'Clubbable assertions about ordinary public language use can't break in on our 'sessions of sweet silent thought' to tell us that we are nto really doing what we think we're doing, not really thinking what we we're thinking. To suppose taht tey can is to make the great Wittgensteinina (or 'Wittgensteinian') mistake abotu teh nature of language and thought and metaphysics, the career swallowing mistake that makes it look (for example) as if a word like 'pain' can't be what it so simply and obvioulsy is - a word for a publicly unobesrvable or 'private' sensation, a word that picks out and means the private sensation considered just as such, i.e. entirely independently of any of its behavioural or other publicly observable causes and effects."
Strawson, SELVES (oxford, 2010)On Mon, 27 Sep 2010, Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx wrote:
It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings Solo and Duet Taste: Good and Bad In a message dated 9/26/2010 9:19:23 A.M. Coordinated Universal Time, palma@xxxxxxxx writes: to opera musings, on which, while displaying exceedingly bad taste, at least you talk about a subject ----- Possibly, for Kant, the idea of 'bad taste' is inconclusive. In an article, I argue that if the idea of 'bad taste' is inconclusive, so is the idea of 'good taste'. Palma argues that my taste in opera is bad. I agree! -------- Opera is possible an Italian invention. It was invented in Firenze. The idea was to set to music the tragedies of Ovid's Metamorphoses. One problem they soon found about this is that "Metamorphoses" contains no tragedies. The first opera 'ever' was once called "Dafne". In Greek, "daphne" means 'laurel'. The 'opera' deals with the rather idiotic story of this girl who (in the proceedings of Apollo wanted to rape her) is transformed into a 'laurel'. "Opera" is NEVER used by Italians. It is an expression used by what Italians call "furriners". In Italian, 'opera' means 'piece of work'. The terms the Italians use are other: 'melodramma' (In Latin it was 'drama', but the Italians multiply the 'm' there), or 'dramma per musica', or 'azione tragica', or other stuff. They usually refer to 'opera houses' as 'teatro lirico' --. ---- In parts OTHER than Italy there are so called "Italian opera houses". In Paris (Parigi, as the Italians call it), there were two main "Italian opera houses". One was off the Boulevard des Italiens -- and it's the current Opera Comique. But the Italians left the building in 1840, and occupied ANOTHER theatre, which is also referred to as "Italian Opera". So beware. ---- My favourite Italian opera composer is Bellini. I believe in bel-canto tenor writing, and Bellini supplied it. Donizetti is just as genial, but his genius was too broad for me to identify (he wrote "Don Pasquale" and many other operas, whereas Bellini stuck to a few, and so he needs more publicity). The other three composers that make up for the '5 Italian masters of opera' are Rossini (but only a FEW of his 'hits' have remained: one: "Ecco, ridente in cielo", from Barbiere di Siviglia), Verdi, of course, and Puccini, who wrote 12 operas. Mussolini used to say that Wagner was a better composer than Puccini. But his son (Mussolini's, not Puccini's, or Wagner's) used to say that his father (Benito) would often be seen asleep during a Wagner opera. So you never know. Tomorrow is the opening of the season at the Met in New York, with Das Rheingold. This opened in Venezia in 1883, as "L'oro del Reno". The Italians were then pretty incapable of digesting Wagner in _German_ (or "Deutsche"). Oddly, Wagner was the responsible for the closure of the Royal Italian Opera House in London. The impresario who ran it approached Wagner with the request to have his opera sung in London in Italian. Wagner refused. The rest is history: they staged the opera in the vernacular (German) and opera was never the same in London. They started to stage operas other than in Italian. ------ In Italy it is different. Opera started as a courtly entertainment for the Medicis of Firenze. Although Peri was Roman by birth. After Firenze, Mantova was another important centre, with Monteverdi. To some (including me) the real decay with opera (who had started in 1600, with "Dafne") was 1635, when the first opera opened in Venezia. In Venezia, for the first time, people were 'charged' to attend an opera. The result was that the paying audience later thought they had a right to decide about 'taste'. And what is worse, the typical Italian opera composer (e.g. Verdi) will argue that if the paying audience says an opera is BAD, then it IS bad. Etc. Kant possibly didn't like opera. Speranza ----- It is a perception of Grand Opera, typically overweight sopranos, and perhaps Brünnhilda's final arias from Die Walküre or Götterdämmerung in particular, from an American working class cultural perspective of the early 20th century. ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| /begin/read__>sig.file: postal address palma University of KwaZulu-Natal Philosophy 3rd floor of Memorial Tower Building Howard College Campus Durban 4041 South Africa Tel off: [+27] 031 2601591 (sec: Mrs. Yolanda Hordyk) [+27] 031-2602292 Fax [+27] 031-2603031 mobile 07 62 36 23 91 calling from overseas +[27] 76 2362391 EMAIL: palma@xxxxxxxx EMAIL: palma@xxxxxxxxxx MY OFFICE IS A290@Mtb *only when in Europe*: inst. J. Nicod 29 rue d'Ulm f-75005 paris france ________ This e-mail message (and attachments) is confidential, and/or privileged and is intended for the use of the addressee only. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail you must not copy, distribute, take any action in reliance on it or disclose it to anyone. Any confidentiality or privilege is not waived or lost by reason of mistaken delivery to you. This entity is not responsible for any information not related to the business of this entity. If you received this e-mail in error please destroy the original and notify the sender. ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Ratio, enim, nisi judex universalis esse deberet, frustra singulis datur. [ _Quaestiones Naturales_, Adelard of Bath ] Signora granda, testa che massa massa ne passa, che quasi schissa, Dia dei sostegni de cese e palassi Dia de le taje che su ne tien fissi Dia de le onde che le ne fa grassi, ne ingrassa de ogni grassia, Dia Venessia - aàh Venessia aàh Venàssia aàh Venùsia Andrea Zanzotto, Filò, (Sezione: Recitativo Veneziano)