governments - easy go - so that was the basis for the corruption in the Iranian-Arab region. The answer came that the corruption is a cultural thing and that countries like Zimbabwe are corrupt without having oil. So, let me confess that I saw the point - and the point was that when people - for whatever reasons - do not want to see the subject of oil - they will simply display total blindness to that subject - THEY WILL NOT SLIP ON OIL! And my newly found Iranian friend, I mentioned earlier, simply made the same comment.

Could we say that oil people are interested in shaking out the topic in an intellectual exercise? Even so, the shake-out on Saturday was done very well and I feel like I had a clearing of sinuses when trying to decipher further the intricacies of the Middle East.

And one last point - history has provided Iran with much to grieve about - something that it did not hand to the Arabs - so - despite the incomplete conversation - I am more sympathetic to the Iranians then to the Arabs.

Tel Aviv’s “quacky” duck movement arrives at City Hall.
By Karin Kloosterman , www.israel21c.org April 8, 2008

Walt Disney has Mickey Mouse, Charles Shultz has Snoopy, and Tel Aviv has Ha Barvaz, Hebrew for The Duck. So says Yuval Caspi, a visual artist and cartoonist from a workshop in Tel Aviv’s Florentine district. “Can you hear the sewing machine in the background?” he asks.

Caspi is charged with overseeing the creation of a 10-meter fabric duck, now being sewn into a balloon, which will sit atop Tel Aviv’s City Hall in Rabin Square starting the night of April 16. Installed for a month, the yellow duck is to honor Tel Aviv’s 100th anniversary.

The vision to adorn City Hall with a giant duck didn’t fall from the sky. Some cities have lions, others bears or eagles. But visions of ducks danced through the head of Dudu Geva, Israel’s most cherished cartoonist who died young from a heart attack in 2005.

When Geva died, his dreams to liven up Tel Aviv with bizarre art installations and stunts lived on.

The Duck was just one of his ideas.

Geva had been quoted saying that Tel Aviv was in dire need of decoration. “City Hall,” he said, “is a lost cause. If a giant duck is placed on its roof, everything will be turned upside down. The idea is to bring joy to people’s hearts and to make art a part of daily life.”

Other ideas that Geva thought about included opera singers who would spring out of garbage trucks singing arias, or the placement of giant snakes on the roofs of Tel Aviv’s swank Rothschild Boulevard.

Most of his ideas weren’t taken seriously though by the city. Recently, his family returned with the duck idea and within a week it was accepted. Come mid-April, Geva’s friends, colleagues and children will kick off the launch of the giant duck at Tel Aviv’s City Hall.

“On the 15th of April, there will be a small ceremony around 6pm in the evening in Rabin Square, and we will watch the duck on the building get inflated,” Caspi tells  ISRAEL21c. “It will be a small artistic event and a ceremony,” he says, intended to honor Geva, his duck and Israeli comics.

After all he contends, “Dudu Geva’s duck is not a duck. It’s The Duck - maybe the most famous Israeli symbol. Well, at least for Tel Avivians.

“This project is a memorial to him,” says Caspi.

Why ducks and why art? “Artists make life a bit happier,” says Caspi. “The whole idea is not a political one. It is not an artistic statement. It is all about being happy and making the city a nicer place to live - a place that kids like to be in.”

Geva’s daughter Tami recalls her father’s plan to turn Tel Aviv into a Duck City: “He never at any stage thought that they would take him seriously, but he wanted to spread the ‘duck movement’ as an artistic and social movement,” she said in a local newspaper.  “We don’t want the event to feel like a memorial,” she said, “We want my father’s idea of putting art in open public spaces to continue to exist, with humor, in the spirit of the duck.”

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www.SustainabiliTank.info would like to suggest that the renovated UN building get also something to sit on its top - like this duck. Clearly it could be another bird - what if it were a 10 meter desert-dove? We hope that some Sovereign Fund Could help turn this into a reality. 

Inside North Korea with the New York Philharmonic.          

Upcoming Exhibit: April 24–May 16, 2008
10:00 AM–5:00 PM, Monday through Friday
Open to the Public and Free of Charge

Opening Reception: Wednesday, April 30 at 5:30 PM

Exhibition Venue
The Korea Society Gallery
950 Third Avenue, Eighth Floor, New York City
(Building entrance on SW corner of Third Avenue and 57th Street)

The Korea Society is pleased to present Inside North Korea with the New York Philharmonic, an exhibition of photographs by award-winning photographer Mark Edward Harris that document the concert by the New York Philharmonic orchestra in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on February 26, 2008.

In these fascinating and often-stunning photographs, Harris offers a portrait of the historic event, encompassing both the concert itself and all the other major activities of the nearly 300-member delegation—artists, staff, accompanying patrons, guests and press corps. The exhibition captures multiple aspects of the New York Philharmonic orchestra’s two-day visit to Pyongyang, the capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Most notably, the photographs afford an inside view of this previously unimaginable influx of Americans—the largest group since the days of the Korean War over half a century ago—and insights into the inhabitants of this reclusive country.

The exhibition is accompanied by Harris’ book, Inside North Korea, published by Chronicle Books in 2007, which features photographs from previous visits to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. These photographs document life in Pyongyang and scenes from along the northern border with China, the highly militarized DMZ and the tightly controlled economic and tourist zones. The book includes short essays, extended captions and a foreword by noted North Korea expert Bruce Cumings. The book will be available for purchase at The Korea Society during the period of the exhibition.

Following its run at The Korea Society, Inside North Korea with the New York Philharmonic will be available for travel to colleges, universities, galleries and non-profit institutions across America.

For inquiries about the exhibition in The Korea Society Gallery, contact Jinyoung Kim at (212) 759-7525, ext. 316 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
For inquiries about hosting the exhibition in your gallery, contact Heewon Kim at (212) 759-7525, ext. 355

The subject of this posting came to our attention via an e-mail we received that a very special event will be held at the Manhattan Cathedral of the Saint John the Devine, April 13, 2008. we followed up and posted an announcement:

The Garrison Institute and Philip Glass Opera Satyagraha at the Metropolitan Opera at the Lincoln Center in New York are about Climate Change? You Have the Chance to find out April 13, 2008 at Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine.
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
Posted in Reporting from Washington DC, Future Meetings, Art Performance reviews, India, New York |

 http://www.sustainabilitank.info/2008/04…

Then we folllowed up and we like now to post for our readers some excerpts from the Metropolitan Opera’s angle regarding this very unusual new opera - the product of a team led by modern “master-builder” Phillip Glass.

Satyagraha, Philip Glass’s landmark opera about Gandhi’s formative years in South Africa, has its Metropolitan Opera premiere in a new production on April 11.

Following its hit run in London, Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch’s extraordinary new staging, conducted by Dante Anzolini, features Richard Croft as the visionary leader.

Met initiatives include art exhibitions, talks, an outdoor campaign, and related public events.

New York, NY (April 2, 2008)— Following its hit run in London last spring, Philip Glass’s landmark opera, Satyagraha, will premiere at the Metropolitan Opera on April 11 at 8:00 p.m. in a new production that has won raves from critics and audiences.

Satyagraha (Sanskrit for “truth-force”) is a musical meditation on Gandhi’s early years in South Africa, when he developed his philosophy of non-violence.

This seminal work, composed in 1979, has been re-imagined by director Phelim McDermott and associate director/set designer Julian Crouch; this co-production of the Met and English National Opera (ENO) has been created in collaboration with Improbable, McDermott and Crouch’s acclaimed London-based theater company.

The Times of London praised the production as “a masterwork of theatrical intensity and integrity.” The libretto, by Glass and Constance DeJong, is taken from the Bhagavad Gita, and the opera is performed in Sanksrit.

“I was determined to bring this modern masterpiece to the Met,” said Met General Manager Peter Gelb. “I’m very pleased that what I believe to be Philip Glass’s greatest opera is having its long-awaited premiere on our stage.”

In conjunction with the Met performances, a series of events and exhibitions inspired by Satyagraha and Gandhi’s message of non-violent protest are taking place throughout the city, including two visual art exhibitions at Lincoln Center and a provocative outdoor transit campaign.

In their role debuts, tenor Richard Croft portrays Gandhi, with Rachelle Durkin, Earle Patriarco, and Alfred Walker in other leading roles. Conductor Dante Anzolini also makes his Met debut, leading all seven performances through Tuesday, May 1. Lighting designer Paule Constable and costume designer Kevin Pollard join McDermott and Crouch in making Met debuts.

When the production of Satyagraha premiered in London last year, many performances sold out, and the show became ENO’s best-selling contemporary work in more than 20 years. The Guardian praised it as “an astonishingly beautiful work…Phelim McDermott’s staging, undertaken in collaboration with the theatre company Improbable, is also a thing of wonder.” Best known to U.S. audiences as the creative force behind the hit Off-Broadway “junk opera” Shockheaded Peter, McDermott and Crouch have conceived a beautiful and striking production that features improvisational puppetry by the twelve person Skills Ensemble and projections created by the British film and media production company Fifty Nine Productions. The staging also incorporates corrugated metal, used in the colonial structures often seen in photographs of Gandhi’s campaign, and newspaper, which reflects Gandhi’s pioneering use of the media to communicate his message.

Satyagraha is the second opera in Philip Glass’s famous “portrait” trilogy, which also includes Einstein on the Beach (1975) and Akhnaten (1983-84). Satyagraha is based on Mohandas K. Gandhi’s formative years as a young lawyer in South Africa, when he developed his philosophy of non-violent protest as a force for change. The opera had its world premiere in 1980 at the Netherlands Opera.

The opera’s Met premiere this month coincides with the anniversaries of Gandhi’s Salt March on Dandi, Gujarat on April 6, 1930, and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, widely recognized as a disciple of Gandhi, on April 4, 1968.

“Gandhi was a great man who thought the power of truth could change the world…I can identify with that idea,” Glass says. “By the late 1970s, I thought that the political and social landscape had become so violent and that it was really time to think about the man who invented the idea of social change and non-violence. Little did I know that 30 years later, it would be far more violent. I don’t know what the power of art has to do in the world. Yet, when I talk to people about this piece, it seems to have had a strong meaning for them.” This is the second Glass opera produced by the Met; The Voyage, based on Christopher Columbus’s journey to America, was commissioned by the Met and had its world premiere here in 1992.

The Met’s new production of Satyagraha is underwritten by Agnes Varis, a Met managing director who also sponsored an outdoor advertising campaign for Satyagraha that launched this month. The campaign, featuring four bold, provocative questions (such as “Could an opera make us warriors for peace?”) superimposed over an image of Gandhi, runs for one month on bus shelters and phone kiosks throughout New York City. “I decided to underwrite this production of Satyagraha because of the brilliance of Philip Glass’s music and the message of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.,” said Dr. Varis. “I’ve always been interested in freedom movements, and Gandhi and King were leaders who changed our society.”

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Met Exhibitions and Events:

The Arnold & Marie Schwartz Gallery Met: CHUCK CLOSE PHILIP GLASS 40 YEARS.
Monday, March 17 through May 2008/Metropolitan Opera.

Over the last 40 years, the artist Chuck Close has created more than 100 different studies of Philip Glass, in many different mediums. To honor the decades-long friendship, Gallery Met—the Metropolitan Opera’s exhibition space for contemporary visual art—is presenting CHUCK CLOSE PHILIP GLASS 40 YEARS, a new exhibition that features 18 portraits of Glass created by Close between 1968 and 2008. Organized by Gallery Met Director Dodie Kazanjian, the show includes paintings, photographs, lithographs, tapestries, etchings, and engravings, in mediums ranging from acrylic to watercolor and daguerreotype to stamp pad ink. Gallery visitors will also be able to hear Philip Glass’s Musical Portrait of Chuck Close during the exhibition; the 15-minute piece for solo piano premiered at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in 2005.

As part of a new visual arts program begun this year by Kazanjian, renowned painter Francesco Clemente has created an original artwork inspired by Satyagraha for a banner currently hanging on the front of the opera house.

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, “The Force of Truth: Glass, Gandhi, and Satyagraha.”

Monday, March 17, through Saturday, April 19/Lincoln Center.

In collaboration with the Met, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center is presenting an exhibition of Satyagraha production photos and design sketches, historical images, and collages, as well as a Gandhi-inspired mural by artist Tamar Hirschl entitled “Protest.”

The exhibition is open to the public and free of charge. Hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm; Monday and Thursday from noon to 8:00 pm; and Saturdays from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.
Guggenheim Works & Process: Satyagraha.

was held - Tuesday, March 25, at 8:00 p.m./The Guggenheim Museum.
Philip Glass, Julian Crouch, Phelim McDermott, and Met General Manager Peter Gelb discussed the creative process behind the new production. Glass (accompanying on piano), Richard Croft, and Bradley Garvin (Prince Arjuna) performed musical excerpts, with additional piano accompaniment by Dennis Giauque. This event was sold-out, but video clips will be available in mid-April at www.metopera.org. For more information, please call (212) 423-3587.

Metropolitan Opera Guild: Bringing Satyagraha to Life.

Monday, April 14, at 6:00 p.m./Metropolitan Opera House.
Philip Glass talks with Met Artistic Assistant Manager Sarah Billinghurst about Satyagraha. For tickets and information, please call (212) 769-7028.

Metropolitan Opera Guild: Philip Glass and India.

Tuesday, April 22, at 6:00 p.m./Metropolitan Opera House

Satyagraha draws from the Bhagavad Gita and from the life and writings of Mahatma Gandhi. Dr. W. Anthony Sheppard examines this opera and its source material, and reveals the enduring impact of Indian music on the career of this world-renowned contemporary composer. For tickets and information, please call (212) 769-7028.

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Outside the Met:

The Satya Graha Forum
On the occasion of the opera’s Met debut, an independent consortium (separate from the Met) of New York cultural, arts, environmental, educational, and spiritual institutions working with Glass, has launched an initiative to create a dialogue on Gandhi’s concept of social change. The Forum, which kicks off on April 6 with a gathering at the Gandhi statue in New York City’s Union Square Park, will present events, lectures, and performances throughout the month of April. For more information, go to