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The Week in review
May. 10th, 2009 11:10 amOn Monday, instead of our regular session, my Italian class went up to Northwestern University to see Corpo di Stato: Il delitto Moro, a theatrical monologue by Marco Baliani. In 1978, the leader of the Christian Democratic Party, Aldo Moro, was kidnapped and, after 55 days, murdered by the Red Brigades. This event had a significant impact on the student movement, on Italian politics. Baliani's work looks at the event from a personal standpoint, addressing his own involvement in the student movement, his relationships, his role in the events. It was quite fascinating, and I saw many parallels between what he was talking about and the radical student movement here in the late '60s-early '70s. There were subtitles, which were helpful, though I found I could understand a fair bit without them.
Tuesday night, I went to a concert by the University of Chicago Early Music Ensemble, directed by David Douglass and Ellen Hargis of the Newberry Consort (who are artists-in-residence at the U of C), with a couple of other professionals as guest artists. The program consisted of Venetian music of the 16th and 17th centuries, and the students did quite a creditable job. I talked to David and Ellen before the concert began, and told David that I probably wouldn't get to his lecture the next day at the Newberry (he was talking about Handel) as I was "early musick'ed out", but he said I'd probably heard everything he was going to say already! (I do make an effort to go to all the pre-concert lectures, so he was probably right.)
I had switched my Court Theatre tickets, and went on Friday instead of my usual Sunday, which meant a later start (8:00 rather than 7:30). The play was August Wilson's The Piano Lesson, on of the plays in his Century Cycle, ten plays (nine set in Pittsburgh) about the African-American experience, each set in a different decade, and with some overlap of characters and history. The Piano Lesson, set in the 1930s, is one of two that won the Pulitzer Prize. It revolves around the relationship between a brother and sister, and whether or not they should sell the family piano, on which are carved the images of slave ancestors. It's about the importance of honoring the ancestors and remembering the past, yet also recognizing the need to move forward in life, and not be chained by the past.
A wedding reception yesterday. One of the women in my office was married a few months ago, but as it was an out-of-state wedding, her parents threw her a big reception locally. It was really lovely. The setting was the Meson Sabika, a beautiful old mansion build in the mid-1800s. Although the event was indoors, the weather improved enough during the day that we could wander out onto the terrace. The food was yummy, the bride lovely, and there was plenty to drink!
Then I came home and did laundry.
Tuesday night, I went to a concert by the University of Chicago Early Music Ensemble, directed by David Douglass and Ellen Hargis of the Newberry Consort (who are artists-in-residence at the U of C), with a couple of other professionals as guest artists. The program consisted of Venetian music of the 16th and 17th centuries, and the students did quite a creditable job. I talked to David and Ellen before the concert began, and told David that I probably wouldn't get to his lecture the next day at the Newberry (he was talking about Handel) as I was "early musick'ed out", but he said I'd probably heard everything he was going to say already! (I do make an effort to go to all the pre-concert lectures, so he was probably right.)
I had switched my Court Theatre tickets, and went on Friday instead of my usual Sunday, which meant a later start (8:00 rather than 7:30). The play was August Wilson's The Piano Lesson, on of the plays in his Century Cycle, ten plays (nine set in Pittsburgh) about the African-American experience, each set in a different decade, and with some overlap of characters and history. The Piano Lesson, set in the 1930s, is one of two that won the Pulitzer Prize. It revolves around the relationship between a brother and sister, and whether or not they should sell the family piano, on which are carved the images of slave ancestors. It's about the importance of honoring the ancestors and remembering the past, yet also recognizing the need to move forward in life, and not be chained by the past.
A wedding reception yesterday. One of the women in my office was married a few months ago, but as it was an out-of-state wedding, her parents threw her a big reception locally. It was really lovely. The setting was the Meson Sabika, a beautiful old mansion build in the mid-1800s. Although the event was indoors, the weather improved enough during the day that we could wander out onto the terrace. The food was yummy, the bride lovely, and there was plenty to drink!
Then I came home and did laundry.
