RIP Edana & Glen, long live the Rainbow Chorus!

 

It's 5am on Saturday morning, I just woke up, and I'm probably still slightly drunk, and the cats are delighted to see me. My cats love it when I wake up early and allow them into the bedroom for cuddles (I have a strict no-cats policy during deep sleep).

Unfortunately, while the cats are licking my face and demanding cuddles, the Facebook updates on my phone was heartbreaking news, 

Edana’s partner, Heather, and all the family are so sorry to have to tell you of Edana’s untimely death, late on Wednesday night, here in her beloved Liguria. Edana asked us to respect her privacy in dealing with her devastating cancer diagnosis, so we know that this will be a shock to many of you. Edana would have wanted you to remember her as we all do: the passionate, vivacious woman of style, love, joy, song, curiosity and furious politics. For those in Italy, the funeral will be held in Pugliola tomorrow, Saturday 16th July at 11am, at La Chiesa Parrocchiale di Santa Lucia in Pugliola, and afterwards at the Narbostro cemetery. 

Two weeks have now passed, and I still feel a sense of mourning for Edana and another lost connection to Brighton's Rainbow Chorus, an LGBTQIA+  choir still going strongly.

Although I didn't know that Edana well, I felt a strong affinity to her. We had been Facebook friends for over 15 years, and we occasionally chatted, but in 2010 I moved from Brighton to Amsterdam, and I hadn't seen Edana in person for a very long time.

I knew Edana through choir, Brighton Rainbow Chorus, both Edana and I joined when the choir was relatively small (rehearsals with 5-10 people) and overtime it grew until the typical rehearsal was 20-30. 

I was fortunate I first got know Edana as a fun-loving, friendly, vivacious lesbian with a great jazz voice. She had such a beautiful singing voice. It was only quite a lot later that I learnt she was from a "famous family" (two of her brothers are famous movie directors/producers?).

Her sister is also a famous Anglican and OBE, she also gave this great interview to Church Times:

Loretta Minghella became the First Church Estates Commissioner in November 2017, succeeding Sir Andreas Whittam Smith.
Before arriving at Church House, she was chief executive of Christian Aid for seven and a half years, and before that, she headed up the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, a job she says got “very rocky indeed” when the 2008 financial crisis hit.
Our Editor Paul Handley spoke to Loretta Minghella about how her experience prepared her for this latest role, and how the Commissioners are pressuring companies to improve their record on climate change and executive pay, among other things.
https://soundcloud.com/user-632063010/loretta-minghella-first-church-estates-commissioner-ep-51  

I vividly remember listening to this about 5 years ago and being soo impressed with Loretta, plus a brilliant interview with Paul Handley.

I was looking forward to meeting Edana again and telling her about my progress with singing (I've been having lessons for about 5 years now, which has been worth every penny i.e. I love singing. I also wanted to tell Edana about my admiration for her sister.

The last time I saw Edana perform was a memorable occasion in the upper room The Grand Central, Brighton (the closest pub in Brighton Station); not a very grand venue but it was a lot of fun.

It was an off-beat cabaret, foreshadowing the upcoming era of Tory austerity portraited in a perverse SM style. I believe Edwina both wrote and performed all the music, so was not prancing around in SM gear. My only disappointment is that I did get to hear Edwina sing on that occasion.

Over the last two weeks, I've also been thinking about Glenn: a very accomplished musician and quite often the accompanists (piano) for the Rainbow Chorus. Glenn passed away a few of years ago - equally heartbreaking.

I watched Glen perform on many occasions in the UK and in Greece. He was a sensitive accompanist and wonderful pianist with a particular passion for Rachmaninov.

A little over nine years ago, Glen and I met through our mutual friend the composer Matthew Pollard. Matt and I were collaborating on a project that was to become This Concert Will Fall In Love With You — later recorded with additional material as the CD Clameur and Glen was Matt’s first choice to play piano. Matt and Glen had were old friends, performing together in the Tacet Ensemble and The Rainbow Chorus for example.

https://peterkenny.co.uk/tag/glen-capra/

 
RIP Edana and Glenn and long live the Rainbow Chorus!

I love Brighton

This is one of my favourite photo's of 2009... Brunswick Square in the sunshine, the bright red colours, Myriam looking radiant and my boyfriend's new hair cut which make's me think of the 80s and the Thompson Twins:

In 1977, the original Thompson Twins line-up consisted of Tom Bailey (born 18 January 1954, Halifax, Yorkshire[3]) on bass and vocals, Pete Dodd on guitar and vocals, John Roog on guitar, and Jon Podgorski (known as "Pod") on drums.[4] Dodd and Roog first met when they were both 13 years old.

Arriving in London with very little money, they lived as squatters in Lillieshall Road, London. Future Thompson Twins member Alannah Currie lived in another squat in the same street — which is how she met Bailey. It was in this ramshackle and run-down house that they found an illegal way of "borrowing" electricity from the house next door. Bailey described themselves (laughingly) as "spongers" (meaning parasites) back then, as they were living on very little and scavenging everything they could lay their hands on. He even said that the only instruments they had were bought, or had been "stolen or borrowed". Dodd managed to get a council flat not far away. Their roadie at that time was John Hade, who lived in the same house, and who later became their manager...

At the end of 1983, a new single, "Hold Me Now", was released. The song was an international chart success, peaking at #3 in the US in the spring of 1984, becoming their biggest American hit,[7] and also hitting #4 in their native UK where it became the band's biggest seller earning a gold disc.[11] Further hit singles followed in 1984 with two UK Top 3 hits; "Doctor! Doctor!" and "You Take Me Up" (which reached #2, their highest UK chart placing,[2] and earned a silver disc).[12] Further singles included a new version of the album track "Sister of Mercy", and "The Gap" (though this was not released in the UK). The corresponding album, Into the Gap, was one of the biggest sellers of 1984, selling five million copies worldwide and topping the UK Albums Chart.[2] The band also embarked on a world tour in support of the album.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thompson_Twins

radiant |ˈrādēənt|adjective1 sending out light; shining or glowing brightly : a bird with radiant green and red plumage. See note at bright .• (of a person or their expression) clearly emanating great joy, love, or health : she gave him a radiant smile.• (of an emotion or quality) emanating powerfully from someone or something; very intense or conspicuous : he praised her radiant self-confidence.2 [ attrib. ] (of heat) transmitted by radiation, rather than conduction or convection.• (of an appliance) designed to emit such energy, esp. for cooking or heating.

Orpheus in the Underworld

I love opera / classical singing but am a bit intimidated by the £70+ticket prices and the posh-atmosphere of the opera world.

The background to this operatta is quite interesting in itself

The work, first performed in 1858, is said to be the first classical full-length operetta.^[1][2] Offenbach's earlier operettas were small-scale one-act works, since the law in France did not allow certain genres of full-length works. Orpheus was not only longer, but more musically adventurous than Offenbach's earlier pieces ..

The operetta is an irreverent parody and scathing satire on Gluck and his Orfeo ed Euridice and culminated in the risqué galop infernal (often copied, widely used as the background music for the Can-can dance, and erroneously called "Can-can") that shocked some in the audience at the premiere. Other targets of satire, as would become typical in Offenbach's burlesques, are the stilted performances of classical drama at the Comédie Française and the scandals in society and politics of the Second French Empire ...

The piece was not immediately a hit, but critics' condemnation of the travesty, particularly that ofJules Janin, who called it a "profanation of holy and glorious antiquity," only provided vital publicity, serving to heighten the public's curiosity to see the piece

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus_in_the_Underworld

Nadjib who knows greek mytholodgy very well, while really liking the character of "public opinion" did feel that something of the original love story of Orpheus was lost:

The Greeks of the Classical age venerated the legendary figure of Orpheus as chief among poets and musicians, and the perfector of the lyre invented by Hermes. Poets like Simonides of Ceos said that, with his music and singing, he could charm birds, fish and wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance,^[4] and even divert the course of rivers. He was one of the handful of Greek heroes^[5] to visit the Underworld and return; even in Hades his song and lyre did not lose their power.

The most famous story in which Orpheus figures is that of his wife Eurydice (also known as Agriope). While fleeing fromAristaeus (son of Apollo), Eurydice ran into a nest of snakes which bit her fatally on her heel. Distraught, Orpheus played such sad songs and sang so mournfully that all the nymphs and gods wept. On their advice, Orpheus traveled to theunderworld and by his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone (he was the only person ever to do so), who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on one condition: he should walk in front of her and not look back until they both had reached the upper world. He set off with Eurydice following and in his anxiety as soon as he reached the upper world he turned to look at her, forgetting that both needed to be in the upper world, and she vanished for the second time, but now forever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus

I understand Nadjib's point, the following synopsis shows that this Wondering Ministrals production (while holding true to Offenbach's work) is quite distinct from the original Greek myth:

A slightly different version of this classic romp with the ancient gods..

Orpheus and Eurydice have been married for years-and they just can’t stand each other! They have both been “playing the field” and Eurydice is now having an affair with a shepherd. What she doesn’t know is that her shepherd is non other than that little devil Pluto, God of the Underworld, and does he have plans for her !

When Pluto abducts Eurydice and whisks her off to Hades, Orpheus is ecstatic - but he bows to pressure from Public Opinion to go and plead with Jupiter, Father of the Gods, for her release. Those naughty little Gods just can’t help interfering in the daily lives of us mere mortals.

Anyway all is not well up on Mount Olympus - the Gods are bored and fed up with a diet of nectar and ambrosia. When they get the opportunity to descend to Hell for the party of a lifetime they’re off like a shot.

The world-famous operetta was written in 1858 with music by Jacques Offenbach. Intended as a satire of the gods of Greek and Roman antiquity, it caused outrage when first presented as French audiences were shocked to see figures from Classical Antiquity lampooned this way! 2009 audiences, however, would be hard-pressed to be shocked about such a thing.

The WMs are delighted to present "Orpheus in the Underworld" and are sure that you will enjoy listening to Offenbach’s well known music performed by an enthusiastic and talented cast.

http://www.thewms.biz/

The Wondering Minstrals were amazing - a real Brighton/Sussex jewel!

I am looking forward to their concerts next year :)

The cast were quite fantastic - here are a few of my highlights:

JUPITER, father of the gods (Mike Mackenzie) great acting and singing. He carried the father of mount Olympus role off really well and was like a modern politician when it came to covering up his own indiscretion.

JUNO, his wife (Karen Hollamby) – the long suffering wife of Jupiter and with that many children you understand why

DIANA, goddess of hunting (Sally Wilson) - fantastic voice and 60s mod-style outfit

MERCURY, messenger of the gods (Toby Willis) – great poise – his movement and costume were great – I kept think of the Correggio painting in the National Gallery (Venus with Mercury and Cupid - 'The School of Love') but that could have been the wings ;-)

VENUS, goddess of love (Vicky Rodgers) – I loved her Marilyn Monroe outfit – she really did look like the modern "goddess of love"

CUPID, Venus's son - Ciru James – a powerful voice with an impish gleam in the eye

ARISTEUS, a shepherd / PLUTO, ruler of the underworld - Jonathan Nulty - like Jupiter, this role required poise confidence and bravado + a damn fine singing voice

JOHN STYX, Pluto's factotum - Bob Hinton - not a very charismatic role to play but played well

ORPHEUS, a music teacher - Tony Adams - great voice, a good amount of style

EURYDICE, his wife - Sue Fleet - she sung quite beautifully and played her role superbly – possibly the star of the show

PUBLIC OPINION - Sam Brennan – a classic English matron role, crisp, precise and slightly strict – beautifully sung.

The Brighton Pavilion election: Green vs Tories

The Tory party, have chosen a candidate who will be well received in Brighton. Charlotte is an attractive and stylish business lady, specialising in therapy over the internet:

• Explain your business to my Mum.

"An anonymous place where you can express what's on your mind, gain support and talk to others, to make your life happier."

• How do you make money?

"Providing co-branded support networks to organisations that wish to offer safe, anonymous and 24/7 facilitated support to their customers or employees; targets include corporate social responsibility programmes of corporates, charities, professional organisations etc - any organisations that offers support."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2008/jul/30/elevatorpitchbigwhitewallgi

There is no question that Charlotte represents the "nice-face" of the modern conservative party.

However the reality is that if elect she will be marginalised / ignored / "whipped into line", by a not-so-nice Tory party leadership. Even in Brighton she struggled to get elected as candidate despite her obvious appeal to the local electorate.

The current Tory party is more typically represented by the elitism, secret clubs and the worse excesses of extreme privilege... I'm sure Boris Johnson, George Osbourne and David Cameron were all exceptionally able academically and did very well in the cosy world of top public schools (Eton, Marlborough, ..), then excelling at Oxford in a world of privilege they perceived as their hard earned right.

I went to Oxford (89-92) and was an exact contemporary of David Hannah, who was then president of the Oxford University Conservative Association. David Hannah is now an MEP and has appeared regularly on Fox news, attacking both Obama'a health care reforms and the NHS:

Conservative US Republicans opposed to the President's healthcare plans have used the NHS as an example of “socialised” medicine...

Mr Hannan is a popular figure among grassroots Tories because of his strong right-wing views. His Telegraph.co.uk blog and his public harangue of Gordon Brown in the European Parliament earlier this year also made him a political celebrity in the US.

However, his agenda is at odds with the modernising message of Mr Cameron, who has repeatedly promised that the NHS would be the top priority of a Conservative Government.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/david-cameron/6025818/David-Cameron-backs-NHS-amid-United-States-healthcare-row.html

There is a clear demand in the Tory party for more private health care. In my mind, this can only lead to great inequality and injustice as is so clearly seen in our education system which does almost as much to divide a nation as it does to educate it.

So the nation is about to elect a new Tory government, dominated by Oxford educated, public-school boys who have a narrow view of the world.

I do find it deeply troubling that so many senior Tories (e.g. Boris Johnson, David Cameron and George Osborne) were members of the Bullingdon club:

Prospective new members are proposed by a current member and then subjected to a club vote. This is all done in secret. You can be "put up" and blackballed and never be any the wiser. The first a new bug knows about it is when his rooms are invaded (ideally, via the window) and ceremonially trashed by way of initiation ("they overturned some of my flower pots," recalls my source). The financial costs run to the outfit, which at close to £2,000 is safely beyond most student overdrafts. There have been rumours of wealthier members paying an annual stipend of up to £10,000....

Breakages, scraps and bust-ups seem to be a hazard of membership. Standard Bullingdon practice is for club members to pay off in cash any injured party (usually a bemused restaurateur with a private room full of broken china). It's this high-handed brand of yobbishness that has drawn most public opprobrium. It's not so much the damage that causes offence. It's the attitude, the innate sense that position and - more specifically - wealth will always be able to make good any inconvenience suffered by "civilians".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/may/09/oxbridgeandelitism.highereducation

By electing Caroline Lucas in Brighton we can have a local MP who will defend the rights of the poor, has campaigned for many years on the importance of the environment and sustainability. Caroline has many years experience of being an MEP and has used the European Parliament a forum to discuss important issues, win legal reforms and defend the rights of the poor.

The harsh reality is that the attractive face of Charlotte Verre doesn't reflect the true injustice, intolerance and arrogance of a Tory party, born out of the British empire and that still perceives Great Britain as a quasi-imperial power.

The greens will be fighting for a fairer world and some common sense, where we try and address our tough environmental and economic problems. We haven't forgotten the £1,500,000,000 the UK government has had to spend bailing out the banking sector, who within 12 months of holding us to ransom with threats of economic meltdown were paying themselves multi-million pound bonuses!! The new leaders of Tory party (Osborne and Cameron) instead of addressing the institutional problems in the city, are proposing a harsh new policies attacking the pay and pensions of low paid public sector workers. Apparently even senior Tories and FT editorials have said this is the wrong policy because of (a) the injustice and (b) it is unnecessary / unhelpful and could prolong the recession and lead to widespread strikes?

Books: Before Night Falls - Reinaldo Arenas

This is not an easy book. Compelling, fascinating, shocking are the terms I would use, other opinion's from my local LGBT group were vile, disgusting and liar.

The following (from wikipedia) gives you a good, nutural idea of the themes of the book:

The film offers an episodic look at the life of Cuban poet and novelist, Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990), from his childhood in the province of Orienteto his death in New York City. As a youth he joins Castro's rebels. By 1963 he is studying in Havana. He meets the wealthy Pepe, an early lover; their love-hate relationship lasts for years. His writing and openly gay lifestyle get him into trouble: he spends two years in prison, writing letters for other inmates and smuggling out a novel. Later he befriends Lázaro Gómez Carriles, with whom he lives stateless and in poverty in Manhattan after leaving Cuba in the Mariel boatlift. When asked why he writes, he replies cheerfully, "Revenge."

So why such strong reactions, apparently the liberal intelligentsia loved in the states:

His autobiography, Before Night Falls was on the New York Times list of the ten best books of the year in 1993. In 2000 this work was made into a film, directed by Julian Schnabel, in which Arenas was played by Javier Bardem.

In many ways his life was shocking, tough and highly alienated. Like many gay men, he has lots of sex, simply for the pleasure of it. Is it possible that the isolation and misserable poverty of living under a brutal regime (Castro's Cuba in the 1960s was hard on gay men), pushed him into an even more licentous life-style.

While sympathising with the local book group, he was at times vain, difficult and not an easy person to live with; I did despite this like him. He wasn't the sort of person who would become a close friend probably but he was colourful, highly articulate and deeply sensual.

The book group discussion reminded my of a very good joke my aunt and uncle told me recently regarding "intellectual elites":

Q: What it the collective noun for a group of academics

A: A spite

This is harsh but there is an element of truth here - a good joke.

Arenas spends much of the book with petty ill will and hatred to his colleagues, friends and lovers. It was an intensely stressful life where form allies cross and double-cross each other. Throughout the book there is a deep sense of paranoia.

Indeed he has much to fear, he is inprisoned for a couple of years and brutually tortured. Actually the prison itself it utterly savage and with prisonners left to almost starve, abusing and attacking each other; several prisonner are brutually murdered while in prison.

Peter Tatchell has written a very good piece regarding this film and gay/human rights in Cuba:

In the name of the new socialist morality, homosexuality was declared illegal and typically punishable by four years' imprisonment. Parents were required to prevent their children from engaging in homosexual activities and to report those who did to the authorities. Not informing on a gay child was a crime against the revolution. Official homophobia led, in the mid-1960s, to a mass round-up of gay people without charge or trial. Many were seized in night-time swoops and locked up in forced labour camps for "rehabilitation" and "re-education".

The repression did not begin to ease until the mid-1970s, and even then it was not because Cuba's leaders recognised their error. They halted mass detentions and reduced sentences largely because they were shamed by the international protest campaigns organised by newly formed gay liberation movements. A more significant softening of attitudes took place in the 1980s. With the advent of Aids, the Cuban authorities eventually showed greater tolerance towards homosexuals in order to win their confidence and support for safer sex. At around the same time came the secondment to Cuba of east German doctors and psychologists, who viewed homosexuality as a natural minority condition.

The 1979 penal code formally decriminalised homosexuality, but the legal status of lesbian and gay people in Cuba is still ambiguous. Homosexual behaviour causing a "public scandal" can be punished by up to 12 months in jail. Discreet open-air cruising in public squares and parks is tolerated, although often kept under police surveillance. Homosexuals are still deemed unfit to join the Communist party, and this can have an adverse impact on a person's career when appointments depend on party membership. Lesbian and gay newspapers and organisations are not permitted. The Cuban Association of Gays and Lesbians, formed in 1994, was suppressed in 1997 and its members arrested. Gay Cuba? Not yet.

It appears that AIDS has pushed the authorities to take a more realistic view of the world, but there is clearly much much more which needs to be done...