Showing posts with label Rediscovery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rediscovery. Show all posts
Monday, June 20, 2011
Rediscovery of Hurtigruten: beautiful journey along Norway's coast
Thanks to nrkbeta, youtube and creative commons.
Hurtigruten 5 days TV marathon June 2011
SOME FACTS: 8040 minutes of sea and arctic nature - on TV channel nrk2 and the Internet (creative commons).
BACKGROUND. Hurtigruten, the Norwegian Express Line, has for well over 100 years been the backbone of coastal Norway, bringing people and goods up and down the weatherbeaten west coast towards the north of Norway. It has struggled to survive and be prosperous in a mixed economy of private and public support and investments.
COASTAL CULTURE. More than a pure enterprise it is no doubt about a broad interaction and transportation of people and things, in fact, even dead bodies. Hurtigruten thus encompasses both daily and extraordinary transportations, as well as people experiencing nature and how to cope with it in the living coastal cultures. This TV, realworld and social media event uncovers through creative use of multimedia the encounters and experienced beauty of a number of scattered places, regions, inhabitants and families, locals and visitors to Norway's coast.
FLEET. Currently, a fleet of 11 ships service 34 ports from Bergen to Kirkenes, covering a distance comparable to the distance Oslo – Tunisia. Daily, and all year round.
WHY. Why this TV marathon from a coastal sea cruise, although among the most beautiful ones? Why are they - over in nrkbeta - doing this? It has been prepared for some months (*cf. e.g., invitation to an open-source ideation in January 2011, maybe more info to be checked here later). The idea emerged after the minute by minute 7 hours realtime show on TV, nrk2, of the railway experience from Bergen to Oslo, which achieved a lot of media attention and many viewers. But why doing more of this?According to nrkbeta's website, an article by ANDERS HOFSETH, dated 16. June, 2011:
"Primarily because we’re a publicly funded Public Service Broadcaster with a responsibility towards Norwegian culture; a responsibility for covering things important to the inhabitants of a small country, a country that in spite of, or perhaps because of our significant oil wealth has a vulnerable culture. And programmes like this aren’t economically feasible for a commercial channel; to a large amount of the public it probably seems completely useless, but to some of our viewers it can have a very high value, be something they wouldn’t get in any other way, and in twenty or two hundred years, it will be a strange document of life at the edge of civilisation from a different time."
Also, there’s the NRKbeta Doctrine, stating: "The only way to control your content is to be the best provider of it."
EXPERIENCES SO FAR. Indeed, ample evidence suggests that nrkbeta and cocreators have done it again. Provided many with a triggering enduring experience. Because this is not merely about clock-time, it is about enduring time minute by minute. It encompasses both the subjective and intersubjective experiencing of something both locals and spectators may easily relate to, like hurtigruten.
Despite nrkbeta's relatively modest reasoning about it above, #hurtigruten in realtime and on TV, cell phone and twitter etc. has become a huge event and a success already in many ways including gaining hundreds of waving families and engaged or disengaged citizens along the coast and thousands (or sometimes millions) of participating viewers. In many ways, the current journey has become an umbrella and magnet for many kinds of encounters and performances. People are active with their experiencing including often their second screens whether it is a normal mobile, smart phone, iPad or lap top, camera etc. Several twitter reports have pinpointed that even shares in hurtigruten's shipping companies have gone up as well.
Just a wild thought: Maybe some of the key share owners could perhaps consider to give something back, for instance, to the further creative work in some ways?
CONTINUED ACCESS. The live stream is available at nrk.no/hurtigruten from Thursday June 16th 2011 until the ship lands in Kirkenes Wednesday June 22nd. Info on how to download etc. can be found there as well. You can reuse but need to acknowledge the cocreators and rights.
Content licensed under Creative Commons Source: NRKbeta.no http://nrkbeta.no/2011/06/16/hurtigruten-eng/ Norsk versjon av artikkel [...]
http://nrkbeta.no/2011/06/16/hurtigruten/
BACKGROUND. Hurtigruten, the Norwegian Express Line, has for well over 100 years been the backbone of coastal Norway, bringing people and goods up and down the weatherbeaten west coast towards the north of Norway. It has struggled to survive and be prosperous in a mixed economy of private and public support and investments.
COASTAL CULTURE. More than a pure enterprise it is no doubt about a broad interaction and transportation of people and things, in fact, even dead bodies. Hurtigruten thus encompasses both daily and extraordinary transportations, as well as people experiencing nature and how to cope with it in the living coastal cultures. This TV, realworld and social media event uncovers through creative use of multimedia the encounters and experienced beauty of a number of scattered places, regions, inhabitants and families, locals and visitors to Norway's coast.
FLEET. Currently, a fleet of 11 ships service 34 ports from Bergen to Kirkenes, covering a distance comparable to the distance Oslo – Tunisia. Daily, and all year round.
WHY. Why this TV marathon from a coastal sea cruise, although among the most beautiful ones? Why are they - over in nrkbeta - doing this? It has been prepared for some months (*cf. e.g., invitation to an open-source ideation in January 2011, maybe more info to be checked here later). The idea emerged after the minute by minute 7 hours realtime show on TV, nrk2, of the railway experience from Bergen to Oslo, which achieved a lot of media attention and many viewers. But why doing more of this?According to nrkbeta's website, an article by ANDERS HOFSETH, dated 16. June, 2011:
"Primarily because we’re a publicly funded Public Service Broadcaster with a responsibility towards Norwegian culture; a responsibility for covering things important to the inhabitants of a small country, a country that in spite of, or perhaps because of our significant oil wealth has a vulnerable culture. And programmes like this aren’t economically feasible for a commercial channel; to a large amount of the public it probably seems completely useless, but to some of our viewers it can have a very high value, be something they wouldn’t get in any other way, and in twenty or two hundred years, it will be a strange document of life at the edge of civilisation from a different time."
Also, there’s the NRKbeta Doctrine, stating: "The only way to control your content is to be the best provider of it."
EXPERIENCES SO FAR. Indeed, ample evidence suggests that nrkbeta and cocreators have done it again. Provided many with a triggering enduring experience. Because this is not merely about clock-time, it is about enduring time minute by minute. It encompasses both the subjective and intersubjective experiencing of something both locals and spectators may easily relate to, like hurtigruten.
Despite nrkbeta's relatively modest reasoning about it above, #hurtigruten in realtime and on TV, cell phone and twitter etc. has become a huge event and a success already in many ways including gaining hundreds of waving families and engaged or disengaged citizens along the coast and thousands (or sometimes millions) of participating viewers. In many ways, the current journey has become an umbrella and magnet for many kinds of encounters and performances. People are active with their experiencing including often their second screens whether it is a normal mobile, smart phone, iPad or lap top, camera etc. Several twitter reports have pinpointed that even shares in hurtigruten's shipping companies have gone up as well.
Just a wild thought: Maybe some of the key share owners could perhaps consider to give something back, for instance, to the further creative work in some ways?
CONTINUED ACCESS. The live stream is available at nrk.no/hurtigruten from Thursday June 16th 2011 until the ship lands in Kirkenes Wednesday June 22nd. Info on how to download etc. can be found there as well. You can reuse but need to acknowledge the cocreators and rights.
Content licensed under Creative Commons Source: NRKbeta.no http://nrkbeta.no/2011/06/16/hurtigruten-eng/ Norsk versjon av artikkel [...]
http://nrkbeta.no/2011/06/16/hurtigruten/
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Live Opera in cinema / Boris Godunov
LIVE OPERA IN CINEMA. Interestingly, live operas from some of the top opera houses such as The Metropolitan (the Met) are now sometimes available in a cinema theatre "near you", here in Oslo. The Met, established in 1883, now regularly transmits a number of their performances to other regions via a HD service thanks to certain sponsors. The calendar is available on the link here..
The Met's BORIS GODUNOV. Yesterday (23.10.10), I saw an excellent performance of Modest Musorgskij's opera Boris Godunov . It was broadcasted from the Met in New York to Oslo cinemas Ringen and Gimle. With a reputation for such cultural events, Gimle was sold out but Ringen could take more people. (In fact, all opera performances scheduled currently at Gimle seem easily sold out, at least it was when I booked my tickets for Boris Godunov on 25 September (for 300 NOK per ticket), whereas Ringen, a larger theatre East in Oslo still had vacant seats). Anyway, quite a large group of people still came to see and listen to this particular live opera performance also at Ringen, as did many people in other local theatres elsewhere, I presume. It was a great experience, because the singing and music by great artists and excellent performers were also dramatized with unifying aesthetic and ethical content, form and deeper meaning.
Here is a video from the initial work by Peter Stein (who later left but the work was continued by Stephen Wadsworth, see cast and production details below).
BORIS GODUNOV is a Russian epic opera - partly realistic in its drawing on Russian history and partly drawing on classical/experimental as well as folk music sources. Both music and libretto was written by Modest Musorgskij, or in English Mussorgsky (1839-1881). It is worth noting that he was inspired by Aleksandr Pusjkin's novel with the same name Boris Godunov (from 1830, though not allowed shown before 1870). Also much of Musorgskij's music were met with skepticism. It was not before his friend Rimskij-Korsakov rearranged the opera into a shorter piece and it later became performed with the brilliant singer Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin it became an international success. Later, the full complexities of Musorgskij's Boris have been rediscovered, one might say. The new Met version was, to our luck, performed with a mix of the first and second version of Musorgskij's original opera.
THE STORY in brief is zooming in on the ascendance of a new zar (tsar) and his relationship with the people or Russia at large. Boris Godunov, a bojar - who may have come to power by plotting or ordering the killing of Dimitri, the son of the former zar - has increasing doubts about his own role. Musorgskij shows us what this possibly criminal background does to the zar (he becomes haunted by a strange foreboding) and it influences his ethical relationship with the Russian people. He delivers out bread in the hope that people will forget the rumours. The people is however no unified heroic entity but rather expressed in nuanced and subtle ways by the choir as well as some noteworthy figures, for example, a couple of wandering monks (a new kind of character not common in operas at the time). In addition, the opera has a symbolic character, a fool, that tells the truth to the emperor.
THE PLOT. The opera shows the increasing self-doubts of the tsar on an enlarged background of hunger, mistrust, continued oppression of the people by the rich bojars (members of the highest ranks of the aristocracies), and political rivalry and plotting in and around Russia. This includes the false Dimitri, the Pretender, who is actually Grigorij, a former monk novice who hears about the previous political/criminal plot from his teacher, a chronicle writing old monk, Pimen. However, the young Grigorij - of the same age as would be the former tsar's son Dimitri - no more wants to become a humble monk continuing the chronicle writing. Very effectively, the book lies open on the stage floor throughout the opera and in some passages the key actors are literally in or playing on the book pages. Gregorij who reads the chronicle about the child killing, becomes filled with thoughts that he is the same age as Dimitri. Rather than justice or chronicle-writing, he wants to seize the throne for himself. When rumours begin to build up about this renegade "Dimitri", he escapes over the border to Lithunia. Later, pretending to be the next tsar, he engages in a loving relationship with Marina, a princess of Poland, who has her own ambitions for the Russian zarina throne and also is under influence of a Jesuit priest with ambitions for Russia - on behalf of the Roman-Catholic church.
It can be noted that this politically embedded love affair and Polish part of the opera was not in Musorgskij's imagination originally, it was actually inscribed into the opera by suggestion from Musorgskij's friend Rimskij-Korsakov. This latter composer also later made other, shorter versions of Musorgskij's Boris Godunov.
TOP TALENTS. Many top talents are listed in the Met's new compelling long version of Boris Godunov, among these are many excellent Russian singers such as Ekaterina Semenchuk and the German Rene Pape. The opera is sung in Russian, which is a challenge for non-Russians, of course. Rene Pape told the audience in an interview during one of the two breaks that he was "adopted" by all the Russian singers who each and all helped him express the words rightly. The conductor of this new performance is not to forget the highly creative Valery Gergiev from Maryinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, home to the Kirov Opera and Ballet. Gergiev is also connected creatively to the Met as this opera shows.
CAST
Conductor: Valery Gergiev
Marina: Ekaterina Semenchuk
Dimitri: Aleksandrs Antonenko
Shuisky: Oleg Balashov
Rangoni: Evgeny Nikitin
Boris Godunov: René Pape
Pimen: Mikhail Petrenko
Varlaam: Vladimir Ognovenko
THE PRODUCTION TEAM
Production: Stephen Wadsworth
Set Designer: Ferdinand Wögerbauer
Costume Designer: Moidele Bickel
Lighting Designer: Duane Schuler
Choreographer: Apostolia Tsolaki
OWN BRIEF REFLECTIONS ON PARTS OF THE MET PERFORMANCE. There is much to reflect upon in this magic opera. The music and epic story are accumulating into a unifying experience in its deeper-ethical layers and original complex music style as Mussorgsky had it composed. The scene shifts are however done swiftly, without much disturbance in this "new" Boris Godunov, and the costumes are traditionally rich, even against a background on a relatively stripped down modern stage design, which may help us focus on the main drama rather than exotic detailing. We still sense the fundamental consequences of human actions and the evolving gaps between the power elites and the people. Although a relatively clean or simple, stripped down stage can help focus on the inner tensions and outer troubling times, I am not sure whether we actually hear the bells or clocks of the cathedral in the death scene. A few destiny-ringing bells or some other suggestive sounds might perhaps have helped our imagination regarding the sounds of ghosts that Boris seems to hear. But the personal drama of Boris in Rene Pape's physical gestalting comes forward clear enough any way - whether the bells actually toll or not.
If I shall dare to point to something more suffusing that could be improved, it is one aspect that comes to my mind. In Yesterday's performance, I found the Dimitri character perhaps the most "weak" one ("weak" in relative terms because they are all high-performers in terms of singing!). Nonetheless, the dramatic acting of this and a few other key roles (also prince Shuisky) could be somewhat improved, e.g., the novice monk part by the Dimitri character was not so credible. For example, he did not seem to have been spending his time in a cell as a novice with the old monk Pimen, nor did he act particularly well as a thirsty wannabe ruler. He was more credible as a man longing for love though. As to the Polish acts, however, I really enjoyed the highly seductive song and tight interplay of Marina and the Jesuit priest Rangoni, both ridden by power ambitions and sexual undertones in a credible and memorable way.
Most moving for me was, nonetheless, the whole complex of music going on and on including the expressive singing and excellent acting of the self-doubting Boris (performed by Rene Pape), such as his dying act with his children present and also the various symbolic scenes with the fool.
The last Kromy scene in the woods - when people take violently revenge over bojars and their soldiers and a woman in vain try to stop the mob's cruelties and is slaughtered while finally the fool expresses all the sorrows - shows that this scene was not meant as a simplified "revolutionary" or heroic tale of the people, it rather shows a mob seduced - in-between rival oppressors.
MORE ON THE MUSIC BACKGROUND. How could Musorgskij at a relatively young age come up with this moving, complex music? His opera Boris Godunov was first allowed to be performed in 1874 (and Musorgskij died already in 1881, at age 42). The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece.
Some enabling aspects may be his own dedicated creating and his particular teacher in a creative milieu with a handful of composing friends. As far as I have read, Musorgskij did not travel much but devoted himself to music composition (and alcohol), perhaps not surprising because his family went bankrupt and he also met much skepticism among his music contemporaries. See for example, Andras Batta (2001) Opera, p. 404.
Musorgskij's TEACHER. Although taking piano lessons from his early boyhood, Musorgskij had no full classical education. However, he was regarded as an eminent pianist, and eventually (from 1857), he started to study composition with his friend Mily Balakhirev (or Balakirev), who is regarded as the founder of the Five, a handful of composers, and its new Russian music school.
According to a Wikipedia article, I found this passage (courtesy to Wikipedia, link here):
In conjunction with critic and fellow nationalist Vladimir Stasov, in the late-1850s and early 1860s Balakirev brought together the composers now known as The Five—the others were Alexander Borodin, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. For several years, Balakirev was the only professional musician of the group; the others were amateurs limited in musical education but possessing enormous potential. He imparted to them his musical beliefs, which continued to underlie their thinking long after he left the group in 1871, and encouraged their compositional efforts. While his methods could be dictatorial, the results of his influence were several works which established these composers' reputations individually and as a group. He performed a similar function for Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky at two points in the latter's career—in 1868-9 with the fantasy-overture Romeo and Juliet and in 1882-5 with the Manfred Symphony.
As a composer, Balakirev finished major works many years after he had started them; he began his First Symphony in 1864 but completed it in 1897. The exception to this was his oriental fantasy Islamey for solo piano, which he composed quickly and remains popular among virtuosos. Often, the musical ideas normally associated with Rimsky-Korsakov or Borodin originated in Balakirev's compositions, which Balakirev played at informal gatherings of The Five. However, his slowness in completing works for the public robbed him of credit for his inventiveness, and pieces that would have enjoyed success had they been completed in the 1860s and 70s made a much smaller impact.
COMPLEX CREATIONS. According to several sources, Boris Godunov, among major operas, shares with Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlos (1867) the distinction of having a complex creative history and the greatest wealth of alternative material. The composer created two versions—the Original Version of 1869, which was rejected for production by the Imperial Theatres, and the Revised Version of 1872, which received its first performance in 1874 in Saint Petersburg, according to Wikipedia. These versions constitute two distinct conceptions, not two variations of a single plan. It is noteworthy that the Met version seeks back to much of the original version while also including scenes from the second one. Thus, it became an approximately 4,5 hours opera but I really enjoyed also the length - of a magic evening. Many seems to agree with this rich experience of "original Boris".
The Met's BORIS GODUNOV. Yesterday (23.10.10), I saw an excellent performance of Modest Musorgskij's opera Boris Godunov . It was broadcasted from the Met in New York to Oslo cinemas Ringen and Gimle. With a reputation for such cultural events, Gimle was sold out but Ringen could take more people. (In fact, all opera performances scheduled currently at Gimle seem easily sold out, at least it was when I booked my tickets for Boris Godunov on 25 September (for 300 NOK per ticket), whereas Ringen, a larger theatre East in Oslo still had vacant seats). Anyway, quite a large group of people still came to see and listen to this particular live opera performance also at Ringen, as did many people in other local theatres elsewhere, I presume. It was a great experience, because the singing and music by great artists and excellent performers were also dramatized with unifying aesthetic and ethical content, form and deeper meaning.
Here is a video from the initial work by Peter Stein (who later left but the work was continued by Stephen Wadsworth, see cast and production details below).
BORIS GODUNOV is a Russian epic opera - partly realistic in its drawing on Russian history and partly drawing on classical/experimental as well as folk music sources. Both music and libretto was written by Modest Musorgskij, or in English Mussorgsky (1839-1881). It is worth noting that he was inspired by Aleksandr Pusjkin's novel with the same name Boris Godunov (from 1830, though not allowed shown before 1870). Also much of Musorgskij's music were met with skepticism. It was not before his friend Rimskij-Korsakov rearranged the opera into a shorter piece and it later became performed with the brilliant singer Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin it became an international success. Later, the full complexities of Musorgskij's Boris have been rediscovered, one might say. The new Met version was, to our luck, performed with a mix of the first and second version of Musorgskij's original opera.
THE STORY in brief is zooming in on the ascendance of a new zar (tsar) and his relationship with the people or Russia at large. Boris Godunov, a bojar - who may have come to power by plotting or ordering the killing of Dimitri, the son of the former zar - has increasing doubts about his own role. Musorgskij shows us what this possibly criminal background does to the zar (he becomes haunted by a strange foreboding) and it influences his ethical relationship with the Russian people. He delivers out bread in the hope that people will forget the rumours. The people is however no unified heroic entity but rather expressed in nuanced and subtle ways by the choir as well as some noteworthy figures, for example, a couple of wandering monks (a new kind of character not common in operas at the time). In addition, the opera has a symbolic character, a fool, that tells the truth to the emperor.
THE PLOT. The opera shows the increasing self-doubts of the tsar on an enlarged background of hunger, mistrust, continued oppression of the people by the rich bojars (members of the highest ranks of the aristocracies), and political rivalry and plotting in and around Russia. This includes the false Dimitri, the Pretender, who is actually Grigorij, a former monk novice who hears about the previous political/criminal plot from his teacher, a chronicle writing old monk, Pimen. However, the young Grigorij - of the same age as would be the former tsar's son Dimitri - no more wants to become a humble monk continuing the chronicle writing. Very effectively, the book lies open on the stage floor throughout the opera and in some passages the key actors are literally in or playing on the book pages. Gregorij who reads the chronicle about the child killing, becomes filled with thoughts that he is the same age as Dimitri. Rather than justice or chronicle-writing, he wants to seize the throne for himself. When rumours begin to build up about this renegade "Dimitri", he escapes over the border to Lithunia. Later, pretending to be the next tsar, he engages in a loving relationship with Marina, a princess of Poland, who has her own ambitions for the Russian zarina throne and also is under influence of a Jesuit priest with ambitions for Russia - on behalf of the Roman-Catholic church.
It can be noted that this politically embedded love affair and Polish part of the opera was not in Musorgskij's imagination originally, it was actually inscribed into the opera by suggestion from Musorgskij's friend Rimskij-Korsakov. This latter composer also later made other, shorter versions of Musorgskij's Boris Godunov.
TOP TALENTS. Many top talents are listed in the Met's new compelling long version of Boris Godunov, among these are many excellent Russian singers such as Ekaterina Semenchuk and the German Rene Pape. The opera is sung in Russian, which is a challenge for non-Russians, of course. Rene Pape told the audience in an interview during one of the two breaks that he was "adopted" by all the Russian singers who each and all helped him express the words rightly. The conductor of this new performance is not to forget the highly creative Valery Gergiev from Maryinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, home to the Kirov Opera and Ballet. Gergiev is also connected creatively to the Met as this opera shows.
CAST
Conductor: Valery Gergiev
Marina: Ekaterina Semenchuk
Dimitri: Aleksandrs Antonenko
Shuisky: Oleg Balashov
Rangoni: Evgeny Nikitin
Boris Godunov: René Pape
Pimen: Mikhail Petrenko
Varlaam: Vladimir Ognovenko
THE PRODUCTION TEAM
Production: Stephen Wadsworth
Set Designer: Ferdinand Wögerbauer
Costume Designer: Moidele Bickel
Lighting Designer: Duane Schuler
Choreographer: Apostolia Tsolaki
OWN BRIEF REFLECTIONS ON PARTS OF THE MET PERFORMANCE. There is much to reflect upon in this magic opera. The music and epic story are accumulating into a unifying experience in its deeper-ethical layers and original complex music style as Mussorgsky had it composed. The scene shifts are however done swiftly, without much disturbance in this "new" Boris Godunov, and the costumes are traditionally rich, even against a background on a relatively stripped down modern stage design, which may help us focus on the main drama rather than exotic detailing. We still sense the fundamental consequences of human actions and the evolving gaps between the power elites and the people. Although a relatively clean or simple, stripped down stage can help focus on the inner tensions and outer troubling times, I am not sure whether we actually hear the bells or clocks of the cathedral in the death scene. A few destiny-ringing bells or some other suggestive sounds might perhaps have helped our imagination regarding the sounds of ghosts that Boris seems to hear. But the personal drama of Boris in Rene Pape's physical gestalting comes forward clear enough any way - whether the bells actually toll or not.
If I shall dare to point to something more suffusing that could be improved, it is one aspect that comes to my mind. In Yesterday's performance, I found the Dimitri character perhaps the most "weak" one ("weak" in relative terms because they are all high-performers in terms of singing!). Nonetheless, the dramatic acting of this and a few other key roles (also prince Shuisky) could be somewhat improved, e.g., the novice monk part by the Dimitri character was not so credible. For example, he did not seem to have been spending his time in a cell as a novice with the old monk Pimen, nor did he act particularly well as a thirsty wannabe ruler. He was more credible as a man longing for love though. As to the Polish acts, however, I really enjoyed the highly seductive song and tight interplay of Marina and the Jesuit priest Rangoni, both ridden by power ambitions and sexual undertones in a credible and memorable way.
Most moving for me was, nonetheless, the whole complex of music going on and on including the expressive singing and excellent acting of the self-doubting Boris (performed by Rene Pape), such as his dying act with his children present and also the various symbolic scenes with the fool.
The last Kromy scene in the woods - when people take violently revenge over bojars and their soldiers and a woman in vain try to stop the mob's cruelties and is slaughtered while finally the fool expresses all the sorrows - shows that this scene was not meant as a simplified "revolutionary" or heroic tale of the people, it rather shows a mob seduced - in-between rival oppressors.
MORE ON THE MUSIC BACKGROUND. How could Musorgskij at a relatively young age come up with this moving, complex music? His opera Boris Godunov was first allowed to be performed in 1874 (and Musorgskij died already in 1881, at age 42). The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece.
Some enabling aspects may be his own dedicated creating and his particular teacher in a creative milieu with a handful of composing friends. As far as I have read, Musorgskij did not travel much but devoted himself to music composition (and alcohol), perhaps not surprising because his family went bankrupt and he also met much skepticism among his music contemporaries. See for example, Andras Batta (2001) Opera, p. 404.
Musorgskij's TEACHER. Although taking piano lessons from his early boyhood, Musorgskij had no full classical education. However, he was regarded as an eminent pianist, and eventually (from 1857), he started to study composition with his friend Mily Balakhirev (or Balakirev), who is regarded as the founder of the Five, a handful of composers, and its new Russian music school.
According to a Wikipedia article, I found this passage (courtesy to Wikipedia, link here):
In conjunction with critic and fellow nationalist Vladimir Stasov, in the late-1850s and early 1860s Balakirev brought together the composers now known as The Five—the others were Alexander Borodin, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. For several years, Balakirev was the only professional musician of the group; the others were amateurs limited in musical education but possessing enormous potential. He imparted to them his musical beliefs, which continued to underlie their thinking long after he left the group in 1871, and encouraged their compositional efforts. While his methods could be dictatorial, the results of his influence were several works which established these composers' reputations individually and as a group. He performed a similar function for Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky at two points in the latter's career—in 1868-9 with the fantasy-overture Romeo and Juliet and in 1882-5 with the Manfred Symphony.
As a composer, Balakirev finished major works many years after he had started them; he began his First Symphony in 1864 but completed it in 1897. The exception to this was his oriental fantasy Islamey for solo piano, which he composed quickly and remains popular among virtuosos. Often, the musical ideas normally associated with Rimsky-Korsakov or Borodin originated in Balakirev's compositions, which Balakirev played at informal gatherings of The Five. However, his slowness in completing works for the public robbed him of credit for his inventiveness, and pieces that would have enjoyed success had they been completed in the 1860s and 70s made a much smaller impact.
COMPLEX CREATIONS. According to several sources, Boris Godunov, among major operas, shares with Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlos (1867) the distinction of having a complex creative history and the greatest wealth of alternative material. The composer created two versions—the Original Version of 1869, which was rejected for production by the Imperial Theatres, and the Revised Version of 1872, which received its first performance in 1874 in Saint Petersburg, according to Wikipedia. These versions constitute two distinct conceptions, not two variations of a single plan. It is noteworthy that the Met version seeks back to much of the original version while also including scenes from the second one. Thus, it became an approximately 4,5 hours opera but I really enjoyed also the length - of a magic evening. Many seems to agree with this rich experience of "original Boris".
Sunday, June 13, 2010
a 5,500-year-old leather shoe found 2010
Courtesy for photo and text: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areni-1_shoe
The oldest piece of leather footwear in the world
FOUND IN CAVE BY POST-GRAD STUDENT. The Areni-1 shoe is a 5,500-year-old leather shoe found in good shape in 2010. It was found in the "Areni-1" cave located in the Vayots Dzor province of Armenia. According to Wikipedia, the shoe was discovered by Diana Zardaryan, an Armenian post-graduate student, in the course of excavations by a team of archeologists of Armenia’s Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography as well as from Ireland and the United States.
The team's findings were published on June 9, 2010 in the journal PLoS ONE. Interestingly, this is an open access online scientific journal. See their article "First Direct Evidence of Chalcolithic Footwear from the Near Eastern Highlands" here
Plos ONE Output
In 2006 the journal was launched in beta version and published 138 articles; in 2007 it published just over 1,200 articles; and in 2008 it published almost 2,800 articles, making it the largest open access journal in the world. This was also the year when the journal started to publish on a daily basis. In 2009, 4,406 articles were published, making PLoS ONE the third largest scientific journal in the world (by volume), tells Wikipedia. See here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLoS_ONE
Interesting! I learned all this navigating from an old shoe rediscovery!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Darwin's "Origins" 24 Nov 1859 - 24 Nov 2009
Photos: Birgit Jevnaker, and credit to exhibition poster and exhibits to Oxford University Museum of Natural History
One hundred fifty years ago, a book appeared in England that eventually changed how we view the world: Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.
I enjoyed visiting Oxford University Museum of Natural History this August, a special exhibiton on Darwin, http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/visiting/whatson.htm
Monday, November 16, 2009
Trabant reborn as electric car
No comment...except noticing!
Courtesy: Photo to the left and in the middle: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
Source: www.life.com
Photo to the right: Birgit H. Jevnaker, taken in DDR museum in Berlin, July 2009
Will it take off
Trabant Reborn as an Electric Car - Photo Gallery, 12 Pictures - LIFE
Photo in the middle (sorry so little but go to the Life website):
What's Old Is New Again: The new Trabant nT (right) and an original Trabi from 1957.
Photo to the left:
Nov 12, 2009
A visitor takes a snapshot of a restored mural that famously depicts a Trabant smashing through the Berlin Wall.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
More on avatar Colonel Pessian
Here are some more tweats regarding the colonel Pessian, the avatar for Oxfordgirl, a voice twittering for people opposition in Iran:
oxfordgirl @OnefortheTable Colonel Mohammad Taghi Pessian, Iranian hero who was executed by Reza Shah 4 not accepting election crook PM #iranelection (about 16 hours ago from TweetDeck)
@OnefortheTable he started rebellion by ppl Khorasan and nearly defeated Shah. His head was cut off and displayed Tehran #iranelection
oxfordgirl @durk00 Great. That is Colonel Muhamad Taghi Pessian, a great Iranian hero who died for freedom #iranelection
1 day ago from TweetDeck
THE GREAT THING. I like to add this from today's twittering by oxfordgirl: "The great thing about freedom is that I can write what I want and others are free not to believe it or read it."
oxfordgirl @OnefortheTable Colonel Mohammad Taghi Pessian, Iranian hero who was executed by Reza Shah 4 not accepting election crook PM #iranelection (about 16 hours ago from TweetDeck)
@OnefortheTable he started rebellion by ppl Khorasan and nearly defeated Shah. His head was cut off and displayed Tehran #iranelection
oxfordgirl @durk00 Great. That is Colonel Muhamad Taghi Pessian, a great Iranian hero who died for freedom #iranelection
1 day ago from TweetDeck
THE GREAT THING. I like to add this from today's twittering by oxfordgirl: "The great thing about freedom is that I can write what I want and others are free not to believe it or read it."
Monday, June 15, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Movie on 60s Pirate Radio station: The Boat That Rocked
23 May, Oslo:
Saw fantastic film Yesterday, The Boat That Rocked, by Robert Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, etc). This movie, however, is not romance but rather about a weird gang of DJs and a pirate radio station broadcasted from an old boat out in the North Sea. With lots of 60s good pop music to enjoy.
THE PLOT is the weird DJs fight to keep up their Pirate ROCK Radio station against the British Government including a stiff, control-driven Minister (played by Kenneth Branagh) and some overeager Gov officials. We´re back in mid 1960s (1966 I think it says in the film) when the British Government did not like this music nor its broadcasting, and BBC allowed only a very limited time for the new pop music played in official channels, as far as known.
POP MUSIC SPREAD QUICKLY. Despite limited BBC access, the 60s new pop music did not stop but rather spread fairly quickly and eventually became a flood-shed. Pop music gained increasingly more in popularity... whether listened to from radios stuck secretly under children´s pillows or shared more in the open by teenagers and eventually others, in variable places indoors or outdoors, thanks also to new transportable radios.
I wonder how this diffusion was actually feasible when BBC and Government were restricting the pop music broadcasting severely at the time? How active they were I do not precisely know, could be interesting to know more about this. (I´m not an expert in this field and was a bit young at the time but my friends remember more and listened to e.g. Radio Caroline. We also have a record with authentic recording from this and other pirate stations).
Anyway, a lot of new pop-based pirate radio solutions popped up so to speak... What is only hinted to in the film, is the role played by commercials. It was probably not merely the closed state broadcasting regime but perhaps also (or even more) the actions of numerous commercial interests spreading ads in relation to popular music programs that nourished an outside-the-shore pirate solution. Broadcasting via boats and a "free ocean solution" seemed to be financed by commercials and was tried successfully for some time... opposing and bypassing the severe restrictions on the British island. Remember Radio Caroline and other pop and commercial boat solutions at the time.
This is timely to remember now in our new pirate music and movie situations, I guess...
And if you enjoy pop music from the 60s as well as the DJ lads´ongoing relationship plays - a thrilling mix of bad and good behaviour and much humour - this is smth for you. Enjoy.
Friday, November 21, 2008
WHO WAS HE? Arne Dørumsgaard 1921-2006
Arne Dørumsgaard with a family cat(courtesy: Norsk lydinstitutt, I presume, not me! I took some other photos of him when visiting him in Oct 1991)
Rediscovery of this renaissance man, see new article in the newspaper Dag og Tid (in nynorsk, "new" Norwegian)
Litterært storverk utan like
Av ARVID BRYNE, 20.11.08
I 25 band har Arne Dørumsgaard (1921-2006) gjeve oss kremen av poesi frå Kina, Japan og Korea, samstundes med at han presenterer diktarane og deira tid.
http://www.dagogtid.no/nyhet.cfm?nyhetid=1419
Thursday, November 20, 2008
LITERATURE AS WALLBREAKER Seminar on Dørumsgaard 18 nov 2008 Oslo
Seminar in Litteraturhuset (House of Literature) in Oslo on Arne Dørumsgaard's book series on the old poetry of East.
Program in Norwegian:
ØSTENS POESI OG LITTERATUR SOM MURBREKKER
Åpning ved førsteamanuensis Birgit Helene Jevnaker og redaktør Hans B. Butenschøn
Avduking av "Østens gamle poesi", et bokverk på 25 bind som presenterer kinesisk, japansk og koreansk litteratur og samfunn fra "de eldste tider" til det 20. århundre, gjendiktet og skrevet av Arne Dørumsgaard. Avduking ved Walid al-Kubaisi mfl.
Torbjørn Færøvik foredrag:
Litteraturen – vår døråpner til fremmede kulturer.
Hans B. Butenschøn:
Barbarer – vi?
Kinesisk tradisjonell sang og musikk:
Zeng Xiao Gang: Sang og bordharpe
Turid Alida Solberg: Sang
Arkivleder Jacqueline von Arb, Norsk lydinstitutt:
En musikkbegavelse – flere livsverk
Arne Dørumsgaard leser gjendiktninger (i opptak)
Professor Rune Svarverud:
Nærlesing av Dørumsgaards VÅR: Diktning, gjendiktning og oversettelse
Arrangør: Polyteknisk forening, Kultur og medier og Andresen og Butenschøn AS
http://www.litteraturhuset.no/program/2008/11/litteratursommurbrekker.html
HVEM VAR DØRUMSGAARD? Født i Fredrikstad 1921. Bodde siden 1968 i den nord-italienske landsbyen Marzio der han døde i mars 2006. Hans liv i noen korte og ufullstendige stikkord (sakser fra forlagets presentasjon):
"Dikter, gjendikter, komponist og sanger, levde det meste av sitt liv utenfor Norge, men arbeidet i alle år for norsk kultur. Han begynte sitt arbeid med gjendiktninger av Østens poesi i 1949. Da han på grunn av sviktende helse måtte legge ned pennen forelå tre omfattende bind om Kinas poesi fra 1368-1911 nesten ferdig. Han mottok kunstnergasje fra den norske stat på livstid."
ØSTENS GAMLE POESI NÅ FERDIG: Arne Dørumsgaard utførte et helt livsverk ved sin gjendiktning til norsk av Østens poesi. I 25 bind presenterer han de viktigste diktere i Kina, Japan og Korea gjennom alle tider og med fyldige presentasjoner av dikterne og deres bakgrunn. I Viften av perlemor 3A gjendiktes perler fra det tidlige Ming-dynastiet (år 1369-1500). Nå foreligger snart også bind 3B posthumt. (vi avventer trykkingen hos Valdres trykkeri).
Program in Norwegian:
ØSTENS POESI OG LITTERATUR SOM MURBREKKER
Åpning ved førsteamanuensis Birgit Helene Jevnaker og redaktør Hans B. Butenschøn
Avduking av "Østens gamle poesi", et bokverk på 25 bind som presenterer kinesisk, japansk og koreansk litteratur og samfunn fra "de eldste tider" til det 20. århundre, gjendiktet og skrevet av Arne Dørumsgaard. Avduking ved Walid al-Kubaisi mfl.
Torbjørn Færøvik foredrag:
Litteraturen – vår døråpner til fremmede kulturer.
Hans B. Butenschøn:
Barbarer – vi?
Kinesisk tradisjonell sang og musikk:
Zeng Xiao Gang: Sang og bordharpe
Turid Alida Solberg: Sang
Arkivleder Jacqueline von Arb, Norsk lydinstitutt:
En musikkbegavelse – flere livsverk
Arne Dørumsgaard leser gjendiktninger (i opptak)
Professor Rune Svarverud:
Nærlesing av Dørumsgaards VÅR: Diktning, gjendiktning og oversettelse
Arrangør: Polyteknisk forening, Kultur og medier og Andresen og Butenschøn AS
http://www.litteraturhuset.no/program/2008/11/litteratursommurbrekker.html
HVEM VAR DØRUMSGAARD? Født i Fredrikstad 1921. Bodde siden 1968 i den nord-italienske landsbyen Marzio der han døde i mars 2006. Hans liv i noen korte og ufullstendige stikkord (sakser fra forlagets presentasjon):
"Dikter, gjendikter, komponist og sanger, levde det meste av sitt liv utenfor Norge, men arbeidet i alle år for norsk kultur. Han begynte sitt arbeid med gjendiktninger av Østens poesi i 1949. Da han på grunn av sviktende helse måtte legge ned pennen forelå tre omfattende bind om Kinas poesi fra 1368-1911 nesten ferdig. Han mottok kunstnergasje fra den norske stat på livstid."
ØSTENS GAMLE POESI NÅ FERDIG: Arne Dørumsgaard utførte et helt livsverk ved sin gjendiktning til norsk av Østens poesi. I 25 bind presenterer han de viktigste diktere i Kina, Japan og Korea gjennom alle tider og med fyldige presentasjoner av dikterne og deres bakgrunn. I Viften av perlemor 3A gjendiktes perler fra det tidlige Ming-dynastiet (år 1369-1500). Nå foreligger snart også bind 3B posthumt. (vi avventer trykkingen hos Valdres trykkeri).
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Rediscovery of Innovation (again)...
Innovation Economics... is suggested" as a new field in relation to the current crisis and what is seen as a need to "reinvent" the US, see http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_38/b4100052741280.htm
COMMENTS. I posted this today:
(Birgit Jevnaker Nov 2, 2008 10:01 AM GMT)
This is interesting but appears to be perhaps somewhat lagged in its view? (e.g., focusing mainly on innovation and R&D). There exists an enlarged view, or in fact, many views, on innovation, e.g., as represented by "innovation studies" including business history, sociology, and evolutionary or heterodox economics as well as other social science views. Innovation-oriented economics is part of a broader domain with many fields of knowing, which is fruitful to understand and stimulate valuable innovation.
COMMENTS. I posted this today:
(Birgit Jevnaker Nov 2, 2008 10:01 AM GMT)
This is interesting but appears to be perhaps somewhat lagged in its view? (e.g., focusing mainly on innovation and R&D). There exists an enlarged view, or in fact, many views, on innovation, e.g., as represented by "innovation studies" including business history, sociology, and evolutionary or heterodox economics as well as other social science views. Innovation-oriented economics is part of a broader domain with many fields of knowing, which is fruitful to understand and stimulate valuable innovation.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
100 years' celebration Geirr Tveitt
Jacob Culture Church in Oslo, 19 October 2008: We celebrated the birthday of the Norwegian composer who renamed himself Geirr Tveitt (from Nils Tveit).
A great evening orchestrated by Lars Klevstrand and his companions together with also Gyri Tveitt, Geirr's daughter.
Wonderful music ... incl. excerpts from Hardingatoner and well-known songs such as "Fløytelåt" and "Vi skal ikke sova bort sumarnatta."
Some "refound" pieces were also performed. (to be filled in..)
I appreciated in particular the highly sensitive piano-playing by Håvard Gimse.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Geirr Tveitt's Balder's dreams rediscovered!
BALDUR LOST... OR NOT. The Norwegian composer Geirr Tveitt's main work, Baldur's draumar, is literally rising from the ashes (see below). Until recently, this his major work, performed in the University of Oslo's Aula 24. Feb 1938 and also in 1939 in Paris, has been thought lost in fire ... either as stored in his fairytale house in Hardanger (Bjødnabrakane high over the Hardanger fjord) that tragically burnt down many years ago (July 1970) and/or, according to Tveitt himself, the original "Baldur" was also said to have become destroyed in London bombing during WW2 (the first score was sent to London for review to a complete stranger at Covent Garden who Tveitt had got recommended).
SEVERAL VERSIONS - THE ORIGINAL REDISCOVERED. Yet, it recently turned out that two written down versions both are luckily now refound partly accidentally and partly as research and documentary projects. This is triggering news and attracts some interest because 2008 is the very year Norway is celebrating 100 years since the birth of this composer (1908-1981). See a new biography below!
It is amazing to rediscover art works but perhaps not entirely unusual, as vestiges of creation do seem to turn up again, I wonder.
- Thus, in Oslo, Norway, literaly arising from the ashes... half-burnt note-pages were found some years ago, first identified by a music student. It could be recognized and then recreated as Baldur's dreams (in companion with an NRK radio recording from the original live performance and contributions by two composers, incl. the Russian Aleksej Rybnikov, more on this later perhaps!), i.e., significant parts of Tveitt's revised music score have been found in a box, consisting of vestiges of his works from the ashes of the Hardanger house. The box was luckily preserved via Bergen Museum and then moved to the Norway's National Museum archives and reexplored recently by the musician Håvard Gimse and the conductor Ole Kristian Ruud. Ruud and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra performed a recreated version of Baldur's Draumar in May 2002 in Grieghallen during the Bergen Music Festival, an event I happened to experience.
- In London, the complete 1938 original first score has also late 2007 surprisingly been refound in music archives at Covent Garden (it was sent by Geirr Tveitt to Mr. Bruce Ottley, Covent Garden in 1939).
NEW INTEREST. This, and other interesting stuff is outlined both in a recent film documentary by the team of Sondre Hallvardsson Bjørgum (son of the exceptional Hardanger fiddle player Hallvard Bjørgum, I guess) and shown this autumn on NRK, and also in Reidar Storaas' revised biography of Geirr Tveitt, Mellom triumf og tragedie (between triumph and tragedy), a biography, launched in the new Litteraturhuset in Oslo (24 Sept) as well as Bergen last week. I enjoyed the launch in Oslo with the well-prepared biographer and journalist Reidar Storaas (also a friend of Tveitt), the singer and guitar musician Lars Klevstrand (who has performed with Tveitt's music for decades), and the musicolog (I think) August Albertsen. In additon, the Think (electric car) industrial designer and Hardanger/Norheimsund-born Stig Olav Skeie had prepared and presented contributions to a discography.
AN ARTIST'S LIFE AND WORKS. I will read the new biography with interest (only scanned some parts now), but I appreciate that Storaas' new biography expands on Tveitt's artistic works as well as life, part of that is controversial stuff, I guess. However, the fascinating artist who renamed himself Geirr Tveitt (rather than Nils Tveit) still is an enigma, not least after the recent discoveries!
INGEBJØRG GRESVIG. Although many of Tveitt's artistic and life connections are mentioned including his first wife, herself a musician, I still miss more information about what he learned from and came to do in inspirational collaboration with his first wife, Ingebjørg Gresvig. She can be thought of as "the Andsnes" of those days, because she already was a creative, distinguished, and known master of the grand piano when they married. She had performed e.g. for many audiences and notable families in the cultural Berlin. Personally I really appreciate our lively encounters in the neighborhood of Kalfaret, Bergen when she was still alive. We could also fully observe directly how she memorized the notes and played excellently even at a high age. So my thoughts in this Geirr Tveitt year also go to her, thanks for your inspirations!
SEVERAL VERSIONS - THE ORIGINAL REDISCOVERED. Yet, it recently turned out that two written down versions both are luckily now refound partly accidentally and partly as research and documentary projects. This is triggering news and attracts some interest because 2008 is the very year Norway is celebrating 100 years since the birth of this composer (1908-1981). See a new biography below!
It is amazing to rediscover art works but perhaps not entirely unusual, as vestiges of creation do seem to turn up again, I wonder.
- Thus, in Oslo, Norway, literaly arising from the ashes... half-burnt note-pages were found some years ago, first identified by a music student. It could be recognized and then recreated as Baldur's dreams (in companion with an NRK radio recording from the original live performance and contributions by two composers, incl. the Russian Aleksej Rybnikov, more on this later perhaps!), i.e., significant parts of Tveitt's revised music score have been found in a box, consisting of vestiges of his works from the ashes of the Hardanger house. The box was luckily preserved via Bergen Museum and then moved to the Norway's National Museum archives and reexplored recently by the musician Håvard Gimse and the conductor Ole Kristian Ruud. Ruud and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra performed a recreated version of Baldur's Draumar in May 2002 in Grieghallen during the Bergen Music Festival, an event I happened to experience.
- In London, the complete 1938 original first score has also late 2007 surprisingly been refound in music archives at Covent Garden (it was sent by Geirr Tveitt to Mr. Bruce Ottley, Covent Garden in 1939).
NEW INTEREST. This, and other interesting stuff is outlined both in a recent film documentary by the team of Sondre Hallvardsson Bjørgum (son of the exceptional Hardanger fiddle player Hallvard Bjørgum, I guess) and shown this autumn on NRK, and also in Reidar Storaas' revised biography of Geirr Tveitt, Mellom triumf og tragedie (between triumph and tragedy), a biography, launched in the new Litteraturhuset in Oslo (24 Sept) as well as Bergen last week. I enjoyed the launch in Oslo with the well-prepared biographer and journalist Reidar Storaas (also a friend of Tveitt), the singer and guitar musician Lars Klevstrand (who has performed with Tveitt's music for decades), and the musicolog (I think) August Albertsen. In additon, the Think (electric car) industrial designer and Hardanger/Norheimsund-born Stig Olav Skeie had prepared and presented contributions to a discography.
AN ARTIST'S LIFE AND WORKS. I will read the new biography with interest (only scanned some parts now), but I appreciate that Storaas' new biography expands on Tveitt's artistic works as well as life, part of that is controversial stuff, I guess. However, the fascinating artist who renamed himself Geirr Tveitt (rather than Nils Tveit) still is an enigma, not least after the recent discoveries!
INGEBJØRG GRESVIG. Although many of Tveitt's artistic and life connections are mentioned including his first wife, herself a musician, I still miss more information about what he learned from and came to do in inspirational collaboration with his first wife, Ingebjørg Gresvig. She can be thought of as "the Andsnes" of those days, because she already was a creative, distinguished, and known master of the grand piano when they married. She had performed e.g. for many audiences and notable families in the cultural Berlin. Personally I really appreciate our lively encounters in the neighborhood of Kalfaret, Bergen when she was still alive. We could also fully observe directly how she memorized the notes and played excellently even at a high age. So my thoughts in this Geirr Tveitt year also go to her, thanks for your inspirations!
Monday, February 25, 2008
The discovery of Norway's mountains
Poster: Courtesy to the National Museum, OsloI went to a fascinating exhibition at the National Museum (and its Nasjonalgalleriet) in Oslo on Sunday 24. Feb. The exhibition illuminates how a group of artists and scientists travelled together in the 1820s and inspired each other when "discovering" Norwegian mountain areas.
Interesting pictures by e.g. Finnish-Swedish officer Carpelan and Danish painter Flintoe. See link below.
Notice also a highly detailed and aesthetic map of South-Norway by Carpelan. On the map I found the farm where my mother was born, Haakanes at the Tinnsjøen. Interesting to look into the Cosmoramas as well!
http://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/index.php/content/view/full/5178
At the museum, I also met Bjørkvold, former music professor and enthusiast, and I asked him about the Moseid embroidery, if any solution for exhibiting this had emerged (see other publication on this blog). No news so far on this matter, was the response. Then we both wondered whether the new art museum to be built on Tullinløkka perhaps may give this piece of art a final home? The Four seasons art embroidery by Moseid really deserves to be seen!
Interesting pictures by e.g. Finnish-Swedish officer Carpelan and Danish painter Flintoe. See link below.
Notice also a highly detailed and aesthetic map of South-Norway by Carpelan. On the map I found the farm where my mother was born, Haakanes at the Tinnsjøen. Interesting to look into the Cosmoramas as well!
http://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/index.php/content/view/full/5178
At the museum, I also met Bjørkvold, former music professor and enthusiast, and I asked him about the Moseid embroidery, if any solution for exhibiting this had emerged (see other publication on this blog). No news so far on this matter, was the response. Then we both wondered whether the new art museum to be built on Tullinløkka perhaps may give this piece of art a final home? The Four seasons art embroidery by Moseid really deserves to be seen!
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