http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/arts/music/21blum.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Birgit Nilsson-Swedish Soprano

Agrippina Performance @ Fabbri Mansion in NY

http://operamission.org/

Operamission Agrippina @ Fabbri Mansion in NYC. Here a glimpse of Narciso, Pallante & Ottone (Joseph Hill, Jorell Williams & Jose Lemos). Come see it! Opening on January 16th at 7 PM!

Operamission Agrippina na Fabbri Mansion em NYC. Aqui uma foto com Narciso, Pallante e Ottone (Joseph Hill, Jorell Williams e Jose Lemos). Venham ver! Estreia dia 16 de Janeiro as 19hrs!

It's been such a long time.....

I know it's been such a great awhile, as my summer was overwhelmingly busy, but now I'm back and will try to catch up a bit.

Been traveling here and there, Denmark, Sweden, London, Paris to name a few. Squeezed in a visit to Bastille Opera House in Paris and saw the rarely performed "Il Trittico" by Puccini.

The Tales of Hoffman

An Unfinished Tale...

Indeed, a tale of tales! Enjoyed the opening night (Saturday, November 7, 2009) of "Tales of Hoffman" at the Elle Caulkins Opera Colorado. It's my first time seeing this production, a production that showed an amazing talent, not only by the principles, but an amazing chorus, stage director, and production.


Overview Inspired by the tales of the German Romantic poet E.T.A. Hoffmann, the opera tours a dramatic dreamscape populated with beautiful courtesans, magical portraits and fantastical automatons. The lush music fuels the visual style of the stage design inspired by 19th century couture and Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher. This innovative production brings to life Offenbach's vivid fantasy of a poet obsessed with four remarkable women – and the four villains bent on his destruction.Stage Director Renaud DoucetSet and Costume Design André BarbeConductor Emmanuel Joel-Hornak This production is a co-production between Opera Colorado, Opera Theatre of St. Louis and Boston Lyric Opera.

Me and Julian Gavin, tenor- at Elle Caulkins Opera House
http://www.operacolorado.org/operas/hoffmann/

Rio wins right to host the 2016 Olympics

I am totally ecstatic with the win of the bid to host the 2016 Olympics! This was a very emotional moment for me, as it made me feel nostalgic of my home country. "President Lula" gave a very passionate speech and indeed confirming the theme (at least according to my book) of the the next Olympics in Rio: Live with Passion! Indeed, he showed what a passionate Brazilian citizen can be! Just goes to show you, the influence Brazil has gained-- they truly are a rising global power- in my opinion at least!

Here's some links to some of the online news:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/sports/03olympics.html?_r=1&WT.mc_id=fb_nyt644&WT.mc_ev=click

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091002/ap_on_sp_ol/oly2016_bids

http://globoesporte.globo.com/Esportes/Noticias/Olimpiadas/0,,MUL1327272-17698,00-RIO%20TRANSFORMA%20O%20SONHO%20OLIMPICO%20EM%20REALIDADE%20E%20CONQUISTA%20OS%20JOGOS%20DE.html

Sympathy for Caster Semenya: Hermaphrodites Are People Too

by John Devereux



Imagine for a moment that you’re eighteen years old and the entire world is wondering if you’re a man, woman, or something in between. Helpful people have tried to remove the uncertainty by giving you a feminizing makeover. Welcome to Caster Semenya’s life.
Semenya’s prowess at the women’s 800 meters, combined with her muscular physique and curiously male demeanor have made the world wonder about her true sex. It has now been leaked by track and field officials that Caster Semenya has been declared a “hermaphrodite”.
In order to compete in track and field she has been forced to submit to an intrusive investigation of her chromosomal make-up and the structure of her reproductive organs. How would you feel in her shoes? Humiliated, embarrassed, downtrodden, ready to crawl into the nearest hole and never come back, I warrant. Can we show a little sensitivity and understanding in this difficult situation? After all, nobody is accusing Caster Semenya of cheating. She has been raised as a girl, considers herself to be a girl, and for all intents and purposes is a girl.

Is Caster Semenya a Hermaphrodite?
Technically a hermaphrodite is someone or something with both male and female reproductive organs. Hermaphrodism in humans is rare, but far from unknown. According to a Developmental Biology textbook by Scott F. Gilbert, human hermaphrodites typically have a sex organ that is somewhere between a penis and a clitoris. Some hermaphrodites have both a penis and large breasts.
Babies born with ambiguous sex organs are typically assigned a gender by doctors based on the size of the organ. Smaller equals female while larger equals male. Surgical procedures may be performed to “normalize” the organ. Some biologists consider gender to be part of a continuum rather than a binary situation.
The question is not, then, whether Caster Semenya is a man or a woman. She is perhaps somewhere in between. Since her gender identity has always been female, should she be allowed to competed in athletic competitions as a woman?
The answer is not so cut and dried. Semenya’s testosterone level has tested within allowed limits for female athletes. Who is to say than, that she should not be considered a woman? The question, I suppose, is whether it’s fair to other female competitors of unambiguous gender to force them to compete against a person whose unusual genetic make-up may give her a significant advantage. After all, the segmentation of competitors by sex is meant to level the playing field for female athletes.
Adding to the controversy is the fact that Caster Sememya is a black woman from South Africa, a country without a great history of success by black athletes in international competitions. During the apartheid era, South African athletes were long banned from international events. Now that the majority black population has political control over the country, they are understandably touchy about efforts to draw in to question the achievements of one of their own. Mutters about “racism” have been heard.
I suspect that Caster Semenya will be barred from future competitions, but I don’t see how anyone can be happy about it. Fairness is a hard thing to come by in this world, but there’s nothing very “fair” about excluding someone who doesn’t fit our conception about what a “normal” human being is. Here's the link to the original posting by John Devereux: TBD

Turkey scared to admit Armenian genocide, says historian

As an Armenian descendant I, among many, will never give up or forget the Armenian Genocide, please admit to this atrocity, the Germans did, why can't you? Turkish government should admit and go on with your lives, I believe the present and future generation will be proud of you!


By Robert Tait in Yerevan

Turkey risks a collapse of its secular political system akin to that of the Soviet Union if it bows to international pressure to recognise the 1915-22 Armenian genocide, the head of Armenia's state memorial to the event has told the Guardian.
Hayk Demoyan said Ankara could not acknowledge the systematic killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman troops during the first world war because it would lead to a wholesale re-writing of history and undermine the ideological basis of the Turkish state.
In remarks that will cast a shadow over attempts to forge a new Turkish-Armenian rapprochement, he said those implicated included Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey and a figure Turks are taught to revere. Historical documents proved Atatürk committed "war crimes" against Armenians and other groups in his drive to create an ethnically homogeneous Turkish state, Demoyan insisted. "Fear of rewriting history is the main fear of modern Turkey," said Demoyan, director of The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan, Armenia's capital.
"It is a fear of facing historical reality and causing a total collapse of the ideological axis that modern republican Turkey was formed around. Turks get panicked when you compare Atatürk's legacy to Lenin.
Atatürk was sentenced to death in absentia by a military judge to punish war crimes during the first world war. There are documents from non-Armenian sources listing him as a war criminal ."
Demoyan's remarks come amid fledgling attempts to re-establish links between two countries which have not had diplomatic relations since 1994, following a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Turkey's ally.
Tentative efforts towards normalising ties occurred this month when the Turkish president, Abdullah Gül, visited Yerevan to attend a World Cup football match between Turkey and Armenia at the invitation of his Armenian counterpart, Serge Sarkisian.
Unlike most visiting heads of state, Gül did not visit the genocide museum, which displays documentary and photographic exhibits proving, Armenian officials say, that their ethnic brethren were subjected to deliberate genocide. Turkey vehemently denies this and has jailed Turkish citizens who argued otherwise. However, rising numbers of Turkish tourists and journalists have visited the museum recently.
"More than 500 Turks have visited this year. They've come in unprecedented numbers," Demoyan said. "Their reaction is one of shock. At first there is denial. Sometimes they ask: 'What is our sin?' or 'How can we be responsible for this?'. It's not taught in Turkish schools, so we understand their reaction."
Turkey claims the Armenian death toll has been exaggerated and that most victims died from starvation or disease. It also argues that many Turks were killed by Armenian groups.