#Benjamin Budd

[typhlonectes]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Mehdi Hasan at Zeteo News:

A group of influential Republican senators has sent a letter to International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan, warning him not to issue international arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, and threatening him with “severe sanctions” if he does so.  In a terse, one-page letter obtained exclusively by Zeteo, and signed by 12 GOP senators, including Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Florida’s Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz of Texas, Khan is informed that any attempt by the ICC to hold Netanyahu and his colleagues to account for their actions in Gaza will be interpreted “not only as a threat to Israel’s sovereignty but to the sovereignty of the United States.”

12 Republican Senators-- including Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Mitch McConnell, and Katie Britt-- have all signed onto a letter in support of Israel's war crimes threatening the ICC if they issue arrest warrants to Israel Apartheid State officials.

[monotonous-minutia]

Okay! FINALLY!

[kelleah-meah]

"If your Christianity causes you to be offended by someone asking the most powerful person in the country to be merciful towards the powerless, then you have deeply, deeply misunderstood the teachings of Jesus Christ."

-- Rev. Benjamin Cremer

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

Here's sample of Don't Hang Up by Benjamin Stevenson, narrated by Luke Arnold and Sibylla Budd.

Description:

‘You and I are going to have a chat. If you hang up, this girl dies.’ Adam Turner works the mid-dawn shift at his local radio station. From 12am to 6am, it’s his job to fill the airtime with old songs, inane chatter, and the occasional talkback caller. It’s a long way from his prime-time slot from over a decade ago, when he was a star in the making. Now there’s no producers, no billboards, no stakes, and, crucially, not many listeners. His frequent callers are drunk college students headed home from a night out, or long-range truck drivers. He is completely alone in the studio from midnight until dawn every night. And then one night at 12:45am, he gets a different kind of call, with higher stakes than he could ever have wanted. The caller’s rules are simple – stay on the line, live on air, until dawn, or the woman they are holding captive will die. The night wears on and Adam is tormented by his caller, forced to answer increasingly personal questions, exposing his fall from grace for all to hear. He must try to figure out just who is calling him, what they really want, and how he can stop them. All while staying live on air, and keeping the psycho talking. But as the conversation gets deeper, is Adam willing to broadcast his darkest secrets to the world in order to keep a stranger safe?

You can buy full version of Don't Hang Up by Benjamin Stevenson on Audible here

[doyouknowthisopera]

[ulrichgebert]

Aus der tragischen Geschichte vom ungerechten Schicksal des engelsgleichen, vielleicht etwas schlichten und beinahe unerträglich genügsamen Seemanns Billy Budd, dem es auch nichts geholfen hat, daß er immer ohne Murren seine Pflicht tat, könnte man natürlich prima eine Oper machen. Peter Ustinov, tapfer als Regisseur, Produzent, Drehbuchautor und Hauptdarsteller macht aber auch (ungefähr zeitgleich) einen bemerkenswerten Film daraus und beschert uns "and introducing Terence Stamp", allein dafür hat es sich ja schon gelohnt. Die Musik hat er wahrscheinlich bloß nicht selber geschrieben, weil er ahnte, daß die Musik, die wir dazu im Kopf haben würden, am Ende sowieso eine andere sein würde.

[acmecorpgraphicsarchive]

 via  Gridllr.com   —  Likes made beautiful!

Billy Budd, Opera in Four Acts, Music by Benjamin Britten, Libretto by E. M. Forster and Eric Crozier, Adapted from the story by Herman Melville, Boosey & Hawkes, Ltd., London , 1951 [From the Collection of William Palmer Johnston. The Grolier Club, New York, NY]

Exhibitions: Melville's Billy Budd at 100, The Grolier Club, September 12 – November 9, 2024; Oberlin College & Conservatory Libraries, Oberlin, OH, November 17 – December 20, 2024

[queercomposerkarlsson]

Benjamin Britten (left) and Peter Pears (right)

Britten was one of the greatest UK composers of the 20-th century. He is known for his orchestral works and operas, and many of his works were performed by the tenor Pears.

They had many professional collaborations, but they did also live together. They had a secret romance that lasted for 40 years, and much of it took place before homosexuality was decriminalized in 1967. They kept their relasionship private up until Britten's passing. after that, Pears opened up about it and confirmed what many may have suspected.

Several of Britten's compositions have love between men as a theme, one of them being the opera Billy Budd with an entirely male cast. A more intimate composition is his setting of some of Michelangelo's sonnets whith a gay undertone. It was of course performed by his beloved Pears, with Britten himself at the piano.

[motherofplatypus]

Bisan Owda is a journalist in Gaza that keeps updating about the barbaric genocide actions that israel committed with weapons supplied mainly by US, all the while living through that genocide itself.

Over 30k+ has been killed, and over 15k+ of those are children and babies.

The celebs and artists who wanted to rescind Bisan's nomination are as follow:

Ari Ingel, Executive Director, Creative Community for Peace

David Renzer, Former Chairman/CEO Universal Music Publishing Group, CCFP Chairman & Co-Founder

Steve Schnur, Worldwide Executive & Music President, Electronic Arts, CCFP Co-Founder

Rakefet Abergel, Actor/Director, Cyclamen Films

Orly Adelson, Former President of ITV Studios, America

Marty Adelstein, CEO, Tomorrow Studios

Anne-Marie Asner, Co-Founder, Animation Israel

Jeff Astrof, TV Producer/Showrunner, Other Shoe Productions

Michael Auerbach, Partner, Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner Auerbach Hynick Jaime LeVine Sample & Klein

Dean Bahat, Attorney, Ziffren Brittenham

Andrea Ballas, VP Comms, CBS

Jackie Barrie, A&R Manager, Nvak Collective

Richard Baskind, Partner & Head of Music, Simons Muirhead & Burton

Aton Ben-Horin, Executive VP of Global A&R, Atlantic Records Group

Steven Bensusan, President, Blue Note Entertainment Group

Adam Berkowitz, Founder and President, Lenore Entertainment Group

Sharon Bialy, Casting Director, Bialy/Thomas & Associates

Josh Binder, Co-Founder and Partner, Rothenberg Mohr & Binder, LLP

Neil Blair, Founding Partner, The Blair Partnership

Selma Blair, Actress, Author, Advocate, Sainted Productions

Rebecca Blumberg, SVP Ad Sales, Paramount

Evan Bogart, Songwriter & CEO, Seeker Music

Benjamin Budde, CEO, Budde Group GmbH

Bruce Burger, Producer, RebbeSoul

David Byrnes, Attorney, Ziffren Brittenham

Civia Caroline, Social Impact Consultant, CLiC Impact

Pamela Charbit, Director of A&R, Warner Music Group

Emmanuelle Chriqui, Actor, Yellow Ray Entertainment

Leanne Coronel, Talent Manager, The Coronel Group

Raye Cosbert, Managing Director, Metropolis Musi

Paul Craig, Ceo, Nostromo Management

Doug Davis, NATAS Member, 2x Emmy winner, The Davis Firm

Rebecca De Mornay, Actor

Jamie Denbo, Co-Executive Producer, Grey’s Anatomy, ABC/Disney

Josh Deutsch, Chairman/CEO, Premier Music Group

Avi Diamond, Director, Film/TV Sync, Warner Music Canada

Craig Dorfman, President and Owner, Frontline MGMT

Rachel Douglas, Manager, Range Media Partners

David Draiman, Frontman, Disturbed

Jeremy Drysdale, Screenwriter, bigbamboo

Craig Emanuel, Ryan Murphy Productions

Hannah Epstein, Agent, CAA

Rami “Kosha dillz” Even-Esh, Rapper/Comic/Actor

Lindsay Fabes, Actor

Ron Fair, Record Producer & CEO, Faircraft Inc.

Sharon Farber, Composer, Score by Score Music

Danny Federman, Owner, Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club

Eric Feig, Attorney and TV Academy Member, Feig/Finkel

Patti Felker, Attorney, Felker Toczek Suddleson McGinnis Ryan LLP

Ken Fermaglich, Partner, United Talent Agency

Ross “Remedy” Filler, Artist

Shalom Fisch, President, MediaKidz Research & Consulting

David Fishof, CEO, RRFC Films, LLC

Siri Garber, Publicist, Platform

David Gardner, President, Artists First

Barbara Garshman, CEO, Garshman Productions LLC

Gary Gersh

Gary Ginsberg, Senior VP, SoftBank Group Corp.

Brian Ralston, Composer/Producer, Studio 74 Music, LLC

David Glick, Founder & CEO, Edge Group

Zusha Goldin, Celebrity Photographer, Zusha Goldin

Michael Goldwasser, President, Easy Star Records

Andrew Gould, President, Music Publishing

Scott Greenberg, Partner, LBI

Steven Greenberg, Founder and President, S-Curve Records

Daniel Grindlinger, Writer

Ronnie Harris, Partner, Harris & Trotter

Michael Hirschhorn, Manager, Streaming and Sales, Atlantic Records

Linda Edell Howard, Attorney, Novick Law

Rich Ingram, Artist/Creator

Neil Jacobson, Former President, Geffen Records, Founder & CEO of Hallwood Media

Michael Kaplan, Writer/Producer

Sam Katz, Music Manager, Homebase MGMT, LLC

Zach Katz, CEO & Co-Founder, Fixated

Ketura Kestin, Film Producer, Serendipity Productions

Amanda Kogan, Manager, Aaron Kogan Management

Keetgi Kogan Steinberg, Writer/Producer/Showrunner

Jason Kozel, Creative Executive, Range Media Partners

Rick Krim, CEO, Krim Music + Media

Evan Lamberg, President, North America, Universal Music Publishing Group

Sherry Lansing, Former CEO, Paramount Pictures

Colin Lester OBE, Founder/Chairman, JEM Music Group

Sean Liebowitz, Agent

Koura Linda, Founder & CEO, Space Dream Productions

Marci Liroff, Intimacy Coordinator/Casting Director

Cory Litwin, Managing Partner, Range Media Partners

David Lonner, CEO, The David Lonner Company

Ben Maddahi, President, Unrestricted Publishing & Mgmt

Gabriel Mann, Composer

Deborah Marcus, Executive, CAA Foundation

Susan Markheim, Full Stop Mgt., The Azoff Company

Amanda Markowitz, Actor/Producer, SAG/AFTRA & PGA

Orly Marley, President, Tuff Gong Worldwide

Devra Maza, Screenwriter

Debra Messing, Actor/Producer

Hilary Michael, Agent and Partner, WME

Beth Milstein, Writer

Jennifer Morrow, Actor, CAA

Patrick Moss, Writer, Moroccan Boychik

Robert Munic, Writer/Showrunner, Pull The Pin Productions, Inc.

Lisa Nupoff, Manager, iminmusic management

Scott Packman, Founder and Managing Member, SSP Partners LLC

Mark Pinkus, President, Rhino Records

Jonah Platt, Actor/Producer

Wendy Plaut, SVP Music & Celebrity Talent, Paramount Global

Jessica Poter, Writer, Gustavo Anibal Productions

Golan Ramraz, Writer/Producer, EGX Film Factory

Bruce Resnikof

Frederic Richter, Producer, Writer & Researcher

Wendy Robbins, Executive Producer, Creators Inc

Dan Rosen, President, Warner Music Australasia

Rick Rosen, Co-Founder, Endeavor, WME

Aaron Rosenberg, Partner, Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobasser Younger & Light

Gregg Rossen, Screenwriter

Michael Rotenberg, CEO, 3 Arts Entertainment

Joshua Rothstein, CEO/Founder, Ice Cream For Dinner

Haim Saban, Chairman and CEO, Saban Capital Group

Glenn Sanders, Writer/Director/Creative Director, Masonry Creative

Ayelet Schiffman, SVP Head of Promotions, Island Records

Paul Schindler, Senior Partner, Greenberg Traurig LLC

Jordan Schur, CEO and Chairman, Mimran Schur Pictures and Suretone Entertainment

Adam Schwartz, Writer

Sam Schwartz, Partner, Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency

Jay Schweid, Founder/CEO, ephelants/Village

Adam Segal, President, The 2050 Group

Ben Silverman, Chairman and Co-CEO, Propagate Content

Ralph Simon, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Mobilium Global Limited

Tamar Simon, Owner/CEO, Mean Streets Management

Martin Singer, Attorney, Lavely and Singer

Halle Stanford, President of Television, The Jim Henson Company

Mimi Steinberg, Writer/Producer

Jonathan Steinsapir, Partner, Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir

Gary Stiffelman, Founder, GSS Law

Traci Symanski, CEO, Co-Star Entertainment

Aaron Symonds, Film Composer

Fernando Szew, President, Fox Entertainment

Tal Tavin, Actor

Adam Taylor, President, APM Music

Michael Testa, Casting Director, Michael Testa Casting

Fred Toczek, Partner, Felker Toczek Suddleson Abramson McGinnis Ryan LLP

Eric Tuchman, Writer/Producer, MGM-TV

Noa Vinshtok, Streaming, Range Media Partners

Joshua Washington, International Recording Artist, JoDavi Music LLC

Avi Weider, Filmmaker, Loop Filmworks

Jon Weinbach, President, Skydance Sports

Nola Weinstein, Tech Executive

Ilana Wernick, Writer/Producer, Fox

Modi Wiczyk, Co-Founder, MRC

Evan Winiker, Managing Partner, Range Music

Seth Yanklewitz, Casting Director, Yanklewitz Pollack Casting

Sharon Tal Yguado, Founder & CEO, Astrid Entertainment

Ky Zaretsky, Manager, Range Media Partners

David Zedeck, Global Co-Head of Music

[Sources: here, here, and here]

[mariacallous]

Qatar, the small emirate on the Persian Gulf, has long enjoyed unmatched influence over Hamas, the ruling power in Gaza. It is now threatening to withdraw its services as a mediator between Hamas and Israel unless Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ceases what Doha considers to be a smear campaign against it. The fate of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza could now hang in the balance of this new diplomatic dispute.

Last week, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said that the mediation process had been abused for “narrow political interests,” and that Qatar will make “the appropriate decision at the right time.” It was a message intended for Netanyahu, according to an Arab official who spoke to Foreign Policy.

Qatari officials reportedly believe that Netanyahu is deliberately delaying a possible release of hostages to prolong the war and stay in power. By threatening to walk away from the negotiations, they believe they can pressure Netanyahu into clarifying whether negotiating a hostage release is a priority for him at all. “We only negotiate when both sides want us to,” said a Qatari official who spoke to Foreign Policy on the condition of anonymity considering the sensitivity of the matter.

Netanyahu knows Qatar is necessary to the negotiations owing to the leverage that it gained over Hamas in the years prior to the current war. Qatar sent $1.3 billion in aid to Gaza between 2012 and 2021, at a time when Israel had otherwise largely cut off the territory, and it lent Hamas international credibility by giving its representatives airtime on Al Jazeera.

Qatar is well aware of its unique diplomatic position and is enjoying the limelight on the global stage. And yet there have been valid questions around Qatar’s intentions. There is strong suspicion in Israel and in parts of the U.S. government that it is biased in Hamas’s favor and pushing for its agenda. Doha, they say, could more effectively compel Hamas if it threatened those of its leaders who have taken residence in Qatar with expulsion, or with extradition to a country that lists Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Qatar started to host Hamas in 2012 after the group ran afoul of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and claims to have opened its doors at the behest of then-U.S. President Barack Obama. But Foreign Policy has learned from the aforementioned Arab official who is aware of the negotiations that despite bipartisan pressure from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, Qatar has not yet asked Hamas to relocate.

Last week, U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer accused Qatar of blocking negotiations, essentially abusing its role as a mediator. He was the fifth lawmaker to urge Congress to scrap Qatar’s status as a major non-NATO ally granted to the Arab nation in 2022 for supporting evacuations from Afghanistan. Any such demotion would not only be a global embarrassment for Qatar but would relegate it below Egypt and other competitors in the neighborhood who also hold the same designation.

“Qatar needs to make it clear to Hamas that there will be repercussions,” Hoyer said in a statement. Earlier this month, Republican Sens. Ted Budd, Joni Ernst, and Rick Scott introduced a bill that would require the United States to conduct a review to “terminate the designation” if Qatar didn’t expel or extradite Hamas’s leadership, “including Ismail Haniyeh, Khalil al-Hayya, Khaled Mashal,” its biggest leaders.

Orly Gilboa—the mother of 19-year-old Daniella Gilboa, who has been held hostage by Hamas since Oct. 7, 2023—said that the United States’ pressure on Qatar could work. “Qatar supports Hamas, but they want good relations with the U.S., so they will do what the U.S. wants them to do,” she told Foreign Policy over Zoom.

But some U.S. lawmakers said the move to scrap the status was premature and unwarranted. That has encouraged Doha to stay the course. But the Arab official believes that those who asked to strip Qatar of the designation are perhaps pro-Netanyahu lawmakers and do not speak for the Oval Office.

Budd’s legislation argues that if Hamas is refusing “reasonable” negotiations, then there is no reason for Qatar to continue hosting Hamas’s political office or members, parroting the viewpoint of many in Israel’s security community. But “reasonable” is being defined differently by the various parties concerned.

While Israel expects Qatar to convince Hamas to release hostages and then intends to resume the war to eliminate the group entirely from Gaza, Qatar finds merit in Hamas’s demand of a permanent cease-fire. This is the crux of the disagreement between Qatar and Israel.

“I don’t think it’s an unreasonable request,” said an Arab official familiar with the negotiations. “If they release all hostages, they want an end to the war.”

However, the Israeli security community suspects that’s not all Hamas wants. They argue it could have achieved an end to the war had it agreed to disarm and leave Gaza. Israelis fear that Hamas wants to return to Gaza, victorious, and carry out more attacks that match the cruelty of Oct. 7.

“We can’t hand Hamas a victory,” said Eran Lerman, a former Israeli deputy national security advisor. “After what they have done, we refuse to live with Hamas as our neighbors. And it’s not just Netanyahu, but there is wide support for the policy to eradicate Hamas.” Israel is ready to offer only a temporary truce until Hamas has been vanquished.

Doha makes the case that since the war has limited its ability to send aid to Gaza, it simply doesn’t have the kind of leverage it once did over Hamas’s leaders holding the hostages inside Gaza.

“Sinwar will rather die inside Gaza than agree to a deal to leave,” said an Arab official aware of the negotiations, referring to Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader within Gaza who was behind the Oct. 7 attack. “This is the mistake—this is what Israelis are not understanding.”

He said that threatening to kick out Hamas’s political leaders from Qatar will not bring the desired pressure on Hamas. Sinwar, who is making the final decisions about the hostage negotiations, doesn’t care about his group’s political representatives or where they live, “whether in Qatar, Turkey, Oman, or Iran.”

Israel also doesn’t care where Hamas’s leaders reside and has already declared that it will hunt them down wherever they may choose to hide. But Israeli leaders say that in the short term, they are focused on bringing back the hostages and eliminating Hamas.

Lerman said that Egypt has already been partly involved in negotiations, noting that it could become a single point of communication with Hamas if Qatar doesn’t succeed in mediating the release of the hostages in exchange for a temporary truce not a permanent cease-fire. “It’s not like we won’t be left with a channel of communication,” he said. “If Qatar cannot live up to its claim, that it has leverage over Hamas, then what’s the point?”

Some in the Israeli security community believe that once the long-expected Rafah operation has been successfully carried out and all of Gaza brought under Israeli occupation, Hamas’s leaders and members would be in for a run for their lives and more inclined to accept a deal on Israeli terms.

“Hamas will feel a very different kind of threat than they feel now—that will change their minds,” Lerman said.

It’s a tricky gamble. If Qatar walks out, Israel risks losing a mediator with more influence over Hamas than any other Arab state, and if Doha fails in ensuring safe hostage release, it may damage its ties with the United States. Thus far, neither side is willing to concede, and negotiations will likely go down the wire, further procrastinating the homecoming of the more than 130 Israelis believed to remain in Gaza.

Families of hostages have said that they want their loved ones released “despite the difficult price,” but they also don’t want Hamas to live next door, preferably.

“I prefer if there is a solution,” Gilboa said. “Maybe Hamas’s leaders can move to Qatar and live there.”

[sloshed-cinema]

Beau travail (1997)

Claire Denis managed to find the bootcamp version of the Bob Fosse quote that “The time to sing is when your emotional level is too high to speak anymore, and the time to dance is when your emotions are just too strong to sing how you feel.” A dreamlike languor hangs over this French Foreign Legion outfit based in Djibouti. Much of the film is dedicated to training sequences, the legionnaires running obstacle courses or digging away in the rocky volcanic soil. But their tasks aren’t always so literal. At intervals, their physical exercises more closely resemble interpretive dance, the group performing in unison lying on the ground or intertwining in pairs. They swim in the ocean, their knife training balletic as they draw close before kicking away. All of this is set to extracts from Benjamin Britten’s operatic adaptation of the Herman Melville novella Billy Budd, upon which this film too is loosely based. The more overtly naval and militaristic nature of the Britten compositions speaks to the source, bridging the gap in time to this new period of French military interests, this one of colonialism in Africa even after Djibouti gained its independence. These sequences are more meant to be impressionistic than literal, though I suspect that any locals driving by would stare at them just as strangely if they caught them dancing rather than randomly hacking at rocks in the middle of nowhere.

Choreography elevates the coordinated efforts and discipline of the legionnaires to an art form, but also allows for simmering hatred to boil over. Adjudant-Chef Galoup despises one of the new recruits, Gilles Sentain. There is no reason for this, but that doesn’t stop Galoup from seeking to destroy this newcomer at any opportunity. The motto “Serve the good cause, then die” becomes more of a sentence than an aspiration in the handling of discipline as this rage overtakes Galoup. One legionnaire is forced to dig a hole until his hands are bloodied because Galoup determines that he abandoned his post on patrol one night, and Sentain is sent out into the desert after Galoup provokes him into striking him as a result. Sentain nearly dies, but for what cause? Whether Galoup can find it in himself to carry on remains ambiguous, as we see him lying on a bed holding a pistol, but the film ends depicting him in a manner more in keeping with its more heightened moments, dancing alone in a nightclub similar to one where he wiled away his evenings with his girlfriend. His movements are passionate, erratic, frenzied, as if he is trying to work out just what he wants in life.

THE RULES

SIP

Someone names a country.

Narration voiceover begins.

BIG DRINK

Military exercises are performed.

A Britten composition begins to play in the soundtrack.

[monotonous-minutia]

Operablr Pride Month 2024 Week #4 (June 22-28)

I can't believe it's the final full week of the month!! Hope everyone is having as much fun as I am!

Eliogabalo (Cavalli/Aureli) Keywords: Baroque opera, genderbending, GNC character, historical opera, opera in Italian

Hadrian (Wainwright/MacIvor) Keywords: Canadian opera, gay characters, MLM, historical opera, historical Rome

Billy Budd (Britten/Forster/Crozier)

Summaries, libretti, recommended productions, and more under the line! (Disclaimer: I have not necessarily seen all the productions recommended here. Most of them are those that have been recommended to me.)

Eliogabalo

Libretto: unfindable Summary: help Productions: Paris 2016 (French subs) Opera on Video search link: Eliogabalo Cavalli - Opera on Video Bonus: A very unfiltered look at the historical Eliogabalo's life: Eliogabalo: Obscure Emperor, Obscure Opera (westedgeopera.org) A slightly more detailed (and filtered) look: 147. Eliogabalo (Cavalli) – The Opera Scribe

Hadrian

Libretto: guess Summary: Hadrian – Rufus Wainwright Productions: Toronto 2018 (English subs) (^the only video I could find was on VK. You need account but it is free--it looks sketchy but isn't. If anyone knows of another video let me know!) Bonus: A panel with the creators! World Premiere of Hadrian: A New Canadian Opera | Hadrian Opera | Talks at Google (youtube.com)

Billy Budd

Libretto: English (Translate enabled) Summary: English (Translate enabled) Productions: ENO 1988 (English subs) Des Moines 2017 (English subs) Vienna 2001 (German subs) Opera on Video search link: Billy Budd Britten - Opera on Video Bonus: Some info on the original source material for the opera: Billy Budd - Wikipedia Bonus bonus: A (very long) analysis of the opera and its themes: Sea-changes: Melville - Forster - Britten (oapen.org)

[byneddiedingo]

Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow in Two Lovers (James Gray, 2008)

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow, Vinessa Shaw, Isabella Rossellini, Moni Moshonov, Elias Koteas, Bob Ari, Julie Budd, Iain J. Bopp, David Cale. Screenplay: James Gray, Ric Menello. Cinematography: Joaquin Baca-Asay. Production design: Happy Massee. Film editing: John Axelrad. 

A Jewish man who lives with his parents falls in love with a pretty blonde shiksa, despite his parents' urging him to marry the nice Jewish girl whose parents are involved in a business deal with them. Seen this one, have you? Was it an early Woody Allen movie? Or the one with Richard Benjamin and Cybill Shepherd? It was a comedy, right? With lots of ethnic jokes and some cringey scenes? No, it's a James Gray movie set in Brighton Beach. Oh, then the son is a hitman and the business deal is a shady one involving the mob? And it's bleak and unforgiving in both mood and setting? Sorry, no. It's a tender, romantic film, perhaps still a little bleak, about some damaged people who nevertheless find a resolution to their problems. Two Lovers marked a remarkable turn in Gray's filmography, not so much away from the melancholy New York streets of his first films as toward a perception that there's another side to the lives led there. Gray knows the clichés and stereotypes that his plot evokes and deftly avoids them. There's even a bar mitzvah scene that in other hands would have been fertile ground for ethnic stereotyping but just skirts it. It helps that he has actors who know how to avoid the clichés, too. Gwyneth Paltrow, who is sometimes mocked for epitomizing an aloof upper-middle-class image, finds the poignancy in her role as the kept woman of a married hotshot lawyer (Elias Koteas). Isabella Rossellini completely ignores the Jewish mother stereotype while managing somehow to remind us of it. Vinessa Shaw is terrific as the nice Jewish girl who may hear the ticking of her biological clock but doesn't show that she feels pressured by it. But mostly it's Joaquin Phoenix's film as Leonard Kraditor, a man in early middle life who has never found a place in life that wasn't prepared for him by someone else. He opens the film with what may be a suicide attempt -- he's tried it before -- from which he decides to rescue himself. He's had a breakdown before and is on medication, and he's something of a screwup in his work for his father's dry cleaning business, but he realizes that he's still loved by his somewhat bewildered parents. When he gets involved in a relationship with Paltrow's Michelle, a head case and a druggie, we fear for the worst -- which almost happens. But then it doesn't, and in a scene that might have been sentimental, except that it was created by Gray and Phoenix, one of the best director-actor relationships in film, things turn out at least provisionally okay. And we recognize that sometimes that's just the way life is.    

[projazznet]

Budd Johnson – Budd Johnson And The Four Brass Giants

http://projazz.net/budd-johnson-johnson-and-the-four-brass-giants-full-album/ Budd Johnson and the Four Brass Giants is an album by saxophonist Budd Johnson which was recorded in 1960 and released on the Riverside label. “The colorful brassmen, Budd’s versatile solos, and the inventive arrangements make this a particularly memorable set. Highly recommended.” – Scott Yanow/AllMusic. Budd Johnson – tenor saxophone, arranger Nat Adderley – cornet Harry Edison – trumpet Ray Nance – trumpet, violin Clark Terry – flugelhorn, trumpet Tommy Flanagan , Jimmy Jones - piano Joe Benjamin – bass Herbie Lovelle – drums

[stoportotouch]

36, 43, 54, 78, 89

36. no children (the mountain goats)

43. santiano (feat. SKALD) (the longest johns)

54. destroy everything you touch (unwoman)

78. runs in the family (amanda palmer)

89. billy budd, op. 50, act ii scene 1: deck ahoy! (benjamin britten)

---

opera appears at last! i have listened to this scene from billy budd so many times. britten knew what he was doing. (also a charming Autizm Momence from vere when he can immediately identify the type, Newness Of Rigging, and distance, of the other ship. love that guy.)