An opera on Il Postino

I have always loved the 1994 film Il Postino, about the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, in exile (fictionally) on an Italian island. The film romantically ducks most of the struggles of the pre-Pinochet years (Neruda died only a few days after Pinochet seized power). It's a fantasy, a little like The Tempest, a film about forgiveness and metaphor on an island remote from political intrigue. It deals in words and desire, not least the desire of the postman-figure, a naif who learns the power of metaphor. It's a simple plot, really, a male-bonding movie with a twist -- here the Italian postman longs for the attention of the about-to-win-a-Nobel Prize Chilean poet; he loves, he loses, he finds love again. . .

Tonight we watched a Great Performances show we taped off NPR of an opera, Il Postino, based on the film. A Mexican composer, Daniel Catan, who died this past year, wrote the opera for Placido Domingo -- one of the first serious operas in Spanish to be performed by a major US opera company (LA, in this case). Catan's lush music is like Puccini, accessible, emotional, through-composed but with big aria moments -- largely, the poems of Neruda and the poems that he inspires from the postman. The postman's love-interest, Beatrice (yes, Beatrice, and Dante and D'Annunzio are both cited as sources for this improbably literary romance) gets some great tunes, too. But mostly, it's a love-duet between Neruda and the Postman -- when do two tenors ever get to sing like that together?

It was played without intermission -- maybe two or more hours. We sat and watched without a break. It was beautiful. Now I want to reread the book: Ardiente paciencia by Antonio Skármeta. 

Daniel Catan died less than a year after the opera was premiered. Massimo Troisi, who played Neruda in the film, died just days after shooting the film. Let's hope Placido Domingo is spared. Here he is as Neruda.


Some scenes from the opera are on YouTube.

Wandering in Romantic Literature and Painting

As I was looking at Caspar David Friedrich's Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog in one of the earlier posts on this blog, the sort of romantic wandering depicted in the painting really reminded me of some of the poetry we had read by Wordsworth. To me, the vastness of the landscape that Friedrich depicts, very mysterious and unknown, and the wanderer's relationship to this nature is reminiscent of the kind of nurturing, almost religious relationship that Wordsworth talks about in his Prelude. Friedrich himself was a deeply religious man as well as a Romantic, and so in his paintings he often references the glory of God through his depiction of landscapes—which I think is definitely apparent in the mystery and vastness of the world that he presents in this painting. The idea of the wanderer is also something that Wordsworth touches on in “Tintern Abbey”, which has that sort of “in between” and wandering feel in both the speaker’s state of mind as well as in the language. And yet, this wandering leads the speaker to important insights about nature, life and memory, which could be reflected in the Friedrich painting: while we cannot see the wanderer’s face, his head appears to be downturned as he surveys the landscape, standing on the precipice of the cliff, most likely contemplating the beauty and magnificence the scene before him and noting his own smallness in the face of it all. This idea of the wanderer, as displayed by Friedrich and Wordsworth, is something that would be carried throughout Victorian art and culture for the next century, with works such as William Morris’s Earthly Paradise, in which a group of wanderers who have been expelled from their war-torn city act as the main speakers, touching on this feeling of “in between” that permeated British society at this time.

The origins of "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison"

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison" is a poem written in a very personal manner, where Coleridge describes a time he went walking through the countryside with his friends, but could only walk so far because of a minor foot injury he had at the time. I was interested in looking into the background of this poem after professor Jones told us the cause of Coleridge's injured foot (apparently, his wife had accidentally spilled boiling milk onto it) because of its very personal nature to see if I could find out a little bit more about the context in which it was written. Apparently, Coleridge and his wife, Sara Fricker, had been spending a lot of time with some of Coleridge's friends (including the Wordsworths) during the summer of 1797. At the time this particular poem was written, they were at Thomas Poole's home at Nether Stowey, in the beautiful countryside, where Coleridge spent much time in nature and in a little cottage writing poetry. He and his wife had been going through a troubling time in their relationship- Sara had had a miscarriage during this summer. This poem was written under a particular lime tree that Coleridge had particularly favored in a note to Poole.

It seems then, in this light, like Coleridge was feeling similarly loving and (perhaps this is a bit too strong of a word, but) resentful towards both his wife and the lime-tree. Regardless of whether or not he actually felt resentment towards his wife regarding the miscarriage, both the lime-tree and his wife were living things he loved and found beautiful- but also imprisoned him. Interestingly enough, while this poem was meant to be dedicated to the general group of friends with whom he had been spending time that summer, including his wife, her name was left out of the dedication upon publication. It is certainly a stretch to say that the poem represents disdain or resentment that Coleridge might have felt towards his wife. However, I think its fascinating to do a little detective work and figure out the state of mind that an artist is in when he creates his art; to broaden perspective while reading poetry.

To Autumn, a painting

I do not understand quite how the poem "To Autumn" and this painting based off of the poem are related. I see no images from the poem, which I understand may be too literal of an interpretation for the artist. However, I also do not see any of the sentiments in the poem. I see only a nice painting of some trees by a lake with a pretty background. I don't see the growth or the sweetness from the first stanza. I suppose I can see a little bit of the calmness and waiting patiently of the second stanza, but that is not what the poem's focus is. I don't see the maturity in the last stanza. And, furthermore, I don't see the cyclical nature of the poem, which I suppose may be hard to paint. Nonetheless, this painting is not what I expected when searching for a painting based on this poem. I feel like it doesn't encapsulate anything the poem is trying to convey, nor does it propose similar sentiments.

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog - Friedrich

I think this painting is one of the best embodiments of the Romantic period there is. It is "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog" by Friedrich. It's depiction of a man standing awestruck and pensive, staring at the natural scene in front of him is symbolic of the whole movement. During this time period nature was deemed a type of omnipotent, uncontrollable might to whose might we must acquiesce. He seems to be in love with the beauty of the scene as he stands high atop a peak and look out and down at the world. However, there is still a sense of power and majesty that the world has that he both revere and fear.

I think his lack of movement in contrast with the constant movement of the clouds and fog plays a role in his feeling diminished by everything he is seeing. To contrast the movement as well, there are massive mountains on the horizon that even from this perspective seem enormous. The ruggedness of the terrain also makes the scene even more foreboding. However, one still gets a sense of conquering nature; he made it to the top of this mountain. But, I think that while he "conquered" this mountain he has a view of just how impressive the rest of the world is.

Kubla Khan

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Khan is the product of a an opium-fueled dream, in which Coleridge imagines what life would be like if nature were our only ruler. Coleridge uses "Kubla Khan" to refer to a "stately pleasure-dome" which exists in Xanadu, China. Kubla Khan is a play on "Kublai Khan," who was an emperor of the Mongolian Empire and founder of the Yuan Dynasty. By comparing this pleasure-dome to an almighty emperor of the past, Coleridge immediately establishes its legitimacy. Much like an emperor issuing edicts, the pleasure-dome "decree(ed)/ Where ALPH, the sacred river, ran." The sacred river which runs into the sea can be viewed as the blood from which the landscape derives its life source, allowing it to produce forests, hills, and miles of fertile ground. Coleridge does more than just view nature in a positive light though, and acknowledges that there is a dark side. This dark side can be found in the deep caverns and "caves of ice." The mention of caverns and icy caves brings to mind Dante's Inferno. As Dante and Virgil travel deeper and deeper into the rings of Hell, they eventually reach the center, where Satan resides frozen in ice. Satan has three faces, one of which is described as "like those who come from where the Nile, descending, flows." It seems as though Coleridge was interested in showing contrasts in nature - the beautiful, sublime side, in which a lovely river flows through, and the cold, morally corrupt side that the river of life can lead you to. In Kubla Khan, Coleridge demonstrates that even nature in all of its glory has a much darker side, and can be just as unforgiving as a vicious ruler.

The Prelude and Nature as Continuity

It seems quite fitting that we conclude this semester with Wordsworth’s The Prelude, a piece that Wordsworth worked and reworked for the last forty-five years of his life and yet never completed (although of course it is by no means fragmented in its posthumous publication). Written in response from the urge of Coleridge, the poem explores so much of what this course has grappled with: what does it mean to be a poet? How do poet’s see and interact with the world in different ways than us? And what is the role of nature to the poet?

In engaging these broader questions I was struck most significantly by the eleventh book of The Prelude, in which the subject of nature and childhood are explored as the way in which we connect to our pasts. For Wordsworth, there exist certain “spots of time” in a poet’s life that stand out as “renovating Virtue”. It is in these moments, the moments that are often inextricably tied to nature that the poet is born. It is these memories that the poet’s personality and perspective is formed. So it is nature itself that constructs who we are. Nature is the continuity between what we are now, and what we once were as a “thoughtless youth”. This notion of nature as the continuity of our lives seems central to romanticism at large, and it makes sense that we would end on such a powerful and consolidating note. At the same time, I wonder what it would’ve been like to start with Wordsworth, and to have framed the entire course through the continuity of nature; I actually don’t know how different it would be, since we see nature as a means of communication with the past and present in so many of the romantic writers we encountered.