A hint of Spring!

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Sun spot on a wall in winter

OK at the Bird Corral

Spectacular opera this Saturday!

From Gisela Moffit:

Hi, the long-anticipated new production of Donizetti's "Maria Stuarda" is finally coming.  We will see it on Saturday, Jan. 17 at 12:55 at Celebration Cinema.  It is 3 1/2 hours long with one intermission.  The star-studded cast includes Joyce DiDonato as Mary, Queen of Scots, Elza van den Heever as Queen Elizabeth I, and their object of desire, Earl of Leicester (Matthew Polenzani).  The stage director is David McVicar and the conductor Maurizio Benini.

 

The reviews have been excellent.  New York Times music critic, Anthony Tommasini, wrote after the opening night (New Year's Eve) that Joyce DiDonato "is simply magnificent, singing with plush richness and aching beauty."  Elza von den Heeven is a 33-year old soprano from South Africa who has already gained international fame.  She is "a vocally burnished and emotionally tempestuous Elizabeth.  ... She turns flights of coloratura passagework into bursts of jealousy and defiance."  We saw Matthew Polenzani as Nemorino in "Elisir d'Amore".  Here he plays Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester who is caught in a love triangle between him and the two queens.  Tommasini writes that he "brings a melting sound and appealing vulnerability to the role of the hapless Robert Dudley." 

I hope you can come and be part of another gorgeous musical and theatrical experience.  Gisela=

The Emancipation Proclamation

January 1, 2013

Today is the sesquicentennial of the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation:

By the President of the United States of America:

A Proclamation.

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."

Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.

By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

Yet, even now there is bitter hatred in this country, in this state, in central Michigan among the spindle-twisted, synaptic-deficient bigots for those with more melanin than they possess.

 We see this reflected in the pathetic meanderings of the Republicans in the federal House of Representatives as they drive us over the fiscal cliff: anything to stop the progress of a twice-elected president who happens to be left-handed. We must remember today that our very own Dave Camp was the conductor of the silly symphony that carved this cliff out of whole cloth.

 Happy New Year.