#How is La Madama

[conjuremanj]

The Mystery Of La Madama. With Altar Set-up And Offering

A peculiar figure has recently become very popular in Rootwork. This person is La Madama. As you look around on different websites, or online blogs about rootwork or hoodoo you find more and more people are speaking on La Madama. But the conversation on her has become more misunderstood and that people are just repeating the same misinformation they are getting from websites and blogs and I'm no way a expert on her but I talked to some priest and practitioners in Espiritismo so I'm writing this post for the people who may be interested in La Madama or just want to learn about how to work with this type of spirit.

Who is La Madama? (Let's say, Who ARE Las Madamas?) Well, what she is not is part of hoodoo nor a hoodoo Saint as it is written online. She is not a slave women. These are dolls that are made out of porcelain or plastic and dressed in a particular color and this is a misconception that it's a specific spirit. This is totally incorrect. A Madama is a category of spirits - to which many individual spirits and guides belong to.

Again the question is who is she? Madamas are spirits of the dead, spirit guides that were slave women (or the descendants of slaves) round in stature, who has the stereotypical look of a house servant from the 1800's. Now Madamas are NOT conjure women (as in false American root workers what have you believe). La Madama isn't considered a the patron of playing card readers and bone readers or divination at least in hoodoo. Madama originated in the Latin community I believe Cuba not the US. These women are typically either women who practiced Espiritismo and maybe Santeria. When these Cuban and Puerto Rican women were alive they are depicted wearing gingham skirts (aprons) in the colors of the spirit which they worked with (red gingham for Chango or Siete Rayos, Blue gingham for Yemaya or Madre de Agua, etc.) They usually have their hair wrapped and there clothing in the same color. There are countless "Madama" spirits out there and they are NOT just one spirit.

Where did Madama Spirits come from? These spirits comes from the latino countries lik (Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic) and has spread to many other countries including Venezuela, part of Mexico and even the southern parts of The United States and This type of spiritualism works differently than the more formal "white table" version of spiritism found in Europe in the late 1800's. There have many categories of spirits including (but not limited to): Madamas, Indians, Gypsies, Nuns, Arabs, and even Pirates. There is not ONE spirit of La Madama, just like there is not ONE spirit of The Indian, nor is there ONE spirit of the Gypsy.

La Madama type spirits is NOT native to Rootwork and has actually never ever been a part of Hoodoo at all until maybe the last 15 to 30 years.

In the south southern root workers used other spirit's such as (Black Hawk) or other spirits or not native to hoodoo but were only found in Spiritualist Churches in the south and some would argue and I read that Christianity, praying the psalms and working with Saints, Indian Spirits, etc. is a rather new to Hoodoo that's incorrect hoodoo in the south has all ways use Christian prayers and Psalms in their practice. The spirit like Black Hawk plays a part later because of what he did and what he represents to us the south especially in Louisiana. Just like Marie laveau these spirits in the South like Louisiana has become important to us, and has become a part of our practice. (See post on Black Hawk)

Can I Work With "La Madama"? This is an interesting question. The answer isn't that simple. It isn't whether you CAN work with La Madama -because you can, The question actually should be "Do I have a Madama to work with me?" In (Spiritism), you don't go out seeking spirits to work with. Instead, you work with the spirits in your Spiritual Court that already surrounds you. The Spiritual Court is a group of the most intimate guiding spirits you have around you that protect and teach you. They are your "inner court" and they defend you when you cannot defend yourself. They guide you, teach you and inspire you. Each person's Spiritual Court is different than the next's. Similar to being initiated in Vodou we get our loa who wants to work with us and be a guide to that person we don't pick or choose which. Madama is the same you must have your own already in your court and a medium can help with identifying your spirits on your court.

Before you can work with her. "Madama" type spirits you need to find out IF THERE IS ONE IN YOUR SPIRITUAL COURT! This is the most crucial element that people don't take into account. You must first find out if you have such a spirit in your court with which to work and identify who is there for you. You can then work with to strengthen your relationship with those guides through prayer, meditation and contact with these spirits at your Spiritual Altar.

It is up to each person to learn as much as they can about their Spiritual Court. These spirits will act as the conduit for divine inspiration and guidance for that person. If you have a Madama type spirit you would need to find out where she's from, her name, what she practiced in her life and how to work with her.

Working and Petitioning La Madama: I would often see photos of people putting offerings to La Madama and petitioning her as if she was a saint. This is absolutely incorrect. She is not. This is not the manner in which Spiritists would ever work with a Madama-type spirit. Because there are many of her so who are you praying too exactly.

Not my photo

Setting up an altar to La Madama: people like to have depiction of her on their altar, like a statue, picture, doll or prayer card. This object acts as a physical container in which her spirit can manifest so when you call opon her for guidance and support. What a glass of water.

Making offerings to La Madama: Madamas enjoy receiving offerings thanking them for their assistance. This could be bouquets of flowers or a cup of coffee or a cigar. If you do leave her offerings, they are offerings of gratitude. Remember she's not a saint. These are given because she came through and helped you with an issue or to keep your connection with her strong.

Ultimately she will help you with reading, perceiving and psychic abilities as well as giving you inspiration when you do a spell or ritual. After all, she was a priestess in her time and knows how to work spells, (but she will tell you how to do it HER way, not the Hoodoo way) (because she was not a conjure woman, she was an Afro-Caribbean *spiritual worker).

One must understand very clearly that God is who we worship. A Madama-type spirit is not a saint to be petitioned. She is a spirit guide. She is there to give you guidance, inspire your spell work, guard you from harm, cleanse you when you pick up something nasty, and to be a teacher and mentor. You do not worship your teacher right so you would not worship La Madama.

If you don't have a Madama-type spirit in your Spiritual Court, that's fine and normal. You may have countless other spirits who are very powerful and close to you. But this internet fad of La Madama really needs to be handled with respect and people should have a better understanding so they don't waste their energy and money trying to petition a spirit that's not even accessible to them. Focus on the spirits that do surround you and keep those bonds strong, and you'll be much better off in the long run.

"Madama" is something originating from Latino countries, not the USA,

[kvetchlandia]

Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin, Paris Uncredited and Undated Photograph

August 14, 1932

Anais:

Don’t expect me to be sane anymore. Don’t let’s be sensible. It was a marriage at Louveciennes—you can’t dispute it. I came away with pieces of you sticking to me; I am walking about, swimming, in an ocean of blood, your Andalusian blood, distilled and poisonous. Everything I do and say and think relates back to the marriage...

Here I am back and still smouldering with passion, like wine smoking. Not a passion any longer for flesh, but a complete hunger for you, a devouring hunger. I read the paper about suicides and murders and I understand it all thoroughly. I feel murderous, suicidal. I feel somehow that it is a disgrace to do nothing, to just bide one’s time, to take it philosophically, to be sensible. Where has gone the time when men fought, killed, died for a glove, a glance, etc? (A victrola is playing that terrible aria from Madama Butterfly—"Some day he’ll come!“)

I still hear you singing in the kitchen—a sort of inharmonic, monotonous Cuban wail. I know you’re happy in the kitchen and the meal you’re cooking is the best meal we ever ate together. I know you would scald yourself and not complain. I feel the greatest peace and joy sitting in the dining room listening to you rustling about, your dress like the goddess Indra studded with a thousand eyes.

Anais, I only thought I loved you before; it was nothing like this certainty that’s in me now. Was all this so wonderful only because it was brief and stolen? Were we acting for each other, to each other? Was I less I, or more I, and you less or more you? Is it madness to believe that this could go on? When and where would the drab moments begin? I study you so much to discover the possible flaws, the weak points, the danger zones. I don’t find them—not any. That means I am in love, blind, blind. To be blind forever! (Now they’re singing "Heaven and Ocean” from La Gioconda.)

I picture you playing the records over and over—Hugo’s records. “Parlez moi d amour.” The double life, double taste, double joy and misery. How you must be furrowed and ploughed by it. I know all that, but I can’t do anything to prevent it. I wish indeed it were me who had to endure it. I know now your eyes are wide open. Certain things you will never believe anymore, certain gestures you will never repeat, certain sorrows, misgivings, you will never again experience. A kind of white criminal fervor in your tenderness and cruelty. Neither remorse nor vengeance, neither sorrow nor guilt. A living it out, with nothing to save you from the abysm but a high hope, a faith, a joy that you tasted, that you can repeat when you will.

All morning I was at my notes, ferreting through my life records, wondering where to begin, how to make a start, seeing not just another book before me but a life of books. But I don’t begin. The walls are completely bare—I had taken everything down before going to meet you. It is as though I had made ready to leave for good. The spots on the walls stand out—where our heads rested. While it thunders and lightnings I lie on the bed and go through wild dreams. We’re in Seville and then in Fez and then in Capri and then in Havana. We’re journeying constantly, but there is always a machine and books, and your body is always close to me and the look in your eyes never changes. People are saying we will be miserable, we will regret, but we are happy, we are laughing always, we are singing. We are talking Spanish and French and Arabic and Turkish. We are admitted everywhere and they strew our path with flowers.

I say this is a wild dream—but it is this dream I want to realize. Life and literature combined, love the dynamo, you with your chameleon’s soul giving me a thousand loves, being anchored always in no matter what storm, home wherever we are. In the mornings, continuing where we left off. Resurrection after resurrection. You asserting yourself, getting the rich varied life you desire; and the more you assert yourself the more you want me, need me. Your voice getting hoarser, deeper, your eyes blacker, your blood thicker, your body fuller. A voluptuous servility and tyrannical necessity. More cruel now than before—consciously, wilfully cruel. The insatiable delight of experience.

HVM

--

Everyone else seems to have the brakes on… I never feel the brakes. I overflow. And when I feel your excitement about life flaring, next to mine, then it makes me dizzy. - Anaïs Nin to Henry Miller, 1932

[princesssarisa]

Good Morning⚜️

I just found your account and I’m not sure if you’ve gotten this ask before but could you post your top 5 favourite operas?

Thank you♥️

It's not easy to name a top 5. I love so many operas, and which ones I most want to listen to depends on my mood. But I'll narrow it down to these:

Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)

It was my first opera (as it is for so many of us) and it's still the opera I probably revisit the most often. I've written a novel based on it. Yes, the sexism and racism in the libretto are problems; I always hope the productions I see will deal with those issues instead of just playing them straight. But the fairy tale is engaging, with its struggle between darkness and light, and with its portrait of young people searching for love and for their place in the world. It's open to so many rich philosophical interpretations, yet it's entertaining for kids and casual audiences too. And of course there's Mozart's music.

Don Giovanni

If I had to name my favorite opera that doesn't hold childhood nostalgia for me, it would almost certainly be this one. For starters, you can't go wrong with Mozart's music. But just as importantly, the characters and the various ways they interact with each other are so engaging and full of potential depth and humanity. They can all be interpreted in so many ways, as can the entire opera's tone and meaning – no two productions are alike, which is why I never get tired of seeing them. The balance between comedy and seriousness is incredibly effective too, and makes the opera feel true to life, even when the action is outlandish.

Carmen

This opera's wild popularity is no wonder. It's lively and fun, yet it's also a compelling drama. As with Don Giovanni, this makes it feel true to life, and its gradual transformation from comedy to tragedy is handled in a subtle and sophisticated way. Carmen and Don José are complex, engaging characters, even when they're not likable, and the tragedy deals with relevant themes of gender, class, and race, as well as broader themes of love and freedom. It's a passionate opera, but there's also a certain detachment to it (a very French quality, I think) which is key to its success for me. The two morally gray protagonists are both allowed to be ambiguous, rather than one "good" and the other "bad," because the opera doesn't tell us how to feel.

Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)/La Cenerentola (Cinderella)

I couldn't chose between these two Rossini comedies because they're almost interchangeable to me. Zippy, funny, full of sparkling music, and the perfect choice when I want to listen to an opera that's light and happy. If I had to choose, I'd say that Barber of Seville is the stronger of the two – it has a tighter libretto, at any rate – but I love them both equally.

Madama Butterfly

This is so embarrassing to admit. I know it's problematic. As a non-Asian person, I can't begin to scratch the surface of how problematic it is, and I know there are valid reasons to wish it would be banned from the world's stages. But the music is truly luxurious. The tragedy is poignant and arguably has valid things to say about East/West relations and colonialism, even if it's not executed in the best way by modern standards. And I'll die on the hill that Cio-Cio San is a richly drawn, complex, engaging heroine, not just the pathetic little porcelain doll she's stereotyped as being.

[mikalaseabrooke-archive]

CLOSED STARTER for @fissility. WHERE | WHEN: Royal Opera House, late evening.

It’s an idea that Mikala hadn’t put much thought into, inviting Romi to the Royal Opera House purely to spend one on one time with them―to catch them alone. The reality is that he couldn’t care less about La bohème, much preferring Madama Butterfly if he has to choose one of Puccini’s works, and he wonders if they feel the same way. Surely they had to, with the way he had watched them fidget nearly the entire time, until fidgeting turned into playing with his hands. Bending and contorting weathered fingers, like an overly anxious child. Where he would typically recoil from the physical touch, he instead let them, sparing them of an entire lecture.

The opera is over, with both of them having agreed to get dinner, albeit slightly late into the night. So, there they are, waiting in the lift. Alone, after he had rudely stopped other opera goers from entering by allowing the doors to close right in front of their faces. He spares a glance at his watch and it seems, with that brief peek at the time, the elevator halts. Powers down. All by design, of course, but Mikala feigns as if it’s otherwise.

“Isn’t that how it always is,” he scoffs, his eyes finding Romi’s silhouette in the sudden darkness. “You make plans and God laughs,” and so does he, apparently, with a noise that’s contrived and barely constitutes as human.

[thinkingimages]

On February 17, 1904, Giacomo Puccini premiered what is now considered one of the greatest operas of all time at the renowned La Scala opera house in Milan: Madama Butterfly. Interestingly, while Puccini felt throughout his life that it was among his best works, his first version of Madama Butterfly was famously a fiasco; he revised and re-premiered on May 28th of that year with the version we know and love today. On the anniversary of the work’s release, 115 years later, CR remembers the tragic origins of Madama Butterfly and how it influenced one of the most storied Parisian fashion houses of all time.

Based on the short story “Madam Butterfly” by John Luther Long, the subsequent play it inspired by David Belasco, and, arguably, the novel Madame Chrysanthème byPierre Loti, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly follows the story of the cavalier Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, a U.S. naval officer stationed in Japan, who marries a former geisha, Cio-Cio San. He obtains a 999-year lease on a house in Nagasaki harbor and places her there, able to end both the lease and the marriage with a month’s notice. Shortly after they wed, Pinkerton abandons Cio-Cio San, only to return three years later with an American wife. When Cio-Cio San learns Pinkerton wants to take the son he fathered with her back to America, Cio-Cio San ends her life. It is a heart-wrenching tale of love and betrayal that has inspired countless art forms since its premieres in 1904, like plays (including M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang, which comments on the gender and racial inequities in the original story), film, and, of course, fashion...

cr fashion book

[drgeoduck]

Renata Scotto (1934-2023)

We've lost one of the greats of opera. Renata Scotto was one of the greatest sopranos of the 20th century. She had a beautiful voice but also knew when to sacrifice beauty of tone for dramatic effect. She had a hell of a career, starting with light lyrical roles like Adina in Elisir d'amore, moving on to the more dramatic roles in the bel canto repertoire, then to her bread and butter, the great soprano roles of Verdi and Puccini. She had a later career as stage director and educator, as well as moving on to different repertory including German roles like Kundry and the Marschallin.

How big was she? She was one of the last sopranos, if not the last, to earn top billing over Pavarotti and Domingo. In fact there was a memorable diva moment when, during a performance of La Gioconda, the stage manager had the temerity to allow Pavarotti the final solo bow in an opera where she was the main character, she screamed at them in front of TV cameras and never sang with Pavarotti again.

Her greatest role, in my opinion, was as the title character in Madama Butterfly, which in my opinion has never been bettered.

For a sample of her greatness, try the end of the letter scene: it's at 1:19:00 in the below video.

[opera-ghosts]

OTD in Music History: Beloved Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini (1858 - 1924) dies in Brussels as a result of complications stemming from experimental radiation therapy that had been deployed in a failed attempt to treat his recently-diagnosed throat cancer; uncontrolled bleeding induced by the radiation caused a heart attack just one day later. (Puccini never even knew just how serious his cancer was, since that news was revealed only to his son.) Generally regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901), Puccini was actually descended from a long line of composers dating all the way back to the late-Baroque era. (He was by far the most successful.) Although his early work was firmly rooted in traditional late-19th-century Romantic Italian opera, in his mature operas, Puccini branched out into the then-popular "verismo" style (which emphasized grittiness and a heightened if melodramatic sense of "reality”) and actually became one of the leading exponents of that movement. Puccini's wrote almost exclusively for the operatic stage, and his most renowned works are "La boheme" (1896), "Tosca" (1900), "Madama Butterfly" (1904), and "Turandot" (1924, left unfinished at his death) -- all of which rank among the most popular and most frequently performed operas in the entire repertoire. Indeed, Puccini was that rare great composer who truly succeeded in financially capitalizing on his own greatness; when he died, he left behind an estate worth a staggering $4,000,000 (~$70,000,000 adjusting for inflation). PICTURED: A first edition copy of the printed piano-vocal score for Puccini's immortal opera "Tosca," which he signed and inscribed to a fan in Milan in 1910.

[death-rebirth-senshi]

Actually it's more comparable to Bayonetta letting her hair out for "serious mode" than climaxes.

One of those things feels empowering and the other...is cool, but gets old, and also it's kinda. Some of the Kaiju fights are a pain. And the Sin form of demons being their *true* forms feels kind of absurd. I'd have preferred that they stuck to Bayonetta's soul/blood sacrifice empowers them to evolve a la Alraune getting a power boost by having Jeanne's soul, not "by offering her heart(? Why? Exactly?) she becomes strong enough to handle summoning the demon's true form"

Then it becomes about Bayonetta's power a smidge more and less about just "look at how stupidly powerful infernal demons are Sigurd can't compete"

EDIT: Okay so it kind of is that Bayonetta's magic rich blood causes the demon to evolve, I was misled by the wording of some of these entries. "Queen Butterfly" is supposed to be Madama Butterfly's "true" form, but for Phantasmaranae, it's his "ultimate" form, and I lean towards that being the intent behind the whole thing.

[n0stalgicv0id]

Haha frankly you shouldn’t ask me so many questions either- I will never stop talking and your blog will end up looking like nothing but a silly back and forth between the two of us 🍓 I think it makes sense that you understand French since it is a Latin language very close to Italian ! I, for example, study Spanish which is quite easy since it’s very alike to French due the etymological roots of the words.

As for music it depends for me ! I enjoy all types of music even the silliest one though I always find myself gravitating towards poignant texts that resonate deep within my core because, I’m a poet at heart- My favorite Opera has to be Madama Butterfly by Puccini, especially with Maria Callas in the lead. I have such a great admiration for this woman 🍓🫶 !

How kind of you to associate a song to me ! A lot of people link LaLaLand to me for some reason ? I don’t know why but that’s really sweet ! You remind me of a song by a French band called Téléphone! It’s called "Un autre monde” since you seem to be very attached to everything nostalgic and dreamy, the vibe of the song fits you well too I feel !

Ahah sorry, I just enjoy to shower people with questions when I find them interesting! People will be so confused if someone stalks my blog but I don’t mind, this is my place. Are you perhaps getting a degree to languages? I always wanted to do that but at the moment I’m way too busy, maybe after I end my studies (probably never).

Madame Butterfly is such a classic one but it’s always majestic to see the different versions. The best thing about theater is seeing different costumes in all productions. It may seem obvious to say but I enjoy Otello, shakespearian works are my favorite. And Giuseppe Verdi was an amazing composer. I got the book some months ago but I still didn’t got the chance to start reading it as I continue to compulsively buy new books. It’s like an Spare me, my desk is full of stacks of books. Since you like Madame Butterfly I found some pics of 6 years ago when I visited Puccini’s house. Sorry if the quality isn’t the best but here, extremely sorry about Turandot’s dress but the glass was ruining everything so cheers. Here you go:

I still remember vividly the dress, it was so gorgeous and long. Showered in jewels and from what I recall this is the 1st version of the 1907 dress, II act. Maybe next year I’ll visit again so I can take new pics.

I never saw la la land, I just listened that song some weeks ago because they asked me to sing it so yeah lol. But it’s been in my watchlist since forever. I heard the song and it’s totally my style! I enjoy french music but I’m dry on the subject, I mainly listen to stromae and gims.

Sorry if I took so long to reply but I was looking for those pics on my pc :(

[classicalmusicdaily]

Promising Ukrainian mezzo-soprano Kseniia Nikolaieva joined the Jette Parker Young Artists Program for the Season 2020/22. Having a great passion for music and visual arts, Kseniia received two master’s degrees: firstly as an opera singer at the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music by Pr. Alexander Dyachenko, and secondly as a designer-architect. Her first opera debut in Kiev Opera Studio was at the age of 19 in the role of Marta (Iolanta). After successful performances at competitions Neue Stimmen, Tenor Viñas Competition, Eva Marton International Singing Competition – she was invited to be part of the National Opera Studio program in London (2019-2020). Kseniia is honored to have been taught by Montserrat Caballe, Elena Obraztsova, Eva Marton, Anita Rachvelishvili, Nelly Miricioiu and many others. Kseniia is supported by a scholarship from the President of Ukraine, VERE MUSIC FUND and Opera Awards Foundation. From 2020-2022 Kseniia joined Jette Parker Young Artists Program in the Royal Opera House. At the start of the 2020/21 Season Kseniia made her Royal Opera debut as Bessie in Kurt Weill’s Mahagonny and Eboli/Mrs.Quickly in the Summer Performance. Opera engagements include Marta in Iolanta, Hivria in Mussorgsky’s Sorochinska yarmarka, Olga in Eugene Onegin, Maddalena in Rigoletto and Lubasha in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride (Kiev National Opera Studio), and debuts Sapho in Sapho with the Welsh National Opera and recital with the English National Opera as part of the National Opera Studio Program in 2019–20. Plans include Giovanna in Rigoletto, Annina in La Traviata, Emilia in Otello, Mother in Mavra, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly in the Royal Opera House season 2021-2022. Hello, Kseniia! Thank you for accepting our invitation, now that your country is passing through such difficult times! We are all watching the tremendous news every day and we’ve been praying for everything to stop. How are you living it and what do you think about the opera world’s reaction on the violent attacks towards Ukraine? Hello! I was very pleased to receive your invitation, thank you! Ukrainians are a very strong people! Our strength is in our spirit, in truth, in peace-loving, in our unity as a nation and our incorruptible love for our country! The first days of Russia’s attack on Ukraine were like a nightmare! I wanted someone to pinch you, you woke up and all this bloody hell ended! But, unfortunately, all this turned out to be a shocking reality… A reality that takes away human lives, even those that have just been born, destroys our cities with bomb shells, our homes, separates families, tramples on human destinies… The enemy invaded our home – Ukraine without an invitation, with pleasure walking with tank tracks all over her body, destroying everything that is dear to us, that we all created with such love for many years! I no longer recognize my native streets, parks, playgrounds – the cold hand of the barbarian murderers did not tremble before anything! Who are these people?… And are they people at all? The world of art feels life and all its manifestations very subtly, passing what is happening not only through the head, but also through the soul. That response, that support and empathy that the entire opera world is now showing in relation to the terrorist attacks of the aggressor on Ukraine, once again shows everyone the scale of madness, inhumanity and the complete absence of all moral and social values! The question on everyone’s lips today is: is the culture supposed to stay out of politics or to exercize its social function? How could art and artists help Ukraine at this point? When it comes to the killing of innocent, peaceful people and crimes against humanity, this is no longer politic!Could art and artists help Ukraine in this situation? Of course, yes! Only tears, feelings, words of condolence, support won’t help grief – you need to act! Everyone should act according to their abilities! Everyone chooses their own way of helping, I can share mine.

Now, in London, I participate in many charity concerts, in everything where you can collect financial assistance to support Ukraine! Every day I have at least one performance scheduled. In this situation, the site doesn’t matter to me. Yesterday, for example, I was contacted by the Covent Garden Street Performers Association and asked to perform at Covent Garden Square along with street musicians in front of a large number of people who came to support and donate money for Ukraine, and in the evening I had a performance scheduled at ROH. Of course, I agreed – in this situation, any methods are good! I communicate with sponsors, tell them the situation in Ukraine; in the evening, if there is no performance, I go to a protest, where I also perform. I do all this in order to raise funds and transfer them not to some large organization-fund that closes global problems, but to send them to volunteers in Ukraine, whom I know personally. Volunteers who are at the epicenter, in the occupied territories, who are engaged in the purchase of medicines for hospitals, volunteers who cook and buy food, orphanages, large families. I see all the reporting, so I understand that not a single penalty will be lost or spent incorrectly. Since there is not only an armed war against the Ukrainian people, but also an information war aimed at alerting people with false information and blocking sources of real information by Russia, social networks are also a platform for revealing the situation of real events, in real time. An artist is an influencer, each in his own scale, with his own team of admirers, who is able to pay attention to the problem, to open his eyes to the truth. Therefore, don’t think that this won’t work, even if your story, post will make at least one person think about standing up in defense and support of Ukraine – this is already a victory! reposted from https://opera-charm.com/

[mr-divabetic]

Yesterday, my mother and I went to the Palmetto Opera's performance of Great Voices from Broadway to Opera for a belated Mother's Day celebration. The program featured some of opera's greatest arias, duets, and memorable songs from the Golden Age of Broadway. My mom loves Phantom of the Opera, and I love Turandot's Nessun Dorma and La Traviata's Sempre Libera, so it was a win-win for both of us.

https://youtu.be/IGlugsYQZgg

The concert also featured two songs from Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's masterpiece, La Boheme (O Mimi, tu piu non torni, O soave fancuilla).

Giacomo Puccini was born in 1858 and later diagnosed with diabetes in 1908. Numerous reports mention that he struggled to manage his diagnosis for much of his life. Understandably, managing diabetes was difficult before the discovery of insulin wasn't until 1921.

Before insulin was discovered in 1921, people with diabetes were put on very strict diets with minimal carbohydrate intake. Some doctors prescribed as little as 450 calories a day! Sadly, some people with diabetes died of starvation.

On this Divabetic podcast, w intersperse highlights of the history of diabetes, self-care treatments, and innovations for the past hundred years as we discuss Puccini's artistry and life.

Divabetic podcast guests include Toby Smithson, MS, RDN, LD, CDCES, FAND, Patricia Addie-Gentle RN, CDCES. Hosted by Mr. Divabetic.

Throughout this podcast, we will feature music from Puccini: Great Opera Arias courtesy of SONY Music.

https://youtu.be/tmfw17L_Deo

Giacomo Puccini's artistic triumphs include La Bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly. Unfortunately, his last opera, based on the fable of Turandot, would remain unfinished due to his death from throat cancer in Brussels in 1924.

Plus, we had the added treat of hearing the Theme from The Godfather and The Impossible Dream from Man Of La Mancha.

People with diabetes and their loved ones probably considered the discovery of insulin the impossible dream.

A young surgeon named Frederick Banting and his assistant Charles Best figured out how to remove insulin from a dog’s pancreas in 1921. They continued to experiment with dogs until January 1922.  Leonard Thompson, a 14-year-old boy dying from diabetes in a Toronto hospital, was the first to receive an insulin injection. Within 24 hours, Leonard’s dangerously high blood glucose dropped to near-normal levels.

The news about insulin spread around the world like wildfire. In 1923, Banting and Macleod received the Nobel Prize in Medicine, which they shared with Best and Collip. Thank you, diabetes researchers!

My boss, Luther Vandross, who had type 2 diabetes, recorded The Impossible Dream for his Songs album. He performed it many times in concert to the thrill of audiences. Recently PBS aired his performance at Royal Albert Hall in London.

https://youtu.be/fjCIWpfVdsk

Interesting Fact: The University of South Carolina boasts a top-rated music school with an

Opera department

.  We’re discussing minimizing the drama in our diabetes lives with music from the ultimate diva, Maria Callas.

Maria Callas changed how we listen to opera—and charged the ambition of the singers who followed her.  Her ability to interpret a wide variety of different roles truly set her apart, establishing her as a phenomenon, an operatic diva. She could fully exploit the dramatic strength of her low vocal range as much as the high and bright notes of her high range.

Opera takes any dramatic story and tries to make it more exciting and more believable with the help of music. Symptoms and situations related to diabetes are often dramatic and come on very suddenly. But how do you react to them? Are you a ‘drama queen’?

Whenever we are immersed in something overwhelming, we can learn how to deal with challenges better.

Divabetic podcast guests include Dr. Wendy Satin Rapaport LCSW, PsyD, Jill Weisenberger MS, RDN, CDCES, CHWC, FAND, Lorraine Brooks, American Heart and American Diabetes Association's Know Diabetes By Heart Ambassador Rob Taub, Yoga for Diabetes Author and Director Rachel Zinman and Patricia Addie-Gentle RN, CDCES.

Throughout the podcast, we will feature music from the Grandiose Stimmen: Maria Callas album courtesy of SONY Music.

[interculturalcommunication]

Blog Post 5: Language in Italy

1. The country I chose to study is Italy because after graduation, my friends and I are talking about getting work visas and working there for 6 months - a year. Their official language is Italian. 

2. A lingua franca is a language that is commonly spoken in different countries. It’s a general language that is used to help bridge the language gap between different cultures. I’ve experienced this when I’ve traveled to different countries and the people were able to communicate with me in English even though it wasn’t their official language. The use of English as a lingua franca can impact my ability to communicate with someone who speaks Italian because as shown in our discussion board activity, different words can have different meanings. Just because someone speaks English, doesn’t necessarily mean they know the difference between every single English word and Italian word. A word in English or Italian can mean something very different from the other and it can cause struggles to try and understand what is being said.

3. 

Hello!: Ciao (ch-ow)

Yes: Si (see)

No: No (no)

Please: Per favore (pear Fa-vor-ay)

Thank You: Grazie (grat-Z)

Can you help me?: Mi potete aiutare (me pO-tae-tae aw-you-tar-E)

I don't understand: Non capisco (nOn ca-peace-ko)

I don't speak (name of the language): Non parlo italiano (nOn paR-lO E-tall-E-an-O)

My name is (your name): Mi chiamo Hailey (mE kEE-am-O h-ay-lEE)

Overall, these words weren’t overly difficult for me to pronounce but I think that’s because I took Spanish for a few years in high school. It looks like a lot of the words here are similar to the words in Spanish and have similar pronunciation. If I hadn’t taken Spanish, I’d imagine this would’ve been much more difficult. These are some very common phrases that are used in almost every conversation with a new person. Learning these phrases help you to show manners, common decency, and respect towards the people.

4. “E infine, il salto di qualità, con l'imbrattamento con litri di vernice lavabile della facciata della sede del Parlamento a Palazzo Madama il 2 gennaio scorso. Una modalità di azione, quella dell'imbrattamento con spruzzi di colore arancione che gli attivisti hanno preso in prestito da Just Stop Oil e che - a seguito l'azione eclatante di inizio anno al Parlamento italiano - si è già diffusa altrove, sbarcando anche Oltralpe con più di un'azione analoga in Francia, sempre ad opera di Dernière Rénovation.”

Translation: And finally, the leap in quality, with the soiling of the facade of the seat of Parliament in Palazzo Madama with liters of washable paint on 2 January. A mode of action, that of smearing with splashes of orange that the activists have borrowed from Just Stop Oil and which - following the striking action at the beginning of the year in the Italian Parliament - has already spread elsewhere, even landing beyond the Alps with more than one similar action in France, again by Dernière Rénovation.

I noticed that although it translates, it doesn’t necessarily make sense. I think this could be due to the fact that what we understand doesn’t translate the same to another language. As we had learned, this can be due to our cultures and how we perceive language.

 5. The way I perceive the phrase, “Language influences our view of reality,” is it saying that language comes from our culture and reflects the way we view reality around us. Language can be either created from a culture or taken from different cultures and is twisted a bit for that country. The way we speak is a reflection of our culture and therefore our reality. 

References

Barone, B., Cirese, L., & Talignani, G. (2023, March 3). I Nuovi Ambientalisti. La Stampa. Retrieved March 12, 2023, from https://www.lastampa.it/green-and-blue/2023/03/03/news/ambientalisti_crisi_climatica_ecoansia_proteste-390138124/ 

Google. (n.d.). Google translate. Retrieved March 12, 2023, from https://translate.google.us/ 

[williamdaviesblog]

Hoodoo Psychics Madame Nadia

My name, Madame Nadia, implies trust in Russian. I'm a provider of trust — bringing magnificence, bliss, and satisfaction to all who look for my assistance.

Brought into the world on the mystical territory of Bessarabia and brought up in the sacred place that is known for Israel, I understood from the get-go I was gifted for profound work. Today, a laid out clairsentient medium, I start all supernatural undertakings counseling a variety of obscure devices and Spirits. In my divination practice I use tarot, the Lenormand prophet, playing a card game, chamalangos, bones, scrying, and psychometry, to give some examples.

I was naturally introduced to Eastern European fables and grew up with Center Eastern otherworldliness; I have likewise made a trip to many terrains proceeding with my enchanted training. My experiences carried me to the shores of the Ganges in India, the wide open of Japan, and even into the intensity of formal drums in the core of Matanzas, Cuba. I'm thankful to not just gain proficiency with the profound examples unfurling on my way, yet in addition gain understanding and enthusiasm for social complexities permitting me to discuss successfully with clients from all societies, and their precursors and soul guides. I'm additionally familiar with Russian and Hebrew.

I draw extraordinary strength from every one of the customs I study. I'm started to the Goddess Kali in the Hindu Shakta Tantra custom, and am a Palera sliced to Madre de Agua. As a professional of Espiritismo Cruzado I'm driven by my precursors, soul guides, Heavenly messengers, and holy people. Lead celestial host Michael, Holy person Facilitate, and La Madama are particularly dear to me. The core of my otherworldly practice, however, is my insight into Southern society wizardry and down to earth rootwork.

My involvement with the film business, computerized expressions, and the magnificence business has driven me to spend significant time in summon assisting people with propelling their imaginative and creative undertakings. I'm an extraordinary dream, and will work truly to crown every one of your works with fundamental and sparkling achievement.

Furthermore, I'm an empathetic and woman hearted Soul specialist — all worries of charm, fascination, female secrets, and parenthood are extremely near my heart. I will present to you an accomplice who wouldn't just fulfill you physically, yet will likewise remain dedicated to you as long as you so want!

I offer divination administrations and otherworldly training. I additionally upgrade clairvoyant capacities, and proposition lessons in divination and reflection. I get through blockages of low fearlessness, negative self-perception, unfortunate behavior patterns, crossed conditions, and the hostile stare. Together we will show imaginative and proficient achievement, and bring overflow, richness, and win to your life.

At present I don't offer compromise or separate work. On occasion I will take lawful and protectioncases, and may perform ceremonies of vengeance and hexing in the event that a specific circumstance is legitimate in the Soul's eyes. Prior to tolerating any sort of otherworldly venture, I look for the authorization of my precursors.

Try not to lose trust! I'm given to working with profound soul mending, while at the same time showing you how to draw in the adoration, success, and regard that you merit and want.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

The disappearance of the bourgeoisie has led to a crisis in the arts. How can we track down the defeated remnants of the philistine class, in order to disturb them with the proof of their irrelevance?...without the bourgeoisie, the world of art is deprived of a target, condemned to repeat worn-out gestures of rebellion to an audience that long ago lost the capacity for outrage.

There is one last redoubt where the bourgeoisie can be corralled into a corner and spat upon, and that is the opera. Believers in family values and old-fashioned marriage are romantics at heart, who love to sit through those wonderful tales of intrigue, betrayal and reconciliation, in which man-woman love is exalted to a height that it can never reach in real life, and the whole presented through heart-stopping music and magical scenes that take us, for an enchanted three hours, into the world of dreams. Siegfried’s love for Brünnhilde, shot through with unconscious treachery, Butterfly’s innocent passion built on self-deception like an angel on a tomb, Grimes’s death-wish, rationalised as a longing for Ellen’s maternal love - these are dramatic ideas that could never be realised through words, but which are burned into our hearts by music.

Is it surprising that our surviving bourgeoisie, surrounded as they are by a culture of flippancy and desecration, should be so drawn to opera? After a performance of Katya, Pelléas, La Traviata or Figaro, they stagger home amazed at those passions displayed on the stage, by creatures no more god-like than themselves! They will come from miles away to sit through their favourite fairy-tales, and drive home singing in the early hours. They will pay 200 dollars for a mediocre seat, in order to hear their chosen prima donna, and will learn by heart the arias which they are never satisfied to hear unless in the flesh. Take any performance of an operatic classic anywhere in the world, and you will find, sitting in close confinement, motionless and devout for the space of three hours, the assembled remnant of the bourgeoisie, innocent, expectant, and available for shock.

- Sir Roger Scruton

The temptation is irresistible. Hardly a producer now, confronted with a masterpiece that might otherwise delight and console such an audience, can control the desire to desecrate. The more exalted the music, the more demeaning the production. I have come across all of the following: Siegfried in schoolboy shorts cooking a sword on a mobile canteen; Mélisande holed up in welfare accommodation, with Pelléas sadistically tying her to the wall by her hair; Don Giovanni standing happily at ease at the end of the eponymous opera while unexplained demons enter the stage, sing a meaningless chorus and exit again; Rusalka in a wheelchair from which she stares at a football in a swimming pool, while addressing the moon; Tristan and Isolde on a ship divided by a brick wall, singing vaguely of a love that hardly concerns them since each is invisible to the other; Carmen trying in vain to be a centre of erotic attention while a near naked chorus copulates on stage; Mozart’s Entführung aus dem Serail set in a Berlin brothel; Verdi’s masked ball with the assembled cast squatting on toilets so as to void their bowels - not to speak of the routine Hitlerisation of any opera, from Fidelio to Tosca, that can be squeezed into Nazi uniform. Wagner is always mercilessly mutilated, lest those misguided bourgeois fall for his seductive political message; and as for Madama Butterfly, what an opportunity to get back at the Americans for that bomb dropped on Nagasaki!

**Photo: Maria Callas and Luchino Visconti working together on La Traviata

[janiedean]

I wanna hear your controversial opera opinions if you have any

OH I THINK I DO *cough* *waits for rotten tomatoes*

la donna è mobile is the most overrated aria in the history of arias

subsequently everyone in rigoletto except sparafucile behaves in ways so lacking of braincells there's a reason why I never cry about it (I mean I love rigoletto but I hate that aria and no one uses their brain in it I maintain)

I find puccini in general terribly overrated and you won't catch me paying to actually see puccini operas in the theater sorry

in that brand of unpopular, m. butterfly the movie >>>> madama butterfly the opera and rent > la boheme sorry X°D

srs rossini operas are vastly underrated and would eat most more famous srs stuff under the table and honestly the french guillaume tell >>> mostly anything

rossini's otello > verdi's

un ballo in maschera is verdi's best opera I'm dying on that hill

mozart > everyone else anyway

the fact that le comte ory isn't staged often is a crime against good taste

I tend to prefer modern stagings to classical ones even if the modern one is based on supposedly outrageous readings of the thing (PETER SELLARS IN MY HEART FOREVER but also micheletto in my heart forever)

I absolutely detest the whole 'ah singers today aren't as good as in the forties/fifties/sixties/good singing died with pavarotti and sutherland' like for once today people don't perform operas cutting 1/4th of them that should be good for something

in that unpopular opinion, I don't particularly like pavarotti, I absolutely don't like sutherland very much and I think callas was good for drama but her barbiere di siviglia recording is sung in a way that irks me and she's not like probably cranking my top ten female opera singers anyway *hides from tomatoes*

in that same opinion, corelli >>>> pavarotti every other day

les contes d'hoffmann should be way more performed/famous

don giovanni is not a villain and I'm dying on that hill (idt this is unpopular with critics but it's unpopular with the kids)

don giovanni and leporello are imvho implied to be canonically fucking or to have canonically fucked and I say it because the text imvho implies so and no way da ponte out of anyone didn't know exactly what he was doing nor mozart didn't understand that either

ppl should listen to more donizetti/donizetti should be performed more beyond lucia and elisir and the fact that idk anna bolena rests in WE PERFORM IT AT THE MET ONCE EVERY OTHER TEN YEARS status is for me extremely sad and should be rectified

ernani has the most stupid ending plot point of any opera in existence including rigoletto

the only wagner I'm ever going to listen until I live is the ride of the valkyrie because I'm not even gonna get into his technical merits but every note of wagner's exhudes how insufferable he was and after the time I went to see parsifal and I started having literal hallucinations around the fourth hour (and I swear I was sober) I'm not coming close to wagner ever again I don't care X°D

I... probably do have more stuff that most regular ppl going to the opera would roast me for but X°DDD

[elisaenglish]

“Don’t expect me to be sane anymore. Don’t let’s be sensible. It was a marriage at Louveciennes—you can’t dispute it. I came away with pieces of you sticking to me; I am walking about, swimming, in an ocean of blood, your Andalusian blood, distilled and poisonous […] I saw you as the mistress of your home... woman, woman, woman. I can’t see how I can go on living away from you—these intermissions are death. How did it seem to you when Hugo came back? Was I still there? I can’t picture you moving about with him as you did with me. Legs closed. Frailty. Sweet, treacherous acquiescence. Bird docility. You became a woman with me. I was almost terrified by it. You are not just thirty years old—you are a thousand years old.

Here I am back and still smouldering with passion, like wine smoking. Not a passion any longer for flesh, but a complete hunger for you, a devouring hunger. I read the paper about suicides and murders and I understand it all thoroughly. I feel murderous, suicidal. I feel somehow that it is a disgrace to do nothing, to just bide one’s time, to take it philosophically, to be sensible. Where has gone the time when men fought, killed, died for a glove, a glance, etc? (A victrola is playing that terrible aria from Madama Butterfly—”Some day he’ll come!”)

I still hear you singing in the kitchen—a sort of inharmonic, monotonous Cuban wail. I know you’re happy in the kitchen and the meal you’re cooking is the best meal we ever ate together. I know you would scald yourself and not complain. I feel the greatest peace and joy sitting in the dining room listening to you rustling about, your dress like the goddess Indra studded with a thousand eyes.

Anaïs, I only thought I loved you before; it was nothing like this certainty that’s in me now. Was all this so wonderful only because it was brief and stolen? Were we acting for each other, to each other? Was I less I, or more I, and you less or more you? Is it madness to believe that this could go on? When and where would the drab moments begin? I study you so much to discover the possible flaws, the weak points, the danger zones. I don’t find them—not any. That means I am in love, blind, blind. To be blind forever! (Now they’re singing “Heaven and Ocean” from La Gioconda.)

[…]

While it thunders and lightnings I lie on the bed and go through wild dreams. We’re in Seville and then in Fez and then in Capri and then in Havana. We’re journeying constantly, but there is always a machine and books, and your body is always close to me and the look in your eyes never changes. People are saying we will be miserable, we will regret, but we are happy, we are laughing always, we are singing. We are talking Spanish and French and Arabic and Turkish. We are admitted everywhere and they strew our path with flowers.

I say this is a wild dream—but it is this dream I want to realise. Life and literature combined, love the dynamo, you with your chameleon’s soul giving me a thousand loves, being anchored always in no matter what storm, home wherever we are. In the mornings, continuing where we left off. Resurrection after resurrection. You asserting yourself, getting the rich varied life you desire; and the more you assert yourself the more you want me, need me. Your voice getting hoarser, deeper, your eyes blacker, your blood thicker, your body fuller. A voluptuous servility and tyrannical necessity. More cruel now than before—consciously, wilfully cruel. The insatiable delight of experience.”

-Henry Miller, Letter to Anaïs Nin (14th August 1932)-

Whilst there are elements of Miller that simply fail to sit in consonance with my romantic sensibilities, I do appreciate these passions of his in epistolary form. His part-incestuous, part-feral—and oft-quoted out of context—declaration from Sexus, “Show her to me—I want to lick the flesh from her bones,” has its desperate genesis in lines like these. In telling Nin of frantic love and earthquakes wrought from skin and blood, trembled to the bone.

In a prior missive, he writes of her longed-for return, the promise of “one literary fuck fest” he’s wont to give—to her, just her—for “Lying on top of you is one thing, but getting close to you is another” and “Everything hangs on tomorrow” because her letter maybe comes.

Stripped to aching turns of phrase, distilled to raw imagination, he paints his want with candid strokes: “...sitting here writing you with a tremendous erection. I feel your soft mouth closing over me, your leg clutching me tight, see you again in the kitchen here lifting your dress and sitting on top of me and the chair riding around over the kitchen floor, going thump, thump.” Visceral to the point of purity in one sense, ragged with disdain for the pallid veneer of polite sex in another, he attains the elusive and artful balance of a man who understands the power of a well-placed “cunt”.

Of course, anyone who’s in touch with themselves already knows that an orgasm awakens above the neck not below the waist—and perhaps I’m being overly generous to Miller by virtue of the fact that I find it interesting that he uses “groin” as a verb. But still, I tend to forgive the less nuanced aspects of his prose and sometimes it is the only necessity of a grander symbiotic bond—to give, or receive, that rare, unfiltered lust; the words that bloom a mind and turn one’s limbs to liquid.

Nin, for her part, is unbound. Reminiscent of Virginia Woolf’s epiphanic flood of swollen “significance”—and far from her shallower offerings in Delta of Venus—she writes of consummation, that of body and craft, thought and tangibility. “This is strange,” she laments. “...[A]s soon as I came home from all sorts of places I would sit down and write in my journal. Now I want to write you, talk with you.” Her consciousness stirs to a heightened state; it becomes “symphonic” and “I am so aroused by living... Before, I almost used to think there was something wrong. Everybody else seemed to have the brakes on. I never feel the brakes. I overflow. And when I feel your excitement about life flaring, next to mine, then it makes me dizzy.”

Thus is falling, thus is flight. And I know, adultery is so foreign a concept to this heart of mine—and no, I’m not built for fleeting. But the feeling remains: rough-hewn, beautiful; this yearning man, entirely uninhibited. Imperfect, yes. Yet more—adored in spirit.

I sigh. Desire is this writer’s life, semantically unfurled.