Awaiting Ferrante: Femininity Toxic and Nourishing

Followers of fiction are probably already well aware that the English-language translation of Elena Ferrante's latest novel, "The Lying Life of Adults," will be released in the U.S. in June.

It has already been published as "La Vita Bugiarda Degli Adulti" in Italy and is apparently enjoying considerable success in that market.

I was reminded of this when reading a profile of Edie Falco, probably best known as the wife of the mob boss in "The Sopranos," in the Sunday New York Times of Jan. 9, 2020. The profile consisted largely of a list of 10 things Falco said she could not live without and third on the list was "Elena Ferrante's Books."

"She really seemed to get all the complexities of relationships with girls that are fraught and deep and toxic and nourishing. I'd never seen it depicted in a way that I recognized quite as accurately," Falco is quoted saying.

The new novel is again set in Naples, but this time the chief protagonist, an adolescent girl named Giovanna, is from a family that is well off economically. According to an article in The Washington Post, the new book will largely satisfy Ferrante fans with fraught friendships, heady descriptions of Naples, and "wow-she-went-there" ways of depicting family.

One can ague that Ferrante has an exceptionally dark view of human nature as I do here. (Please click on the word "here" at the end of that sentence.)

"On the Waterfront" Brings to Mind "Mrs. Dalloway"

I was recently re-watching, after several decades, the film "On the Waterfront" and at one point it brought to mind Virginia Woolf's novel "Mrs. Dalloway."

"On the Waterfront," directed by Elia Kazan, staring Marlon Brando and introducing Eva Marie Saint, was released in 1954. Considered a classic, it's about union violence and corruption on the New York waterfront.

More On The Topic of Art and Clarity

In my previous post, I talked about how clarity can be the enemy of art, or perhaps more accurately the enemy of those who desire to be viewed as important artists.

This is not a new idea. Sorting through some old clippings, I came across a "Bookends" feature from the Aug. 30, 2015 issue of the New York Times weekly book review section.

Clarity Can Be An Enemy Of Art

If something can be easily understood, it can be easily dismissed, which may explain why many artists appear to get rather vague when asked to explain the genesis of their creations or what they mean.

"It means whatever it means to you," one often hears.

The Death of Jerry Herman and "Patricia"

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I have been attempting to have a neo-baroque operetta called "Patricia" composed.  This is an ongoing project, but if you would like to listen to demonstration recordings of two arias, you can find them here. Please feel free to comment on what you like or don't like about these songs, which have a feminist theme.

I mention this because Jerry Herman, the composer of "Hello Dolly" and other popular musicals recently died. As his obit in the New York Times noted, at a time when Stephen Sondheim and other contemporary composers were writing "dark, intricate melodies and witty, ambiguous lyrics, he (Herman) wrote song-and-dance music that stuck to the story line with catchy tunes and sunny phrases of hope and happy endings."

One of my gripes about contemporary opera is that it, like some contemporary musicals, doesn't have any memorable songs -- no melodies or lyrics that one can really remember or want to remember.  Indeed, it sometimes seems the singer comes last despite the fact that the main reason people go to the opera (as opposed to going to the theater, watching television or reading a book) is to hear great voices sing beautiful and/or powerful songs.

"There are only a couple of us who care about writing songs that people can leave the theater singing," Herman told the NYT at one point during his career.

Well, that's just what the composer with whom I am working and I are trying to do.

What Happened to Newspapers?

What Happened to Newspapers?

As a former journalist, I get asked from time to time to explain what happened to newspapers and where journalism is headed.  In that context, a friend recently sent me a book by Joe Strupp called “Killing Journalism: How greed, laziness [and Donald Trump] are destroying news and how we can save it.”

Suffice to say that while the book contains interesting insights, the title is misleading. This sort of sensationalism is exactly what Strupp accuses all too many publications of doing: in fact, it is one of his major themes. Why do it? Because it sells, which brings me to one point readers need to keep in mind: the old Pogo adage of “we have met the enemy and he is us.”

Townshend Sees Rock and Roll as a System of Spirituality

The New York Times Dec. 1, 2019 Sunday Magazine has an interview with Pete Townshend, leader of "The Who," in which Townshend is pressed to explain what rock and roll was all about now that it is apparently widely considered to be dead.

After dodging and weaving for a while, Townshend finally comes out with the following:

"What we were hoping to do was to create a system by which we gathered in order to hear music that in some way served the spiritual needs of the audience."

When one reads, endlessly it seems, about Woodstock and why people went, that quote resonates.

But, Townshend continued: "It didn't work out that way. We abandoned our parents' church, and we haven't replaced it with anything solid and substantial."

Despite that, he himself hasn't given up hope.

"I do still believe in it," he said.