The Tenth Avatar by Susan Dunn

Watch this, and then read this poem about laying a child to rest.
God bless the 10th Avatars -- the Listeners and Healers of the world -- NF, GH, FRD and others ...



Listen to Puccini's "Humming Chorus" and then ... a poem about laying a dead child to rest ...



THE
TENTH
AVATAR


In the River City, in a city of one million,
Alone and in precarious balance,

Threatening to submerge,

I held up for viewing and for safety

The most precious thing in the world:

My son – who he was and how he was;

Myself – who I am and how I am; and

My memories of him, his world and mine –

In totality, the universe as known to me,

All suns and stars and planets and galaxies,

And asked someone in all the world

To come and look

Before the end.


And you came, shielding your eyes,

And looked upon this terrible thing I held aloft

Blinding in its austerity –

For the thing was me and all that is mine

Destroyed –

More a beauty on the descending side of horror.


I painted memories into your unseeing eyes

Of the firm, round glows of his dimpled childhood

Of the pear-tasting blues of his peerless eyes,

Of the rose-scented sundazzles of his hair,

Of the trumpeting bronzes of his awards,

And of the slower Doppler shades of

Loved forever,

Lost forever,

Forevergone.

And my mournful song reverberated in the

Kind, wide hollows of your listening

As we gave words to the Humming Chorus.


We rocked upon gentle waves

As you carried us, like the River –

In this city of one million persons

Plus One –

Making slow and sorrowful circles,

Over and over again

With your silk-gloved palm,

In the tear-stained carrera,

Smoothing out the place to lay to rest

-- All piteous and wild –

My world, all planets and stars,

And my fair young son as well.


I laid him there,

In the place of our making,

And smoothed his hair,

And stroked his head,

And kissed the eyelashes

(Of which we have spoken),

One last time,

And gave him, my life, and all I’d known,

Back to the chaos,

Back to the void,

Held only in the caverns of your mind.


Reading notes: You know the Humming Chorus from "Madame Butterfly" ? All they do is hum.

Carrera - the most beautiful marble in the world from the mountains of Italy
River City aka San Antonio, population one million

Opera, goodreads, and other goodies

Training and certifying coaches. Now accepting a limited number of new coaching clients.

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Rome is, indeed, a marvelous city. That handsome young man on the right, there at the Pantheon, sold me tickets to hear a concert of favorite arias from operas, one of highlights of my trip. There at the Pantheon.

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Goodreads is a great family site. I got on it because my granddaughter asked me to. Family-friendly sites are so important for the kids today.

As to this book, "Who's Afraid of Opera?" I'm not surprised they don't have the book cover. I'm probably the only person who's read it, I don't know.

Well, I love opera and found it very enjoyable. Perfect what I call "airport fiction." And, BTW, Lufthansa has an opera station on their earphones. Another reason to live in Europe ...

So here are some great quotes from this book, Who's Afraid of Opera, by Michael Walsh - you'll recognize his name as music critic for TIME magazine.

BTW, I took the what opera would you be quiz on facebook and I'd be "The Magic Flute." That's Mozart, and I can't think of a "nicer" opera to "be." This is the best starter-opera, in fact it was mine, and wonderful for kids as well as adults. While I prefer Verdi and Puccini, operas with the dynomite arias (like "Othello" and "Madama Butterfly"), what's not to like about that magical magid flute opera?

OK, ready? Here we go --

1. The opera is like a husband with a foreign title: expensive to support, hard to understand, and therefore a supreme social challenge. (Cleveland Armory)


2. I have always believed that opera is a planet where the muses work together, join hands and celebrate all the arts. (Franco Zeffirelli)


3. To write an opera demands a range of skills that are not limited simply to the musical. The opera composer must also be a judge of literary merit, able to work collegially with a partner (the librettist); a student of the theater, knowing eexactly what effects are possible on stage, and an impresario, adept in the ways of money-raising and patronage. [It is no wonder these men were giants - Wagner, Verdi, Puccini, Rossini]


4. Words were of paramount important to both Verdi and Wagner.


5. As proud as Boito (the librettist) might have been about his own contributions, though, the sense of his letter ... makes it clear that his words are meant to serve the composer, who, in turn, is serving the dramatic situation .... Which in the end, is what opera is all about.


6. The essential condition of opera is .... that it have something to say to us about the way we live our livews, and the social and moral circumstances in which we find ourselves.


7. THERE IS NOT A SINGLE OPERA WRITTEN BY A WOMAN.


8. It has been said that more has been written about Wagner than about anyone else with the exception of Napoleon Bonaparte and Jesus Christ; that's how important Wagner was, and is.


9. [In the Rhinegold and the Ring] Wagner created a metaphor for society and social disintegration that is even more potent today than it was a century ago.


10. Mozart admired Papa Haydn above all composers.


11. For it is the composer who gives moral shape and meaning to the story through his marvelous music.


12. Otello (Verdi) is, indeed, an opera to die for.

Paul Potts Criticized by Herb Breslin, Pavarotti's Former Manager

Hollywood Hookup : Paul Potts Criticized by Pavarotti's Former Manager - Take a Hike Breslin!

Paul Potts is such an inspiration, singing Nessun Dorma on Britain's Got Talent and winning a 100 pound contract from the growly Simon. A phone salesman, 36 years old who dreamed of one day being able to do what he was meant to do. Bullied as a youth. An incredible voice. He takes on Pavarotti's signature song. He has never had a voice lesson. He is going to use some of the money to pay off massive medical debts from an illness.

Is there something about this story you don't 'get'?

And here comes Pavarotti's former manager, Herb Breslin said (according to the above article):
“Nobody can sing Nessun Dorma and really do it justice unless with it, they have five to 10 years of experience. If they want to have a totally inexperienced, untrained voice sing Nessun Dorma and the audience is going to fall off its feet, it’s ridiculous. But that’s the way things are in the modern age.”

Come on, Mr. Breslin. Even Ask Jeeves has changed!

ThinkFashion writer says it best: "What [Breslin] doesn't realize is that the phenomenal thing about Mr. Potts is not his perfect voice (although he does have a perfect voice in my opinion) - it's his incredible story, his humble attitude and his raw talent for touching people's hearts when he sings."

Now if that isn't about emotional intelligence I don't know what is. Reality-testing ... flexiblity ... the most marvelous things in this world are not logical and defy rational explanation. You also have to 'get' what's going on. There's no analogy I can give that doesn't sound wrong, but I'll forge ahead ... this is saying that it's amazing Dolly Parton is a star when she's so short, or that the only reason Edith Piaf was a superstar was because she could sing ... or going to MacDonald's and complaining about the service.

Or that thinking we the people, when so overwhelmed with this man's story are interested in whether he can hit 9 high Cs like Pavarotti. ThinkFashion says "some people can't enjoy other people's happiness" and that's what happens when you don't get on the bandwagon and for the wrong reasons.

I love this man. I was overwhelmed at his COURAGE. How would you like to walk out there and tell Simon Cowell you're doing to "sing opera"? Nobody can sing opera. Didn't he know that? I was afraid for him. There's nothing worse than opera when it's not done right, and you certainly can't do it without formal training. It's like how can you mess up doing the Texas two-step but for heaven's sake don't get out there and try the Tango until you've been doing it, and with that partner, for 5 years.

Watch Paul Potts here and get out your tissues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA .

Vincero! Vincero! Vincero!

And incidentally, this man has already introduced a host of people to opera and Puccini. I've been checking the blogs and keep reading "I'd never heard opera before ..." Check out our Club Vivo Per Lei site. This is the kind of joyous total situation we can never get enough of.

BTW, can I just say Puccini rocks! :-)

Nessun Dorma King Bullied as a Child

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE - BUSINESS PROGRAMS, BULLYING AND MOBBING, INDIVIDUAL COACHING, INTERNET COURSES, EBOOKS, Club Vivo Per Lei - I Live for Music

Paul Potts, the World's Favorite Opera Singer, says he was bullied as a child, and sought escape in music.

Deep in debt after years of illness, he has had no formal training, but that his voice was always his best friend.



Kudos to Puccini, composer of "Nessun Dorma" and to his librettists. To learn more about opera, join CLUB VIVO PER LEI. Read about the benefits of music.

For bullying coaching, and business programs on bullying and mobbing, mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc .

Paul Potts sings Nessun Dorma and the Crowd goes wild

It's sweeping the Internet -- and what a tribute to the human spirit. Paul Potts, a cell phone salesman from South Wales, bring the audience to their feet in less than a minute, singing "Nessun Dorma," the signature Puccini aria of no less than Luciano Pavarotti.

This crowd (how many do you think have heard opera before? they call this aria "a difficult song") cannot be fooled. A beautiful voice and spirit, and the soul of Puccini ...

Enjoy!

Who Are You Grateful To This Thanksgiving?

URL: http://www.susandunn.cc/
Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc

WHO ARE YOU GRATEFUL TO?
Acknowledging the Team

This article is for you if you’re a behind-the-scenes kind of person: the administrative assistant who gets the presentation ready for the guys in marketing but doesn’t get to go to the meeting; the PR pro who writes all the CEO’s speeches and answers all the complain letters; the at-home mother who makes sure the concert pianist practices; the deputy chief whose job description is doing all the things the chief doesn’t like to do or can’t do; or the paralegal who prepares all the pleadings, knows all the codes, and does all the licking and stamping.

This article is also for you if benefit from the work of one of those people.

Temistocle Solear, Antonio Ghislanzoni, Henri Meilhac, Jules Barbier, Michael Carre, Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica, Renato Semoni, and Nicola Haym all know what this is like.
Who on earth are these people?

Well, even if you’re not an opera fan, I bet you’ve heard of the composers Verdi, Bizet, Mozart, Strauss, Gounod, Handel, Donizetti and Puccini. And I’m sure you’ve heard of some of their operas: Aida, Carmen, Cosi fan Tutte, Madama Butterfly, Faust and Don Giovanni, for instance.

Did you know that these composers wrote the music for their operas, but not the lyrics? Solear, Ghislanzoni and the other individuals in the list are what’s called “librettists.” It is they who wrote the words (the libretto) the opera singers sing, without which you would be listening to a symphony, not an opera. And we never hear their names! In most cases, the words were written first, and then the composers whose names we know so well, wrote the music.

Like Gilbert and Sullivan, they worked together in pairs. The inimitable Richard Wagner was the only one to compose all his own operas entirely by himself, creating both music and lyrics, which may account for why they are so powerful, so Wagnerian. This is quite a feat because composing music and writing words require different parts of the brain.

Sometimes the composer and librettist met in person, while other times they worked via correspondence. Strauss worked exclusively with one librettist, after writing his own lyrics for his first opera and finding out he wasn’t good at it, but most other composers switched around, finding the right librettist for the job, or one who was available. It’s not unlike the way many of us work these days, long-distance and by contract.

What an incredible collaboration an opera is. It takes costume and set designers as well, because an opera is as much visual as it is auditory, and it is what makes Grand Opera, grand. In the Santa Fe opera’s production of “Turnadot,” when the moon appeared, she iwas personified and costumed in a magnificence that seemed to dominate the stage for half an hour. Another opera I hope to see one day is Verdi’s “Aida,” I mean Verdi and Ghislanzoni’s “Aida,” on stage at the Bath of Caracalla in Rome. The Triumphal March of Rhadames features live elephants and horses on stage. Now that’s entertainment!

What we don’t see at an opera is the orchestra, a crucial element. They’re listed in the program, of course, and given their bows at the curtain call, but we only hear them, seated below in the orchestra pit.

Many elements go together to produce the opera as see that bears the name of one man only.
Take “Turnadot” for instance. It was librettist Semoni who gave Puccini the suggestion for the opera in the first place, telling him about Turandotte, a play written by Gozzi, based on a fable from the Arabian Nights.

Puccini had been searching for two years for a suitable plot for an opera, and at the age of 61, began “Turandot,” instructing his librettists, Adami and Semoni, to “pour great pathos into the drama.” Puccini, of course, is know for the most beautiful melodies in opera. He was also know for being extremely demanding, requiring endless rewrites from his librettists.

From his point of view, however, the librettists were difficult. We can read his letters begging them to do their work. Semoni was in charge of Act III, and Puccini’s letters beg, “The third! The third! The third!”

At one point, he confessed to a friend “Music disgusts me,” as he evidently had periods of self-doubt and composer’s block. Toscanini paid him a visit and gave him the encouragement to keep going. Every team has their Toscanini; or should.

Puccini was justified in urging completion of the opera as he died before the completion of the third act. The collaboration continued, as Toscanini found a composer named Franco Alfano, whose name is rarely mentioned, to complete it. The world premier took place on April 25th, 1926, the work of one guiding genius and many hands, hearts, and minds.

It isn’t that teamwork and collaboration is new, it’s that it’s newly being recognized. Most of us realize we couldn’t accomplish anything alone, while those behind the scenes who work long and willing hours, long for some recognition. “Appreciation,” after all, top the list when employees talk about what they want at their job. It’s number one so consistently, it’s a wonder it isn’t heeded more.

Richard Montuori, town manager of Bellica, Massachusetts, knows and appreciates his team. I love [my] job, he said in a newspaper interview. “Every day is different and presents new challenges. Finances are a daily and yearly challenge, but no one person ever accomplishes anything alone. We have excellent department heads and town boards that help keep the town moving in the right direction.”

Isn’t it nice to hear someone publicly acclaim the team that makes them shine? I hope your boss or manager does this for you, and that if you’re the boss or manager, you appreciate and acknowledge and sing the unsung heroes in your midst.

But how do you praise everyone? There are always so many.

Here’s a leadership trick I learned from a pro. At the culmination of a fundraising banquet engineered by many, and funded by many more, the director of the benefited-agency rose and thanked everyone who helped make it possible. Then he added, looking around the room, “and I’d especially like to thank someone – you know who you are – who made this happen.”
I thought it was me! So did many other people, I’m sure, and that was what the director had in mind, he told me later when I asked him whom he had in mind, because his glance around the room was professionally ambivalent.

It works. And it’s always, always true.

Susan Dunn, MA, The EQ Coach, http://www.susandunn.cc/. Providing coaching, Internet courses and ebooks around emotional intelligence for your personal and professional success. I train and certify EQ coaches internationally. Email for info on this fast, affordable, comprehensive, no-residency program. Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for free EQ ezine.

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